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Okinawa man arrested for aiming lasers at U.S. military aircraft near controversial base

Xinhua, December 7, 2015 Adjust font size:

Japanese police on Monday arrested a local businessman who is suspected of aiming laser beams at aircraft flying in and out of a controversial U.S. base in Japan's southernmost prefecture of Okinawa in July.

Fifty-six year old Katsuro Hiraoka, the owner of a what local media described as a "video-related" business, was arrested Monday, according to the local police in Naha, Okinawa, on suspicion of shining a green laser beam three times at a helicopter near the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma.

The helicopter was carrying four U.S. Marines at the time, local media confirmed, and said Hiraoka deployed the beam from a parking lot not far from his home on the evening of July 1.

Hiraoka has admitted he deployed the beam at the helicopter multiple times, local police confirmed, adding that they had retrieved a laser pointer device from his house following a search Monday.

For the past year, the local police in Naha have received reports from the U.S. military of similar incidents involving laser beams being pointed at aircraft in flight.

The beams have caused concern to military officials as pilots have said that their eyesight can be dangerously affected by the beams, and potentially blind them for sustained periods of time that could prove fatal in landing or taking off situations.

So far, however, the U.S. military in Okinawa has not reported any accidents directly caused by such interference, but have expressed concern that the beams could seriously compromise a pilot's ability, especially in cases in which a pilot is utilizing night vision technology.

While the police in Naha have as yet failed to provide a motive for Hiraoka's actions, the Futenma base is at the heart of a controversial issue involving its relocation to a coastal region, also on Okinawa island, which is being protested by the local government and citizens on the island who wish to see the base relocated off the island, or out of Japan entirely.

Okinawa, despite being a tiny island accounting for just 0.1 percent of Japan's total land mass, since WWII has hosted the vast majority of U.S. military bases and personnel here, which has caused the locals to be over burdened with issues of environmental damage, military-related accidents and crimes committed by U.S. personnel against local civilians, includes the brutal rape of an elementary schoolgirl in Okinawa by three U.S. servicemen in 1995. Endit