AGAIN
Takako Tanahara, an ll-year-old girl, was in the garden of her home in the village of Yomitan in central Okinawa when. she was crushed to death June 11 by a six-ton truck parachuted from a U.S. Air Force plane in training. Seven-representatives of the town filed a protest with Lt.Gen.Albert Watson II, U.S.High Commissioner
for the Ryukyus. The representatives, headed by Mayor Shosei Ikehara, called for suspension of the air force's paradrop operations,
The High Commissioner "expressed his understanding of the grief of the girl's family," reported the June 17 Japan Times, " also their request to halt the exercise,"
and
He also informed the delegation that "he would do everything possible to prevent recurrence of such an accident,"
The paradrop exercises are to be resumed, but with smaller parachutes, presumably to reduce the amount of drift.
POISON GAS SHELL?
Several minutes after the sound of an explosion, presumably caused by a