Foes of Tokyo Airport Vow to Wage Long War : Security and a Planned New Runway Are Major Problems in Often-Violent Battle Over Narita

Koji Kitahara says he lost his land nearly two decades ago when the Japanese government decided to turn a thousand acres of peanut and watermelon fields into a new international airport.

The experience changed him. At middle age, he became a radical.

Now in his early 60s, Kitahara presides over rallies, leads marches and wears a helmet inscribed with the pledge: “We will fight the airport to the end.”

He is the leader of a coalition of students, leftists, farmers and others united generally in their opposition to the airport and specifically to its plan to expand beyond a single runway.

He vows never to rest until the airport is bulldozed and the land returned to “its rightful owners.”

‘Coerced or Tricked’

“We are against the airport and the proposed second runway, because they are intended for military use,” said Kitahara, a brusque man whose voice rose as he spoke. “Never mind that some 75 farmers and local residents were either coerced or tricked out of their land that is now the first runway.”

The government denies that it tricked anyone and also denies that the airport is slated for military use. An airport official even denies that Kitahara ever owned any land that is part of the airport.

After seven years, the strange, often violent war over the New Tokyo International Airport at Narita, one of the world’s busiest and most controversial, goes on unabated.

Since plans for the $2.5-billion facility about 40 miles east of the capital were unveiled in 1965, seven people have died in protests, and the government has been forced to spend millions on Draconian security arrangements.

Equipment Destroyed

Three policemen were killed in 1971 when construction began. In March 1978, at the time the airport opened, a truckload of radicals burst through police lines, occupied a control tower and destroyed radar equipment.

Airport police say 21 “guerrilla incidents” have been reported this year--including the August firebombings of the nearby homes of airport executives.

Much of the violence appears to be the work of a radical student group known as the Chukakuha, or Middle Core Faction, whose trademarks are the white helmets, sunglasses and towel masks.

“We did it, and we’ll do things like that again and again until we win,” boasted a young man clad in the uniform during a recent rally.

The 2,700-member Chukakuha is the largest bloc in the 3,000-member anti-Narita coalition headed by Kitahara.

Their target is the second runway planned for Sanrizuka, a lush rural area.

The radicals claim that Chukakuha gunners even fired a rocket at the airport in early September, but that the incident was suppressed and “the cops didn’t let the papers know about it,” the young man said. “For the sake of heading off a war, we must be ready to commit acts of violence.”

Adds Kitahara: “All of the various groups in our coalition have their own ways of doing things. We allow member groups to carry on the struggle the way they think best.”

He said it was the government’s fault that people like him “became radical.”

“We had no choice but to commit acts of violence if necessary. The government doesn’t move unless it’s pushed,” Kitahara said.

Their resolution has had a visible impact. The airport rises starkly out of a rolling landscape of verdant fields and forests, but it is ringed by a series of barbed-wire fences and guard posts manned by 1,500 police officers who wear riot gear at all times and keep water-cannon trucks handy.

3 Luggage Checks

Security is among the tightest in the world. Even before entering the airport, passengers submit to as many as three luggage checks and show identification before they are allowed through the heavily reinforced gray gates to the compound. Kitahara claims that the airport spends $15 million annually on security, but officials refuse comment.

The protests have also thrown the second runway behind schedule. The airport is overburdened with more than 10 million passengers and nearly 10,000 flights annually.

“We’re just at about capacity already and we need that second runway,” one official said.

Because of the security problem, ranking Japanese officials and visiting VIPs bypass Narita, arriving on special flights at Tokyo’s Haneda airport near downtown, which mainly accommodates only domestic flights.

How Long Till Peace?

How long the war over Narita will continue remains uncertain. Last year, the Tokyo District Court quashed a suit filed in 1969 by 73 Narita farmers who demanded that the state cancel its approval of construction of the airport.

Over the years the number of farmers who refused to sell or trade their plots has dwindled to 15, according to Kitahara. Local officials put the figure at eight.

“The government bought a lot of farmers off by offering to build irrigation facilities for them,” Kitahara said. “But the ones who stayed simply could not bear to part with their land--which is their life.”

Local officials say the holdout farmers continue to own 81 acres, which form part of the 1,272 acres projected for the second runway. No date has been set for ground-breaking, they said.