U.S. CONDUCTED 150 NUKE LOADING DRILLS IN OKINAWA IN 1957

The US Air Force conducted at least 150 loading drills for nuclear weapons in Okinawa in the first half of 1957 not far from civilian areas, declassified documents show, Kyodo News reported.

The 1955-1964 annual reports by the 313th Air Division reveal that Okinawa, which was under US control at the time, was used as a strategically important base for the military to prepare for the use of nuclear weapons in Asia in the midst of the Cold War.

According to the 1957 report of the division, which was operating the Kadena Air Base, personnel of the 12th Aviation Depot Squadron were trained to offload nuclear weapons from arriving aircraft, inspect them, and reload them in preparation for a potential strike.

The squadron was tasked with handling conventional munitions and special weapons, which could be either atomic or thermonuclear weapons, according to the report obtained by Masaaki Gabe, a professor emeritus at the University of the Ryukyus, along with other declassified US documents that were shown to Kyodo News.

The report also showed that a number of nuclear components were received by air shipment in January 1957, two months before "Operation 'White Horse'...the most extensive deployment of the (squadron's) aircraft ever to utilize a Far East Air Base as a staging area."

It showed the drills in the first six months of that year involved handling of numerous bombs, including the MK-15 -- a 3.4-ton hydrogen bomb deemed 100 times more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

"Loading personnel completed one of the busiest monthly training schedules of the year in May, accomplishing four MK-6 loadings in an average time of 1:07 hours, 59 MK-15 loadings in an average time of 1:14 hours, and four MK-21 loadings in an average time of 2:10 hours," it said.

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