Project 112 - Extracontinental Site 2, Okinawa

Extracontinental Site 2, Okinawa

Okinawa has never been acknowledged by the United States to be associated with Project 112. According to "An Organizational History of the 267th Chemical company which was discovered by Yellow Medicine County, Minnesota, Veteran's Service Officer, Michelle Gatz in 2012, the 267th Chemical Platoon (SVC) had the mission of operation of Site 2 on Okinawa, for Department of Defense DoD Project 112 a secret cold war testing program which was aimed at both human, animal, and plant reaction to biological warfare. The 267th Chemical Company was activated on Okinawa on December 1, 1962 as the 267th Chemical Platoon (SVC)., "Unit personnel were actively engaged in preparing RED HAT area, Site 2, for the receipt and storage of first increment items, "YBA", DOD Project 112"

In 1962, the U.S. Army counterinsurgency school in Vietnam moved to Okinawa. USNS Schuyler Otis Bland (T-AK-277) brought highly classified "agriculture products" under armed guard to Vietnam, Okinawa, and Panama. The ship’s logbook was found by Michelle Gatz and shows the ship was carrying classified cargo that was offloaded under armed guard at White Beach a U.S. Navy port on Okinawa’s east coast on April 25, 1962. After departing Okinawa in spring 1962, the Bland sailed to the Panama Canal Zone where, the U.S. tested herbicides and biological in the early 1960s.

The late author Sheldon H. Harris in his book "Factories of Death: Japanese Biological Warfare, 1932–1945, and the American cover up" wrote:

The test program, [this could include parts of Project 112, Project AGILE, Project OCONUS or Project SHAD which began in fall 1962 and which was funded at least through fiscal year 1963, was considered by the Chemical Corps to be “an ambitious one.” The tests were designed to cover “not only trials at sea, but Arctic and tropical environmental tests as well.” The tests, presumably, were conducted at what research officers designated, but did not name, “satellite sites.” These sites were located both in the continental United States and in foreign countries. The tests conducted there were aimed at both human, animal and plant reaction to BW. It is known that tests were undertaken in Cairo, Egypt, Liberia, in South Korea, and in Japan’s satellite province of Okinawa in 1961, or earlier. —(Harris, 2002)

Harris continued:

The Okinawa anti-crop research project may lend some insight to the larger projects 112 sponsored. BW experts in Okinawa and “at several sites in the Midwest and south:”conducted in 1961 “field tests” for wheat rust and rice blast disease. These tests met with “partial success” in the gathering of data, and led, therefore, to a significant increase in research dollars in fiscal year 1962 to conduct additional research in these areas. The money was devoted largely to developing “technical advice on the conduct of defoliation and anti-crop activities in Southeast Asia.” By the end of fiscal year 1962, the Chemical Corps had let or were negotiating contracts for over one thousand chemical defoliants. The Okinawa tests evidently were fruitful. —(Harris, 2002)