tween the United States and Japan takes place concerning what we, the United States, the sole administering authority in the Ryukyus, would like the Government of Japan to provide in the way of aid

funds.

Chairman RuSSELL. I notice that the largest percentage increase that you propose is in education.

General UNGER. That is correct, Mr. Chairman.

Chairman RUSSELL. We more than double our present allocation. General UNGER. That is correct, sir.

Chairman RUSSELL. What necessitates such a tremendous stepup there in 1 year? You haven't had a teachers' strike out there, too, have you?

General UNGER. We really haven't had a strike out there, sir. There has been a lot of activity generated by what is called the Okinawa Teachers Association, but we really haven't had a strike per se. But to answer your question, you are correct. There is a large jump in the amount of moneys we are asking for for the payment of teachers' salaries. Incidentally, I might say that we had asked for, rather we had hoped to get, an additional appropriation, a supplemental appropriation in fiscal year 1967 of $5.3 million. Of course, we did not get it. And of that $5.3 million, $4 million was going to be in this category of teachers' salaries which we are talking about now.

But to get to the answer to your question, sir, in connection with and in conformance with the guidelines in the long-range plan, the Government of Japan, the Government of the United States, and the government of the Ryukyu Islands agree that each would contribute to the payment of the salaries of teachers. This fits in with the policy that we in the United States have taken out there; namely, that we ought to close the gap between the Ryukyu Islands and Japan, particularly in the areas of health, education, and welfare.

And so the moneys we are asking for here, sir, are to underwrite that policy; namely, to support about one-third of the teachers' salaries. If you look in column 9, Mr. Chairman, again as I mentioned, you will note that the Japanese will be giving about $8 million. The government of the Ryukyus will provide about the same amount, sir, which would take care of paying the teachers' salaries. We don't need this money to increase their salaries. We just need the money to assist the Ryukyuan government in paying them. Of course, if we don't get this

Chairman RuSSELL. If you are not increasing the salaries, why do you need such an increase in the appropriation?

General UNGER. It is just a matter of saying that the United States ought to provide direct aid funds to pay for about one-third of the teachers' salaries as a contribution to the education program which takes over 30 percent of the entire Ryukyuan government's budget. Chairman RUSSELL. Who is paying it now if we are not increasing it? General UNGER. If we don't pay it, sir, the government of the Ryukyu Islands pays it. They have to pay the teachers.

Chairman RUSSELL. How do you avoid a salary increase with all this increase in expenditures, General?

General UNGER. Maybe I was misunderstood, Mr. Chairman. What I had tried to bring out was that this $5.6 million shown here for the payment of teachers' salaries under column 7 is not needed to provide an increase in the salaries, in other words, to give them a raise in pay. That is what I was trying to bring out.

Each year there has been an increase in teachers' salaries, but this $5.6 million is not designed to take care of the pay raise. That is the only point I was trying to bring out.

Chairman RUSSELL. Is that to reimburse the Ryukyuan government?

General UNGER. That is correct, sir. This really represents assistance of about one-third of the amount of money needed. The $5.6 million plus the $1 million shown in the basic budget would represent the U.S. share; namely, about one-third of the teachers' salaries.

Chairman RuSSELL. In your brief statement and I commend you on the excellent job that you did in boiling it down-I understood you to say for teachers' salaries and related activities. What are the related activities?

General UNGER. Well, there are salaries and there are related benefits, sir, salaries and bonuses, as they are with any occupation, profession, or any line of activity in the Ryukyus. And then there are certain fringe benefits which the teachers get. That is what I meant by related activities.

Chairman RUSSELL. I assume that includes retirement funds and things of that kind.

General UNGER. Yes, sir.

Chairman RUSSELL. Senator Thurmond.

Senator THURMOND. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

As I understand it then, this increase does not go to increase salaries, but it will go to relieve the Ryukyus of some of the burden they bear now.

General UNGER. That is correct, Senator Thurmond.

Senator THURMOND. Under education you have got construction at $200,000. Is that for new school buildings?

General UNGER. No, sir; the $200,000 is for the construction of libraries, Senator Thurmond; 20 of them, to be specific. They cost $10,000 a copy. They will be for the elementary and the junior high schools; namely, up to grade 9.

Senator THURMOND. Will this be for schools that do not now have libraries?

General UNGER. That is correct, sir.

Senator THURMOND. For the University of the Ryukyus, $300,000; is that to pay teachers, construction, libraries, or just what?

General UNGER. It is for the construction cost of a general education building for the University of the Ryukyus, sir.

Senator THURMOND. Now under public works, roads, and bridges. General UNGER. Yes, sir.

Senator THURMOND. What composition roads do you plan to build with the $450,000?

General UNGER. Sir, we are trying to, and we have been trying to put in a bypass to Highway 1, which is the main highway on the Island of Okinawa. It was put in early in 1950 or so. It is a four-lane highway. It represents the main supply route for the Army activity. As you can well imagine, this highway is used also by the local automobiles, and the route has become highly congested.

In an effort to relieve and alleviate some of that congestion and also in order to facilitate its use by the Army, we plan to put in a bypass

in the very congested area of Naha. It is about a 5-mile bypass. The Ryukyuan government is paying for the cost of acquiring the land for this bypass and other activities. This amount of money shown here, Senator Thurmond, of $450,000 is for that very much needed project. Senator THURMOND. It is a hard surface road.

General UNGER. Yes, sir; that is what is planned, sir.

Senator THURMOND. Now I noticed you have a sewer system, $400,000.

General UNGER. Yes, sir.

Senator THURMOND. Is that in a city or is it in the suburbs or just where is that located?

General UNGER. That is an interceptor sewer. Those moneys are needed for the construction of an interceptor sewer that will take care of the inhabitants just south of the city of Naha. The sewer will connect into the Naha treatment plant, which is the sewage treatment plant. It will serve about 35,000 civilians and about 11,000 U.S. military civilians and dependents.

Senator THURMOND. What is the situation with regard to the sanitation in the islands now? Do you have sewage in any section other than Naha?

General UNGER. No, sir. This is part and parcel of our long-range plan for economic development. There have been initially only gravity sewers for the military. Now we have a long-range plan for sewers in which the government of the Ryukyuan Islands will participate and contribute. We hope to set up a civilian sewer authority within the government of the Ryukyus, which will in the first instance take care of the sanitary sewage requirements in the heavily populated area of Okinawa, which is really the lower one-third of the island where the city of Naha is located.

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This program will carry up to about 1973 or 1974. The total cost of this program is about $30 million. It will be contributed to by the government of the Ryukyus, by the United States, and hopefully by the Government of Japan.

Senator THURMOND. What percentage of the rural people have electrification?

General UNGER. Most of the electric power that we provide again is in the lower one-third of the island. We have, in the last couple of years, gone up to the northern end, to Nago and Gushikawa.

Regarding the people in the rural parts of Okinawa I would say that half of them have electricity. Incidentally, there are 72 islands in the Ryukyuan chain, 48 of which are occupied. On those other 47 that are occupied, about 11 of them have light for about 5 hours a day. On three or four of them like the big island of Ishigaki, they have light for 24 hours a day.

Senator THURMOND. What is the source of that power chiefly? General UNGER. The sources of the power on the outer islands are simple diesels generators, sir.

Senator THURMOND. Who furnished those?

General UNGER. They have been furnished both by the United States and by the government of the Ryukyu Islands, sir, as grants, and also by Japan, incidentally.

Senator THURMOND. In my opinion one of the most important things you can do would be to provide electricity for the people.

General UNGER. Yes, sir.

Senator THURMOND. Because I think that will promote education

and many other things as much as anything that could be done. General UNGER. Yes, sir.

Senator THURMOND. Now you have $200,000 for agricultural land development.

General UNGER. Yes, sir.

Senator THURMOND. Just what would that consist of? I am taking up your increases now. That is what I am taking up.

General UNGER. This $200,000 for agricultural land development is really the provision by the government of improvements such as irrigation ditches, and taking what is now nonarable land and by certain treatments making it land that can be productive. It is a matter of rearranging some of the very small plots. There is a little plot here, a little plot there, it is the rearrangement of these plots which calls for a certain amount of money. It also includes the provision of roads into the area, farm roads. All of this type of activity which I am talking about, Senator Thurmond, is involved in the overall subject of agricultural land development for which we are asking $200,000. Senator THURMOND. This doesn't include drainage projects. General UNGER. There is some drainage in there; yes, sir. This $200,000 is specifically for the completion of three projects that have been partially funded. As you see, in the basic budget we have $75,000. Senator THURMOND. I have visited the Ryukyus and I am very sympathetic to your request.

General UNGER. Thank you, sir.

Senator THURMOND. Now if the committee does not go all the way with what you ask, what do you feel could be postponed most expeditiously?

General UNGER. Sir, I am not

Senator THURMOND. Or would you care to study that further? General UNGER. Yes, I would have to really study that to give an intelligent answer, sir, as to priorities. I could not tell you in detail which subjects would have to be deferred.

Senator THURMOND. Do you feel you are getting good cooperation out of Japan there?

General UNGER. Yes, sir; I do believe this. I do believe that they are cooperating with us and with the government of the Ryukyu Islands in providing the additional funds needed to close the gaps in health, education, and welfare activities.

Senator THURMOND. What percent of the Ryukyuan people are Japanese?

General UNGER. Senator Thurmond, that is a real hard question. I would just off hand say that all of the Ryukyuans consider themselves Japanese.

Senator THURMOND. Is that by nationality or by race? General UNGER. Well, I would say from an ethnic grouping point of view and by nationality, because the Ryukyuans were taken over and made an integral part of Japan in 1879. Culturally, since that time, they have associated themselves and identified themselves with Japan and as being Japanese citizens. So I would say in brief that all of the Ryukyuans consider themselves Japanese.

Senator THURMOND. Now this question may not appear to be pertinent but I think it is very pertinent. How important do you consider

the Ryukyuans to our position in that area of the world for protecting the freedom of the free people?

General UNGER. Sir, having been there 1 year, and based on my experience just as a soldier for 30 years, there is no question in my mind that it is very aptly and properly called the "Keystone of the Pacific." It sits 400 miles from the coast of Communist China, and you might say it sits in the center of a chain of bases that swing from Korea down through Japan, Okinawa, Taiwan, the Philippines and on into Southeast Asia.

I usually say it is 900 miles from everywhere. That seems to be about the mileage. But it is a most important base, and not only for the U.S. interests but also for the free world interest in the western Pacific.

Senator THURMOND. I just wanted that to go on the record. I am in thorough accord with what you say. Several years ago there was agitation for us just to give it back to Japan, but my opinion is that it is the only land that we really have the right to be on and can control in that part of the world, is it not?

General UNGER. That is correct, sir.

Senator THURMOND. And it is very vital from the standpoint of our defense and that of the free world that we do maintain control of it, and it helps to protect Japan as well, does it not?

General UNGER. That is correct, sir.

Senator THURMOND. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.

Chairman RUSSELL. Senator Cannon.

Senator CANNON. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

General, what is the situation with respect to agitation at the present time for a modification of the treaty or for the return of the Ryukyus to Japan?

General UNGER. Well, there is a great deal of emotion and a great deal of, as you say, agitation on the matter of reversion, of the administrative authority and that applies both in the Ryukyu Islands and in Japan itself.

The amount of activity in this area has increased considerably in the last several months, brought on primarily by the announcement at that time of the forthcoming meeting between President Johnson and Prime Minister Sato. Everyone who had an opinion expected that Okinawa, and more particularly the subject of the reversion of Okinawa, would be high on the agenda when these two gentlemen met. So there has been considerable interest expressed in this. It is not all bad in the sense that, with the increased discussion of the subject, there has been more of a realization of the hard facts associated with reversion. Whereas before a great deal of the discussion was based primarily on emotion, now the people who are involved in the discussion are starting to talk about the economic aspects of reversion, about the political aspects of reversion, and other such things. If we are to have any further information on that I will refer to my colleague here, Senator Cannon, Mr. Sneider from the Department of State.

Senator CANNON. If I may, Mr. Chairman, I would like to hear what the Department of State's position is on this, because we have a continuing problem here. Every year there is agitation that reversionary rights should be put into effect at this time, and I agree with Senator Thurmond that while this is very important to us, I want to know what the position of our administration is going to be.