Life on Japan’s remote island of Yonaguni may seem tranquil, where wild horses graze and tourists dive for hammerhead sharks, but China’s recent major military drills have unsettled residents.

The western island is just 110 kilometers (70 miles) from Taiwan, and a Chinese missile fired during exercises last month landed not far from Yonaguni’s shore.

“Everyone is nervous,” Shigenori Takenishi, head of the island’s fisheries association, told AFP.

“Even if we don’t talk about it, we still have the memory of the fear we felt, of the shock.”

He urged fishing boats to remain in port during exercises following the visit of US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, despite warnings from Beijing.

The incident was the latest reminder of how growing Chinese assertiveness has impacted Yonaguni and shifted debate over a controversial military presence on the island.

People used to say Yonaguni was defended with two weapons, one for each police officer stationed there.

But since 2016, the island has been home to a Japanese army base, the Self-Defense Forces, which was set up despite initial objections from local residents.

The sea and air surveillance base is home to 170 soldiers, who and their families make up 15 percent of Yonaguni’s 1,700 residents.

An “Electronic Warfare” unit is also to be installed there by March 2024.

“When we see Chinese military activity today, we tell ourselves that we got our base just in time,” Yonaguni’s Mayor Kenichi Itokazu told AFP.

“We managed to send a message to China.”

This view was not always so widespread on the island.

Yonaguni is part of Okinawa Prefecture, where resentment against the military presence has traditionally run high.

A quarter of the region’s population died in 1945 in the Battle of Okinawa during World War II and remained under US occupation until 1972.

Today, Okinawa hosts most US bases in Japan.

Yonaguni is closer to Taiwan, Seoul, and even Beijing than the Japanese capital, Tokyo.

Aware of their vulnerability, officials have established a military presence on the Nansei island chain, which stretches 1,200 kilometers from Japan’s main islands to Yonaguni.

In addition to the security benefits, the government argued that a base on the 30-square-kilometer island would bring economic good fortune.

Local officials once believed that Yonaguni’s economic future lay in Taiwan and other nearby commercial hubs, even campaigning for it to become a “special zone for inter-regional exchanges.”

But the government refused and instead began paving the way for the base in 2007.

Support for the plan was boosted by a diplomatic crisis with Beijing in 2010, and by 2015 around 60 percent of Yonaguni residents backed the grassroots in a referendum.

Since then, Chinese saber-rattling and a series of incidents at sea have helped solidify support.

“Almost nobody is against the base now,” said Shigeru Yonahara, 60, a resident who supported the base.

There is resistance, however, including some who fear the base will make Yonaguni a target instead, particularly if China attempts to seize Taiwan by force.

“In the event of a crisis, will they protect those who live here? And can they really help us in case of an invasion of Taiwan?” said Masakatsu Uehara, a 62-year-old fisherman.

Both supporters and detractors agree that the Yonaguni base has changed, including the lights from the radar array that compete with the starry sky over the island.

A long-awaited incinerator that went live last year was almost entirely funded by the Department of Defense, and rent from the base helps pay for free lunches at the island’s schools.

Yonaguni has no secondary school and limited employment. It experienced decades of decline after its thriving trade ties with Taiwan were severed after World War II.

Now, taxes paid by the base’s residents make up one-fifth of Yonaguni’s revenue.

But not everyone is positive about the changes, including council member Chiyoki Tasato, who has long opposed the grassroots.

He resents Japanese army families being able to influence politics by voting in local elections and argues that the base’s economic impact makes it difficult for residents to speak freely about the issue.

They “can’t openly say they’re against the grassroots because the economy isn’t good,” Tasato told AFP.

“We’d rather think about what we’re going to eat tomorrow.”

However, Mayor Itokazu has no objections to the economic boost the base offers.

And he said the security situation made his presence a clear necessity.

“As the saying goes, ‘If you want peace, prepare for war.’ It’s about deterrence.”