Sailors from the U.S. Navy and Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force worked together Friday, Feb. 17, 2023, to clear a trail through the jungle to this family tomb at White Beach Naval Facility, Okinawa. (Matthew M. Burke/Stars and Stripes)

WHITE BEACH NAVAL FACILITY, Okinawa — U.S. and Japanese service members worked together Friday to clear overgrown jungle paths leading to sacred, ancestral sites on this seaside naval base, a community service project now 7 years old.

Twenty sailors from the U.S. Navy and Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force volunteered for the project at White Beach Naval Facility in Uruma’s Heshikiya community.

The event, dubbed “Jungle Attack,” began in 2016 and happens several times a year, said Heshikiya district mayor Mitsuo Nishishinya, through a translator.

The going wasn’t easy. Chief Petty Officer Joshua Ferrer, assigned to Fleet Activities Okinawa’s security forces, swung his machete in a standoff against a web of thick jungle vines.

“I should have sharpened it beforehand,” the 37-year-old from Colton, Calif., said as he inspected the blade. “It’s pretty thick.”

White Beach is home to 155 tombs of the area’s indigenous people and other sites considered sacred to locals. The sites, spread across the base, are not easily accessible. Some sit just off the main roads, while others are atop steep, rocky, jungle cliffs.

The sites are off-limits to service members and base workers for the most part, out of respect for the human remains that can be found there. Locals can gain access with special permission from the base.

On Friday, two teams of 10, evenly split between American and Japanese sailors, cleared the way to four sacred sites. One team started at Chibu nu Ka, a sacred well thought to bless women with fertility, where local mothers traditionally washed newborn babies for the first time.

Navy Chief Petty Officer Joshua Ferrer swings his machete to clear thick brush during "Jungle Attack" at White Beach Naval Facility, Okinawa, Friday, Feb. 17, 2023. (Matthew M. Burke/Stars and Stripes)

Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Brandon Birkel pulls up thick vines during "Jungle Attack" at White Beach Naval Facility, Okinawa, Friday, Feb. 17, 2023. (Matthew M. Burke/Stars and Stripes)

A member of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force and a U.S. Navy sailor work to clear jungle brush growing up through the Chibu nu Ka well, a sacred fertility site at White Beach Naval Facility, Okinawa, Friday, Feb. 17, 2023. (Matthew M. Burke/Stars and Stripes)

The jungle was overgrown, and the group hacked and slashed its way down an irrigation ditch toward the site.

“The jungle’s thick but slowly we’re cutting through it, little by little,” Petty Officer 2nd Class Brandon Birkel, 27, of Omaha, Neb., said during a break. The C-12 Huron crewman said it felt good to help out his Japanese neighbors.

“They’re always amazing to us, so it’s good to kind of pay them back,” he said.

Petty Officer 3rd Class Michael Ramirez, 25, of Raleigh, N.C., said he joined the cleanup effort because he wanted to see the sacred sites.

“I heard it was pretty interesting,” said the air traffic controller. “It feels nice getting to come out and help out.”

When they were done, about six inches of plant material covered the jungle floor. Sailors also worked to clear the vines obstructing the view of a nearby overlook and a steep path toward cliffside family tombs.

Nishishinya thanked the volunteers as he made his way down to the well.

“It’s so clean now,” he said.

The district chief said that even though the well was decommissioned 80 years ago, it still held a lot of meaning to locals.

“It means a lot to the community,” Nishishinya said. “They’re really happy that we’re maintaining the sites and making them accessible.”