On Sunday, Japan will mark the 50th anniversary of the return of the Okinawa archipelago, which was occupied by the United States after World War II, but still remains unhappy with a large US military presence amid rising regional tensions.
The American occupation of Japan ended in 1952, but it took twenty years for Japan to recover the islands of Okinawa (southwest), where bloody fighting took place from April to June 1945.
During the official festivities on Sunday, attended by Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, long-standing dissatisfaction of local residents with US bases stationed on their territory and the threat of a military standoff involving China became apparent.
This fiftieth anniversary was marked by demonstrations by Okinawans and their supporters, who strongly criticized the “heavyness” of American bases, while most of the 55,000 American soldiers in Japan are stationed in the archipelago. Okinawa Governor Denny Tamaki himself spoke of a “great burden” and Kishida said his government “takes this fact very seriously and will continue to make every effort to ease the burden.” “I’m not in the mood to celebrate” the anniversary, Jinichiro Motoyama, 30, from Okinawa, who went on a hunger strike in front of the government building in Tokyo, told AFP this week.
Okinawa Prefecture accounts for only 0.6 percent of Japan’s total land area, but it hosts more than 70 percent of the country’s total US military installations.
Helicopter crash and rape
Dissatisfaction with the bases was sparked by a number of incidents: noise and pollution, helicopter crashes and sexual harassment, including the rape of a 12-year-old girl by US soldiers in 1995. “We can only celebrate when the issue of US bases is resolved in a way that satisfies the people of Okinawan,” Motoyama said.
Resident dissatisfaction is exacerbated by a project to relocate Futenma Air Base, dubbed “the most dangerous base in the world,” from its current location in Okinawa, which has a high population density, to the sparsely populated Henoko region to the north. Many choose to move their base to another location in Japan. More than seventy percent of respondents voted in a non-binding local referendum in 2019 against its transfer to Henoko. On the other hand, a public television poll released this month found that eighty percent of Japanese are suspicious of the American presence in Okinawa.
China’s strategic bases
The construction of the new base continues no matter what. The government argued that it was “the only possible solution” to resolve the Futenma issue while maintaining a deterrent presence from the United States as part of its strategic alliance with Japan.
Concerns about China’s growing regional ambitions in the region will no doubt be on the agenda of US President Joe Biden’s visit to Japan later this month. Biden said in a Sunday message that the Okinawa transfer “marked the end of a chapter” in US-Japan relations and “the beginning of another.” At present, he added, “our alliance is stronger than ever.”
China’s extensive military activity is making the US military presence on Okinawa more strategic, raising fears of potential conflict among residents. Okinawa, where the US military presence generates just 5 percent of annual income, is Japan’s poorest region, with a child poverty rate of almost 30 percent, more than double the national average. Representatives say moving some of the military bases out of Okinawa will create space for activities that could boost revenue, such as by attracting more tourists.
