Okinawa Prefecture - U.S. Military Controversy

U.S. Military Controversy

The United States maintains Air Force, Marine, Navy, and Army military installations on the islands. These bases include Kadena Air Base, Camp Foster, Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, Camp Hansen, Camp Schwab, Torii Station, and Camp Kinser. The area of 14 U.S. bases are 233 square kilometres (90 sq mi), occupying 18% of the main island. Okinawa hosts about two-thirds of the 40,000 American forces in Japan. The islands account for less than one percent of total lands in Japan. Suburbs have grown towards and now surround two historic major bases, Futenma and Kadena. One third (9,852 acres (39.87 km2)) of the land used by the U.S. military is the Marine Corps Northern Training Area in the north of the island.

Between 1972 and 2009, there were 5,634 criminal offenses committed by US servicemen, including 25 murders, 385 burglaries, 25 arsons, 127 rapes, 306 assaults and 2,827 thefts.

In early 2008, US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice apologized after a series of crimes involving American troops in Japan, including the rape of a young girl of 14 by a Marine on Okinawa. The U.S. military also imposed a temporary 24-hour curfew on military personnel and their families to ease the anger of local residents. Some cited statistics that the crime rate of military personnel is consistently less than that of the general Okinawan population. However, some criticized the statistics as unreliable since Japanese violence against Japanese women is especially under-reported.

According to a 2007 Okinawa Times poll, 85% of Okinawans opposed the presence of the U.S. military, due to noise pollution from military drills, the risk of aircraft accidents, environmental degradation, and extra crowding from the number of personnel there, although 73.4% of Japanese citizens appreciated the mutual security treaty with the U.S. and the presence of the USFJ. In another poll conducted by the Asahi Shimbun in May 2010, 43% of the population wanted the complete closure of the U.S. bases, 42% wanted reduction and 11% wanted the maintenance of the status quo. The Okinawan prefectural government and local municipalities have made various withdrawal demands of the U.S. military since the end of WWII, but local governments have no right to conduct affairs of state with a foreign power. Therefore, no fundamental solution has ever been undertaken by either the Japanese or U.S. governments, although a detailed plan exists.