Protesters to mass against US military on Okinawa

NAHA, Japan — Tens of thousands of demonstrators prepared to rally on the Japanese island of Okinawa on Sunday in protest against the heavy US military presence and violent crimes by American personnel that have angered residents for decades.

Set to gather in the prefectural capital Naha at 2:00pm (0500 GMT), the more than 50,000 expected protestors are infuriated with the United States after a former Marine employed as a civilian base worker allegedly raped and murdered a young local woman in April.

The case has intensified longstanding opposition to the military bases — a key part of the US-Japan security alliance — on the sub-tropical southern outpost, a popular holiday destination for Japanese and, increasingly, China and other Asian countries.

The rally will also call for the scrapping of plans by Washington and Tokyo to move a major US Marine facility in the centre of the island to pristine waters off the northern coast.

Protesters also plan to simultaneously gather outside the Japanese parliament in Tokyo in sympathy.

Okinawa’s governor Takeshi Onaga, who is expected to attend the Okinawa rally, opposes the plan and instead wants Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, which sits in the middle of a crowded city, moved off the island altogether.

He has revoked approval for work on the facility, in a setback to the plan, though Washington and Tokyo vow to push forward.

The idea to move the base was sparked by the 1995 rape by three American personnel of a 12-year-old girl and though the project was to have been completed years ago it remains held up by local opposition and legal maneuvring.

“Japan is still a military colony of the United States,” said teacher Noboru Kitano, 59, standing at an observation point overlooking the Futenma base, widely seen as a danger to nearby residents.

“This base symbolises that.” 

The roots of the presence goes back to the end of World War II when Okinawa was the site of a battle between Japan and the US, followed by a 27-year American occupation. 

High-profile crimes have sparked large-scale protest rallies before on Okinawa, now considered a strategic linchpin supporting the US-Japan alliance, but where pacifist sentiment runs high.

In 1995, tens of thousands rallied following the rape of the girl, which prompted Washington to pledge to reduce the US footprint on the fortified island. Nearly 100,000 people joined a protest in 2010 against the construction of the new base off the northern coast. 

US officials have grown increasingly concerned that the behaviour of its troops on the island could jeopardise support among Japanese for the security relationship and have imposed restrictions including on off-base alcohol consumption after an intoxicated sailor injured two locals while driving this month.

President Barack Obama received the equivalent of a diplomatic tongue-lashing over the death of the 20-year-old woman from Prime Minister Shinzo Abe during a visit to Japan last month.

Obama called it a “tragedy” and expressed “deepest regrets” at a joint press conference.