GoBoilermakers comments

And yet they still want handouts AND the bases gone!

I'm half-Okinawan. Where are these handouts you speak of? I have a masters degree in finance and started a small business here. My Okinawan wife is a dentist. Please let me know where we can get free money, thanks. Kindly cut the bigotry.

Who, exactly asked for all the bases gone? When has any politician asked for the immediate removal of all bases? A reduction? Sure. Rebalance more bases to the mainland? Of course. Why exactly should a tiny island a fraction of the size of a single city on the mainland have 30+ bases? Your binary thinking is typical of people far removed from the situation. Half my family is Okinawan, half is American (with plenty of relatives serving in the armed forces.) Easy for some ignorant English teacher on the mainland to cower behind the safety of his keyboard. Come here and I'll show you around the bases. Then maybe you'll learn something.

They owe them thanks. Period.

My, my. White Man's Burden in this day and age? Amazing. When people were forcefully evicted from their homes to make way for the 30+ bases on the island, they should have bowed down in gratitude? And what, exactly, were these bases to be used for? Bombing runs in Vietnam, bombings in Korea, bombings in Laos, bombings in Cambodia... clearly, all things vital to the Okinawan people's defense, right? Or maybe, just possibly, the US just wanted a forward operating position under the cover of "protecting freedom." You do realize that the first anti-base movements were started by farmers who became homeless when the US seized their farms to make way for countless swimming pools, golf courses, and playgrounds? Sniff, sniff... these heathens should be grateful! Please.

They invited it by being part of nation that declared war and lost. They invited it by taking part in that war. They invited it with the government making a joint pact for defence.

Why does it seem that so many posters haven't taken junior high history? You do realize that Okinawa was annexed around the turn of the century, along with Korea, Taiwan, Manchuria, the Philippines, and the list goes on... by your logic, all countries that were invaded by Japan (i.e., the victims) are guilty of the Japanese Imperialism that led to the war, and therefore all subsequent occupation. Please educate yourself, it's embarrassing.

@BertieWooster

As part of the 1996 SACO agreement between Washington and Tokyo, 51% of the Northern Training Area (the 51% being the harshest, most mountainous terrain farthest away from the coastal road) was to revert back to the original owners. Part of the plan was to build 6 brand new helipads near Takae, a quiet town on the coast. The new helipads are designed to handle the V-22 Osprey; the old helipads far up the mountain are not as they were built long before the V-22 came into use. Because the new helipads are Osprey capable, the area will get a lot more air traffic and noise. People are also concerned about the danger of increased air traffic (like the 2004 accident where a US Marine helicopter crashed into a local university and exploded). Environmentalists oppose the new helipads because the increased noise will damage the local wildlife, of which there are around 200 threatened or endangered species. The area was also recently made into a National Park.

The PR spin from the Pentagon is that this is a generous effort by the US to appease the locals - the truth is that the US gets rid of some crappy jungle land that they're not using anyway (the return of which was agreed 20 years ago regardless) on top of the central mountain range that's contaminated with spent rounds and old chemicals in exchange for some brand new helipads that can increase their operational range. A crackdown is happening - Tokyo lawyers are filing numerous civil suits against the protesters and a new battalion of riot police are being barracked at off season hotels near Nago to make sure the protesters don't cause any trouble. Needless to say, the US press isn't exactly over here interviewing people so they just go with the Pentagon press release.