Before Christmas, a contingent of 105 U.S. Marines who would have been sent to Okinawa were redirected to a new base on the United States territory of Guam instead. The small reshuffling marked a major milestone: This was the first time the Marines cut their head count on Okinawa as part of a deal between Washington and Tokyo to shrink an oversized American military presence on the Pacific island that dates back to World War II.
Under the agreement, 9,000 Marines — just under half the force currently on the island — are eventually supposed to leave. But their departure is already two decades behind the original schedule and may not happen for more than a decade to come, until construction of replacement bases is completed.
Their redeployment was agreed to in a deal signed 12 years ago, the result of negotiations and renegotiations going back to 1995, when three U.S. servicemen raped an Okinawan schoolgirl. That crime touched off mass protests that forced the United States and Japan to agree on shrinking the American bases, which were built after the United States stormed Okinawa during a bloody battle in 1945.
Major U.S. Military Bases on Okinawa
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Will be returned to Japan
Will remain operational
Jungle Warfare
Training Center
Camp
Schwab
Camp
Hansen
OKINAWA
Camp
Courtney
Kadena
Air Base
White Beach
Naval Base
Camp
Foster
The military forces at the bases
set to be returned to Japan will
move to bases on the north
of the island, to mainland
Japan or to Guam.
Tokyo
JAPAN
Okinawa
8 MILES
Will be returned to Japan
Will remain operational
Jungle Warfare
Training Center
OKINAWA
Camp
Schwab
Camp
Hansen
Camp
Courtney
Kadena
Air Base
8 MILES
Camp
Foster
White Beach
Naval Base
The military forces at the bases set to be returned to Japan will move to bases on the north of the island, to mainland Japan or to Guam.
Tokyo
JAPAN
Okinawa
The first iteration of the deal, agreed upon in 1996, was supposed to reduce the burden within five to seven years by building an air base on the northern end of the island to replace an existing one in a crowded city. A generation later, the old airfield remains in use and the new one is at least 12 years from completion.