The Intercept: As Taiwan Tensions Build, Concerned Okinawans Push for U.S. Military Base Closure
Bill Clinton promised to close the base in 1996. But plans for more construction and a heightened focus on the Pacific put the islands and their unique biodiversity at risk indefinitely.
One April afternoon in Tokyo, the U.S. president made a welcome promise to reduce his military’s presence in Okinawa. Three U.S. service members had raped a 12-year-old Okinawan girl the previous September, and enraged locals had spent months protesting the Japanese prefecture’s dense network of U.S. bases.
“When the Prime Minister asked us to consider the concerns of the people of Okinawa and I became acquainted with them, as a result of some of the unfortunate incidents that you know well about,” said President Bill Clinton, standing side by side with Japanese Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto, in the April 1996 speech, “it bothered me that these matters had not been resolved before now, before this time.” His administration agreed to close the Futenma Air Station, a major Marine Corps base in the populous Okinawan city of Ginowan, within five to seven years.
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WNU Editor: With Chinese tensions being what they are, there will be no US military departure from Okinawa for the foreseeable future.
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