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1 1 (April 9, 2019)

handle is hein.crs/govzjr0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Congressional Research Service Infor rig the aegis lative debate sin ce 1914 0 Updated April 9, 2019 U.S. Military Presence on Okinawa and Realignment to Guam Introduction In recent years, the U.S. and Japanese governments have steadily strengthened key elements of the U.S.-Japan alliance, but have continued to struggle with how to manage the large-scale presence of U.S. troops in the southernmost Japanese prefecture of Okinawa. These challenges affect broader U.S. efforts to realign its military forces in the region, particularly the plans to transfer some marines to Guam, which faces its own difficulties. Okinawa occupies a key strategic location: the bases provide a crucial component of the U.S. military's forward operating presence in the Indo-Pacific and are seen by many as a bulwark against China's expanding presence in the region. Okinawa's Grievances Despite comprising less than 1% of Japan's total land area, Okinawa hosts over half of the more than 50,000 U.S. military personnel stationed in Japan and about 70% of all facilities and areas used exclusively by U.S. Forces Japan (USFJ). Okinawa also bears the painful legacy of the Battle of Okinawa in 1945, when 100,000 Japanese soldiers and 40,000-100,000 civilians perished. The United States administered Okinawa from 1945 until 1972, two decades longer than it occupied Japan following World War II. Many native Okinawans chafe at the large U.S. military presence, reflecting in part the tumultuous history and complex relationships with mainland Japan and with the United States. Although the views of Okinawans are far from monolithic, many Okinawans-including those who largely support the U.S.-Japan alliance-have concerns about the burden of hosting foreign troops, particularly about issues like crime, safety, environmental degradation, and noise. Long-held grievances erupted in 1995 when three U.S. servicemembers were convicted in a Japanese court of raping a 12-year-old Okinawan girl, prompting the allies to try to alleviate the burden on hosting communities. Futenma Base Relocation In 1996, the bilateral Security Consultative Committee (composed of the U.S. Secretaries of State and Defense and their Japanese counterparts, also known as the 2+2) established the Special Action Committee on Okinawa (SACO) to address the concern that the basing situation may not be politically sustainable. The 1996 SACO Final Report mandated the return to Okinawa of thousands of acres of land used by the U.S. military since World War II, including by moving Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) Futenma from crowded Ginowan City to Camp Schwab in Nago City's less congested Henoko area. Decades of residential development around the Futenma base has made the noise of the facility an irritant to the local community and elevated the risk of an aircraft accident in a heavily populated area. Efforts to implement the Okinawa agreement, however, quickly stalled due to local opposition, as protests against the planned Futenma Replacement Facility (FRF) and Okinawan leaders presented steep challenges to implementing the 1996 plan. Source: Map created by .KS using data from the U.S. State Department, 2009; and ESRI Data 10, 2009. Subsequent bilateral negotiations aimed at addressing local resistance culminated in the 2006 U.S.-Japan Roadmap for Realignment. The United States agreed to remove roughly 8,000 marines from Okinawa to Guam by 2014. Congressional concerns over the scope and cost of the Guam realignment, as well as concerns about Guam's preparedness, led to later revisions that adjusted the number of personnel and dependents to be relocated. Marine Corps Realignment to Guam Guam is a 210-square-mile tropical island, roughly 12 miles at its widest point, lying 1,230 nautical miles southeast of Okinawa; it has long hosted a significant American military presence. Once claimed as a U.S. territorial possession, Guam is currently classified as an unincorporated territory whose people maintain U.S. citizenship status and limited rights to self-government. The Department of Defense (DOD) controls 30% of all acreage on the island, and approximately 11,000 DOD military and civilians currently reside there. Situated between Hawaii and the Philippines, the island represents an important strategic hub for U.S. air and maritime assets in the Western Pacific. The current strategy for moving military personnel to Guam from Okinawa is based on a 2012 revision to the 2006 U.S.- https://crsreports.cor

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