Okinawa Marks 30th Year since Major Rally against U.S. Military

Naha, Okinawa Pref., Oct. 21 (Jiji Press)–The southernmost Japan prefecture of Okinawa on Tuesday marked the 30th anniversary of a large-scale rally protesting the sexual assault of a young girl by U.S. military personnel. On Sept. 4, 1995, three U.S. Marines abducted and sexually assaulted an elementary school girl in the northern part of Okinawa’s main island. The U.S. side refused to hand over the Marines to Japanese authorities, citing the Japan-U.S. status of forces agreement, which ignited fury among the people of Okinawa. Following the incident, a rally took place on Oct. 21 of that year, drawing 85,000 participants, according to its organizers. Then Okinawa Governor Masahide Ota was among them. Fearing an escalation of anti-U.S. base sentiment among locals, the Japanese and U.S. governments agreed on Oct. 25 of the year to enable the handover of U.S. personnel before indictment. The following year, Washington also agreed to return the site of the U.S. Marine Corps’ Futenma air station in the Okinawa city of Ginowan. However, sexual assault cases involving the U.S. military personnel have continued to occur in the prefecture, including the 2016 murder of a woman by a civilian employee of the U.S. military. In December 2023, a girl was kidnapped and sexually assaulted by a U.S. airman, and this case was not immediately reported to the prefectural government. “Things that are hard for people in the prefecture to forgive still occur again and again,” said Keiko Itokazu, 78, a then member of the Okinawa prefectural assembly who spoke at the 1995 protest. “I wonder how the Japanese and U.S. governments view Okinawa,” she said. “Measures have been taken repeatedly, but nothing has changed,” she argued. “They are just pretending to do something.” END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]