{"id":1067,"date":"2026-05-30T03:31:50","date_gmt":"2026-05-30T03:31:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/asianewscast.com\/2026\/05\/30\/why-does-okinawa-have-so-many-us-military-bases\/"},"modified":"2026-05-30T03:31:50","modified_gmt":"2026-05-30T03:31:50","slug":"why-does-okinawa-have-so-many-us-military-bases","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.asianewscast.com\/?p=1067","title":{"rendered":"Why Does Okinawa Have So Many US Military Bases?\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Why<\/div>
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Anti-base signs on the fence separating the U.S. Marine Corps\u2019 Camp Schwab and Henoko, Nago in Okinawa, Japan.<\/p>\n

Credit: Wikimedia Commons\/ Vitalie Ciubotaru<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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In Japan, there are 76 exclusive-use U.S. military bases, hosted at the invitation of the Japanese government under the 1960 Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security between the United States and Japan. Despite occasional disagreements over how much money Japan should contribute to the alliance, both Tokyo and Washington have long supported this military presence. In her most <\/span>recent meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump in March 2026<\/span><\/a>, for example, Japan Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae promised, \u201cGoing forward, I will continue to work with President Trump to elevate the Japan-U.S. alliance to further heights.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

However, the U.S. military presence in Okinawa Prefecture is more controversial. Although the islands consist of less than 1 percent of Japan\u2019s total land mass, by area they host 70 percent of the U.S. military footprint in Japan. As a result, Okinawans bear the burden of military crimes, noise, and environmental damage; moreover, <\/span>the bases hinder the local economy<\/span><\/a> and infrastructural improvements. Many residents believe that <\/span>the concentration of these bases in their communities is unfair<\/span><\/a> \u2013 and that the U.S. bases should be redistributed more evenly throughout the country.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In a new book, Jon Mitchell \u2013 a journalist with Okinawa Times \u2013 draws upon his 16 years of experience reporting about Okinawa to explore how the islands came to host the bulk of the U.S. military presence in Japan. In the excerpt below, Mitchell discusses some of the arguments and misconceptions about the current U.S. military presence in Okinawa. The text has been revised from its original version for conciseness.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"*****<\/span><\/p>\n

The <\/span>United States<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>Japan<\/span><\/a> insist that the American military in Japan furnishes an indispensable deterrence effect, which dissuades potential enemies from attacking the nation. Given that 70 percent of the U.S. military presence can be found in Okinawa Prefecture, it would be natural to assume that the weight of deterrence lies there, too. But a closer examination shows that the elements with the most ability to deter attack are located on mainland Japan and elsewhere.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Yokosuka City, Kanagawa Prefecture, is host to the largest U.S. Navy base overseas, home to more than 50 ships and submarines, notably the only U.S. nuclear-powered aircraft carrier homeported outside the United States. In Tokyo, Yokota Air Base is headquarters to U.S. Forces Japan (USFJ) and the Fifth Air Force. Meanwhile Camp Zama, Kanagawa Prefecture, houses the U.S. Army\u2019s headquarters in Japan, serving four thousand soldiers and their families. Covering these bases \u2013 and Japan as a whole \u2013 is a network of defensive missiles, while above stands the U.S. nuclear umbrella. Since the Cold War, Tokyo has sought \u2013 and received \u2013 assurances from the United States that if Japan came under threat by a nuclear-armed foe, Washington would use its nuclear arsenal to defend it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So how do the 31 U.S. bases in Okinawa serve to deter potential enemy aggression? Arguably, the facility with the largest role is Kadena Air Base, which was used to launch attacks in the Korean and Vietnam Wars. The Pentagon still refers to Kadena as the \u201cKeystone of the Pacific,\u201d and it hosts the largest combat wing in the air force.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite its size, noise, and environmental damage, <\/span>the possibility of shutting the base is not raised by Japanese politicians in discussions to reduce the military footprint. <\/span>As Okinawa International University professor <\/span>Maedomari Hiromori argued<\/span><\/a>, \u201c<\/span>The reason is clear. It\u2019s because \u2018Kadena is off limits.\u2019\u201d Asking the Americans to remove their keystone, Japanese officials believe, would become tantamount to suggesting the dissolution of the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty itself.<\/span><\/p>\n

Besides Kadena, though, the deterrent role of Okinawa\u2019s other 30 U.S. bases is more dubious.<\/span> The army occupies a handful of facilities, but its main mission is relegated to maintaining fuel supplies for the other services, plus the management of Naha Military Port, which is only seldom used (much to the chagrin of residents, who lament the waste of waterfront real estate). The navy has five facilities, notably a port at White Beach (shared with the army), where no vessels are permanently stationed.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So that brings us to the U.S. marine corps, the most prominent military presence in Okinawa (130 square kilometers). Forced from mainland Japan by protests in the 1950s, today the marines have 13 bases in Okinawa, including Futenma Air Station in the middle of Ginowan City. Experts have attempted to assess the extent of deterrence the marines truly provide \u2013 and most have concluded the answer is very little. Professor <\/span>Mike Mochizuki<\/span><\/a> or George Washington University\u2019s Elliott School of International Affairs<\/span> contended that Japanese policymakers\u2019 assertions of the marines\u2019 deterrence were vague and the roles of the U.S. Air Force and Navy \u2013 plus the nuclear umbrella \u2013 were more important.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

According to <\/span>Yanagisawa Ky\u014dji<\/span><\/a>, former head of Japan\u2019s National Institute of Defense Studies, too, U.S. nuclear weapons and conventional missile defense systems have a more powerful deterrent effect: \u201cThe U.S. Marine Corps troops are ready to be deployed anywhere in the world. By the nature of their mission, they are not to stay and defend a specific region.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The most thorough exploration of the deterrence provided by the marines in Okinawa was conducted by <\/span>Paul O\u2019Shea<\/span><\/a> of the Center for East and Southeast Asian Studies, Lund University, Sweden. O\u2019Shea argued that \u201cthe Marines\u2019 role in deterrence is overstated at best, and relatively insignificant at worst.\u201d Their deployment in the event of a conflict in the East China Sea would be unlikely or difficult due to the stationing of their transport ships in mainland Japan, O\u2019Shea found. Moreover, compared to the larger deterrence created by the U.S. Air Force and Navy and joint operations with the Japanese Self-Defense Forces (SDF), stationing marines in Okinawa added little to the overall effect.<\/span><\/p>\n

Both Mochizuki and O\u2019Shea argued that instead of providing essential deterrence, the preponderance of marine (and other bases) in Okinawa might conversely have the opposite result. \u201cOne could argue that the Marines play as much a \u2018magnet\u2019 role as a deterrent one,\u201d O\u2019Shea wrote.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Sitting Ducks<\/b><\/p>\n

Long before China and North Korea developed missiles capable of reaching Okinawa, American officials questioned the wisdom of cramming so many bases into such a tight space. During the mid-1950s, even as the United States was forcibly expanding its facilities in Okinawa, the <\/span>chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff<\/span><\/a> warned they were \u201csitting ducks \u2013 difficult if not impossible to defend, likely to be knocked out completely in a one-shot operation.\u201d In the following years, the Soviet Union and China developed their nuclear arsenals, heightening the risks. <\/span>As well as enemy attack, the <\/span>military\u2019s own negligence posed an equally catastrophic threat, as shown by a <\/span>1959 Nike Hercules misfire at Naha Air Base<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>a hydrogen bomb lost from the USS Ticonderoga<\/span><\/a> in 1965. (And then there are the natural dangers posed by typhoons, earthquakes, and tsunami.)<\/span><\/p>\n

As China developed its missile capabilities and staged strikes against a mocked-up Kadena Air Base in its western deserts, even military commanders were ringing alarm bells. In 2020, the <\/span>Indo-Pacific Command told U.S. Congress<\/span><\/a>, \u201cIt is not strategically prudent, nor operationally viable to physically concentrate on large, close-in bases that are highly vulnerable to a potential adversary\u2019s strike capability.\u201d Then in 2023, the <\/span>Congressional Research Service<\/span><\/a> published an assessment of military infrastructure, quoting specialists who surmised that Kadena Air Base was \u201cuniquely ill-positioned for permanently basing large numbers of American aircraft\u201d and urged rotating and dispersing U.S. forces in the region.<\/span><\/p>\n

It is a stark irony that, as of the mid-2020s, many military officials finally aligned their thinking with what Okinawans had been demanding for decades: the relocation of the bases away from their islands. Nevertheless, the U.S. military still possessed 31 military bases in Okinawa, consisting of 70 percent of its presence in Japan.<\/span><\/p>\n

So Why Is the U.S. Military <\/b>Really<\/i><\/b> in Okinawa?<\/b><\/p>\n

Responsibility for the ongoing overconcentration of bases in Okinawa must be apportioned between the United States and Japan. For America, the islands provide three advantages: the projection of power; the ability to train forces without civilian interference; and, most importantly, money. For Japan, Okinawa serves as a national sacrifice zone, a place geographically distant from the mainland that can be forced to bear the dangers that the rest of the nation refuses to tolerate.<\/span><\/p>\n

Power Projection<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

For eight decades, the United States has used Okinawa to stage military, covert, and psychological warfare around the world. Initially, it used the veneer of U.N. trusteeship to control Okinawa, alongside islands in Micronesia, from which to run CIA operations, test and stockpile weapons of mass destruction, and fight wars throughout Asia (while denying these islands\u2019 residents the freedoms it was claiming to promote). These aggressions compelled Okinawans to campaign for reversion, but after 1972, the United States continued to use its bases to dispatch troops to wars in the Persian Gulf, Afghanistan, and Iraq. Successive Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) governments have backed these wars, for example <\/span>contributing $13 billion<\/span><\/a> toward the U.S.-led Gulf War.<\/span><\/p>\n

Freedom to Train<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

The U.S. military regards Okinawa Prefecture as one big training site, teaching jungle and urban warfare, beach assaults, parachute drops, and air-to-ground bombings. Unlike within the United States, where such exercises tend to occur far from residential areas and the Pentagon (sometimes) heeds local communities\u2019 complaints, it routinely ignores Okinawans\u2019 objections. When training goes wrong (as it often does), the Japan-U.S. Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) allows the military to escape the consequences, covering up aircraft accidents and blocking local officials from accessing crash sites. Military exercises take a heavy toll on the environment, and Japanese taxpayers are left with the tab to clean up unexploded ordnance, depleted uranium, and <\/span>drinking water contaminated with PFAS<\/span><\/a> from decades of on-base firefighter training.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Money<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

In 1935, decorated marine General Smedley D. Butler wrote the best-selling booklet \u201cWar Is a Racket,\u201d in which he railed against arms manufacturers profiting from conflict and U.S. colonialism. Ninety years later, the general\u2019s name adorns marine corps bases in Okinawa via the collective title for six facilities: Camp Smedley D. Butler. Whether intended or not, the naming rubs Japanese taxpayers\u2019 noses in the fact that <\/span>they pay 211 billion yen a year in host-nation support<\/span><\/a>, an estimated 75 percent of the cost of stationing U.S. troops in Japan and almost double the ratio paid by South Korea. It is cheaper for the United States to keep its troops in Japan than at home.<\/span><\/p>\n

Between 1978 and 2010, Japan paid some $22 billion in improvements to U.S. facilities. Then it funded a $500 million NSA listening post at Camp Hansen and MV-22 Osprey landing pads in the Yanbaru forests. Under the 2009 Guam Agreement \u2013 slammed by <\/span>historian Gavan McCormack<\/span><\/a> as \u201cillegal, colonial, and deceitful\u201d \u2013 Tokyo also promised to build two new marine corps bases: one atop Oura Bay (costing between $2-22 billion) and the other in Guam ($6 billion). Tokyo\u2019s funding is so generous that even when the U.S. military breaks the law, Japanese taxpayers foot the costs \u2013 in court rulings for illegal noise from U.S. air bases, the compensation comes from the Japanese government. Moreover, American arms manufacturers have enjoyed a windfall. According to the Department of State, as of 2021, Japan was <\/span>paying at least $32.5 billion<\/span><\/a> for U.S. weaponry and other military equipment. If war is a racket, then Japanese taxpayers are the marks.<\/span><\/p>\n

Structural Discrimination<\/b><\/p>\n

Although the three aforementioned factors make it attractive for the United States to locate its military in Japan, this still leaves unanswered the question of why the bases need to be in Okinawa. Under the terms of the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty, the United States would enjoy these benefits wherever in Japan its troops were stationed. Ultimately, then, the answer must lie with the Japanese government.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In previous decades, <\/span>Tokyo has spurned repeated U.S. suggestions<\/span><\/a> to move the military from Okinawa because mainland politicians are unwilling to force bases on their constituents. The hypocrisy was highlighted by former <\/span>Governor of Okinawa Onaga Takeshi<\/span><\/a>, who said, \u201cIf the majority of the citizens of Japan feel that the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty is necessary, then the government should fairly distribute the burden of the U.S. bases to the rest of Japan.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Many Okinawans assert that such treatment is a manifestation of structural discrimination (<\/span>k\u014dz\u014dteki sabetsu<\/span><\/i>). In addition to the overt discrimination historically experienced by Okinawans (slurs; signs barring them from businesses; and racist 1950s wage scales), structural discrimination refers to the ways in which U.S. and Japanese government policies have colluded to keep the bases there.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The <\/span>Okinawa Human Rights Association<\/span><\/a> attributed structural discrimination to the \u201ccoexistence of the U.S. government\u2019s self-righteousness and the Japanese government\u2019s abnormal subordination towards the United States.\u201d Historian <\/span>Arasaki Moriteru<\/span><\/a> took the argument further, asserting that structural discrimination against Okinawans was a fundamental pillar of Japan-U.S. relations: \u201cThis mechanism was created by the United States, the victor and occupier, and was carried over even after Japan\u2019s independence.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, academic <\/span>Matsushima Yasukatsu<\/span><\/a> drew a reptilian analogy: Okinawa \u201ccan be sacrificed like the cut-off tail of a lizard. Whenever Japan faces an inconvenient situation, it makes use of Okinawa, historically as a negotiator with China, or as a commodity to sell, as a place to fight her battles or to establish military bases.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

As these arguments demonstrate, without the sacrifice of Okinawa, modern Japan would not exist as it is. The nation is predicated on the past and present exploitation of the islands\u2019 residents. Since the 1879 Ryukyu Disposal through World War II, Japan used the islands to secure its own safety. In 1951, Japan ceded Okinawa in exchange for the return of its own sovereignty (albeit nominal). Then, thanks to base-construction contracts and the sieve economy, Japan was able to boost its dollar reserves. Today, because more than two-thirds of U.S. bases are shunted onto Okinawa, mainland Japanese residents are largely safe from military crimes, accidents, and environmental damage. Likewise, many enjoy the (illusory) sense of security provided by the bases located out of sight and mind far away to the south. Accordingly, the happiness of mainland Japan remains rooted in the exploitation of Okinawans, but you would be hard-pressed to find mainland residents of any political stripe who would willingly acknowledge this fact.<\/span><\/p>\n

Persistent discrimination against Okinawans begs the question: why is there not more international acknowledgment of the problem? For certain, some blame lies with the global media\u2019s poor track record of covering indigenous movements that clash with U.S. defense priorities. Another factor is the extent to which the two governments have been able to limit knowledge about Okinawa. Between 1945 and 1972, the U.S. military controlled travel to the islands, and after reversion, both countries destroyed vast volumes of official documents. The Japanese government, too, <\/span>pushes to erase evidence of its wartime atrocities<\/span><\/a> from history textbooks, paving the way for a new generation to embrace a remilitarized Japan.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Because the media, the military, and schools are failing to report about Okinawa, misinformation often seeps in to fill the vacuum. This confusion provides fertile ground for <\/span>Chinese nationalists to launch their own erroneous claims<\/span><\/a> that Okinawa does not belong to Japan and the Senkaku Islands have always been an inherent part of Chinese territory.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Diplomat is an affiliate of Bookshop.org and will earn a commission if you purchase a book using the link above.<\/em><\/p>\n

This article was excerpted from \u201cWhy are We in Okinawa? A History of Violence\u201d by Jon Mitchell. \u00a9 Bloomsbury Publishing 2026.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cWhy are We in Okinawa? A History of Violence\u201d can be purchased directly <\/span><\/i>from the publisher here<\/span><\/i><\/a>. Enter the code GLR BD8 for a 20 percent discount.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Anti-base signs on the fence separating the U.S. Marine Corps\u2019 Camp Schwab and Henoko, Nago in Okinawa, Japan. Credit: Wikimedia Commons\/ Vitalie Ciubotaru In Japan, there are 76 exclusive-use U.S. military bases, hosted at the invitation of the Japanese government under the 1960 Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security between the United States and Japan. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1068,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nWhy Does Okinawa Have So Many US Military Bases?\u00a0 - Asia Newscast<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.asianewscast.com\/?p=1067\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why Does Okinawa Have So Many US Military Bases?\u00a0 - Asia Newscast\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Anti-base signs on the fence separating the U.S. Marine Corps\u2019 Camp Schwab and Henoko, Nago in Okinawa, Japan. Credit: Wikimedia Commons\/ Vitalie Ciubotaru In Japan, there are 76 exclusive-use U.S. military bases, hosted at the invitation of the Japanese government under the 1960 Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security between the United States and Japan. 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Asia Newscast","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.asianewscast.com\/?p=1067","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Why Does Okinawa Have So Many US Military Bases?\u00a0 - Asia Newscast","og_description":"Anti-base signs on the fence separating the U.S. Marine Corps\u2019 Camp Schwab and Henoko, Nago in Okinawa, Japan. Credit: Wikimedia Commons\/ Vitalie Ciubotaru In Japan, there are 76 exclusive-use U.S. military bases, hosted at the invitation of the Japanese government under the 1960 Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security between the United States and Japan. 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