Okinawans Voting On Future Of U.S. Military Presence Advisory Ballot Could Change American Policy In Asia

A year after the rape of a 12-year-old Okinawan girl by three U.S. GIs, Okinawans were making a choice that could deeply affect one of the world’s most important security alliances.

Today’s referendum on the continued presence of the nearly 30,000 U.S. troops in Okinawa follows a period of tensions sparked by the rape, which led to the largest antii-military protests ever in Okinawa.

Hundreds of Okinawans demonstrated again on Saturday, a day before the unprecedented local vote on whether the bases should be reduced.

The referendum is not legally binding, but is considered a gauge of public sentiment. It has pitted Okinawa’s popular and staunchly anti-base governor against an increasingly nervous government in Tokyo.

“For all these years, no one has paid any attention to what the Okinawan people wanted,” said Tsunesada Shimabukuro, a local government worker. “This is a real chance for us to express our concerns.”

Okinawans are to vote on whether they want changes in the bilateral agreement that provides for U.S. troops to be stationed in Japan, and whether they want a reduction in the United States’ bases on Okinawa.

Most voters were expected to say yes.

Officials said Saturday that turnout was high on some of Okinawa’s more remote islands, where voting began Friday. Final results were expected late Sunday.

Okinawa, which was virtually leveled in the final land battle of World War II, has been a major U.S. military bastion in the Pacific in the decades since.

Located between Taiwan and the southernmost of Japan’s four main islands, Okinawa is the largest island in a prefecture of the same name. Its proximity to China, the Koreas and Southeast Asia has made it a linchpin of U.S. strategic policy in the Pacific.

But Okinawans long have complained that their burden is too heavy. More than half of the U.S. troops and roughly 75 percent of all the land reserved for the U.S. military in Japan are on Okinawa, although Okinawa makes up less than 1 percent of Japan’s area. The bases occupy one-fifth of the main island.

“Okinawa belongs to no one but those who were born and raised here,” Gov. Masahide Ota said last week.

Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto, while stressing his support for the continued presence of the 55,000 U.S. troops in Japan, has said solving the Okinawan issue is a top priority. He is to meet with Gov. Ota on Tuesday.