NATION : U.S. Agrees to Return to Japan Small Portion of Okinawa Land
The United States has agreed to return to Japan a small portion of the land used by U.S. military bases on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa, officials announced today.
Land totaling 2,500 acres in 23 sites will be returned, according to an interim report released by the U.S.-Japan Joint Committee on Realignment and Consolidation of U.S. Forces Facilities on Okinawa.
The report listed part of a practice area at the northern end of the island, part of Camp Hansen in central Okinawa, and part of the Kadena ammunition storage area and Yaedake communications facility in northeastern Okinawa as being among the sites to be returned.
The land being returned, however, makes up only a few percent of 62,000 acres taken up by U.S. military bases on Okinawa, a U.S. territory from 1945 until its reversion to Japan in 1972.
American bases take up 20% of Okinawa prefecture’s main island, and until the mid-1970s were the Okinawans’ most important source of income.
Of 50,000 U.S. troops in JapaN, about 35,000 are stationed on Okinawa.
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