U.S. Likely to Return Some Land in Okinawa

The United States and Japan are near agreement on a plan to remove some U.S. troops from Okinawa and return to landowners some property used by the U.S. military there, defense officials said Thursday.

“We are nearing agreement and we should be able to announce something soon,” Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon said in advance of visits to Japan next week by President Clinton and Defense Secretary William J. Perry.

Bacon declined to discuss details of the agreement, but another senior defense official said, “It is likely to involve some turnover of land and some minor movement of troops from Okinawa to [other areas in] Japan.”

The rape of a 12-year-old schoolgirl on Okinawa involving three U.S. servicemen in September sparked bitter protests against the U.S. military presence on the island.

The island is home to about 75% of the U.S. military facilities and nearly half of the 47,000 American service personnel in Japan.

The military plan will be discussed at a meeting in Tokyo on Monday between Perry and Japanese Defense Minister Hideo Usui. If they agree, it will be presented for discussion by Clinton and Japanese Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto during their April 16-18 summit, officials said.

Bacon said he expects such issues as cutting aircraft noise and consolidation of training facilities to be addressed in the agreement, but he stressed that the overall American troop level in all of Japan would remain at 47,000.

“We are nearing closure on that. We are nearing agreement,” he said. “The most important part of that agreement is that it will maintain the U.S. security presence in Japan at current levels because the U.S. and Japan agree that a robust U.S. military presence in Japan is a fundamental building block of Asian security.”

Okinawans have long complained about the heavy concentration of U.S. bases on the island, about 625 miles south of Tokyo. Japanese news reports in Tokyo said the two sides had tentatively agreed on moves to transfer some land back to owners. The Mainichi Shimbun newspaper said that under a proposal to be discussed during Clinton’s visit, the U.S. military would either vacate or consolidate operations at about 10 locations, involving about 12,000 acres. Kyodo news service said the move would give back to landowners about one-sixth of the land occupied by U.S. bases on Okinawa.