Okinawa Protests U.S. Presence

G I N O W A N, Okinawa, Japan, July 15 -- Thousands of residents of Japan’s southernmost island of Okinawa held their biggest rally in years today against the presence of huge U.S. military bases, just days before a world leaders’ summit there.

More than 6,500 people braved sweltering heat to take partin the rally, demanding a reduction in U.S. forces in Okinawaand protesting against recent crimes allegedly committed by U.S.servicemen based on the island.

Banners reading “Peace now,” “Return the bases toOkinawa” and “Marines Out of Okinawa” fluttered in the seabreeze.

More than half a century of sharing the island with the U.S.military was enough, said one speaker.

“How many times do we have to hold rallies like this afterterrible incidents? The people of Okinawa are tired of beingtreated as if they aren’t humans,” Suzuyo Takasato, a leadingwomen’s rights activist, told the crowd.

Just this month, a U.S. Marine was arrested for allegedlymolesting a 14-year-old girl while she slept at her home and anairman was detained in a hit-an-run accident.

Goal: Embarrassment

The rally comes less than a week before the July 21-23 Groupof Eight (G8) nations summit and is bound to prove embarrassingto the U.S. military, which has faced years of protests over thebases on Okinawa and the conduct of its personnel.

“They are holding the summit in the place that representsthe greatest embarrassment to the Japanese government,” saidparliament member Seiken Akamine of the Communist Party.

Security was tight at the event, with hundreds of police,most of them in plain clothes, around the rally site—abeach-front stage just a few miles from severalU.S. bases.

It was the biggest such rally since 1995, when the rape of a12-year-old girl by three U.S. servicemen causedanti-base sentiment to boil over and more than 80,000 peoplegathered to demand the reduction and removal of U.S. troops fromthe island.