TOKYO, June 19 (Xinhua) -- Tens of thousands of protestors took to the streets of Okinawa in Japan's southernmost Prefecture on Sunday to express their ongoing anger at the disproportionate presence of U.S. military personnel on the island and the crimes committed by them, in particular the brutal rape and murder of a local women by a base-linked worker recently.
The rally took place in a park in Naha, the capital city of Okinawa, and saw around 65,000 protestors united in calling for the withdrawal of the U.S. military on the island and the urgent review over an archaic agreement inked between the United States and Japan governing the handling of incidents caused by U.S. military personnel in Japan.
The protesters, the majority of whom were dressed in black in spite of the scorching heat to show their respects for the murdered women, holding placards and shouting slogans like "U.S. Military Out!" and "How many more crimes will we suffer?" as well as "Relocate the (U.S.) bases outside Okinawa," and chanting like "We want our land back!"
The rally, the biggest organized protest in Okinawa since three U.S. servicemen viciously raped an elementary schoolgirl in 1995, follows the alleged rape, murder and dumping of a 20-year-old local woman by Kenneth Franklin Shinzato, 32, a former U.S. Marine.
Shinzato stands accused of raping the deceased in a grassy area beside the road in Uruma in central Okinawa, as the young lady was walking home before stabbing her to death with a knife on April 28.
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