NAHA, Japan — Tens of thousands rallied Sunday on the Japanese island of Okinawa to protest against the heavy US military presence and violent crimes by American personnel that have angered residents for decades.
Demonstrators, claimed by organizers to total 65,000, gathered in the prefectural capital Naha, infuriated with the United States after a former Marine employed as a civilian base worker allegedly raped and murdered a young local woman in April.
The case has intensified longstanding opposition to the bases — a key part of the US-Japan security alliance — on the sub-tropical southern outpost, a popular holiday destination for Japanese and increasingly for China and other Asian countries.
Okinawa hosts about 26,000 US troops, more than half the total Washington keeps in all of Japan.
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