By Daniel LEUSSINK
Crimes by US troops based on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa have long angered residents, who for decades have claimed the American military was out of control.
Tens of thousands of islanders rallied Sunday after anger was rekindled by the rape and murder of a 20-year-old woman in April.
A US civilian base worker -- a former Marine -- has been arrested. In a separate incident earlier this month a US sailor was detained after injuring two people in a drink-driving incident.
Statistics do not suggest a major problem with US military crime on the sub-tropical island. But the cases have fuelled persistent irritation at the intrusive American military presence on overcrowded Okinawa.
The island hosts about 26,000 US troops, more than half the total Washington keeps in all of Japan under a longstanding security treaty, and residents have long complained at the disproportionately heavy US footprint.
Okinawa was the scene of a bloody battle between Japan and the US in the waning months of World War II, followed by a 27-year American occupation that only ended in 1972 with its reversion to Japanese control.
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