US military in Japan’s Okinawa faces criticism as island logs record daily cases of COVID-19

The photo shows Japanese people protesting the US military presence on the southern island of Okinawa, while holding up placards that read, “Get out US Marines.”

The US military stationed in Japan’s Okinawa prefecture has faced criticism over its COVID response on the island, which has just logged the record number of more than 1,800 new cases of the contagious disease.

Authorities of Okinawa, which is the poorest prefecture in Japan, recorded 1,829 new coronavirus cases on Saturday, a figure that is fueled by the spread of the highly transmissible Omicron variant.

Okinawa is the reluctant host to 31 US military bases, which occupy approximately 15 percent of the main island. Although the prefecture comprises less than one percent of Japan’s total landmass, it has 70 percent of the country’s US facilities; 11 of the bases in Okinawa belong to the US Marine Corps.

The record number of new COVID-19 cases angered the authorities of the prefecture, whose governor, Denny Tamaki, has already expressed fury over inadequate infection controls at the American military bases there that allowed the prevailing variant to spread to the public.

The Asian country has boosted coronavirus restrictions, particularly on foreign travels, in three regions since November. These regions are home to American military facilities, which have also announced what they claimed to be stricter COVID response. However, the US military has kept moving its personnel in and out of Japan under a separate testing and quarantine pretext, a move that has allegedly exacerbated the further spread of the contagious disease in Okinawa and among its discontented residents.

US bases in Japan to come under tighter COVID-19 controlsThe United States agrees to tighten COVID-19 restrictions on personnel at US military bases in Japan.

In August 2020, an explosive spread of infections connected to an outbreak among Americans prompted the prefecture to declare a state of emergency. The outbreak then intensified the already strained tensions between locals and US forces.

A survey of residents conducted by Japan’s public broadcaster, NHK, showed 26 percent of Japanese respondents called for all US bases to be removed from their island, and another 51 percent wanted them to be reduced to a level equivalent to mainland Japan.

According to the Intercept, packing so many military facilities onto Okinawa concentrates many of the problems there: aircraft accidents, environmental contamination, and crimes, particularly against women.

Multiple cases of misconduct by US troops, featuring several rape cases and rape and murder of a 20-year-old woman in 2016, have raised anti-American sentiment among the pacifist islanders.

The prefecture is composed of over 150 islands in the East China Sea situated between the Chinese Taipei (Taiwan) and Japan’s mainland.

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