"That's the price you pay for our protection." - A high-ranking US official referring to the rape of a 12-year-old Okinawan girl by three American soldiers.
from Japan Today
Calls have heightened in Okinawa for incoming U.S. President Barack Obama to resolve issues stemming from the local concentration of U.S. military bases ahead of his inauguration Tuesday. ‘‘I hope the first black U.S. president will understand the pain of Okinawa,’’ said Shoji Matsuda, head of a residents association of the Sunabe area in the town of Chatan, one of the municipalities hosting the U.S. Kadena Air Base.
‘‘I want him to come to Sunabe so that he can hear the noise himself including the roar of jet fighters is early in the morning,’’ the 63-year-old community leader said. Another community official, Masafumi Ikehara, said that while the incoming Obama administration would be shifting its focus to Afghanistan from Iraq, ‘‘If they’re going to continue to remain at war, then their training situation is unlikely to change’’ at Camp Hansen, which has a training facility for urban-type fighting. Meanwhile, Yoichi Ito, the mayor of Ginowan, where the U.S. Marine Corps’ Futenma Air Station is located, said he believes ‘‘the Obama administration has the responsibility to settle the Futenma issue.’’
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