Reuters reports that “the United States military said on Friday it was preparing for the biggest land return in Okinawa since 1972, as it faces a surge in opposition to its presence following the arrest of one its civilian contractors for the murder of a local woman.”  

“Okinawa is the U.S. military’s key base in Asia where it faces an increasingly assertive China. It hosts 30,000 military personnel on bases that cover a fifth of the island.”  

“‘We are respectful of the feelings of Okinawans that our footprint must be reduced,’ Lieutenant General Lawrence D. Nicholson, the U.S. commander on the island, said in a press release.”