{"id":66577,"date":"2022-06-23T19:05:54","date_gmt":"2022-06-23T19:05:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/uncategorized\/2022\/06\/23\/okinawa-wants-us-base-reduced-77-years-after-battles-end\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T12:46:40","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T12:46:40","slug":"okinawa-wants-us-base-reduced-77-years-after-battles-end","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/flashpoints\/2022\/06\/23\/okinawa-wants-us-base-reduced-77-years-after-battles-end\/","title":{"rendered":"Okinawa wants US base reduced 77 years after battle\u2019s end"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

TOKYO \u2014 Okinawa marked the 77th anniversary Thursday of the end of one of the bloodiest battles of World War II, with the governor calling for a further reduction of the U.S. military presence there as local fears grow that the southern Japanese islands will become embroiled in regional military tension.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Battle of Okinawa killed about 200,000 people, nearly half of them Okinawan residents. Japan\u2019s wartime military, in an attempt to delay a U.S. landing on the main islands, essentially sacrificed the local population.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many in Okinawa<\/a> are worried about the growing deployment of Japanese missile defense and amphibious capabilities on outer islands that are close to geopolitical hotspots like Taiwan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At a ceremony marking the June 23, 1945, end of the battle, about 300 attendants in Okinawa, including Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and other officials, offered a moment of silence at noon and placed chrysanthemums for the war dead. The number of attendants was scaled down because of coronavirus worries.<\/p>\n\n\n\t