The issue of the large U.S. military presence in Okinawa is divisive, deeply rooted and, frankly, one I have never completely understood. Anti-base protests have been going on for decades, and while locals elsewhere in the developed world may have been unhappy with the bases in their vicinity, the Okinawans stand out for the tenacity and, at times, ferocity of their opposition. What keeps them going?
John Junkerman's documentary "Okinawa: The Afterburn" ("Okinawa: Urizun no Ame") sheds more light on this question than any of the other Okinawan-themed films I have seen, fiction or nonfiction.
As a former Okinawa resident who has lived in Japan for nearly four decades, Junkerman is unabashedly on the side of the protesters (in a program note he describes the Okinawan islands as "spoils of war"), but he presents both sides without strident editorializing.