A massive rally is expected to be held in Okinawa to protest the latest crime by a U.S. base worker, organizers said Sunday, with the incident stoking the underlying resentment about the heavy U.S. military presence in the island prefecture.

The organizers — including local political parties, businesses and citizens' groups opposed to the relocation of U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma within the prefecture — hope to make the rally, likely to be held next month, comparable to the one following the 1995 rape of a 12-year-old schoolgirl in Okinawa by three U.S. servicemen.

Around 85,000 people were mobilized for that event in 1995. The rape triggered a wave of public outrage and was instrumental in pushing the governments of Japan and the United States to strike a deal in 1996 on the return of the Futenma site to Japanese control.