Some 100 citizens held a rally on Saturday in front of the headquarters of U.S. Marines in the village of Kitanakagusuku, central Okinawa, to protest the alleged molestation incident in the prefecture last Monday of a 14-year-old girl by a U.S. Marine.
At the gathering, organized by a women's civic group in the prefecture, many participants claimed that the conduct of U.S. soldiers stationed in the prefecture has not improved since the September 1995 rape of a 12-year-old girl by three U.S. servicemen.
Speaking at the gathering, Suzuyo Takazato, a Naha city assemblywoman who leads the group, said, "The best and only way to solve such a problem is to make the islands free of military bases."
The 1995 incident unleashed a wave of anger in Okinawa Prefecture and led to calls for the massive U.S. military presence in the prefecture to be reduced. Currently, Okinawa accounts for 0.6 percent of Japan's total land area but some 75 percent of land occupied by U.S. military facilities in the entire country.