Okinawans are embittered over an interim report on the realignment of U.S. forces in Japan, issued by a Japan-U.S. ministerial conference on security in October. There is a widespread public feeling that the plan will not reduce Okinawa's burden of hosting U.S. military installations -- the keystone of security in the Pacific -- and that Okinawa is being sacrificed for the nation's benefit.
Okinawa lost almost one-third of its civilian population when Japanese and U.S. forces fought a fierce ground war there in the final phase of the Pacific War. Now, even though the Cold War is over, Okinawans are still haunted by nightmares of their land becoming a war zone again.
The interim report includes these plans for Okinawa: