By official counts (that invariably vary), Okinawa has more than 32 U.S. military bases or installations and nearly 50 restricted air and marine sites designated for military training. Japan's poorest and smallest prefecture shoulders 75 percent of all the U.S. bases in the country. Almost 20 percent of the islands of Okinawa is held by the U.S. military. Okinawa, which makes up less than 1 percent of Japan, is home to around 24,000 U.S. military personnel -- about half of all those in Japan. Most people in Okinawa have long been opposed to the high concentration of military bases for many reasons, chief among them: crime (especially rape and sexual assault), robberies, traffic accidents, military crashes, noise, widespread severe environmental contamination, and a general opposition to being used by Tokyo to bear the burden of Japan's military pursuits. Many Okinawans, especially older generations, also resent the role their home is forced to play as a launching point for U.S. wars.

This month marks 70 years since the battle of Okinawa in which over 120,000 people -- between a quarter and one-third of the population at the time, perished in enormous bloodshed that killed many Japanese and Americans, as well. Okinawans, especially the older people, know all too well the cost of war -- particularly when it is someone else's war fought on your land. Now, after decades of protests and a sense that they've become second-class citizens in their own islands, Okinawans are standing firm, brave and strong, in the face of overwhelming military and police force. The governments in Tokyo and Washington are largely in agreement about relocating the long-disputed U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in the densely populated city of Ginowan to a less crowded area at Cape Henoko near Nago city in the northeast of the island.