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Reuters
Reuters
Politics
Tim Kelly

Japan's Okinawa may be on the front lines again as it marks anniversary of U.S. handover

A member of the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force (JGSDF) raises the Japanese national flag in the morning, at JGSDF Miyako camp on Miyako Island, Okinawa prefecture, Japan April 21, 2022. Picture taken April 21, 2022. REUTERS/Issei Kato

Seihan Nakazato wants the missile trucks on the base next to his melon farm to leave, but few others on Okinawa's Miyako island, he complains, are demanding that Japan's army remove such weapons, which he says would make them a target for China.

"We are a small community and there are lots of complicated relationships," said Nakazato, 68, standing next to one of the greenhouses he worries could be bombed. "Some islanders do work for the base and others have relatives in the military."

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