Story highlights Organizers say at least 60,000 people marched on Sunday to ask Japan's government to kick out U.S. bases

Protests come after a 20-year-old woman was murdered by a civilian worker in April

(CNN) Tens of thousands of people have demanded an end to the United States' military presence on the Japanese island of Okinawa following the killing of a local woman.

Kenneth Franklin Shinzato, a 32-year-old civilian worker who was stationed at the U.S. Kadena Air Base, was last month arrested on suspicion of murdering the 20 year old and abandoning her body.

In an emotional letter read out during a march on the island Sunday, the victim's father said, for the local people's protection, all United States military bases on Japan's Okinawa prefecture had to go.

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"Why my daughter? Why was my daughter killed?" the letter read. "To avoid [another] victim, I want all US bases removed... I believe it's possible if all the people of Okinawa come together."

More than 60,000 people attended the protest in the prefecture's capital, Naha, according to organizers.

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