The United States Armed Forces in Japan announced plans today to return 4,000 hectares -- about 15 square miles -- of Okinawan land back to the government of Japan, in what will be the largest land return since Okinawa's reversion in 1972.

The reversion treaty negotiated control of Okinawa back to Japan while maintaining U.S. military forces on the island, according to the Council on Foreign Relations.

The plan will slash the amount of U.S.-controlled land on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa by 17 percent, according to U.S. Armed Forces Japan.

"We have plans for many more SACO [Special Action Committee on Okinawa] agreement and other returns to be implemented in coming years, because we are respectful of the feelings of Okinawans that our footprint must be reduced,” Lt. Gen. Lawrence D. Nicholson, commanding general of the Third Marine Expeditionary Force and Marine Forces Japan, said in a statement.

There has been a long history of opposition and resentment towards the U.S. military stationed in Okinawa since the end of World War II from Japanese locals who live on the island.

The announcement of the land return comes as tensions have soared this summer after a series of incidents inflamed anti-American military sentiments on Okinawa.







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Last month, an estimated 65,000 Japanese people protested at a rally on Okinawa over the alleged rape and murder of a local woman by a U.S. military contractor and former Marine, according to The Associated Press.

This month, a U.S. Navy sailor was sentenced to 30 months in prison for a separate rape of an Okinawan woman, the AP reported.

Earlier in June, another U.S. sailor allegedly drove the wrong direction on a highway while intoxicated, causing a major accident and triggering a short-lived drinking ban for all U.S. sailors in Japan. The drinking ban was lifted, however, after less than a month.