U.S., Japan agree on cutback
of U.S. troops in Okinawa

April 11, 1996
Web posted at: 7:40 a.m. EDT (1140 GMT)

From Military Affairs Correspondent Jamie McIntyre

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The United States has reached an agreement with Japan to scale back its military presence on the Japanese island of Okinawa without reducing the overall number of U.S. troops in Japan. The agreement came after U.S.-Japanese relations were strained by the rape of a young Okinawan girl by U.S. servicemen last year.

Okinawan's simmering resentment of the 28,000 American troops stationed on the Japanese island, which the United States once occupied, boiled over last year when three American servicemen were charged and eventually convicted of the rape of a 12-year-old Okinawan schoolgirl.

State Department spokesman Nick Burns commented Wednesday on the U.S.-Japan talks about changing the U.S. Army's presence in Okinawa.

"I think that the tone and the tenor of the crisis has passed, but I think there is a mutual commitment by both countries to work on this issue," he said.

CNN has learned that when Defense Secretary William Perry visits Tokyo, he will announce -- perhaps as early as Sunday -- a plan to lower the U.S. military profile by consolidating U.S. bases on the island.

The agreement would:

• Transfer some American troops to the Japanese mainland.
• Turn over thousands of acres of land and some facilities to Okinawa.
• Change military flight operations to cut back on disruption from noise.

The compromise is designed to ease tensions over the rape case and pave the way for a new security pact between the two countries, to be sealed before President Clinton's arrival in Japan Tuesday.

The Pentagon has refused comment on the plan, which was first revealed by Japan's Defense Agency.

Experts say the plan will not hurt U.S. military preparedness.

"I think we are killing two birds with one stone. At one time we are reviewing our base structure, strategic displacements in East Asia, and at the same time we are trying hard to bring that new base structure into line with what we need to make living a little better on Okinawa for everybody concerned," said Nathaniel Thayer of the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

For the Pentagon, the key provision is that the overall number of the U.S. troops in Japan -- 47,000 -- will not change. As one senior defense official put it, "We will be reducing our footprint on Okinawa," without compromising the country's security posture in the region.

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