The heavy American presence is reflected in the malls, shops and restaurants that serve steak, burgers, tacos and root beer floats across the island chain.
In cities like Ginowan, home to a major US base called Futenma, it is not uncommon for locals to wake up up to the whirring sound of Osprey engines or see them flying over public housing.
Seven in ten Okinawans feel that the concentration of US bases on their islands is “unfair”, according to an opinion poll last year.
While protests against the bases are common, young people in Japan are growing more resigned to US military presence, the same poll showed.
Still, accidents and crimes where the victims are Japanese have long stirred tension around the American presence.
In 2012, a US Navy officer killed two Japanese citizens in a car accident during a trip to Mount Fuji.
After 1995, the next big protests happened in 2017 when a US army base worker was convicted for the rape and murder of a 20-year-old local woman.
In 2013, two US Navy sailors were jailed for the rape of an Okinawan woman in her 20s. The case led to curfews for US troops all over Japan.
There have been efforts to move the US bases to less populated parts of Okinawa, but locals want them removed altogether.
Experts, however, say Japan’s miliatry alliance with the US is too strong for that to happen. And they say Tokyo needs Washington given the challenges it faces, be it China’s growing claims over disputed waters and islands, or North Korea’s barrage of missile tests.
AloJapan.com