Ukunhama Beach on Miyagi Island, Okinawa, is pictured on Jan. 20, 2026. (Ryan M. Breeden/Stars and Stripes)
Two U.S. service members on a nighttime scuba dive were rescued from a rocky cliff on an island off Okinawa’s central coast over the weekend, according to Japan’s coast guard.
The Uruma Fire Department summoned the coast guard at 9:37 p.m. Sunday with a report of two men stranded on the northern coast of Ukunhama Beach on Miyagi Island, the coast guard said in a news release Monday.
The island is part of Uruma city, home to Marine Corps Camp Courtney.
Both service members are 22, according to the release. One is assigned to Camp Hansen and the other to Camp Kinser.
A Japan coast guard spokesman could not confirm the service members’ affiliation by phone Tuesday. Marine Corps Installations Pacific spokesman Wesley Hayes acknowledged but did not immediately answer questions emailed by Stars and Stripes that day.
A witness reported at 8 p.m. Sunday that the two stranded men were asking for help, a fire department spokesman said by phone Tuesday.
The department, after failing for 90 minutes to retrieve the pair, called the coast guard, according to the coast guard spokesman. The men were airlifted off the cliff about three hours later by a coast guard MH961 helicopter and flown to Naha airport.
“Since it was a rocky place and it was at night, it took some time to confirm their location,” he said.
The two service members and their diving gear were swept by waves onto the cliff, which is connected to a small peninsula on the island just north of the beach, the coast guard spokesman said. He did not know when they began diving.
The temperature on Okinawa was 68 degrees Fahrenheit at the time of the rescue, with 6 mph winds from the east, according to world-weather.info.
The service members were uninjured, the coast guard spokesman said.
They were released to an ambulance from the Camp Kinser Fire Department at 2:20 a.m. Monday, according to the release.
Some Japanese government officials must speak to the press only on condition of anonymity.
AloJapan.com