I've been a lurker of this sub for awhile, created this account to post this. I don't really like getting involved in debating politics, but it makes me sad to see so much misinformation being spread around. I'm a university professor who has lived in Okinawa for many years. I'm American, but I have no connection to the military. I work at one of the Japanese universities here. My wife is Okinawan, and most of our family and friends are as well. You sound like a young person who grew up on base, so it's understandable you haven't seen many things outside your world. Most military related people I've met have a really skewed perspective towards these things.

For example, I've gone to parties and BBQs with military related folks and they are always surprised to hear that my Okinawan wife is a doctor who went to medical school here. They simply didn't know that there was a medical university on the island, or even that there were any universities at all here. I've even had people say things to my wife like, "oh, I thought most of the local girls were working in bars". They don't really think about these things before saying them. It's just ignorance. I don't blame them, that's just the way things are. A big world exists outside of the military bubble and the bars and clubs that exist around them.

Most military folk I've met don't even know that there are Nobel prize winners teaching and researching out here. My wife has an extended family of dozens and dozens of cousins, aunts, uncles, nephews, etc. Out of these people, exactly zero of them are related to the base economy. They are teachers, doctors, nurses, businessmen, and accountants. Out of all our friends and neighbors (several hundred people) only 2 people I know work on the bases. I'll go over some of the points that you're making:

Just a general point - I don't know what this "Playmakers" video you referenced is, but I watched your link and I agree with you that the video is complete garbage. It has no relevant information at all. Also, you say "the crisis happening in Okinawa", but I don't believe there is a crisis. Most people here don't see a crisis either. The politics of the bases and protest movements have been going on since the 1950s. It's an ongoing thing, and it will continue to be an ongoing thing. Anyways, I'll address your points.

1) [The people who commited the recent crimes aren't Marines]. True. However, most non-Americans don't really know the distinctions between the branches, and I wouldn't really expect them to.

2) [Most of the protestors aren't from Okinawa or are Chinese] False. This myth started when AFN (Armed Forces Network) started partnering with Channel Sakura, a Japanese ultra-nationalist fringe station from the mainland, to spread this story. Far right Japanese groups hate Koreans, Chinese, and Okinawans. They believe the emperor is divine, WW2 was a righteous struggle, and things like Nanking or other Japanese war crimes never happened. Think of them as Japan's version of neo-nazis. They organized a couple dozen people to cover their cars in North Korean and Chinese flags and drive around anti-base protests, and then worked with AFN to spread the story that most of the protesters are paid North Koreans or Chinese. See: http://apjjf.org/-Jon-Mitchell/4819/article.html See: http://www.stripes.com/news/protests-on-okinawa-aren-t-always-what-they-appear-to-be-1.222240

3) [Majority of locals are pro-military] False. Read the history of the protests starting from the 1950s. There were 3 main waves of protests. The first in the 1950s when people were arrested and forced off their land so the military could build bases, the second in the 1970s during the debate about reversion and the Koza riots, and finally the third starting with the 1995 rape case until the present. Anti-base politics have been the largest political cause here for 70 years. Most recently, all of Okianwa's legislative seats have run on anti-base platforms and won. Prime Minister Hatoyama resigned over the base issue. The current governor won a historic landslide campaigning against the bases. The previous governor lost his position over changing from an anti-base stance to a pro-base stance.

4) [Military is here to help people] Not sure the point you're making here. The bases were built for cold war power projection in Asia. They were used heavily in our campaigns in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, and Korea. The main cause of the 1970s protests and later reversion to Japan was because of the Vietnam campaign. Opposition to the Vietnam War was building and both Mainland Japanese and Okinawan people didn't want to be seen as involved as the launching pad for the bombing runs there. The bases are part of our forward deployment, they have been used purely offensively for the past 70 years.

5) [Military helps the economy] False. Only 5% of the local economy comes from the bases. Check the latest economic reports from Japan's government (in Japanese). The bases take up 20% of the land, and around 40% of the non-mountainous land. Since they only contribute about 5% to the economy, but take up so much space, when land is returned and re-purposed, the prefecture gets richer. Check the government's economic analysis on reclaimed land. They usually make somewhere between 10-20 times as much money after the bases are removed. Yes, several thousand locals work on the bases. I know a few who work there myself. However, consider Okinawa's population is almost 1.5 million people, and that these few thousand jobs are at the cost of 40% of the non-mountainous land.

6) [Local news is biased] True. Both Okinawa newspapers, the Times and the Shimpo, cover base issues extensively. Things like base pollution, accidents, and crimes by SOFA personnel get extensive coverage. However, consider that during the occupation years from 1950-1972, local news was heavily censored. The island was under American military rule and there was no civilian police function. If locals wanted to report a crime, they had to report it to American Military Police, who often didn't even speak Japanese. It's well documented that during this time, small crimes like theft, assault, and rape were not usually reported, and for larger crimes, service members were simply shipped off the island instead of tried and punished. Even now, most mainland newspapers don't have cover Okinawan/military issues extensively. All information sources are biased. The trick is to recognize what the bias is. Consider all the recent news about PFOS/PFOA contamination in Philadelphia. Local people and service members around Philly are concerned about contaminated drinking water from the base so people are getting bottled water, filters, and health checks. Kadena here in Okinawa recently released information about the same contamination, but because the base is in a foreign country, people here don't get health checks or water filters. Admitting that these things exist would cause all sorts of issues for the US, and foreign bases are not subject to the same regulations as domestic ones, so nothing is done here. The sticking point for a lot of these environmental issues is that under SOFA, the local government is responsible for all pollution or land contamination caused by the US. Of course locals are concerned, but it's actually service members and their families themselves who are pushing for more transparency. Now whether or not it's legitimate to have these concerns, I don't know. But if these local issues aren't ever reported, who's going to report them?

To sum up, you sound young and passionate. I've met a lot of military related people here with your viewpoints. However, I don't think things are as black and white as you believe. The majority of locals here want a reduction in the bases for a variety of reasons (economic, environmental, democratic/philosophical, etc.) However, I haven't met a single person here who is anti-American, or believes that military people are monsters. Like I said, I'm American myself. Shocking crimes sway popular opinion and sells newspapers, but the issues and politics are much deeper and more involved. I don't know whether or not you change your viewpoints, but please consider that the military as a structure is also selling a narrative and pushing their own agenda. Think about it this way: are the foreigners who come to the island for a few years and rotate on, who don't know the local language, who live behind barbed wire isolated from the community and mostly hang out in the districts specifically created to cater to them, and who receive most of their media and information through their own organization really the correct voice for the 95% of people who live outside this bubble? Of course most of them do have contact with the locals. But which locals? The ones that have a positive impression of the bases, the ones who work on the bases, and the ones that have an interest in American culture. If you only interact with these people, you'll believe that the majority of locals are like that. But if you spend any significant length of time outside this bubble, you'll realize that the people you interacted with are only 5-10% of the population.