Okinawa was taken at high cost from Japan in 1945 by American forces (with a corps of Army troops and a corps of Marines losing a lot of troops in addition to the Navy suffering high losses from kamikaze attacks). Marines (and others) who have long called Okinawa home will spread out over the Pacific region:
In an attempt to appease locals, subsequent agreements promised to send an Okinawa-based KC-130 squadron to Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni on the Japanese mainland and move about 4,100 Marines to Guam. An additional 2,700 Okinawa-based Marines are to be sent to Hawaii, 800 to the U.S. mainland and 1,300 on a rotational basis to Australia. U.S. bases on Okinawa are also be consolidated.
The move should take place by 2026.
This will reduce tension on Okinawa, where a number of people resent the high presence of American forces (one wonders if that will change based on Chinese behavior in the future) and pull a lot of American capabilities out of easy range of Chinese mainland-based weapons.
