Free Republic

Almost 24,000 people surrounded Marine Corps Air Station Futenma here Sunday, forming a 6.8-mile human chain to demand the air base close. The event was part of a weekend of peaceful anti-base actions to mark the 33rd anniversary of Okinawa’s return to Japan after 27 years of post-World War II U.S. occupation. Also staged Sunday: three protest marches across the island with brief rallies in front several U.S. military bases and a mass afternoon rally at the Ginowan Convention Center. MCAS Futenma sits in the middle of urban Ginowan. Japan and the United States agreed in 1996 to close the...

A panel chartered by Congress to advise on redeployments of U.S. forces abroad is questioning the wisdom of reducing the number of troops on Japan's Okinawa island at a time of strategic uncertainties in the region. In a report released Monday, the Overseas Basing Commission recommended that U.S. Marines at one Okinawan base, the Futenma Marine Corps Air Station, should be moved -- either to another U.S. base on the island, or to one located on Honshu, Japan's main island. Apart from Futenma, however, all other Marine Corps assets on Okinawa should remain there. "Okinawa is the strategic linchpin to...

Breaking blurb only from FOX.

The Navy has set minimum bid prices and deposit requirements for the planned auction of the old El Toro Marine base, scheduled to begin Jan 5. The minimum averages range from about $125,000 to just under $300,000 per acre but are expected to ascend quickly although the federal government reckons it will fall short of the nearly $1 million per acre that Tustin air base land fetched. That’s because plans for the 3,700-acre base call for large sectors to be left as wilderness areas or developed as parks. Still, interest in the land is expected to be intense. It will...