Following the 1951 San Francisco Peace Treaty, Japan regained its independence. However, a number of its territories remained under US control. In particular, the island of Okinawa. In these territories, the American military administration functioned, the US dollar served as the currency (replacing the so-called B-yen) and the right-hand traffic operated instead of the Japanese left-hand traffic. In this territory, US military personnel were not punished for any crimes. For example, a soldier who raped and killed a six-year-old girl in 1955 went unpunished.
On December 20, 1970, one of the largest anti-American demonstrations of the local population took place in the city of Koza (Okinawa). Approximately five thousand Okinawan Japanese and seven hundred US troops came together in the battle. Dozens of cars were burned and many other American property destroyed, including office and outbuildings at Kadena AFB.
The uprising began with an ordinary traffic accident. A car with drunk American servicemen hit a local resident. The incident was witnessed by a group of taxi drivers who first began to shout anti-American slogans, and then moved on to more active actions. The police who drove up could not calm down the angry islanders. Even worse, another American car, which came to the aid of comrades, hit the second Okinawan. The crowd instantly grew to several hundred protesters. Police warning shots only made the situation worse. The number of protesters has reached five thousand. Bottles, stones and hastily made Molotov cocktails flew at the Americans - there were many alcoholic shops nearby. The Japanese pulled the US troops out of their cars, beat them and burned the cars.
The riot quickly gained momentum. Protesters smashed American cars and shop windows. Several dozen rebels made their way to the territory of the Kadena base, where they destroyed everything they could get to. The occupation authorities responded with tear gas. By morning, the uprising had died down. The result was sixty injured Americans and eighty-two local residents arrested.
In 1972, formal sovereignty over Okinawa Prefecture returned from the United States to Japan. The yen became the currency again, and right-hand traffic was replaced by left-hand traffic. Under a bilateral agreement, US bases remained in the prefecture, although their number is decreasing every decade.
Both during the occupation period and now, American military personnel remain one of the sources of crime news on the island. Most often it is a rape or an accident, where the driver is American and the local victim. Even now, the authorities of the prefecture find it difficult to bring the perpetrators to justice, and in those days it was impossible at all.
Okinawa is still home to three quarters of all American forces in Japan. From time to time, the Americans return the next object to the local authorities. All in all, American property occupies up to 10% of the area of Okinawa. In 2013, an agreement was reached between Tokyo and Washington to withdraw approximately 9,000 Marines from the island, most of whom will be sent to Guam, while the rest will be stationed in the Pacific territories and Australia. After that, about 40,000 American troops and about the same number of their family members will remain in Japan.
