http://www.economist.com/news/asia/21701166-murder-american-sparks-protests-okinawa-rinas-legacy?fsrc=scn/tw/te/pe/ed/rinaslegacy

>FLOWERS and tributes left by angry Okinawans surround a makeshift shrine on the country road where Rina Shimabukuro’s body was dumped. The only suspect in her rape and murder, Kenneth Franklin Gadson, a former American marine, led police to this remote spot after he was arrested in April.

>Ms Shimabukuro, who was just 20 when she was killed, has become the latest symbol in a conflict over American military bases that has raged for decades. On June 19th an estimated 65,000 people mourned her at a stadium in Naha, Okinawa’s prefectural capital. A letter from her father urged Okinawans to unite and demand that American soldiers leave. It was among the biggest such protests in years, and one of the most passionate.

>America has 85 military facilities throughout Japan, but three-quarters of the area they occupy is in Okinawa. Futenma, a marine airbase, occupies nearly two square miles in the crowded centre of Ginowan, a small city. In 1996, after three American servicemen were convicted of raping a 12-year-old Japanese girl, America and Japan agreed to close the ageing facility and build a replacement near the quiet fishing village of Henoko.

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>Peter Lee, Futenma’s commanding officer, blames hostile media coverage for obscuring the strengths of the Japan-US military alliance. American soldiers commit fewer crimes per head than locals do. But perception trumps reality. In late May, military officials imposed a one-month curfew and alcohol ban on all service members. A few weeks later an off-duty sailor driving at six times the legal alcohol limit crashed into two cars.