Okinawa

The people on Okinawa are complaining that 53 years of the American bases is enough (Oct. 7). They probably forgot that 53 years ago 12,000 American boys died in the 83-day battle of Okinawa and many are still buried there. RICHARD ROME Playa del Rey

An ex-Marine arrested Tuesday on charges of setting nearly two dozen fires in North Hollywood served time for several highly publicized arson fires at several restaurants and bars just outside the U.S. military base in Okinawa, Japan. Kurt K. Billie, 34, was booked on suspicion of arson early Tuesday after he was seen setting fire to a small motor home about 4 a.m. in the 7500 block of Troost Avenue, authorities say. He was arrested by Los Angeles police a short distance away. According to law enforcement sources familiar with the investigation, Billie is suspected of setting at least 19 fires in that area since mid-July, including a dozen fires over one three-day period.

Okinawa. Site of the largest U.S. amphibious assault in the Pacific and the final major battle of World War II. Last territory to be handed back to Japanese control -- in 1972. And now, the first point of friction between the Obama administration and the 4-month-old government of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama. As host to nearly three-quarters of the U.S. troops stationed in Japan, Okinawa residents have long felt that they shoulder more than their fair share. So it's not surprising that the future of a U.S. Marine base has become a contentious issue.

Amid chaos that has become Yamada city ? acres of snow-dusted debris, dusty relief trucks and a man who threw himself off a bridge the other day ? Kozue Shimabukuro can't stop thinking about the cubbyhole lockers. They line the back of the classroom at Yamada South elementary school that Shimabukuro, a pediatrician at UCLA, now calls her clinic in this hamlet about 280 miles north of Tokyo. Nearly two weeks after the sea surged through the town and fire consumed much of what the water didn't ruin, only two children have come to claim their belongings.

The United States will remove 7,000 Marines from Okinawa in a major overhaul of its troops and bases in Japan under a U.S. plan to make its military more flexible, top officials said Saturday. The base realignment unveiled by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and Japan Defense Agency chief Yoshinori Ono also boosts military cooperation in areas such as disaster relief and ballistic missile defense.

Police on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa arrested a U.S. airman suspected of arson and a Marine believed to have kicked over a motorcycle. Fernando Rivera Blanes, 22, stationed at Kadena Air Base, was arrested on suspicion of setting a car on fire, police said. An unidentified 19-year-old Marine stationed at the Futenma base was arrested after allegedly kicking over a motorcycle, police said.

Eutiquio Martinez grew up on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border, a farm worker as both boy and man in the 1930s and '40s. He's old enough to know about restaurant signs that read, "No Mexicans and Dogs Allowed." That lack of hospitality, however, didn't stop Uncle Sam from sending Martinez a draft notice in 1944. Nor, oddly enough, did it stop Martinez, a noncitizen who had settled in the California border town of Calexico, from accepting it.

A Socialist-backed candidate who wants the United States to abandon its military bases on Okinawa was elected governor of the Japanese island prefecture. Masahide Ota, 65, backed by the Socialists, Communists and other opposition parties, defeated Junji Nishime, a conservative who has been Okinawa's governor for 12 years. Nishime, 69, was backed by Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu's Liberal Democratic Party and the moderate opposition Democratic Socialist Party.

In the farthest southern reaches of Japan, gleaming white beaches slope gently to a clear green sea. Long-legged herons stand sentry over tidal pools, rare wild cats stalk through semi-tropical forests and the sun shines most days of the year. But a storm threatens this peaceful vista as the 500 islands that make up the prefecture of Okinawa try to pursue economic development through tourism with plans that critics say could harm the very beauty they seek to promote.

Chuck Welsh doesn't remember writing the letter. World War II was a long time ago, and he wrote so many letters then--letters to the beautiful woman he loved and the children he'd left behind. Fifty years passed. The children grew up and had their own children. The beautiful woman died and left him alone. The pictures of his young family have faded.

Isao Yukisada's bittersweet love story "A Good Husband" upholds the rich humanist tradition of Japanese cinema. Adapted for the screen by Chihiro Ito from Mayumi Nakatani's novel, it employs a daring sleight of hand in its storytelling and allows some acclaimed actors to soar in complex roles. Kitami (Etushi Toyokawa) is a gifted photographer who has fallen into a querulous relationship with his wife, Sakura (Hiroko Yakushimaru), who is desperate to have a child. Last year, Sakura persuaded Kitami to vacation in Okinawa over Christmas, but this year he flatly refuses to go. We then meet aspiring actress Ranko (Asami Mizukawa)

To Koji Yama, there is no icon as American as Elvis. The slicked-back hair. The rock 'n' roll. That swaggering confidence. It's an obsession that has carried this Japanese native 5,500 miles from his homeland and family, and landed him here in California. And starting this year, it's become his livelihood. Stroll into his vintage shop ? the Elvis 50's Corporation USA ? in Gardena and enter a time portal. Porcelain Elvis lamps and Art Deco furniture vie for space among leather bomber jackets and pin-up posters of ladies with Bettie Page hairstyles.

North Korea's string of provocations over the last nine months calls into question America's decisions over the last decade on the number and positioning of ground forces in the Asia-Pacific region. Though Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates insists that we must focus on winning the wars we are in, Pyongyang's repeated acts of aggression should remind us that we cannot be unprepared for the war that may be just around the corner. War on the Korean peninsula is not a distant possibility.

Newly minted Prime Minister Naoto Kan's beleaguered Democratic Party appeared to suffer a resounding defeat in Japan's parliamentary elections Sunday, a blow that threatened to further weaken Kan's already tenuous monthlong hold on power. The Democratic Party of Japan won fewer than 50 seats, well short of the 54 needed for the Democrats and their tiny coalition partner, the People's New Party, to keep their combined majority in parliament's upper house, according to exit polls conducted by Japan's public broadcaster and all major TV networks.

Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama ended weeks of internal discontent with his leadership by announcing Wednesday that he would resign, a swift fall from grace for a politician who just eight months ago led his endemic opposition party to a historic victory. His collapse in approval ratings was prompted largely by his failure to deliver on a campaign promise to move a major U.S. military base off Okinawa's main island. The move was a centerpiece of Hatoyama's campaign for office last year, but its implementation would have required American consent to alter a painstakingly negotiated 2006 deal with the previous Japanese government before the base could be moved to another part of Okinawa.

— A small party decided to leave Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's ruling coalition over his broken campaign promise to move a U.S. Marine base off Okinawa island, and he faced angry calls to resign Sunday. The departure of the Social Democratic Party from the three-party coalition is unlikely to bring down the government led by Hatoyama's Democratic Party of Japan. But his poor handling could significantly hurt the Democrats' performance in upper-house elections expected in mid-July.

To Koji Yama, there is no icon as American as Elvis. The slicked-back hair. The rock 'n' roll. That swaggering confidence. It's an obsession that has carried this Japanese native 5,500 miles from his homeland and family, and landed him here in California. And starting this year, it's become his livelihood. Stroll into his vintage shop ? the Elvis 50's Corporation USA ? in Gardena and enter a time portal. Porcelain Elvis lamps and Art Deco furniture vie for space among leather bomber jackets and pin-up posters of ladies with Bettie Page hairstyles.

Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama ended weeks of internal discontent with his leadership by announcing Wednesday that he would resign, a swift fall from grace for a politician who just eight months ago led his endemic opposition party to a historic victory. His collapse in approval ratings was prompted largely by his failure to deliver on a campaign promise to move a major U.S. military base off Okinawa's main island. The move was a centerpiece of Hatoyama's campaign for office last year, but its implementation would have required American consent to alter a painstakingly negotiated 2006 deal with the previous Japanese government before the base could be moved to another part of Okinawa.

The United States is on the verge of permanently damaging its alliance with Japan in a dispute over a military base in Okinawa. This island prefecture hosts three-quarters of all U.S. military facilities in Japan. Washington wants to build one more base there, in an ecologically sensitive area. The Okinawans vehemently oppose it, and tens of thousands gathered last month to protest the base. Tokyo is caught in the middle, and it looks as if Japan's prime minister has just caved in to the U.S. demands.

Okinawa. Site of the largest U.S. amphibious assault in the Pacific and the final major battle of World War II. Last territory to be handed back to Japanese control -- in 1972. And now, the first point of friction between the Obama administration and the 4-month-old government of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama. As host to nearly three-quarters of the U.S. troops stationed in Japan, Okinawa residents have long felt that they shoulder more than their fair share. So it's not surprising that the future of a U.S. Marine base has become a contentious issue.