Okinawa Japan

Seicoh Gushken plucks a jagged chunk of metal from the newly disturbed earth of an all-but-forgotten hillside. Turning the rusty object over in nicotine-stained fingers, he identifies it as shrapnel, most likely from a hand grenade. "This kind of thing can be found all around," he said, tossing it aside. "Military guys still go exploring in the caves and find whole skeletons and dog tags." Gushken, an Okinawan painter and teacher, is standing at the base of Sugar Loaf Hill, scene of one of the bloodiest battles of World War II in the Pacific.

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.

A delegation of women from Okinawa, the scene of one of the bloodiest battles of World War II, are in Southern California to wage a longshot campaign for the dismantling of 42 U.S. military bases they say have disturbed life on their island for more than half a century. "Fifty-three years is long enough. We have really suffered," said Suzuyo Takazato, a Naha City assemblywoman, who heads the 13-member Okinawa Women's Peace Caravan. "The U.S.

A candidate who supports a plan for a new base for thousands of U.S. troops has won a closely watched gubernatorial election in Okinawa, electoral officials announced. Hirokazu Nakaima, 67, a bureaucrat with support from Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's ruling bloc, narrowly beat Keiko Itokazu, said local election board official Maiko Tashiro. Itokazu opposed Tokyo's plan to relocate a U.S. Marine Corps airstrip to another site on the island. There are about 50,000 U.S. troops in Japan.

It's less than a week until the leaders of the world's most powerful nations and their entourages descend on the tiny island of Okinawa for their annual summit. Most hotels are already fully booked for the gathering of the Group of 8. Everywhere around this island ringed by azure seas hang the participants' national flags. Even local sake bottles sport the leaders' caricatures. So why, despite all the hoopla, are so many merchants and hotel operators feeling so glum?

This tiny hamlet of sugar cane farmers, nestled quietly in a thick forest in the north of Okinawa, is waging a symbolic battle that may signal a new era in the military alliance binding the United States and Japan. The U.S. Marine Corps wants to build a landing pad about a mile away to train Marines in the tactical use of Harrier jets, a combat aircraft that can take off and land vertically.

The Japanese government is using Okinawa to protect the peace and prosperity of mainland Japan while ignoring the hardships that Okinawans have suffered from 50 years of a heavy U.S. military presence, the province's embattled leader charged Wednesday. "I am afraid they don't care," Gov. Masahide Ota of Okinawa said bitterly. In an hourlong, exclusive interview conducted on the anniversary of the rape of a 12-year-old Okinawan schoolgirl involving three U.S.

Exactly 50 years ago, my father, his buddy Thomas Perry Rutherford and several thousand other Marines landed on Okinawa to open what would become the final battle of World War II. Like some kind of fugitive from the law of averages, my dad survived that carnage unscratched. I arrived a couple of years later and enjoyed something close to an idyllic boyhood--lots of baseball, excellent credit with the Good Humor man. So my adolescent angst found another outlet.

A candidate who supports a plan for a new base for thousands of U.S. troops has won a closely watched gubernatorial election in Okinawa, electoral officials announced. Hirokazu Nakaima, 67, a bureaucrat with support from Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's ruling bloc, narrowly beat Keiko Itokazu, said local election board official Maiko Tashiro. Itokazu opposed Tokyo's plan to relocate a U.S. Marine Corps airstrip to another site on the island. There are about 50,000 U.S. troops in Japan.

Japan and the United States agreed today to marshal their combined technological powers to build the world's first floating heliport in a proposal that represents one of the largest reversions of land by U.S. military forces on the southern island of Okinawa. One year after three U.S.

In a meeting at his offices, Okinawa Gov. Keiichi Inamine pleaded with Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld to remove some of the 28,000 U.S. forces stationed on the Japanese island and ease the environmental impact of military facilities. Inamine told Rumsfeld that Okinawans bear too much of Japan's burden as hosts and that the U.S. military presence has become an economic and social impediment.

She walks a bit slower, and her hearing isn't what it used to be. But Fumi Chinen, just a few months shy of her 100th birthday, hasn't given much thought to retirement. "I would hate just sitting around the house," Chinen said during a recent afternoon break from tending her family's small clothing shop in the public market. "I think I'd go senile."

It's less than a week until the leaders of the world's most powerful nations and their entourages descend on the tiny island of Okinawa for their annual summit. Most hotels are already fully booked for the gathering of the Group of 8. Everywhere around this island ringed by azure seas hang the participants' national flags. Even local sake bottles sport the leaders' caricatures. So why, despite all the hoopla, are so many merchants and hotel operators feeling so glum?

A delegation of women from Okinawa, the scene of one of the bloodiest battles of World War II, are in Southern California to wage a longshot campaign for the dismantling of 42 U.S. military bases they say have disturbed life on their island for more than half a century. "Fifty-three years is long enough. We have really suffered," said Suzuyo Takazato, a Naha City assemblywoman, who heads the 13-member Okinawa Women's Peace Caravan. "The U.S.

Stirring up new ill will with authorities in Okinawa, the U.S. military acknowledged with regret that its jets mistakenly fired 1,520 bullets containing depleted uranium during shooting practice near the island, then waited a year before notifying Japan. U.S. officials said the bullets posed no environmental or health threat. It wasn't clear why they waited until Jan. 16 to tell Japan about the gunfire at a firing range on an uninhabited coral island in late 1995 and early 1996.

Japan and the United States agreed today to marshal their combined technological powers to build the world's first floating heliport in a proposal that represents one of the largest reversions of land by U.S. military forces on the southern island of Okinawa. One year after three U.S.

The United States signaled Friday that it would be willing to move some of the about 29,000 U.S. troops now stationed on Okinawa to other parts of Japan if it would help ease tensions on the island after last month's rape of a schoolgirl, allegedly by U.S. servicemen. The possible troop shift was raised by Joseph S. Nye Jr., assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs, in advance of a visit to Japan next week by Defense Secretary William J.

Stirring up new ill will with authorities in Okinawa, the U.S. military acknowledged with regret that its jets mistakenly fired 1,520 bullets containing depleted uranium during shooting practice near the island, then waited a year before notifying Japan. U.S. officials said the bullets posed no environmental or health threat. It wasn't clear why they waited until Jan. 16 to tell Japan about the gunfire at a firing range on an uninhabited coral island in late 1995 and early 1996.

The Japanese government is using Okinawa to protect the peace and prosperity of mainland Japan while ignoring the hardships that Okinawans have suffered from 50 years of a heavy U.S. military presence, the province's embattled leader charged Wednesday. "I am afraid they don't care," Gov. Masahide Ota of Okinawa said bitterly. In an hourlong, exclusive interview conducted on the anniversary of the rape of a 12-year-old Okinawan schoolgirl involving three U.S.

Okinawa Gov. Masahide Ota, in a high-profile meeting today with Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama, pressed for a sharp reduction of the U.S. military presence on his southern island. During a morning session, Ota reiterated his refusal to sign documents that would force unwilling landowners to renew leases on key parcels of land needed for the U.S. bases on Okinawa. The meeting, which marks an intensification of political maneuvering over the issue of U.S. bases.