Massive rally (against US-Army) planned in Okinawa to protest woman's murder

NAHA —
A massive rally is expected to be held in Okinawa to protest the latest crime by a U.S. base worker, organizers say, with the incident stoking the underlying resentment about the heavy U.S. military presence in the island prefecture.

The organizing group—including local political parties, businesses and civic groups opposed to the relocation of the U.S. Marine Corps’ Air Station Futenma within the prefecture—hope to make their rally, likely held next month, comparable to the one following the 1995 rape of a 12-year-old schoolgirl in Okinawa by three U.S. servicemen.

Around 85,000 people were mobilized in 1995 to protest the rape of the girl, which triggered a wave of public outrage and was instrumental in pushing the governments of Japan and the United States to strike a deal in 1996 on the return of the Futenma site to Japanese control.
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Misconduct by U.S. personnel has been a constant source of frustration and anger among local residents over the years.
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In the wake of Thursday’s arrest of Kenneth Franklin Shinzato, a 32-year-old former Marine, for allegedly dumping the body of the 20-year-old Okinawa woman, around 2,000 people protested Sunday in front of a Marine base in central Okinawa and called for the removal of U.S. bases on the island prefecture.

[link to www.japantoday.com]