The transfer of US Marine Corps troops from Okinawa to Guam has begun, under an agreement reached more than a decade ago as part of efforts to reduce the base-hosting burden on local communities in Japan’s southern island prefecture, the Japanese Defense Ministry said Saturday, Report informs via Kyodo News.
Some 100 logistics personnel will be relocated to Guam through 2025, as the first of the over 4,000 members of the Corps to be transferred.
With the United States planning to move around 5,000 more Marines from Okinawa to locations such as Hawaii, the number stationed in the island prefecture is eventually expected to drop to around 10,000.
“A major milestone has been reached since the relocation of the US Marines in Okinawa to Guam was stipulated in the US-Japan Roadmap for Realignment Implementation in May 2006,” the Japanese Defense Ministry said in a statement.
The US military, meanwhile, said the US and Japanese governments will “continue to work together to strengthen deterrence and response capabilities of the US-Japan alliance, while mitigating the impact on local communities, including those in Okinawa.”
Due to the legacy of the US occupation after World War II and Okinawa’s strategic importance, owing to its relative proximity to China and the Korean Peninsula, Okinawa has hosted the bulk of US military facilities in Japan and its residents have for decades bristled at crime and pollution linked to the military presence.
Under the Japan-US forces realignment road map agreed in 2006, the transfer of the Marines to Guam was interconnected with the centerpiece plan to move the US Marine Corps’ Futenma Air Station from the residential district of Ginowan to the less densely populated Henoko coastal area in Nago within Okinawa.
But Japan and the United States agreed in 2012 to “delink” the Futenma relocation plan with the Guam transfer plan amid slow progress on the Futenma project, with locals calling for the base to be moved out of Okinawa.
The 4,000 service members set to move to Guam will mainly come from the 3rd Marine Expeditionary Brigade at Camp Courtney, the 4th Marine Regiment at Camp Schwab and the Combat Logistics Battalion 4 at Camp Foster, according to the Japanese ministry.
The timing for the relocation of the second batch of the personnel remains unclear, with a ministry official saying, “We cannot tell when because the Marine Corps has not made a decision on its plan.”
The cost of the transfer to Guam is estimated at around $8.6 billion, the ministry said.
The Japanese government will shoulder up to $2.8 billion to support infrastructure projects on Marine Corps Base Camp Blaz, the relocation site for the Marines from Okinawa, and other US military facilities, according to the US forces.
Implementation of the plan to relocate the Marines to Guam will likely be welcomed by local residents. But it remains uncertain to what extent they will feel a reduction in their burden, given the central government’s efforts to beef up Japan’s defense posture amid China’s growing military assertiveness in the region.
