Okinawa

Okinawa on Sunday marks the 50th anniversary of its return to Japan on May 15, 1972, which ended 27 years of U.S. rule after one of the bloodiest battles of World War II was fought on the southern Japanese island.

A powerful typhoon, the second in a week, was barreling toward the Okinawa islands in southern Japan on Saturday, prompting warnings about torrential rainfall and fierce wind gusts

Officials on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa say dozens of U.S. Marines have been infected with the coronavirus at two bases on the island in what is feared to be a massive outbreak

A fire has spread among structures at Shuri Castle on Japan’s southern island of Okinawa, nearly destroying the UNESCO World Heritage site. Firefighters were still battling the blaze a few hours after the fire started early Thursday, and nearby residents were evacuated to safer areas, Okinawa police spokesman Ryo Kochi said. The fire in Naha, the prefectural capital of Okinawa,...

To the mothers, the 13-year-old boy appeared largely unsupervised as he roamed among the clusters of townhomes on the U.S. Air Force base in Japan. It would have been unremarkable — the neighborhood was full of kids — except that young girls were starting to report the boy had led them from play and molested them. “We were like, ‘How...

For decades, justice has been elusive on American bases when the children of service members sexually assaulted each other. Help for victims and accountability for offenders was rare in the nearly 700 reports over a decade that an AP investigation documented. A law passed last August required reforms across the Pentagon. The school system it runs for service members’ kids...

The people of Okinawa voted Sunday on a plan for a U.S. military base relocation in a referendum that will send a message on how they feel about housing American troops in Japan, who many see as a burden on the group of tiny southwestern islands. The referendum is technically not binding but interest is high for testing the public...

The U.S. military has identified five Marines who were declared dead after their refueling plane collided with a fighter jet last week off Japan’s southern coast. Search and recovery operations have ended after finding only one survivor, who was aboard the fighter jet. The five crew members identified Wednesday were on a KC-130 Hercules refueling aircraft that collided with an...

The U.S. military said Tuesday that five missing crew members have been declared dead after their refueling plane collided with a fighter jet last week off Japan’s southern coast, and that search and recovery operations have been halted. The five were on a KC-130 Hercules refueling aircraft that collided last Thursday with an F/A-18 Hornet during regular training. The warplanes...

The U.S. Marine Corps said in a statement released Friday that Capt. Jahmar F. Resilard of Miramar died in the Thursday crash.

A U.S. fighter jet dumped two fuel tanks into a lake in northern Japan on Tuesday, creating a fuel slick, as about 10 fishermen were catching clams in boats below, officials said. No one was injured. The U.S. Air Force said in a statement that an F-16 jet assigned to Misawa Air Base dumped the external fuel tanks after developing...

An oil tanker that caught fire after colliding with a freighter off China’s east coast is at risk of exploding and sinking, Chinese state media reported Monday, as authorities from three countries struggled to find its 32 missing crew members and contain oil spewing from the blazing wreck. State broadcaster China Central Television, citing Chinese officials, said none of the...

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A U.S. Marine Corps pilot who ejected from a F/A-18 jet near Japan has been recovered and pronounced dead, officials said Thursday.

A U.S. Marine Corps fighter jet suffered a mishap Wednesday, prompting its pilot to eject, according to a military news release. Search-and-rescue teams are looking for the pilot, who ejected southeast of Japan’s Shikoku island, the military said. The F/A-18 was part of the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing based in Okinawa, Japan and was flying a regularly scheduled training mission....