Sheila A. Smith
It has been fifty years since the United States relinquished control over Okinawa Prefecture. However, the islands remain home to dozens of U.S. bases, and with China’s escalating aggression in the region, Okinawa’s importance to the U.S. and Japanese militaries has only grown. The United States and Japan are increasingly concerned about tensions across the Taiwan Strait, and Okinawa’s proximity to Taiwan makes it a focal point in allied efforts to enhance deterrence.
Why is Okinawa important?
The Ryukyu Islands, which compose Okinawa Prefecture, are strategically located between Japan and the Asian mainland. Growing military tensions in Northeast Asia continue to make Okinawa of great strategic value to both Washington and Tokyo.
In particular, the United States and Japan are concerned about China’s increasingly provocative behavior toward Taiwan and worry that China could use force against the island. Okinawa’s southern-most inhabited island, Yonaguni, sits only 110 kilometers (68 miles) from Taiwan. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has raised questions about how the U.S.-Japan alliance would respond should a crisis erupt: Would bases in Japan be fully available to U.S. forces? What role would the Japan’s Self-Defense Forces play in such a regional contingency? U.S. and Japanese forces stationed in Okinawa would be important to an allied response to a Taiwan Strait crisis, but the alliance would also need to consider Japan’s own defense requirements in such a contingency.
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