TOKYO |
The U.S. Marines' Futenma air base (click here) on Okinawa island will be returned to Japan as early as 2022 if a planned relocation within the island is carried out.
By unveiling the deal, which includes time frames for the return of all or part of five other U.S. military facilities on the southern Japanese island, Japan and the United States aim to send a message that their alliance is on a solid footing.
"With the security environment in the Asia-Pacific region getting tougher, I'm glad that we were able to show that the bond of trust in the Japan-U.S. alliance is not wavering at all," Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told reporters.
Japan's ties with the United States were strained after then-Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama in 2009 sought to keep a campaign promise to move the Futenma base off the island....
World War II was a long time ago and the world is in a different era. It is time to return complete sovereignty to our ally. It is time the war was over.
A German World War II prisoner, released by the Soviet Union, is reunited with his daughter. The child had not seen her father since she was one-year-old.
