By Chen Jingjing

A recent robbery and murder case committed by a US service member in Naha City, Okinawa (Ryukyu), has drawn intense public attention. Lance Corporal Devin Jacob Ballard, a US Marine stationed at Futenma Air Station in Okinawa, was arrested on suspicion of murdering a 39-year-old local woman. This heinous criminal case is by no means an isolated public security incident. On the surface, it appears to be a typical manifestation of the base issue; in essence, it is an external expression of the structural violence long inflicted upon Okinawa by Japan and the US.

Okinawa has long borne a heavy burden from US forces stationed there, and the frequent crimes committed by US service members remain a nightmare for local residents. Since 1972, when the US and Japan secretly transferred administrative control over the Ryukyu Islands, US military bases on the Japanese mainland have steadily decreased, while the military burden has increasingly shifted to Okinawa. With an area equivalent to merely 0.6 percent of Japan's total land area, Okinawa hosts 70.3 percent of US military facilities in Japan. The highly concentrated military bases pose endless hazards to Okinawa and severely constrain local development.

In particular, criminal cases committed by US military personnel in Okinawa have increased markedly in recent years, rising from around 40 in 2020 to 101 in 2025, with heinous crimes like rape and violent assaults being common. Over the years, protests and rights protection efforts by Okinawan residents and the local government have never ceased, yet Japan and the US have consistently prioritized alliance interests, turning a blind eye to local demands. This has led to rampant US military privileges and extremely low costs for committing crimes, trapping heinous incidents in a vicious cycle of "occurrence, protest, subsidence, and recurrence."

Facing persistent protests against military bases, Japan and the US have formed a solid alliance of interests, employing carrot-and-stick tactics to suppress the demands of Okinawan residents. Japan has long implemented dual means of compensatory appeasement and high-handed suppression, driving Okinawa into a distorted "compensation economy" model through economic input such as base subsidies and special revitalization funds, which in turn spawned "base politics" and "compensation politics." This institutionalized interest-binding continuously distorts the local political ecosystem and weakens the initiative of anti-base struggles.

Since the end of WWII, both the US and Japan have pursued a military-first principle in Okinawa, though their considerations differ. The US approaches it primarily from a military standpoint to preserve the flexibility and operational effectiveness of its bases; Japan views it chiefly from a national strategy perspective, seeing Okinawa as vital to defending its mainland while minimizing the negative impact of the security framework on the main islands to stabilize the US-Japan alliance. Consequently, Okinawa is forced to bear the heavy burden of protecting the Japanese mainland. With the US-Japan security framework overriding the Japanese Constitution, military policy taking precedence over democratic principles, and mainland interests outweighing the well-being of Okinawan residents, this set of unequal rules forms the structural violence directed at Okinawa. 

The US-Japan alliance is a typical system of interdependence, in which Okinawa serves merely as a tool. The US obtains military bases free from political constraints, and Japan enjoys peace and prosperity under US protection, while Okinawa is forced to pay the price for the military presence, never gaining legitimate rights and interests commensurate with its sacrifices. The distorted base-dependent economy has deteriorated the island's political ecology, serving as a major instrument for Japan and the US to control local residents and constrain the local government. This has allowed the structure of violence to gradually penetrate all aspects of Okinawa, compelling the entire island to become a military base. Such an entrenched structure of violence has sparked persistent resistance in Okinawa.

This heinous crime by a US service member once again demonstrates that Okinawa remains deeply mired in structural violence. While the ongoing resistance of Okinawan residents appears to be opposition to US military atrocities and base burdens, viewed through the lens of structural violence, it challenges not only Japan's institutionalized discrimination against Okinawa, but also touches upon Japan's status as a "vassal state" and the regional order imposed by the US. As long as the military-first principle applied to Okinawa by Japan and the US remains unchanged and structural oppression continues, the struggle in Okinawa will never cease.

(The author is an associate research fellow at the Institute of Japanese Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences)

Editor's Note: Originally published on huanqiu.com, this article is translated from Chinese into English and edited by the China Military Online. The information and opinions in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of eng.chinamil.com.cn.