Nipponica

Okinawa resident Hiromasa Iha can still recall the screams of his classmates and teachers after a U.S. military jet crashed into his elementary school, killing 18 people, more than six decades ago.

As people globally commemorate the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, the 72-year-old retired businessman is among many residents who oppose the American troops stationed on their island ever since.

He joins dozens of islanders in near-daily protests against the U.S. military.

The United States has around 54,000 military personnel stationed in Japan, mostly on Okinawa, and a string of incidents over the years, including sexual assault cases, have angered residents.

"For us, these crimes and accidents are not someone else's business, and we feel a pressing unease that we can't predict when these things may happen again," he said, recalling the 1959 school incident.

"We want the bases to go."

I lived across the street from where this US jet crashed into an elementary school in the 1950s. The signs of the American occupation are everywhere and can be easy to tune out once you get used to them. But it is still something that impacts the daily lives of Okinawan people, in both big and small ways. They deserve to be able to live on their land without foreign powers in Washington and Tokyo using them as a pawn.