Okinawa, once the independent Ryukyu kingdom, has been part of Japan since the 1870s and after World War II was administered by the US military until 1972 when the islands reverted to Japanese control. But the US never really left and still has roughly half of its 50,000 troops and its greatest concentration of military bases on just 0.6 percent of Japanese territory.

Now, after 20 years of negotiations, the US is returning a large swath of land in Okinawa island's northern wilderness -- eager for a positive story after a year marred by US military sexual violence, murder and embarrassing drunk driving incidents. Any celebratory air, however, will be tempered by clouds of resistance and regret as Okinawans fight to prevent more land and sea from being militarized in exchange for land that was originally theirs.