Base Towns: Local Contestation of the U.S. Military in Korea and Japan

Most of the United States’ hundreds of overseas military bases face routine low-level opposition in local communities but only occasionally draw major mass protests. Kim studies 20 bases in South Korea and Japan to find out why these occasional large outbreaks occur. Activists are often motivated by anti­militarism, anti-Americanism, or, in Okinawa, a desire to protect an indigenous identity. But the broader public in each country, generally pro-American, gets angry only when familiar patterns are disrupted by a base’s expansion or other shift in its footprint, or a change in its activity. Protests get more serious when local government elites sign on, usually because they see a chance to advance their authority against or extract benefits from the central government. Kim’s skillful case studies do a good job of explaining patterns of protest at such key installations as the Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Okinawa, the U.S. Army base at Camp Humphreys in South Korea, and the U.S. Navy base in Yokosuka, Japan—and of highlighting dynamics that might interfere with future changes in the American force posture in Asia.