What's it like to host a US Military Base? Jon Mitchell on Okinawa

Today 31 US bases sit on a landmass smaller than Rhode Island, and Okinawans remain Japan's poorest people. Why is this? And what is the US military presence actually doing there?

In his new book Why Are We in Okinawa?: A History of Violence (Bloomsbury Academic, 2026), award-winning journalist Jon Mitchell answers these questions and many more, tracing how the islands were annexed by Japan in the 19th century, occupied by the US through WWII, handed back to Japan in 1972, and now menaced by China — with tensions between the military and Okinawan citizens still simmering today. He gives Okinawans a voice, and we should listen. Because you're going to be shocked by some of what you hear on today's podcast episode.

Jon Mitchell is a Welsh journalist based in Japan and a special correspondent for the Okinawa Times. He is the recipient of the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan's Freedom of the Press Lifetime Achievement Award, and an expert in the US Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). He's the author of several Japanese-language books about Okinawa, along with two English-language books: Why Are We in Okinawa? (2026) and Poisoning the Pacific: The US Military's Secret Dumping of Plutonium, Chemical Weapons, and Agent Orange (2020), which won a Society of Environmental Journalists' award. In 2023, he received Japan's most prestigious journalism prize, the Ishibashi Tanzan Memorial Journalism Award for public service.

Follow him on LinkedIn and visit his website  www.jonmitchellinjapan.com

The Books on Asia Podcast is co-produced with Plum Rain Press. 

Podcast host Amy Chavez is author of The Widow, the Priest, and the Octopus Hunter: Discovering a Lost Way of Life on a Secluded Japanese Island. and Amy's Guide to Best Behavior in Japan.

The Books on Asia website posts book reviews, podcast episodes and episode Show Notes. Subscribe to the BOA podcast from your favorite podcast service. Subscribe to the Books on Asia newsletter to receive news of the latest new book releases, reviews and podcast episodes.