Marine Corps Gazette – For U.S. military personnel in receipt of orders to an overseas base, getting to know the culture, traditions and customs, and basic survival language skills are some of the obvious and fun things to do. For those en route to bases on Okinawa, Japan, becoming familiar with the sensitivities and politics of local nationals toward those bases is becoming an increasingly important ingredient in the cocktail of do’s and don’ts. Knowing how Okinawans view U.S. military bases (the Uchinachu perspective), and the U.S.-Japan Security Alliance they support, is critical to understanding public reaction and attitudes toward base issues and enables military personnel to become better neighbors.

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