The 1996 Futenma response resulted in billions in new base housing construction.

Evidence

While little has happened in terms of closing Futenma and moving marines off Okinawa, what has happened under the 1996 agreement is a lot of new base construction. Specifically, Japan had already agreed to fund 2 billion in new housing as part of a plan to replace 1,473 homes at Kadena Air Base and 1,777 units at Camp Foster. (On top of this, U.S. taxpayers funded a 95 million project to renovate 560 multifamily homes and expand parking to a very high 2.5 spaces per unit at Kadena.) “So what started out as a response to a rape ended up being a major housing construction program, providing new homes at no cost” to the United States, notes Mark Gillem. — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 868

Categorization

Category: Contrarian or Surprising Claims

• SEED: The irony — a rape apology morphing into a US housing windfall financed by Japan — is a strong narrative hook for an op-ed or essay.

Related

• Agreements to close bases instead funded billions in new U.S. housing. (similarity 0.91)
• The Futenma response agreement produced billions in new US housing funded by Japan. (similarity 0.87)
• The promised Futenma closure was conditioned on building another Okinawa base (similarity 0.81)