sentences:  The people of Okinawa also placed a full-page ad in "The New York Times" decrying the rape and other aspects of the U.S. bases in Okinawa.In 1996, the United States and Japan signed a bilateral agreement to reduce the amount of land on Okinawa covered by U.S. bases by 21 percent—the U.S. military had previously occupied 19 percent of the island.U.S.