Greg Girard
Japan’s southernmost prefecture, Okinawa, hosts a concentration of US military bases unlike anywhere outside the continental United States. More than half the 50,000 US troops stationed in Japan are based here. On the main island of Okinawa nearly 20% of the land is occupied by these bases. This large US military footprint, and the legacy of Okinawa’s history as a US-administered territory until 1972, means that the social and physical landscape of Okinawa is shaped by this relationship with the US military like few other places. In "Hotel Okinawa" (2017), Girard looks at this unique world "on base" and off, separate and yet conjoined, the result of decades of living in close proximity with the US military. Additionally, archival photographs, periodicals and other artefacts, some dating back to the US occupation, appear throughout the book, registering historical strands that are part of the complex fabric of Okinawa today.
Camp Humphreys
As of 2017 the U.S. Army called Humphreys "the largest power projection platform in the Pacific". When the final stage of base expansion is completed about 2020, Humphreys will have tripled in size to nearly 3,500 acres making it the largest U.S. overseas military base. To accommodate more families, up to twelve 12-story housing towers will be built. The population of Humphreys is expected to exceed 45,000. Up to 93% of the $10.7 billion expansion cost will be paid by South Korea under a 2014 Special Measures Agreement.