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
In 2004, an agreement was reached between the United States and South Korean governments to move all U.S. forces to garrisons south of the Han River and relocate the United States Forces Korea and United Nations Command Headquarters to Camp Humphreys. Those movements were expected to be completed by 2016 to transform Camp Humphreys into the largest U.S. Army garrison in Asia, but as of 2018 this has not yet happened. Under that plan, the 28,500 U.S. troop presence in South Korea will be consolidated by 2016 and United States Forces Korea will move from Yongsan Garrison in Seoul to Camp Humphreys. Camp Humphreys is 40 miles south of the former base in Seoul and about 60 miles from the Demilitarized Zone that divides North and South Korea. That puts the base about twice as far from North Korea as its predecessor, one of the main reasons for the move.