Today in the Post Cold War Era, the explanations of U. S. government and officials regarding the roles and missions of U. S. military bases and Marine Corps stationed in Okinawa are very confused. Even some highranking Marine Corps officials have raised the possibility of moving the Okinawa Marine Corps to Australia.
The aim of this paper is to explore the future possibility to change the strategic status of the U. S. military bases in Okinawa through analyzing a history of the roles and missions of those military bases and Marine Corps stationed there.
In the Cold War Era, U. S. Military Strategy gave to the U. S. forward deployment forces in the Asia-Pacific region three overall roles and missions: (1) to prevent the Soviet Pacific fleet Moving out to the Pacific Ocean in the all out war between U. S. and Soviet, (2) to prevent and deter possible intervention of Soviet or China to the Asian regional conflicts, (3) to provide forward bases for U. S. intervention in the case of an Asian regional conflict. Regarding (1), U. S. Defense Ministry's report issued on April 1989 described, for the first time, that the roles and missions of Okinawa Marine Corps are controlling the three straits —Tsushima, Tsugaru, Sohya— through which the Soviet Pacific Fleet must move out the Pacific Ocean and capturing the Kuril Islands include Chishima which is into necessary to attack Soviet's military facilities or sea lines of communication.
Now the Cold War is over, U. S. Military Strategy has changed from a strategy of containing the Soviet Union to a Strategy of Regional Defense for defending U. S. national interests. At the same time, U. S. is beginning to regard the emerging China as the biggest rival or the world's largest non-status quo power. In that context, U. S. is paying attention to the connecting line from Korea peninsula, Kyushu, Okinawa, Taiwan, Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore to Indonesia, as a strategically important line which could control the Chinese Fleet to go out the Pacific Ocean. This could be the main reason that U. S. Secretary Defense William S. Cohen emphasized, ‘even after succeeding in peaceful reunification of the Korea Peninsula, our force structure in the East Asia will not change.’
In the Cold War Era, Japan has accepted the permanent stationing of U. S. forces in Japan especially in Okinawa as a international public assets which is necessary to defend the free world from international Communist revolution activities. But the Cold War is over, and the U. S. basic strategy is changing from defending the free world to defending U. S. interests. Okinawa is part of this new trend.

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