Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security

US returns land it's controlled since WWII to Japan amid local anger

But there's a catch.

As part of the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security between the two countries, the United States is granted the right to certain defense facilities. In exchange for the land, the Japanese government built several new helipads for the US military to use on its southernmost island of Okinawa.

Yet the handover has done little to assuage the ire of activists, who've campaigned for decades, to remove US bases altogether from Okinawa.