Being the U.S. Army living in Japan

You might want to go to college first and do the ROTC route. Upon graduating from college you will be commissioned a 2nd Lt. If you enlist now, you will be enlisted and it may be a bit harder to get into Officers Candidate School.

I currently live and work in Okinawa, and have been doing so for some years now. I happen to live in the area of town where there is the most military concentration.

In my opinion, most of the locals are outwardly tolerant of the military here (some are very happy to have individuals as friends but may disagree fundamentally with why their friends are here in the first place). Privately however I suspect it's a very different matter. It's rare that anyone will harass you just simply for being non-Japanese (which in Oki generally means military).

Unfortunately, whenever a member of the military does something stupid or comits an alledged crime, it's front page, high profile news for weeks, justified or not. This tends to whip up strong anti-base sentiment and there will sometimes be a protest march or rally.

Generally, as uncomfortable as these protests are, they are more directed at the government and mangagement level rather than at specific people in general. And most of the participants in such protests are of the 'will complain about anything' persuasion (or even rent-a-crowd protesters from mainland Japan), and not actually the people in the immeadiate community who may have been directly affected.

It's an extreamly complex situation here in Oki, one that can change from day to day and from person to person. However, never have I felt unsafe here, and rarely have I felt unwelcome. It's an odd symbiotic relationship at times, one that must be recognised for what it is and delt with sensitively.

Japan is a terrific place to live and I would recommend you to come here :)