As a lifelong resident of Yonaguni, a remote island that is Japan’s westernmost point, Himeyo Ukemasu remembers the distant days when life was measured by the bright stars, the tides and the ripening of mulberry trees. Today, the stars have been obscured by radar towers, and Ms. Ukemasu, a 70-year-old volunteer at a tourist site, has other concerns. Yonaguni, a Japanese military outpost about 70 miles east of Taiwan, sits along the so-called “first island chain,” a strategic arc of islands used to hem in Chinese naval expansion. As China fumes over Japan’s recent expression of support for Taiwan, Ms. Ukemasu and the island’s roughly 1,600 other residents have found themselves on the front lines of a rapidly escalating dispute. “I don’t want the people to be sacrificed,” she said. “I want to see the mulberries turn red and the lilies bloom. All I want is an ordinary life.”

Full report : Yonaguni, a tiny Japanese island near Taiwan, is getting soldiers, radar and missiles.