TOKYO, June 12 (Xinhua) -- Former governor of Okinawa Masahide Ota, who fought doggedly to protect the rights of Okinawans on the island that were threatened by the presence of the U.S. military, died in Naha on Monday, according to his office.

His office said that he died of pneumonia and respiratory complications. Ota would have turned 92 years old on Monday.

Ota served two terms as Okinawa's governor, and fought for the Okinawan side at the time who was unwilling to allow the U.S. military to keep using private land at multiple locations on the island for U.S. military purposes.

The ex-governor, continually at odds with the central government, was involved in a legal battle at the time with the later that went to the Supreme Court.

Ota, a native of Okinawa Prefecture, was also in office when the island erupted in fierce protests following the rape of a local 12-year-old school girl by three U.S. servicemen in 1995.

A former professor at the University of the Ryukyus, Ota also stood opposed to the central government's plans to relocate the controversial U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma to a coastal part of the island.

As a witness to the atrocities in the Battle of Okinawa, Ota was known to have worked on monuments to memorialize those who died, including those from the U.S. side.