Demands Rise for Marines To Leave Okinawa After Murder, Rape of Local Woman

Okinawa, Japan’s southernmost prefecture, is a front-line bastion of American military power, just as it was in 1945 when the Okinawan people were caught in the meat grinder of the bloodiest, longest battle of World War II in the Pacific.Ever since, American forces have reigned supreme over some of the most important bases on the planet on Okinawa’s main island. Regularly, the 38,000 American troops on the island, the biggest concentration of American military power anywhere outside America, are caught in a barrage not of hostile fire but of demands for them to go somewhere else.Now the protests are reaching a crescendo in the aftermath of the strangling of a 39-year-old woman in a hotel in the prefectural capital of Naha. A 20-year-old marinelance corporal, Devin Jacob Ballard, said to have been seen leaving the hotel with the woman’s wallet and backpack, is being held by Japanese police, and the American command is panicked by a crime that could seriously undermine the sensitiveMr. Ballard denies having killed the woman, discovered by a hotel worker with a telephone cord wrapped around her neck. Could she have have strangled herself or been killed by another “guest” in her room after Mr. Ballard had left? Protesters on the streets of Naha and outside the huge American marine and air bases, are not waiting for the outcome of the investigation. Nor is the top gun of America’s 18,000 marines on the island, Lieutenant General Benjamin Watson.As commander of the Third Marine Expeditionary Force, the cutting-edge of America’s defense against China in the Indo-Pacific, he promptly imposed a 48-hour halt to all they were doing, on or off duty, for “reflection.”For two days their duties were suspended, and they could not leave bases on “Liberty” while listening to lectures about the dos and don’ts of good and bad behavior. As of now, American troops on the islands are into what General Watson called a 30-day “period of reflection” in which they are back on regular schedules but cannot go out freely on passes.That edict comes as a shock to troops accustomed in off hours to exploring the gaudy entertainment and shopping districts surrounding the bases. No more late-night carousing and nights with bar hostesses. They must be back in their barracks by midnight and stay cooped-up until 5 a.m.General Watson embellished on his order with language that showed the urgency of his mission to stop the kinds of incidents that have plagued the island ever since the marines, and army soldiers too, defeated the Japanese in three months of some of the toughest ground fighting of World War II.By the time the Americans claimed victory over Okinawa in June 1945, the death toll had reached 200,656, at least 94,000 of them local civilians plus 28,228 Japanese soldiers from Okinawa and another 65,228 from “mainland” Japan, which had acquired Okinawa, the former Ryukyu kingdom, in the late 19th century. The American death toll came to 12,520, nearly 8,000 ground troops and 5,000 sailors, most of the latter killed in kamikaze attacks by Japanese zeroes crashing onto warships bombarding the island. Among the dead: the American commander, Lieutenant General Simon Bolivar Buckner Jr., and famed war correspondent Ernie Pyle.General Watson’s words, quoted by the newspaper Military Times, betrayed the frustrations of imposing totally tight discipline on the American troops on the island, notably marines trained for the toughest combat. American forces at Okinawa, including Kadena, America’s biggest Asian air base, occupy about 0.6 percent of Japanese territory but comprise 70 percent of America’s 54,000 troops in Japan, more than in any other country with which Washington has an alliance.From Okinawa, marines have deployed on missions across Asia to the middle east, in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan and also providing humanitarian aid after typhoons and tsunamis. An entire marine division was posted from Okinawa to Vietnam during the Vietnam War, and bombers flew from Okinawa for air strikes against North Vietnam.Somehow it’s the marines, more than members of the air force or a small army unit on the island, that are held largely to blame for most incidents. There’s an agreement with Japan for several thousand of them to go elsewhere, to Guam, Australia or Hawaii, but only a handful of them have been transferred. In the aftermath of the latest incident, the next step may be to speed up the departure of many more.Meanwhile, General Watson means to keep them in line. “Be accountable for your actions; do the right thing, especially when no one is looking; and always be guided by our core values that govern our conduct,” he stated. “We live, work, and socialize alongside the people of Okinawa; their home is our home. Every interaction with our neighbors either builds or undermines the trust that is essential to our team.”“Familiar Vows,” headlined Asahi Shimbun, one of Japan’s biggest selling national Dailies. The Japanese have been hearing such words for years after periodic rapes, robberies — and occasional murders.Japan’s right-leaning prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, dedicated to working closely with the Americans while strengthening Japan’s armed forces, told Okinawa’s nearly elected governor, Genta Koja, that she felt “strong anger” over the latest “robbery murder “in which an American marine “was arrested as a suspect.”Like the Americans, she agreed on the need for “effective and fundamental measures” to keep such crimes from happening again. But so what? “Although the Takaichi administration has responded swiftly,” said Asahi, “the government has not suggested any new ways that can finally end the long-standing problem in Okinawa Prefecture.”To long-time American veterans of the armed forces in Okinawa, the sense of history repeating itself itself is all too familiar. “We have seen it all before,” said an army veteran who served in Okinawa for two years. “Outrage is expressed, curfews are imposed, efforts to educate the troops are implemented — but the crimes still happen.” It was time “to acknowledge that, ultimately, none of this really works,” he said.. “Even if a perpetrator is told, ‘Do not do such things,’ I doubt it will have much effect, especially on the mind of someone potentially capable of killing or raping another person.”So what to do? “What might work is serious psychological pre-screening and evaluation of all military personnel sent overseas in an effort to weed out those who might fit such a profile,” he suggest, “but it’s hard to see that happening.”As protesters massed in front of the foreign ministry at Tokyo and outside bases carrying signs in English saying, “Americans Out,” just as they’ve done for years after similar protests, the Okinawa Prefectural Assembly adopted a resolution proclaiming, “We are seeing the limitations of the U.S. military’s training program and ability to maintain discipline, and have to say that it is not functioning as an organization.”According to Japan’s Kyodo News, 45 voted for the resolution. Two were against it, calling for much stronger wording.

Demands Rise for Marines To Leave Okinawa After Murder, Rape of Local Woman

Demands Rise for Marines To Leave Okinawa After Murder, Rape of Local Woman

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