Marine Accused of Murdering Japanese Woman on Okinawa, Raising Fears of Protests Against American Marine and Air Force Bases

The murder of a Japanese woman allegedly by an American marine in the militarily critical southernmost Japanese prefecture of Okinawa exposes American forces in Japan to renewed anti-American protests and fresh demands for their withdrawal.Japan’s conservative prime minister, Sanai Takaichi, anxious to head off massive demonstrations that have broken out on Okinawa for years after rapes and murders by American troops, denounced the “brutal and heinous” crime. The American ambassador, George Glass, promised “full cooperation,” and the marine corps said it was “actively cooperating” with the Japanese after Japan’s defense minister protested to the American commander in Japan, Lieutenant General Stephen Jost.The murder came as a terrific shock to the American military command in Japan, highly sensitive to anti-Americanism on Okinawa, where a majority of America’s 53,000 troops in Japan are stationed. About 20,000 airmen are at Kadena, America’s largest air base in Asia, which calls itself the “keystone of the Pacific,” and 18,000 marines make up the Third Marine Expeditionary Force, poised for missions across the Indo-Pacific and middle east.Japanese police arrested a 20-year-old marine, Darin Jacob Ballard, in the nightclub district of the Okinawan capital of Naha after the discovery of the body of 39-year-old Anna Yagi, strangled in a hotel room. Japan’s Kyodo News said he was also suspected of stealing her wallet and backpack but noted that he had denied all charges.The police said he had been seen entering the hotel, according to Kyodo. Under the American status of forces agreement with Japan, Mr. Ballard, from the marine air station at nearby Futenma, in a heavily populated area near Naha that the marines want to close, remains in Japanese custody since his alleged crimes were on Japanese soil.American troops on Okinawa over the years have been charged with numerous crimes going back to the American conquest of the island in an epic three-month battle from April to June 1945 in which more than 200,000 people, military and civilian, including 12,500 American marines, soldiers and sailors, were killed.Demonstrations swept the island in1995 after the kidnapping and rape of a 12-year-old girl by a sailor and two marines. The secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, visiting Okinawa in 2008, apologized for the rape of a 14-year-old girl and s Filipino maid. Four years later, two Americns sailors were charged with yet another rape, and two years ago an airman was sentenced to five years in prison for kidnapping and rape.Hoping to reduce the visibility and imprint of American forces, the Americans 15 years ago reached a deal with Japan to transfer 9,000 marines from Okinawa to bases in Guam, an American territory, and elsewhere, but so far only 100 marines have gone there. Americans and Japanese, eager for President Trump to stand by the Japanese-American alliance, have called for the marines to stay where they are as Communist China builds bases in the western Pacific..“The Marine Corps presence in Okinawa is critical to deterring China and North Korea,” two researchers at the Atlantic Council have written. The researchers, a marine officer, Caleb Eames, at the council’s Center for Strategy and Security, Amy Cowley, argue “this realignment undermines deterrence by pulling critical rapid-response forces from the First Island Chain, the first line of major islands running north to south along Asia.”China “continues its bid for dominance over the East and South China seas,” they write, while Chinese forces control “key islands and atolls, projecting influence over critical sea lanes,” and “the Chinese Communist Party has clearly stated its intention to reunify Taiwan with the mainland, with Chinese President Xi Jinping tying unification to China’s ‘national rejuvenation’ by 2049.”Specifically, they criticize the decision to close the marine air station at Futenma due to “past crimes committed by US troops and noise concerns.” Futenma, they say, is “superbly capable” and “safe” – an argument that will be hard to defend after the murder involving a marine from Futenma.

Marine Accused of Murdering Japanese Woman on Okinawa, Raising Fears of Protests Against American Marine and Air Force Bases

Marine Accused of Murdering Japanese Woman on Okinawa, Raising Fears of Protests Against American Marine and Air Force Bases

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