Tokyo (AFP) – Around 100 Japanese protesters enraged by a woman’s alleged murder at the hands of a US Marine rallied outside the US embassy in Tokyo on Tuesday to protest “American soldiers’ violence.” Crimes including rapes, assaults, hit-and-run, and drunk-driving accidents by US military personnel have long triggered protests on the southern island of Okinawa, which bears a disproportionate burden of hosting about 70 percent of US military facilities in Japan.
Police said Sunday they had arrested a 20-year-old US Marine stationed on Okinawa on suspicion of killing a 39-year-old woman at a hotel in the city of Naha and stealing her wallet. The case has sparked public outrage, with Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi dubbing the killing a “heinous crime.”
Protest organiser Sorane Sakihama, a 24-year-old Okinawa native, told the crowd at Tuesday’s rally: “With a far higher proportion of bases in Okinawa than in any other part of Japan, locals are exposed to the highest risk of harm at the hands of US soldiers in the country. The thought that we must raise our children in such circumstances feels utterly unjust,” she said. “It fills me with nothing but anger and sadness.”
Protesters held placards reading “no more American soldiers’ violence” and “Okinawa is not your amusement park!” and chanted: “We don’t need US bases in Okinawa.” Under a 1960 agreement, Japan lacks primary jurisdiction over crimes committed by US military personnel while on duty. Even if crimes are committed while off-duty, as long as a suspect remains on base, they will not be handed over to Japan until they are indicted.
In the latest case, Kyodo News reported that a police officer detained the suspect as he walked alone on a street in Naha’s entertainment district.
– ‘Keeping a close eye’ –
Protester Naoko Fujihata, 67, long frustrated by what she sees as Tokyo’s reluctance to come out strongly against crimes committed by US military personnel, said she wanted the foreign troops to leave. Fujihata told AFP she would be “keeping a close eye” on Okinawa’s new governor, Genta Koja, whose predecessor had pushed for a major US base to be moved off the island.
Koja, 42, has accepted a government plan to keep the US Marine Corps’ Futenma air base on Okinawa’s main island, but to move it to a less populated area. Kyodo and other local media reported that Koja plans to discuss reducing the burden of US bases in Okinawa with Takaichi when they meet on Wednesday.
Since the Marine’s arrest, Takaichi has urged US authorities to ensure “full cooperation with the investigation” and “strict discipline among US military personnel.” Crimes committed by US personnel have been a thorn in relations between the close security allies. Last year, a Japanese court sentenced a US Marine to seven years in prison for choking and attempting to rape a woman. In 2017, a US military base worker was sentenced to life in prison for the rape and murder of a woman in Okinawa.
© 2024 AFP
