U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel expressed regret on Saturday for the handling of two cases of sexual assaults allegedly committed by American military personnel on Okinawa, which have again stoked resentment of the heavy U.S. troop presence on the strategic island in Japan's far southwest.
The issue broke out late last month, triggering an uproar over reports that two American service members had been charged with sexual assaults months earlier.
Both cases were first reported in local media in late June. In one arrest made in March, a member of the U.S. Air Force was charged with the kidnapping and sexual assault of a teenager, and while in May a U.S. Marine was arrested on charges of attempted rape resulting in injury. Further details about the alleged victims were not released.
Okinawa police said they did not announce the cases out of privacy considerations related to the victims. The Foreign Ministry, per police decision, also did not notify Okinawa prefectural officials.
The cases are a reminder to many Okinawans of the 1995 rape of a 12-year-old girl by three U.S. service members, which sparked massive protests against the U.S. presence. It led to a 1996 agreement between Tokyo and Washington to close a key U.S. air base, although the plan has been repeatedly delayed due to protests at the site designated for its replacement on another part of the island.
Emanuel said he deeply regretted what happened to the individuals, their families and their community, but fell short of apologizing. “Obviously, you got to let the criminal justice process play out. But that doesn’t mean you don’t express on a human level your sense of regret.”
"We have to do better,” he said, adding that the U.S. military's high standards and protocols for education and training of its troops was “just not working.”
Emanuel said the U.S. may be able to propose measures to improve training and transparency with the public at U.S.-Japan foreign and defense ministers’ security talks expected later this month in Tokyo.
On Friday, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said the Japanese authorities would do their utmost to provide more prompt disclosures of alleged crime related to U.S. military personnel on Okinawa while protecting victims’ privacy.
The cases could be a setback for the defense relationship at a time when Okinawa is seen increasingly important in the face of rising tensions with China.
Some 50,000 U.S. troops are deployed in Japan under a bilateral security pact, about half of them on Okinawa, where residents have long complained about heavy U.S. troop presence and related accidents, crime and noise.
Emanuel commented on the issue while visiting Fukushima, on Japan's northeast coast.
Earlier Saturday, the ambassador visited the nearby town of Minamisoma to join junior surfers and sample locally-caught flounder for lunch, aiming to highlight the safety of the area's seawater and seafood amid ongoing discharges of treated and diluted radioactive water from the tsuamni-ruined Fukusima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
China has banned Japanese seafood over the discharges, a move Emanuel criticized as unjustified.
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11 Comments
Pukey2
This is what you do with someone who had very very low approval ratings as a mayor. You send him to Japan.
BigP
It’s time for Japan to start replacing the Americans in Okinawa with Japanese military personnel. If it can find any?
sakurasuki
All over news and JGovt always fear mongering about China threat, at the end foreign service members do more harms than China, either from DUI, sexual assault etc.
kwatt
Emanuel must be very sick and tired of this. He may step down from the embassy and go home.
dbsaiya
Two issues. The crimes and the lack of reporting. There needs to be better education and training for all military personnel. After the gang rape of the 12 year old in '95, and subsequent assaults, one would think that there would be a reduction in the number of cases. All the good work that the young Marines and other service members do in the community are over shadowed by these criminals. The reporting. Why did the Okinawa prefecture police take it upon themselves to withhold information? They are the prefectural police, they are here to protect the citizens and to report to, I'm assuming the OPG, not the MOFA. There can be reporting of the crime while withholding the names and protecting the privacy of the victim. Hell, it's done all the time, so the privacy excuse is lame. I think GOJ told the prefecture police to withhold the reporting which becomes an even bigger problem.
WoodyLee
This is really one of the saddest parts about the troops actions in any host nation.
You would think that being in a host nation like Japan would make these soldiers think twice or 3 times before committing any act good or bad!! yet it still happens!?
Failure to communicate this message to these young and lonely soldiers is the heart of the problem, there are place were they can go drink wine and dine.
Harming, kidnapping and sexual assault of a teenager, then attempted rape resulting in injury are acts than NO NATION would tolerate including the homeland.
NipponIchiGo
Not any excuse but a fact.
On duty Marines and normal people do not mix well. Marines are America’s shock troops and out-right bringers of solution by violence - this is by design.
Best to just give us a whole island somewhere in Okinawa and get that separation in place.
No US troops in Okinawa - well just say one better practice Mandarin because it will be “real useful” in a few years with out them in Okinawa
Mocheake
The reality has nothing to do with anything posted so far about troops lack of training, being in a country like Japan, etc. People are humans and humans commit crimes. If my memory serves me correct, when the girl was gang raped in 1995 on Okinawa, an American woman claimed she had been raped by a local but that got almost no publicity. I am not trying to minimize the crimes committed by American troops at all, but expecting the crimes rate to be zero when it is impossible everywhere is ridiculous, especially when we read about crimes by personnel in the JMSDF fairly regularly. The troops are held to the highest of standards. There are always going to be bad apples in any group of people and the Okinawan government's sole purpose of existence seems to be highlighting any crime to max in order to stoke fear. I am sure they sit and wait, same for the news outlets and anti-Americans, for the next incident so they can throw hate. I, for one, want to see the bases closed and our servicemen and servicewomen sent back home and let Japan defend itself so we don't have to constantly hear how bad they are when everyone knows full well that the crime rate of service people is more than likely in line with the population as a whole.
Legrande
Whenever you have young GI's / Marines etc you are going to have these type of crimes occurring, so as it's unrealistic to expect the US bases to be shut down, Japan will simply have to do better educating the public about the potential risks that come with hosting troops, and then when those crimes inevitably occur again, you're just going to have to deal with it as best you can.
7thPatriarch
The crimes of the US military and their subsequent suppression by the Japanese government has been an ongoing issue for decades.
From the incomplete data, between 1952 and 2008, the total number of accidents and criminal cases caused by USFJ numbered 206,892 and has led to 1,084 Japanese deaths.
The inability of Japanese police to press charges against servicemen and the practice of sweeping the crimes under the rug minimizes public pressure to hold parties accountable and has created a situation where the US military is involved in about 10 crimes a day. American soldiers stationed in Okinawa have the highest sex crime rate of any US base in the world.
Even in this article by AP as well as reporting by KYODO, the Ambassador is commenting on 2 sex crimes committed by servicemen, whereas Chief Cabinet Secretary Hayashi held a press conference last week indicating that it was 5 sex crimes discovered to have been undisclosed in the past year, with 3 going unprosecuted. Does anyone truly believe this is the full extent?
Whatever faults Trump may have, he is the only President who has made promises to close the military bases in Japan and Korea, which shows a proper understanding of the imposition placed upon the Japanese people by this unbalanced, unequal unilateral policy of extraterritoriality forced upon us by the United States.
Close all the bases, then deal with the next step.
bass4funk
What were the causes of the deaths?