MOSCOW, 1 Mar-RIA Novosti, Nikolai Protopopov. Murder, rape, theft, and fighting-the US Marines continue to terrorize the population of the island of Okinawa, which is home to the largest US military installations in Japan. Neither the courts nor their own command are able to calm the "elite troops".
Deferred punishment
Last week, local police detained 24-year-old Marine Marvin Earl James for the second time for indecent behavior and disorderly conduct. Earlier, he was accused of using force against a government official.
Then the tipsy Marine first accosted a strange girl in a car park and tried to kiss her. She, having fought off the persistent military, complained to the police. Marvin ran away. But a few blocks from the scene of the incident, he caught the eye of a police officer who tried to stop the soldier. However, he resisted and pushed the patrolman hard. As a result, the infantryman was detained and taken to the police station.
For assaulting a police officer, Marvin faces up to three years in prison or a fine of five thousand dollars. The marine was also charged with indecent behavior in a public place: for molesting a stranger, according to Japanese law, you can expect from six months to ten years of correctional labor.
Stationed in Okinawa, the US military gets into the criminal reports quite often. So, in February, a Japanese court sentenced a soldier to a three-year suspended sentence for attacking a taxi driver. Three months ago, 20-year-old Jamieson Michael Bisset had a big drink at the bar and was returning to the base. I called a taxi, and on the way I suddenly attacked the driver. I threw him out of the car, got behind the wheel and drove around the city. The stolen car was badly smashed.
The Marine fully admitted his guilt. Verdict: three years of correctional labor in a Japanese prison. But since the defendant repented and had not previously been brought to criminal responsibility, the sentence was postponed for four years. Jamieson is likely to avoid jail time if he doesn't break Japanese law again.
American air base on the island of Okinawa
Image source: © AFP 2021 / Toshifumi Kitamura
The rapists in uniform
Discontent with the US Marines has been accumulating among the Okinawan population for decades. Moreover, it is not limited to minor offenses and hooliganism — guests in uniform often commit serious crimes, including murder and rape.
In 2016, Marine Justin Castellanos confessed to the rape. According to him, he saw this Japanese woman in one of the hotels. "She was sleeping in the hallway. I shook her, she didn't wake up," the accused told the court. He dragged a woman into a hotel room and abused her.
It is noteworthy that the crime was solved during the rallies of Okinawans against American bases after the murder of 20-year-old Rina Shimabukuro. The criminal turned out to be a US citizen Shinzato Kenneth Franklin, a former marine who lived on the island with his wife and daughter.
He tracked down a strange girl on the street, knocked her out with a blow to the head, raped her in his car and strangled her. The body was hidden in the roadside thicket. The police identified the place where the GPS signal from the victim's mobile phone was last recorded, and the surveillance video showed the make and license plates of the killer's car.
The American command imposed a curfew for military personnel. Everyone was obliged to return before midnight, banned from drinking and buying alcohol outside the bases, and organizing entertainment events.
Protest action in Okinawa, Japan
Image source: © RIA Novosti / Anastasia Fedotova
In 2012, two drunken Marines attacked, raped, and robbed a woman. They were sentenced to ten and nine years in prison.
In 1995, three Marines dragged a 14-year-old schoolgirl into their car, beat her and committed gang rape, for which they later received sentences from 6.5 to ten years.
Protest action in Okinawa, Japan
Image source: © RIA Novosti / Anastasia Fedotova
Long-standing confrontation
The US military has been based in Japan since the end of World War II. More than 70 percent of the facilities are located on the island of Okinawa — about 30 thousand US military personnel serve here and several tens of thousands of their family members live.
According to statistics, since 1972, Americans have committed more than five thousand crimes in Japan. And the Marines often went unpunished.
The Japanese regularly take to the streets, demanding the elimination of military bases. And in December 1970, in the city of Koza, there was a real riot with street riots. The spontaneous action began again due to the fault of the Americans: a drunk soldier got behind the wheel and hit a pedestrian. Fortunately, he survived, but the witnesses of the incident seized the culprit of the accident and almost organized a lynching.
The townspeople began to clash with the military. In total, about five thousand Japanese and 700 US troops participated in them. The clashes lasted for several hours — about 60 Americans and about 30 local residents were injured, dozens of cars were burned and several buildings were destroyed on the territory of the Kadena base.
Tens of thousands are still rallying today, trying not only to draw the attention of the authorities to the arbitrariness of the US military, but also demanding to stop the construction of new military facilities, in particular the Henoko base. It is planned to cover 157 hectares of the coastal zone with sand, which will seriously affect the coral reefs.
However, the protests of the local population are of little concern to the American command. The US army is not going to leave the Land of the Rising Sun and continues to build up its forces there.
Protests against US bases in Okinawa, Japan. May 2016
Image source: © AP Photo / Shizuo Kambayashi