Crimes by U.S. soldiers increasing in Okinawa

From late December through the New Year, U.S. soldiers stationed on Okinawa committed many crimes, according to Okinawa's police.

At around 3:00 a.m. on January 5, police arrested a 16-year-old civilian worker of the U.S. Marine Corps on suspicion of stealing a truck in Chatan Town at midnight of December 21.

Also in late December, U.S. military personnel were arrested on suspicions of larceny at a parking car in Ginowan City, and of breaking a window of a restaurant in Okinawa City.

Late at night on January 3, 10 foreigners pushed over a parked car sideways in Chatan Town and ran away.

At around 7:00 p.m. on January 4, four white men and women stole nail clippers from a clothing store in Chatan Town.

The Foreign Ministry's Okinawa Office on January 5 made representations to U.S. Marine Corps headquarters in Okinawa, in protest against these successive crimes, demanding that steps be taken to prevent such crimes from occurring. (end)