Zero-U.S. bases will bring zero-crimes by U.S. servicemen - Akahata editorial, June 17Another rape was committed by a U.S. Marine stationed in Okinawa.
Okinawa police obtained an arrest warrant to request the U.S. forces to extradite the suspect to Japan.
For many years, Okinawans have been suffering from ear-splitting noise, accidents, and environmental destruction caused by U.S. aircraft and military bases. This is an intolerable situation for Okinawans.
Soon they will be meeting in a big rally held by all political groups of Okinawa.
"As long as U.S. military bases exist here, our humiliating experiences will never end." Okinawans are heightening calls for the reduction and eventual withdrawal of U.S. bases from the prefecture.
Crimes go with U.S. bases
The recent assault on a Japanese woman happened in Kin Town where the U.S. Marines Camp Hansen is located.
It is a heinous crime: The U.S. marine battered and raped the woman.
Many kinds of crimes take place throughout Okinawa, including sexual assaults, arsons, robberies, thefts, house break-ins, and property destruction.
With the increase in plane crashes, emergency landings, stray bullets, waste-oil spills, and field fires, the number of accidents involving U.S. military aircraft tripled last year from the previous year.
Okinawans are deprived of their quiet life by sonic booms from U.S. fighter jets and forced to live with the terror of plane crashes, crash landings, and falling bombs.
"We cannot tolerate crimes trampling on our human rights and dignity. We want the U.S. bases to be reduced and removed." It is a matter of course for Okinawans to voice their anger in this manner against the spate of U.S. crimes and accidents.
The problem is that the Koizumi Cabinet has no intention of abrogating the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty. It even expresses its willingness to perpetuate the U.S. bases in Japan and forces Okinawans to endure their suffering by strengthening the U.S. bases in Okinawa.
The Koizumi Cabinet's disgraceful position is obvious in its insistence on the Japan-U.S. Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) and rejection of its revision.
Concerning a SOFA clause under which the Japanese investigative authorities are unable to detain and interrogate U.S. servicemen who committed heinous crimes, the cabinet calls only for "better operations".
Such servility of the Koizumi Cabinet is reflected in the remarks by the foreign ministry ambassador in Okinawa in early 2003 giving the false impression that the number of crimes by the U.S. forces are declining. The U.S. forces' semi-official newspaper welcomed the speech as an example of the Japanese government extolling the U.S, forces actions in Okinawa, while only the people of Okinawa were critical of it.
The crimes committed by U.S. military personnel increased in the last four years, in both the number of arrests and crimes, far more than those in 1995 when the gang rape of a 12-year-old girl occurred. Now there are over 100 crimes a year more than those in the preceding nine years.
The implication is that the Koizumi Cabinet is giving priority to the interests of U.S. forces before the Japanese people's rights, lives and property, and is causing serious injury to them.
The call for a revised SOFA has now become a national request overriding the difference of political affiliation and opinion about the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty.
The SOFA is the successor to the administrative treaty which the United States imposed on Japan during its official occupation of Japan. A revision of the SOFA is due, as it has never undergone revision since 1960 when it was enacted together with the present Japan-U.S. Security Treaty.
SOFA needs urgent revision
In the past decades, the Japanese government has not made any requests to the U.S. for the SOFA to be revised. The Japanese government's servility to the United States is in stark contrast to the South Korean government which achieved revision in 2001 of its SOFA with the United States through long and persistent negotiations.
Humiliating foreign relations should not be maintained in the 21st century.
The JCP demands that the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty be abrogated and the U.S. bases in Japan be withdrawn, and that the SOFA be at least revised to get Japan out of the present humiliating situation. (end)