A U.S. marine arrested for breaking hospital window

Japan Press Weekly

Japan Press Service Co., Ltd. is the only news agency providing information of progressive, democratic movements in Japan

A U.S. marine arrested for breaking hospital window

On May 26, Okinawa police arrested a 19-year-old U.S. Marine stationed at Camp Foster in Okinawa, on suspicion of breaking a window at a hospital in Okinawa City.

Chinen Kazuaki, an employee of Chubu-kyodo Hospital, said that at around 10 p.m. on May 25, a man who was attending an in-patient reported to him that somebody was hammering the rehabilitation room.

When he and the security guard rushed to the place, the suspect was about to break the window with his fist. The security guard grabbed the suspect’s arm but the suspect shook off the guard’s hand and ran away.

At around 2:30 a.m. on the following day, police found the suspect sleeping on the grass near the hospital and arrested him. At the time, the suspect was drunk and his hand was cut and bleeding.

The police said that the suspect denied deliberately breaking the window and that he didn’t remember what he had done.

Chinen said, “When I received the report, I thought he was just a drunk. Later, I heard from the police that the suspect is a U.S. soldier. At the time of the incident, it was just two of us and I don’t know what would have happened if he had made a counterattack on us because he is a Marine trained in hand-to-hand combat techniques. I shuddered when I thought about it.”

- Akahata, May 27, 2008