Japan has issued a strong protest to the US after the arrest of an American serviceman on suspicion of raping a woman in Okinawa, in a case that could fuel anger towards the US military presence on the island.
Okinawa, located 1,000m south of Tokyo, is already at the centre of a bitter political battle over the relocation of a US marine corps airbase, 20 years after Tokyo and Washington agreed to the move.
Japan’s chief cabinet secretary, Yoshihide Suga, said the government had lodged a protest with the US embassy in Tokyo and US military officials in Japan.
Suga told reporters that the alleged crime was “extremely regrettable”, adding that the government had demanded that the US improve discipline among servicemen.
There was no immediate comment from US military officials in Japan.
Okinawa’s anti-base governor, Takeshi Onaga, said the case was “intolerable”.
Police arrested Justin Castellanos, a 24-year-old sailor, on Sunday for allegedly raping a Japanese tourist in a hotel room in the Okinawan capital Naha.
Castellanos has denied raping the woman in his room after finding her asleep in a hotel corridor in the early hours of Sunday, local media reported. The alleged victim, a woman in her 40s, was visiting the island from another part of Japan.
Crimes committed by US personnel have fuelled public resentment towards the US military presence on the islands, which hosts more than half the 47,000 US troops in Japan and three-quarters of its bases.
The 1995 abduction and rape of a 12-year-old girl by three US servicemen sparked huge demonstrations and prompted Tokyo and Washington to agree, a year later, to reduce the US military footprint in Okinawa.
In 2008, the then US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, apologised during a visit to Tokyo for a spate of crimes involving American troops, amid warnings that failure to improve discipline risked damaging relations between Washington and its closest ally in the region.
The relocation plan calls for the closure of Futenma – a sprawling US marine base located in the middle of a city – and for a replacement to be built near Nago, a town in the island’s more remote northern reaches.
The deal would also see about 8,000 US troops and their families moved to the US Pacific territory of Guam and other locations, including Hawaii and Australia.
Onaga and many Okinawa residents say the new base at Camp Schwab would endanger public safety and destroy the area’s delicate ecosystem.
The Futenma agreement includes the construction of an offshore runway at Camp Schwab, where Castellanos is based.
Onaga, who was elected in December 2014 vowing to stop the Futenma move, recently agreed to resume talks with Tokyo, bringing a temporary halt to legal attempts to block construction of the new base.
Tokyo and Washington insist that the current plan is the only solution to the deadlock over Futenma.
US defence officials say the new base, which is expected to cost at least $8.6bn (£6bn), is an essential part of the White House’s strategic “pivot” towards the Asia-Pacific, amid rising concern over Chinese naval activity in the region and North Korea’s nuclear and missile programmes.(Justin McCurry)
Link: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/mar/14/us-sailor-arrested-in-okinawa-on-suspicion-of
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