Some minor updates from Okinawa
Apologies for the lack of updates yesterday. If there had been something of note to report then I would have done. Unfortunately, I was very busy and the news I heard was just snippets so I left them out. But let’s have a little recap now.
Firstly, as Brian quickly noted in one of his comments, the Marine who was arrested for trespassing has been freed without charge. The condition of him not being charged is that he apologised and paid compensation to the victim. This brings up a couple of interesting facets of Japanese crime and being charged. For a number of offences like this, charges are not made against the alleged criminal as long as they pay compensation to the victim. It’s almost as if they are saying, “We’ll forget all about this, as long as you bow deeply and pay some money to the victim of the crime”. And secondly, I have read a number of news stories in Okinawa of men groping girls in the evening or similar offences, where a plausible excuse has been that “I was drunk”. Would be interested to know of other countries that adopt a similar policy.
In BBC News, it was reported that Condoleezza Rice was visiting Japan, and has said that they “Regret deeply that this happened”. I read this article and once again sent an email to the BBC, commenting on them saying that “Many Okinawans dislike the US presence”. While it is true that there are a number that do, the article says this as though it is the majority, which I really don’t believe to be the case. I was actually surprised to get a reply from them, as they hadn’t replied to my previous email on the same subject. The reply read as follows:
“Thank you for your email.
We understand your point that there are many people in Okinawa who are happy about the American presence, but we do agree it is fair to say that still there are many people who are not.
But thank you for contacting us, and we apologise that your first email did not receive a response.
Regards
BBC News Website“
At least they offered a quick response this time, which was something. If anyone wants to comment about the “curfew” that is said to be imposed on SOFA status personnel in the same article, I am sure they would be happy to hear it.
Finally, a couple of events to put in your calendar. Firstly if you are allowed to go off base (i.e. if you are not SOFA, then there is a pro-base protest this Saturday, March 1st (probably in Okinawa City or Chatan). I don’t have full details about this just yet but will hopefully get them in the next 24 hours. I would go but I have a graduation ceremony for my students that is compulsory to go to. So far all I have is this:
“If anyone is interested in attending, (obviously not SOFA members) as in would any of your wife’s families like to see their daughter again, I would be happy to forward a hard count along to the people organizing this. They are trying to pull the housing owners and companies together as well as the small business owners. Hell if you know anyone Japanese that isn’t busy on Sat and can hold a sign let them know and let me know ASAP via PM. This will validate what the OAC has done but more importantly finally gets the Okinawa’s to do something positive“
And then on March 23rd there will be an anti-base protest (if that’s your thing) at the Chatan Baseball Stadium (near the big Jusco). That’s about it for now. More to come I’m sure later.
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