I’m just another foreigner living in Japan. I live in South Tokyo just outside of the huge ex-pat community. I hope that what you find here in these pages will be useful, informative, entertaining, or some combination of the three. And, if you have anything you’d like to share, feel free. I, for one, enjoy learning new things and hope to learn something from everyone who has something they want to share here. So come on in, browse, and share.
Last year, I posted about the need for U.S. Armed Forces officials to do something to put a 
stop to constantly recurring major crimes committed by servicemen. I even went so far as to suggest that lower-ranking personnel be chaperoned when going off-base on weekends until they establish that they are responsible enough to go out on their own. A reader of this blog at that time accused me of making absurdist generalizations and said that by my logic, all foreigners should be put under restriction. However, I think that U.S. military personnel necessarily must be held to a different standard than say, U.S. civilians in Japan. I admit, it probably would have gone down like a ton of bricks with enlisted men and I was sure that administrators with years of experience in dealing with such matters and thus, more qualified than myself to come up with some reasonable restrictions, would probably have chosen a different measure. Well, now they have. Blanket 24-hour curfews have been established in Okinawa and at Iwakuni. Click here for more information regarding the curfews.
Defense Minister Shigeru made a statement this week about how failure on the part of the U.S. to suppress this kind of behavior by its troops would result in a siginificant weakening in the ties between America and Japan. “I don’t think an alliance is possible unless the U.S. shares the view that if incidents like this continue to happen, it could shake the foundation of the Japan-U.S. alliance,” he said during a parliamentary meeting.
Some Americans living in Japan have stated in Japan discussion forums that the Japanese government is blowing the issue out of proportion since the number of serious crimes committed by U.S. servicemen in Japan represents a very small fraction of the total number of crimes committed in the country, especially when compared to crimes committed by Japanese people. I think it’s a ridiculous point, however.
Your average American who comes over here to Japan to teach English or work in some other field doesn’t come here as a representative of his country. He comes as an individual representing either his company or his own interests. Every U.S. serviceman, however, represents the U.S. and its government. The U.S. government bears direct responsibilty for every incident that arises from the misbehavior of U.S. troops. As I’ve stated before, there are many people serving in the Armed Forces that are not capable of acting responsibly when out for a night on the town in their own country, let alone a foreign one with a different culture and different laws. You may say that U.S. civilians in Japan can be just as socially irresponsible, but that doesn’t change the fact that U.S. military personnel are trained to be disciplined and are supposed to be held to a higher standard than your average Joe Blow. Whatever happened to “The few, the proud”?
Cynical Americans, as well as other foreigners living in Japan may not expect U.S. military personnel to live up to these standards, but the Japanese have a right to expect them to. The Japanese government extended an invitation to the U.S. to set up base and bring in highly trained, highly disciplined troops to help maintain national security here. Japan certainly has a right to expect that the U.S. will do its part to keep these troops in line and from doing harm to Japanese citizens, many of which see the U.S. military presence here as an intrusion and a nuisance.
Here’s the latest from the Associated Press:
Defense Minister warns that repeated U.S. military crimes could hurt ties
TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s defense minister warned Friday that further crimes by U.S. troops here could shake the two countries’ alliance, while the foreign minister said Tokyo would install security cameras around U.S. bases and take other steps to deter crime.
The warning of fraying ties by Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba came amid a furor over troop-related crimes in Japan after a U.S. Marine’s arrest last week on suspicion of raping a 14-year-old girl on the southern island of Okinawa.
“I don’t think an alliance is possible unless the U.S. shares the view that if incidents like this continue to happen, it could shake the foundation of the Japan-U.S. alliance,” Ishiba said during a lower house parliamentary meeting.
Ishiba urged the U.S. to take concrete prevention measures, and said promises to improve behavior in the future were not enough.
The Marine’s arrest and a series of other crimes blamed on U.S. troops have heightened sentiments against the U.S. military presence in Japan, particularly on Okinawa, where more than half the 50,000 U.S. troops in the country are based.
Also Friday, Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura unveiled new security steps to curb crime around bases.
In addition to surveillance cameras, Komura announced joint Japanese-U.S. patrols of entertainment districts around bases and said the U.S. would give Japanese authorities more information about personnel living in off-base housing.
While the patrol applies to only bases in Okinawa, it was not immediately clear which areas the other measures apply to.
“We need continuous efforts for prevention of a recurrence,” Komura said, adding that Japan and the U.S. will review the off-base housing policy. The Foreign Ministry said it would publicly release a list of the measures later in the day.
The U.S. this week imposed tight new restrictions on troops, their families and civilian expatriates in Okinawa and elsewhere, limiting them to bases, workplaces and off-base housing. The military held a “day of reflection” Friday to urge troops not to commit crimes.
The steps were part of a broad U.S. campaign in the past week to soothe feelings as rising anger over the alleged crimes threatened to erupt into widespread protests against the American presence.
The latest furor began last week with the arrest of 38-year-old Staff Sgt. Tyrone Luther Hadnott over the alleged rape of a 14-year-old girl on Okinawa. Police said that Hadnott admitted to investigators that he forced the girl down and kissed her, but that he insisted he did not rape her.
The tensions have been compounded in recent days by allegations of other less serious crimes such as drunken driving, trespassing and counterfeiting. Japanese leaders have deplored the behavior and accused the U.S. military of lax discipline.
Okinawa is considered a cornerstone of the U.S. military presence in Asia, and Washington is eager to quell rising negative sentiments. U.S. military officials have apologized profusely, and Ambassador Thomas Schieffer traveled to Okinawa last week to try smoothing relations.
Filed under: Commentary, News-International, News-Japan
Great post! I like your chaperone suggestion.
I sometimes wonder about how many and how often servicemen visit the many brothels in Okinawa. I wonder if that’s a problem there. Or perhaps foreigners aren’t allowed…
Anyway, I agree that officials need to think up something fast. But I think we shouldn’t have high expectations and we should be prepared for more of the same shit in the years to come or until America gets kicked out of Okinawa. On another website covering this issue a commenter posted, “As military recruitment numbers decline, so will the number of mental and physical requirements for enlistment. The U.S. military will be entirely composed of mouth-breathing middle school dropouts by 2020.” Ha!!!
Look, if the Japan position is that important to the U.S.A they should pick more carefully who they send to Japan.
The chaperon thing is a possible thing to do, after all womens from the army in some countries have to be accompanied 100% of the time when they go out of the base (I’m thinking in some countries where the Islamic law is applied), why not do it for all soldiers if they can’t behave.
I usually don’t get involved in politically-charged discussions, but the topic cries out for some comments (and the post is well written too). I’m not commenting toattack you, just throwing out some possible opinions.
There are a few angles a person could view it from and each has a least some merit.
The WWII atrocities angle -
Should the Japanese be so quick to point fingers given the rape of countless women by their servicemen during WWII (of which they have not apologised)?
The upset foreigner angle -
Shame on these servicemen for their actions, they are ruining the reputation of the entire foreign community.
There is also the case for dealing with them individually rather than considering their actions representative of their country. Ok, maybe it’s not a strong case.
I imagine to the victims it matters little who their attackers are. A rape is a rape. No matter who they are, rapists deserve to be brought to justice. I imagine everyone would agree with that.
Tori : the WW2 arguments could be turned back at U.S.A for the genocide of the Native Americans (the wrongly called Indians) for many things they are doing now. Every country (even my own country) at one point or another have committed terrible things, in more or less distant past. The WW2 Japan got nothing to do as a society as what it is now. Just like Germany and Italy are totally different countries now. WW2 happened 60 years ago, that’s getting old. Most recently their has been Vietnam, Irak, Korea, … should I name more?
Your upset foreigner angle is the only I share with you.
Dealing with “them” individually is something you can do as punishment (collective responsibility for the crimes of an individual is something out of the most horrible systems of law the world have seen, like some acts out of the Nazi occupation in Europe) but the goal here is to prevent anything to happen. Unless you have a way to guess with a 100% accuracy who will commit crimes (don’t think about it, you don’t have such a thing) then prevention is something you have to apply to all even those that are less likely to commit something bad, not because “they could” but because you’ve to treat everyone equally.
eg,
I don’t know if the situation’s completely hopeless, but I see your point; these high-profile incidents just keep popping up too often not to be cynical about the issue.
Simaldeff,
I, too think that strict measures are in order, but by raising the standards concerning who is selected to go to Japan and who isn’t, we can’t change the fact that senior officials in the U.S. Armed Forces need to be much more cautious from now on about how much freedom they give to enlisted men stationed abroad.
Tori,
An interesting point about the ‘upset foreigner angle’ is that even though many foreigners think U.S. servicemen and women who misbehave give Americans and other foreigners a bad name in general, most of the Japanese people I’ve talked to about the issue seem to consciously distinguish between foreign servicemen and foreign civilians.
How many marines assaulted Japanese women last year?
no wait….better question.
How many teachers/ vice-principals assaulted minors in their care last year?
In a perfect world the latter would get the outrage it so deserves.
The latter does get attention, but as you know, foreigners get put under the microscope here. I’ve done a post about shameful reporting concerning foreigners here in Japan, but I think I’d like to do a more in-depth piece.
U.S. troops here in Japan should be put under the microscope as they are truly representing their country and are here as protectors and are meant to be well-disciplined.
Southofreality: I think you are right about the upset foreigner angle, Japanese probably don’t blur the two.
Still civilian foreigners are bound to worry about these cases raising xenophobic sentiments.
It is all unfortunate. But that is the world we live in
Good post. I agree completely with you that the U.S. needs to keep its troops in line, they are representatives of the nation. I also, as a resident foreigner here in Japan, realize that yes, these military incidents are bound to raise xenophobic sentiments. It’s a lousy combination.
Chris, Tori, and Laura,
Xenophobia is here to stay, unfortunately. Let’s just hope there’s a decrease over time.
Everyone,
Thanks for the comments on this issue so far.
I’ve got a better idea since so many of your commenters hold American Soldiers and Sailors in such low esteem. Lets bring back the draft and draft a few of these higher caliber individuals into the armed services.
The military does a good job of dealing with its personnel-but short of locking them away and having no interaction with the locals, from time to time incidents will happen. The key is to be pro-active and deal with the incident with our Japanese hosts. However it is also important that much of the “outrage” is about only on thing- money. Money for the localities for the cities that have bases.
Simple fact of the matter is that US Servicemen are a cross section of the country they come from. As are the wcky folks riding the Yamanote train on Halloween few of which are in the service.
This is holding them to an unfair standard and you know it.
OMG … I’ll keep this comment in my memory for the biggest misunderstanding in a politically charged discussion I’ve participated in.
First, I don’t have low esteem for US soldiers or sailors, apart from the fact that most are badly trained and are just young people that though they had an easy way to get their college studies paid by their government. I very well know that they are average human being like you and me. Like average human being they tend to be extremely idiotic and do things without taking in account what stands around them.
Second, what we are discussing here is that , in country like Japan, where something from the outside is not often welcomed (they are islanders after all), the crimes committed by someone representing their country (read “a foreign soldier” here) are easily emphasized by media and public-opinion to the point they are regarded as a diplomatic incident (you know those little things that leads to wars).
Third, the military does NOT do a good job of dealing with its personnel, why the hell do you think some countries nickname the army “the great silent”. Money is the most they can ask as you practically can’t prosecute a US soldier on Japanese ground by Japanese laws, in fact an eventual criminal soldier would be arrested by the Military Police and prosecuted by a US Military prosecutor and defended by US Military Advocate following the US martial laws, this alone give him/her the status of a “special human being” with different rights and duties than the normal people on Japanese ground … which is not fair and just, if you care about human rights (read the first article for example).
In the end what I was saying in my previous comments is that they should stop thinking that a soldier is a soldier like every single soldier, but start thinking about who they are sending on missions and how much the people they are sending on mission understand the situation of where they are going to land, this is even more important in countries with a great cultural difference toward the “US-culture”, just like Japan.