TOKYO: US military personnel on Okinawa were barred from drinking alcohol for 48 hours starting Wednesday and will face a 30-day curfew after an American Marine was arrested on suspicion of murdering a woman. The case has triggered outrage in Japan, where crimes involving US forces have long inflamed criticism of the troops’ presence.
In a statement posted on X late Tuesday, Okinawa Area Coordinator and Commanding General of the III Marine Expeditionary Force Lt Gen Benjamin T. Watson announced a “complete prohibition of alcohol consumption on or off base”. Watson, the most senior US military figure on Okinawa, said the 48-hour period, described as “an operational pause”, would give commanders time to lead training with all service members on “standards, discipline, and our responsibilities as members of the Okinawan community”.
During the pause, operations will cease and “we will not allow off-base liberty”, Watson said. He also announced a 30-day “period of reflection” beginning Friday, during which a curfew will apply to all personnel. “Liberty will expire at 2400 for all hands, meaning you must be back on base in your assigned quarters or at your off-base domicile from midnight to 0500,” he said.
Police said Sunday that a US Marine stationed on Okinawa had been arrested on suspicion of killing a 39-year-old woman at a hotel in the city of Naha and stealing her wallet. Local media reported that she was choked to death and that the Marine is denying the allegations.
Okinawa Governor Genta Koja met Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi in Tokyo on Wednesday and said the case had “caused deep anxiety” among residents of the prefecture. He was due to meet Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi later in the day.
“The prefectural government has repeatedly demanded that the US military take measures to prevent a recurrence every time an incident occurs, but the fact that such an incident has happened again forces us to conclude that discipline within the US forces and their human rights education are not functioning at all,” Koja told Koizumi. The minister said he would “advance discussions with the United States on how to implement effective measures” to prevent such incidents from occurring.
The United States has around 54,000 military personnel stationed in Japan, the bulk of them on Okinawa, and crimes committed by US personnel have long been a thorn in relations between the two close security allies.
Last year, a Japanese court sentenced a US Marine accused of choking and attempting to rape a woman in her 20s to seven years in prison. In 2017, a former US Marine and civilian military base worker was sentenced to life in prison for the rape and murder of a local woman in Okinawa. The same year, US Forces Japan banned all personnel from drinking alcohol after an intoxicated Marine crashed his vehicle into a mini-truck, killing its 61-year-old local driver. — AFP