I also sometimes think that early settlement
will be achieved if Okinawa goes independent as the Kingdom of Ryukyu and drives
the U.S. forces out of it.
Masatoshi Takeshita
Normal
0
10 pt
0
2
false
false
false
EN-US
JA
X-NONE
$([{£¥‘“〈《「『【〔＄（［｛｢￡￥
!%),.:;?]}¢°’”‰′″℃、。々〉》」』】〕゛゜ゝゞ・ヽヾ！％），．：；？］｝｡｣､･ﾞﾟ￠
English translation of an excerpt from a
Japanese article: Monju Bosatsu (source: Shinshu no Izumi) – October 18, 2012 –
U.S.
Servicemen in Okinawa Consider Residents Living in the Vicinity of U.S. Base as
Slaves? – Shinshu no Izumi – October 18, 2012 –
The number of crimes
committed by U.S. servicemen exceeds 200,000 over the 55 years from 1952 to 2007.
In Okinawa, another woman was sexually
assaulted by U.S. servicemen. A numerous
number of incidents where women and children in Okinawa got hurt by U.S. servicemen
took place after the war. Forty years
have passed since Okinawa was returned to Japan. However, U.S. servicemen frequently committed
crimes before and after its reversion.
According to Wikipedia, the number of
crimes by U.S. servicemen across Japan, which has been reported alone, exceeds
200,000 over the 55 years from 1952 to 2007.
(Quotation from Wikipedia)
According to the data submitted by the
Defense Facilities Administration Agency, the number of incidents and accidents
by U.S. forces in Japan, including on and off duty, from 1952 through 2007 is
200 thousand and that of Japanese killed due to involvement in the incidents
and accidents is 1,076. According to the
Foreign Ministry document released in 2010, the annual number of the latter
reached 1,000 as of 1965 before the reversion.
Additionally, the number of U.A. servicemen who faced a court-martial on
a charge of incidents and accidents from 1985 to 2004 is one and the number of
those who got disciplinary action is 318.
As for this, Seiken Akamine, a Lower House Member of the Japanese
Communist Party, told “In spite of many number of incidents and accidents, only
one military tribunal was convened (over the 20 years). Crimes committed by the U.S. forces have gone
unchecked.
On 16th in Okinawa, two
23-year-old U.S. servicemen attacked a woman (in her twenties), a worker at a
restaurant, on her way home and sexually assaulted her. On the Nippon Broadcasting System’s radio
program, Mr. Masaru Sato, former Foreign Ministry bureaucrat, told on this
incident that U.S. servicemen stationed in Okinawa have
got the same feeling that U.S. servicemen had when Japan was occupied by U.S. after
it lost the war and they might feel whatever they want to do to local residents. I quite agree with him. U.S.
servicemen assigned to Japan look down on Japanese. In the first place,
Japan-U.S. Status of Forces Agreement is quite absurd. The military top brass in the base do not
seem to seriously educate fresh recruits about gentlemanly behavior in the
local area. U.S.
forces have no sense of being under the Japan-US Security Treaty but have
stationed in Japan with the sense that they as the occupation forces had at the
end of the war.
As for this, this writer Shinshu no Izumi
is angry with Japanese living in Honshu (mainland), too. It is obvious that they impose bothersome
problems on Okinawa and are going to get away with being friendly with
U.S. They don’t think empathically about
base-related problems occurring in Okinawa as the same Japanese. Mr. Kotaro Yamasaki,
a literary critic, wrote about this situation: people in mainland show a
nonchalant attitude toward Okinawa treated as a dump site. I quite agree with him. The government forces Okinawa to accept U.S.
rascal servicemen and budgets nearly 200 billion yen (allegedly many times more
in actuality) of “sympathy budget allocations” annually. Now in Scotland and Catalonia, Spain, a
momentum for independence is developing.
At this rate, Okinawa might also give up on the mainland and go
independent.