TOKYO — The US ambassador to Japan, Rahm Emanuel, regretted on Saturday the handling of two cases of sexual assaults allegedly committed by US military personnel in Okinawa, which have once again fueled resentment over the strong presence of US troops on the strategic island of extreme southwest of Japan.
The matter erupted late last month, causing an uproar over reports that two U.S. service members had been accused of sexual assault months earlier.
Both cases were first reported in local media in late June. In an arrest in March, a member of the U.S. Air Force was charged with kidnapping and sexual assault of a teenager, and in May, a U.S. Marine was arrested on charges of attempted rape resulting in injury. No further details about the alleged victims were released.
Okinawa police said they did not announce the cases due to privacy considerations related to the victims. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, by police decision, also did not notify Okinawa prefectural officials.
The cases are a reminder to many Okinawans of the 1995 rape of a 12-year-old girl by three American service members, which sparked mass protests against the American presence. It led to an agreement in 1996 between Tokyo and Washington to close a key US air base, although the The plan has been repeatedly delayed. due to protests at the site designated for replacement elsewhere on the island.
Emanuel said he was deeply sorry for what happened to the people, their families and his community, but stopped short of apologizing. “Obviously, you have to let the criminal justice process unfold. But that does not mean that you do not express your feeling of regret on a human level.”
“We have to do better,” he said, adding that the US military’s high standards and protocols for the education and training of its troops were “simply not working.”
Emanuel said the United States could propose measures to improve training and transparency with the public at the US-Japan foreign and defense ministers’ security talks, scheduled for later this month in Tokyo.
On Friday, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said Japanese authorities would do everything possible to more quickly reveal alleged crimes involving U.S. military personnel on Okinawa, while protecting the privacy of victims.
The cases could be a setback for the defense relationship at a time when Okinawa is seen as increasingly important amid rising tensions with China.
Some 50,000 American troops are deployed in Japan under a bilateral security pact, about half of them in Okinawa, where residents have long complained about the heavy presence of American troops and related accidents, crime and noise.
Emanuel commented on the issue during his visit to Fukushima, on the northeast coast of Japan.
Earlier on Saturday, the ambassador visited the nearby town of Minamisoma to join young surfers and sample locally caught flounder for lunch, aiming to highlight the safety of the area’s seawater and seafood amid the current spills of treated and diluted radioactive water of the Fukusima Daiichi nuclear power plant, destroyed by the tsunami.
China has banned Japanese seafood over spills, a move Emanuel criticized as unjustified.
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