Japan must address anti-US sentiment in Okinawa

A former Japanese minister says ‘domestic struggles’ could occur in Okinawa if the government fails to address the issue of misconducts by US military personnel.

Shozaburo Jimi, the former minister of financial services and postal reform, said on Wednesday that people in the Japanese island might seek secession from Japan due to the anti-US sentiment.

“Okinawa has long had a history of independence movements and movements for self-governance. I hope those things will not blaze up,” Japan’s Kyodo News quoted Jimi as saying.

“There is a possibility that (Okinawa) will say it will become an independent state.”

“Domestic guerrilla (struggles) could occur as a result of separatist movements… terrorist bombings could occur in Tokyo, depending on how the state handles” the issue, Jimi stated.

Over the past few months, several US soldiers stationed in Japan have been arrested for misconducts and defying a night-time curfew imposed by the US military after two US soldiers allegedly raped a Japanese woman in Okinawa on October 16, 2012.

Some 26,000 US troops are stationed in Okinawa, where the soldiers have reportedly committed more than 5,700 crimes since Washington returned the island to Japan in 1972.

On January 13, a drunken 24-year-old US officer was arrested in Yokosuka after he broke into a house. A US Marine was also arrested for allegedly entering an apartment building in Naha, the capital of Okinawa in December 2012.

Japanese police arrested another US Marine in November 2012 for trespassing in Okinawa. A US trooper was also charged with drunk driving following an accident, and another was arrested for allegedly going naked in an Internet cafe.

The incidents have angered the Japanese public. They are discontent with the presence of the US forces in Okinawa.

Meanwhile, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has pledged to strengthen the military alliance between Tokyo and Washington.