A recent string of crimes by US troops on Okinawa is unlikely to damage the security alliance or derail plans to rejig US bases on the southern Japanese island, a senior US military officer said on Thursday.
Even after the planned transfer of thousands of US Marines from the island, Okinawa will be a strategic linchpin for deterring regional threats such as those from North Korea, Colonel Mark Franklin, the Okinawa-based representative of the top US military commander in Japan told Reuters.
The US military is investigating whether to pursue a case against 38-year-old Marine Tyrone Hadnott, who was arrested by Japanese police last month on suspicion of raping a 14-year-old girl in Okinawa, host to the bulk of the US troops in Japan.
Japanese prosecutors released Hadnott to US military custody after the girl dropped charges over the incident, which has stirred memories of the 1995 rape of a 12-year-old schoolgirl that sparked huge protests and jolted the alliance.
"The US alliance is much stronger than these incidents or the criticism we have taken as a result of these incidents," the camouflage-clad Fra in his office at Camp Foster.
The episode, which was followed by other minor incidents, coincides with efforts by Tokyo to persuade local residents to agree to a plan to move the Marines' Futenma air base from the crowded central city of Ginowan to the coastal city of Nago.
The Futenma transfer, first proposed after the 1995 rape, is central to a broader plan to shift 8,000 Marines from Okinawa to the US territory of Guam to lighten the burden of the US military presence on the island. Nago authorities have basically agreed to the move but stickly details remain to be worked out.
"I think it is in everyone's best interests to press ahead because we want to relocate the current air station at Futenma so that we can move the 8,000 Marines to Guam," Franklin said.
"To stall it and stop it would have the reverse effect of continuing the impact that we are having on Okinawa." A March 23 rally is being planned to protest the latest incidents and urge a smaller US military presence on Okinawa. Franklin said the vast majority of US troops on the island were law-abiding and committed to being good neighbours.
"I think the majority of the population, while they may not be vocal in expressing it, understand that and I don't think that this string of incidents will impact the alliance."
Fernando Delgado a 26-year-old Marine sergeant, said a few bad apples were tainting the US military's image. "Regardless of what's going on with certain individuals, all of us are not like that," Delgado said while taking part in a volunteer programme playing with disabled Japanese children.
"We care about individuals here, especially the kids." An independent kingdom centuries ago and long conscious of being a political and cultural stepchild of Japan's mainland, Okinawa was occupied by the US military from 1945 to 1972.