Rape case clouds US-Japan talks over future of Okinawa airbase

By David Pilling in Tokyo
Financial Times
February 13, 2008

The alleged rape of a 14-year-old girl by a US Marine has cast a pall over US-Japan relations, with Japan's foreign minister yesterday saying it was bound to affect delicate negotiations over the relocation of US military bases.

The incident, which has stirred up memories of the 1995 gang rape of a 12-year-old girl by US servicemen, has reverberated around the strategically vital island of Okinawa, where the bulk of American forces are located. Washington regards Okinawa, home to its biggest airbase outside the US, as its most important military asset in east Asia.

The 1995 rape galvanised anti-base feeling in Okinawa and led indirectly to an agreement to relocate the Futenma air base to another part of the island and to move 8,000 Marines from Okinawa to Guam. Talks over who is to pay for the relocation and how it is to be carried out have dogged US-Japan relations for a decade.

Yasuo Fukuda, the Japanese prime minister, described the alleged incident as "not permissible" while his spokesman expressed consternation that such a thing could have happened in spite of US assurances that they would control the roughly 50,000 soldiers stationed in Japan.

Masahiko Komura, the foreign minister, said the furious reaction of islanders was bound to complicate discussions about the relocation of Futenma airbase to Nago, also on Okinawa. Many locals have objected to the transfer on environmental grounds, while some have called for the base to be moved off the island altogether.

Jeff Kingston, professor of Asian studies at Temple University, said: "Even if we don't know all the facts yet, this incident will be a strain on US-Japan relations. The burden of proof is going to be on this Marine. In Okinawan eyes he is already guilty."

Mr Kingston said such incidents tapped into strong feelings of resentment in Okinawa, where many regard the distant Tokyo government as having sold them down river. "They have had to bear the burden of US bases in Japan and have generally just had to suck it up," he said.

Passions were already running high in Okinawa, where huge rallies had been held against plans to omit references from school textbooks about the military's role in ordering mass suicides near the end of the second world war. The plan, initiated under the previous government of Shinzo Abe, has been largely dropped.

Hirokazu Nakaima, the governor of Okinawa, said of the alleged rape: "I feel strong indignation against the crime and could never forgive it."