Three Okinawa mayors call for midnight curfew for U.S. airmen on island
By Mark Oliva, Okinawa
bureau
OKINAWA CITY — Okinawa City’s mayor called on Air Force
officials to enforce a midnight curfew for all U.S. airmen on the island.
Mayor Masakazu Nakasone launched a protest against recent troop
misbehavior during a Monday meeting with Brig. Gen. Gary L. North, commander of Kadena Air
Base and the 18th Air Wing.
The protest was in reaction to a series of incidents, including the
alleged rape of a 24-year-old Okinawan woman June 29, an alleged incident involving a
drunken airman setting a car ablaze and another involving a drunken Marine damaging a
moped.
Chatan Mayor Choichi Hentona and Kadena Mayor Tokujitsu Miyagi
accompanied Nakasone to the meeting at Kadena Air Base.
Nakasone reportedly wants the curfew enforced in an effort to curb
crime.
The three recent crimes involving U.S. servicemembers happened
between 2 a.m. and 5:30 a.m.
“Incidents that involve servicemembers never cease to happen. It
is quite unacceptable,” Nakasone said, according to the newspaper Ryukyu Shimpo.
“We want the military to seriously consider (banning)
servicemembers from leaving military installations after midnight.”
But North rebuked the call for a curfew.
According to Kiyoshi Akamine, an Okinawa City official, North said
the incidents were the result of the actions of individuals, and he had no intention of
imposing a blanket curfew.
“It is so frustrating,” Nakasone told reporters following
the meeting, that “incidents keep happening while the military are promising …
to tighten discipline on its servicemembers.”
North ordered all Kadena troops to attend mandatory briefings Monday
outlining proper troop behavior while on liberty.
“We are dedicated to preserving good relations between the
military and the local community,” North stated in an Air Force news release.
“We will continue to do whatever is possible to ensure our
members live up to the high standards we expect of them,” he said.
North also called on local businesses to enforce drinking laws,
cutting off alcohol sales at midnight at area bars and prohibiting alcohol sales to
minors.
The drinking age in Japan is 20.
“We’ll continue to press local businesses to enforce local
laws on the sale of alcohol as agreed to by the Okinawa Working Team on reducing
incidents,” North added.
“The vast majority of our servicemembers are law-abiding,
contributing members of the community,” he said. “We need local cooperation to
prevent the misdeeds of the few whose poor judgment does all of us a disservice.”
Chiyomi Sumida contributed to this report.
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