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Drunken Marine Arrested For Breaking Into House

As tensions remain high over the recent incident involving a marine in Okinawa, another member of the US military has been arrested for drunkenly entering a house and falling asleep on a sofa:

A U.S. Marine Corps corporal was arrested Monday after he broke into a Nago home and fell asleep in a drunken slumber, police said.

Corp. Sean Jake, stationed at Camp Schwab in Nago, was arrested for trespassing.

“I don’t remember a thing,” police quoted Jake as saying.

Police said they received a call from a Nago woman early Monday, saying that there was “a foreign stranger sleeping in my house.” Officers rushed to the scene and arrested the Marine.

They are currently questioning him about how he got into the house. He did not cause any damage. The house he was allegedly found in is close to Camp Schwab.

More information on the reaction to the recent events in Okinawa can be found in this Mainichi article and this Global Voices post.

Update: More on this case:

Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura expressed anger Monday over the arrests of two U.S. Marine Corps members in Okinawa Prefecture at a time when Japan is seeking strict enforcement of discipline by the U.S. military of its personnel following an alleged rape case a week ago.

Machimura was commenting on the arrest Sunday morning of a 22-year-old Marine over drunk driving in the city of Okinawa and another incident early Monday in which another Marine, aged 21, was arrested for trespassing after he was found passed out on a sofa at a private residence in Nago.

“I feel great anger that they would drink alcohol and violate the law…when there have been calls for strict discipline as well as media reports that some U.S. military soldiers are also expressing anger over what is happening,” Machimura said.

“I think the only way to describe this is to say that discipline is loose. I urge the U.S. government to reflect seriously on the situation,” the top Japanese government spokesman told a press conference.

[hat tip to Overthinker]

15 comments - What do you think? Posted by James - February 18, 2008 at 2:42 pm

Categories: Foreigners in Japan Tags: america, crime, japan, japanese, marines, military, news, okinawa, usmc

The Overthinker

The chief cabinet secretary has just had a press conference where this issue was top:
http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20080218-00000921-san-pol
「まことに憤りの一言だ。たるんでいるとしか言いようがない」
“There’s no other word than fury. All I can say is that they are slack.”
「米政府に対して本当に強い反省を促さなければならない。まことに遺憾千万であると私は非常に憤っております」
“I want the US government to seriously repent this. It is utterly infuriating and I am livid.”
Level3

I think the people who want to kick the US out of Japan are left-wing nuts who are ignoring statistics, and using a crime rate that corresponds to the Japanese native crime rate. In effect, they are using the exact same racist argument that right-wingers use about the “gaijin crime wave”

However, if I were the base commander in Okinawa, all off-base activity would be cancelled for the next 6 months. It would send a message to the troops about discipline, and send an additional message to local population who depend on the business from the base.
Darien Shields

The whole situation with the US military in Japan is a touchy one at best, but they are really, really just… making an ass of themselves now. You could argue that things like the rape were an isolate incident resulting from unique circumstances, but I don’t see how you can explain why, rather than buckling down and showing the Japanese populace that they’re all good people just trying to do their jobs, they get wasted and make a mess.

I’m more bothered about how some of the soldiers are apparently angry over the rape incident… The way the article phrases it it sounds as if they’re on the side of the rapist. Are they spectacularly small minded or is there another side to this that isn’t reported…? In general, I haven’t seen reports on the military response (other than get drunk and fall asleep on someone else’s couch) to the whole debacle.

http://www.transpacificradio.com/ Garrett

It’s not being on the side of a “rapist,” but on the side of an accused and unconvicted colleague. Individual people do stupid things, like get drunk and pass out in a living room, but the fact remains that the USMC in Okinawa has less than half the crime rate of the civilian population. More important, if someone in your company were accused of a crime and you were punished for it, don’t you think that might put you in a bad mood?

newsboy

“However, if I were the base commander in Okinawa, all off-base activity would be cancelled for the next 6 months. It would send a message to the troops about discipline, and send an additional message to local population who depend on the business from the base.”

It’s a good thing you aren’t the base commander, funny how everyone has the answer to military discipline with no military experience. So you want to screw over all the decent troops in Okinawa who might actually have a life in the community, speak Japanese, and look forward to spending time off base or live off base for the reason of just wanting to be in Japan. Once again punish the individual punish them hard and that should be enough for all sides to see the seriousness of this. There may be a few idiots who still act up, but catch them and punish them. Don’t screw over people who don’t deserve it.

Level3

Funny how people go assuming someone doesn’t have military experience because they say something you don’t like. Funny how they then go on to sort of pretend they WERE in the military and then go on as if there’s no such thing as group discipline in the military.

I suppose all those pushups, restricted-to-base, etc. never happened.

Oh, and it turns out the base commander thinks just like me.

That will be all.

[Oh, and I'll let you get away without the "Sir" this time only.]

http://Ssg83 doug

If you “sir” are an officer then I hope you aren’t in charge of anything important. First off, flaunting that you are an officer and then you’re rebuttal at the end? And on a website? That’s some good officer material right there.

Back to the topic at hand though, you both have good points. I’ve seen both individual and group punishment go both ways. If the drunkeness and downright undiscipline are common among the soldiers i.e. happening every night with at least 10-20 out of 100 soldiers involved, then yes, harsher group punishment should be enforced.

But if it’s just the rare occurance, then single punishment works just fine. No reason to punish a base for 1% of the soldiers faults. Bring that up to 5%-10% of soldiers on the blotter though, lock down the base, maybe for a month or so, and their battlebuddies will square them away.

Lala

Way to go, dude, way to go. That’s a great way to show recognition that the leadership handed out strict words of discipline and commensurate behavior right after the other Monkey’s fondling of a 14 year old. Way to go, dude, way to go.

What does that say about its leadership?

Leave Okinawa now!
T-bone

Drunk driving and trespassing, how is this newsworthy?

pinoyxpryde

Drunk driving and trespassing are extremely uncommon in Japan, even in Okinawa with the huge US military presence. I just spent 2 months in Okinawa and I must say the Marines are the SOLE problem. I did lots of things over there that included going out into the nightlife and the only time I saw an American causing trouble was a Marine. Alot of the locals also look troubled whenever they see a clean cut American, until they find out they are not a Marine and then you get that great Japanese hospitality.

T-bone

Bullshit drunk driving is as common in Japan as anywhere else. and trespassing what statistics are you using to determine is “extremely uncommon.”

http://www.transpacificradio.com/ Garrett

Pinoyxpryde, there might be a lot of ill will toward Marines, but drunk driving is relatively common in Japan, trespassing is on a similar level to other counties, and the Marines might be obnoxious, but have a crime rate half of the civilian population.

Robert

I neither condone nor excuse the actions of these individuals in the Marines, but I do believe that this is being blown out of proportion. They make it sound as though all the Marines are going out and making an ass of themselves. The man who committed rape needs to spend the rest of his life in military prison. The other two who were arrested should be dishonorably discharged. But I don’t believe that all of the Marines are causing problems. I also don’t believe that they are all saints either. Think about it. You get a bunch of enlisted men, almost none of which with a college education, who went through hell in basic training, and are sent to a land where the language and culture are radically different and are probably not given a very good explanation on the differences in the culture, put them on a base where they are kept in a strict environment, and then let them run loose every so often. Of course they are going to cause problems. It’s unavoidable. But the level of crime such as rape is something that can not be tolerated, and neither can the other two crimes. Getting drunk every now and again and letting loose is no big deal. If they are a little rowdy and a little rude then they just need to be taught better etiquette. At least that is what I think.
Ted

Very sensitive subject indeed. I was on the island (Hansen) as a Marine 84-85 and things were no different back then. In fact, there were a few Marines from my unit that got into trouble with the local authorities, and one was convicted of assaulting a local resident and was sentenced to a long term in an Okinawan jail. As of this writing, I have no idea whether he has been released and is back in the states or still remains there.

Don’t get me wrong. I was young when I arrived there, as was the case with thousands of other Marines who were stationed on the island. I was homesick, full of energy, got drunk, had a good time and got into a few scuffles here and there with other drunk Marines. You are away from your family and familiar surroundings, many for the first time stuck on a small island with little or nothing to do. What’s worse, the “natives” despised our presence, except on payday. When the money runs dry over the course of two weeks until the next payday, so does their disposition towards us. No matter what, though, when you have a large amount of people in a foreign land for a long period, you are bound to have problems.

On the same token, the majority of Marines who are in Okinawa just want to serve their time on the “rock” and go home. Most of us do not cause any problems for the locals and obey and respect the laws. I (we) do not advocate, condone or endorse the assault or rape of ANY one. Those who do break the law should be punished accordingly, not all service members. I am totally against punishing the innocent to cach a few people.

We (most of us) treat your island with dignity, even though you hated us being there and respect your customs. Prior to going to Okinawa, our unit was especially cautioned not to mess with the JPs. I don’t here at home, so in effect, of course I would respect the police in another country.

I just think that if the military were to leave Okinawa, it would be a financial disaster for the island. Many locals who depend on the miltary for employment would be hit hard, as well as many businesses.
Gusuke

Right, and I’m sure whatever culture your from is “cultured” and makes Americans look like philistines in comparison to the good graces of yours. /sarcasm

“I think people who want to have dumb stupid American kids on foreign soil are right winged nationalists. Please go to Iraq. Japan is a peaceful country, no need for them in Japan.”

US forces in Japan are there at the request of the Japanese government, and they’re far from being right wing extremists. And I’m sure the extreme nationalists want the US out as well, considering that a US withdrawal means the Japanese government has to speed up revision of article 9 to fill in the void that a US withdrawal would create.

Drunken Marine Arrested For Breaking Into House

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