U.S. service members are patrolling near American military bases in Japan to "reduce risk" posed by U.S. troops deployed in the area after the arrest of a Marine on suspicion of the murder of a local woman sparked outrage in the East Asian country. U.S. personnel joined Japanese law enforcement to patrol close to U.S. installations in the southern island chain of Okinawa at the weekend, the U.S. III Marine Expeditionary Force said in a statement on October 16.
American active-duty personnel in Okinawa had been placed under curfew and temporarily banned from consuming alcohol after 20-year-old Devin Jacob Ballard, who was stationed at the Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, was arrested in connection with the death of 39-year-old Anna Yagi at a hotel in the city of Naha earlier this month. He is also accused of stealing her wallet and bag. Ballard denied the allegations, Japanese media reported.
But his arrest reignited decades-old resentment to U.S. military activity in Okinawa from local residents and beyond, the opposition warring with the strategic position the prefecture occupies close to Taiwan and the divided Korean peninsula. "Incidents like this demand we pause for reflection," Lieutenant General Benjamin Watson, the commander of the III Marine Expeditionary Force, previously said. Okinawa, despite only making up a tiny percentage of Japan's landmass, hosts many of the more than 50,000 U.S. military personnel—largely Marines—deployed to the country.
Roughly 70 percent of U.S. facilities and military zones in Japan are in Okinawa, the more than 30 American bases taking up around 8 percent of the prefecture's entire area. The U.S. occupied the islands making up Okinawa from the end of World War II until 1972. Since that year, there have been more than 6,400 arrests for criminal offenses linked to U.S. military personnel, according to statistics attributed to the prefecture's government.
Okinawa governor Genta Koja said earlier in October the "the U.S. military's human rights education has not functioned at all," while Japanese prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, called the alleged crime "heinous." The U.S. increased off-base American police patrols in Okinawa and breathalyzer tests in 2024 after two sexual assault cases involving U.S. military personnel came to light. Protesters gathered in front of the Japanese foreign ministry and the U.S. embassy in Tokyo when the news of Ballard's arrest emerged. Watson met with officials overseeing the U.S. footprint in Okinawa on Friday, the III Marine Expeditionary Force said, to review how much freedom U.S. personnel on the prefecture will have and find new ways to "reinforce standards, discipline [and] accountability." The Futenma base, where Ballard is stationed, sits in a densely-populated part of Okinawa and the U.S. agreed back in 1996 to return the facility to Japan.
Construction is underway at a long-delayed alternative site to house U.S. Marines in Okinawa, but the continued U.S. grip on Futenma decades after a deal to surrender American control has fueled anger toward troops in the prefecture. The deal was announced just months after three U.S. service members stationed in Okinawa were convicted of the 1995 rape of a 12-year-old girl, prompting thousands of people to take to the streets and demand an end to the U.S. presence on the island chain.
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