Erik Rick comments

AlexBecu, group punishment was the default in the 14 years I had been stationed in Japan. 1 person does something terrible, 10,000 people would get punished.

Also, at least in the last 10-15 years, punishment has not usually been light in the major incidents I saw. The days of criminals running back to base to be safe from prosecution are long gone. At least that was what I saw.

Kazuaki Shimazaki, I think it comes down to how much authority a school administrator has over their staff. Where is the line between what an administrator can order a staff member to do and what they cannot. I don't think anyone believes that in this day and age someone has absolute authority. So, how much does that administrator have? How much of this ruling was based on the actual authority of that administrator, and how much was based on the "the protruding nail will be hammered" traditions, which generally are not actual rules, but simply expected conduct...

Let me repeat. Moving the Futenma air station to another place on the same island, even if the new location is less densely populated, won’t eliminate the hazards U.S. military aircraft pose nor reduce the burden that Okinawa bears as a whole.

Voice, I don't think anyone really believes moving the air-base will eliminate aircraft hazards, I mean aircraft are high speed flying lumps of metal, but can you honestly say by putting an airfield in an areas less populated won't REDUCE the risks?

Tyler,

Thank you for posting the references.

What total arrogance... because they want to concentrate their attention in the East they are demanding that the countries there boost their military spending? Who on earth do they think they are?

I think the intent of the message is that other countries who plan to have the US Military involved in aiding them in regional or local issues should be prepared to offer more in terms of military capability than was previously expected. Similar to our change in expectations from our NATO allies.

The great US empire is declining so they are trying to find friends in Asia.

You make it sound like reaching out diplomatically is a bad thing.

J.basher, Bertie, I really think we want to sell more than weapons. There is a lot more to our economy than the military industrial complex. Cars for example would be great if we could get a fair shake on... Of course our prices will probably still not be that competitive in some countries, but I expect what remains of Detroit's auto-industry will still see some gains. I haven't seen anything involved in the TPP that will force individuals to buy anything. Yes, supply and demand, quality of goods, prices etc will determine the success or failure of the TPP for each participant.

I am a little disappointing that the time of the flights was not included. Not because 10:01 makes it less right or wrong, but because providing the time would just be better journalism. Todd thank you for including the text from the agreement, that also could have been included in the article for a sense of context.

bertie, thanks. And with regard to you comment "...many who are bored stiff here, who rarely go further than Gate 2 and wish they were somewhere else." Sad but very true (although I might argue they are bored stiff and wish to go somewhere else BECAUSE they go no further than gate 2).

While I agree that this is blown way out of proportion (like most incidents by American military in Japan), it's also seems disingenuous to say he did nothing wrong. Trespassing is wrong. I don't think it's really news worthy in this case, but it is still wrong.

Now the article does not make clear how long he was in the garden or what he was doing while he was in the garden, or the layout of the yard and where on the property the garden was. There just isn't enough info here to make a very clear call on this particular incident.

An just to be clear I am talking only about this specific incident, not the broader question of American Military in Japan up to this point. I just have one comment on that issue and that is in response to bertie. Some of us DO want to be in Japan. Try not to paint all our opinions with the same brush.

It could be because Okinawans hate the marines and blow every incident out of proportion.... or it could be that the bases on Kyushu are air force, not navy, and thus are better behaved

Frungy, It was the comment above that threw me off. It seems to equate Marines with Navy, and while all Marines are Department of the Navy, not all Navy (including almost every DoN person on Kyushu) are not Marines.

As for the Air Force not having any major incidents within the last deckade... It certainly depends on how you define major... I am quite certain someone else can share some major or nearly major incidents that have happened by Airmen, but that is not really the direction I want to go.

As for the idea of replacing the Marines with the Air Force... The Air Force and Marines have different missions and capabilities. You can't just swap out service members like car parts and have the system still run right... They are Marines with years (in some cases decades) of specialized training. As such it would take years (in some cases decades) to train enough Air Force personel to perform the missions the Marines do.

Frungy, I have to correct your statement about the bases on Kyushu. Fleet Activities Sasebo is a sizable Naval base. There is a few small Air Force units scatered around Kyushu, but not a large presence of any military branches other than Navy. The wikipedia page has a pretty good summary of where each facility is, but feel free to check around other sites as well. Wikipedia certainly may not be 100% up to date... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Forces_Japan

Bertie, your statement about relocating the US military seemed to imply that there was not a US Military presence near Osaka or Tokyo, but there already is (depending on if you consider Iwakuni close to Osaka or not)

Jack there has been some changes for Navy as far as the ability to stay in Japan. The screening process for remaining in Japan has gotten simpler, and no longer has an arbitrary limit of 7 years in Japan. I am not sure how much it has changed for the other services though.

Bored ToTears, yes I am stationed in Japan. Which base are you at? Even on a little base like White Beach there are things that happen that not everyone knows about (of course some stuff goes through the rumor mill at the speed of light even on a big base).

I have specifically heard of a service member walking into and passing out on the couch of a senior Officer in Sasebo... Can't remember if it was a CO or a Chief of Staff... I want to say it was the base CO... This was quite a few years ago though.

You'll notice that these idiots aren't pulling this crap on base. You don't hear about a drunk 24 year old walking into a CO's house do you? As somebody mentioned above, you don't hear about them walking into strangers houses back in the States either. Why? Because they KNOW what would happen to them if they did. They're too comfortable here, they know they can get away with thier bull$hit behavior.

BoredToTears, some of these kinds of incidents DO happen on base, but on base none of the parties involved are likely to go to the press off base, so you won't normally hear about it.

Bertie I have to correct you on your comment about where we (the US military) are kept. We have a sizable presence in quite a few other places other than Okinawa and Yokosuka (Sasebo, Iwakuni and Atsugi just to name a few).

The wiki has a pretty thorough list http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Forces_Japan

have you noticed that the curfew means in effect nothing, these incidents are happening regardless of it.

The curfew means more than nothing. It keeps more of the law abiding military members off the streets during the most troublesome hours making it easier for shore patrol and MP's to identify trouble makers. It also makes it slightly easier to bust those members for not just doing something stupid but now also for disobeying a direct order. Certainly not going to fix everything, but it makes it easier to get the low hanging fruit.