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US Marines Urged to Pull out from Okinawa
The Chatan town assembly in Japan's southernmost prefecture of Okinawa on Thursday unanimously adopted two resolutions demanding the withdrawal of all US Marines from the prefecture and the resignation of the top US commander in Okinawa, Kyodo News reported.
The town assembly passed the two resolutions following a series of recent arson attacks in the town, just northeast of prefectural capital Naha, allegedly committed by a US serviceman, and an e-mail by Earl Hailston, commander of the US forces in Okinawa Prefecture, who called local Japanese officials "nuts" and "wimps. "
The resolutions urged US President George W. Bush and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori to get rid of US Marines from Okinawa.
They also asked the United States to hand over to local authorities Lance Corporal Kurt Billie of Camp Hansen, a suspect in a series of arson attacks in Chatan in mid-January, and urged both Tokyo and Washington to revise the Japan-US Status-of- Forces Agreement.
The resolutions said the assembly lodges protest "with full resentment" a refusal by the US Marine Corps to hand Billie over to the Japanese authorities citing the bilateral agreement.
Promises by the US forces in Japan to tighten discipline among military personnel have never been kept, the resolutions said.
The resolutions also demanded Bush immediately replace Hailston.
In reference to Okinawa Governor Keiichi Inamine and many Okinawa officials, Hailston said in an internal e-mail sent to US officers in Okinawa, "I think they are all nuts and a bunch of wimps."
The e-mail triggered a political furor in Japan after it was reported earlier this month. The Okinawa city assembly adopted a resolution demanding Hailston's dismissal earlier this month and a similar resolution has been adopted by the Ishikawa city assembly in central Okinawa.
Okinawa Prefecture accounts for only 0.6 percent of Japan's territory but 75 percent of the land occupied by US forces in Japan.
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