Okinawa: Poll Finds 80% of Okinawans Oppose New US Base

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > Okinawa: Poll Finds 80% of Okinawans Oppose New US Base

spacetoaster: Feb 10, 2014

drilldo squirt posted:

Do you have any articles I can read about this?

I googled the island/dating and found a lot of blogs.

# ¿ Jan 21, 2016 17:12

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# ¿ May 8, 2024 13:16

spacetoaster: Feb 10, 2014

Mange Mite posted:

Lol if you believe this

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2008/02/26/community/u-s-military-crime-sofa-so-good/#.VqEgy_krKUk

http://www.stripes.com/news/okinawa-crime-statistics-contradict-community-perceptions-on-guam-1.51863

# ¿ Jan 21, 2016 19:20

spacetoaster: Feb 10, 2014

Mange Mite posted:

If you know anything about crime statistics, you'd know that arrest rates are pretty much one of the worst measures to use. Doubly so if your numbers specifically exclude the place where the target population lives. Not to mention the whole "blanket curfew" thing that applied during the period. There's the related issue that arrest rates drop whenever language and cultural barriers exist. This is a debate you see when people talk about the "true" crime rates in immigrant enclaves in the early 20th century, as well as in the modern context.

Of course, if we had better numbers or used better outcome measures, then we could be more definite, but conveniently the military tries to not release actual figures. And attempts by journalists to investigate don't find promising results. See: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/09/sexual-assaults-us-military-japan-prison-unlikely

And anyone familiar with Army or Marine JAG will know how this works - crimes against locals, especially vulnerable populations (e.g., foreigners, prostitutes, etc.), are covered up by the military + local authorities whenever possible.

This also accords with the crime rates of soldiers stationed in the US, which magically seems to resolve when they go overseas to a degree depending on how amenable the host government is. (see: Germany vs. Japan, etc.)

I guess I don't, but what would be a better way to figure out if the U.S. military is nothing but a bunch of criminal rape monsters in relation to the local populace? Also, base access is heavily restricted. I don't believe locals are just hanging out on post to get assaulted and then have it covered up.

quote:

Now let�s turn to the U.S. military in Okinawa. There are about 42,570 SOFA-covered Americans living in the prefecture. In 2006, 63 SOFA-covered individuals were arrested for penal code offenses. Eleven arrests for special law violations can be estimated. A little math using these numbers gives us an arrest rate of 0.174 percent, about half that of Japanese in Okinawa (0.342) and the entire country (0.351).

Shocked? I am! It�s particularly surprising when you consider that almost half the U.S. military population is 25 years old or younger. In fact, 80 percent of U.S. service members are younger than 35. And men comprise nearly 85 percent of the U.S. military force.

If we were to attribute 80 percent of arrests of Japanese in Okinawa to men and women aged 15 to 64, a group that makes up 65.1 percent of the prefecture, the arrest rate among Japanese in this age bracket in Okinawa would rise to 0.420 percent. In fact, we would have to attribute 67 percent of arrests in Okinawa to those under the age of 15 and over the age of 64 before the arrest rate of Japanese in the 15-to-64 age bracket would fall below that of SOFA-covered individuals in the area. Shocking indeed!

Let�s not pretend, though, that living among foreigners trained to kill is Disney in fatigues. On-base arrest data is not released. Environmental issues and land-use concerns abound. And noise has always been a problem.

However, there were no arrests in Japan of SOFA-covered individuals for rape or sexual assault in 2006, even though the NPA did arrest 1,094 Japanese for rape and another 4,733 for sexual offenses � that�s nearly 16 a day.

# ¿ Jan 21, 2016 20:34

spacetoaster: Feb 10, 2014

Mange Mite posted:

Most rapists are not arrested at the scene of the crime, they are accused later and arrested where they live. This applies to many other crimes as well. None of those would be recorded as an arrest by Japanese Police.

What is the SOFA for then? You commit a crime off base you can absolutely be arrested by the local police on base. Granted, normally the MP's will snag you (if you're on post) and hand you over.

# ¿ Jan 21, 2016 23:05

spacetoaster: Feb 10, 2014

Mange Mite posted:

If you are arrested on base, those will not go into the statistics you were citing because they specifically do not include arrests on base.

I will admit that the article in question doesn't include blotter reports from the bases in okinawa.

Mange Mite posted:

And while you can be arrested, whether you are is a very tricky political matter and much of the time, unless it's something too extreme to cover up (murder, rape of child, violent rape of non-prosititute) local police will not push for custody, and leave it to military authorities who often just use NJP or similar internal punishments.

This is the part I'm curious about. How do you know this? Like, your saying that all the rapes, and other crimes, are covered up by the Okinawan and Military authorities? That's pretty huge.

spacetoaster fucked around with this message at 01:22 on Jan 22, 2016

# ¿ Jan 22, 2016 00:45

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# ¿ May 8, 2024 13:16

spacetoaster: Feb 10, 2014

Chomskyan posted:

Which is why theres a need for a fair and equal peace process which at this time the US could host from a position strength. A position of strength that it probably won't hold in the future, I might add.

You should read the china thread in gbs. Might change your mind on the future might of china.

http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3759608&userid=0&perpage=40&pagenumber=1

# ¿ Jan 23, 2016 05:03

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