Three cheers for Commander of US Forces Japan, Air Force Lt. General Rice. Mr. Rice stated the obvious, as I’ve been doing for a while, that US troops stationed in Japan commit much fewer crimes, on average, than the Japanese. Sure, I know the fact that we commit fewer crimes, doesn’t make it any better when we’re involved, but the Japanese public should take a look at it’s own crime problem before being so quick to label the US military in Japan as a bunch of troublemakers. Lt. Gen. Rice commented on the US military crime rate and what I assume is the obvious bias against US military service members in Japan, in a recent news article:
The serious crime rate for US service members off their bases is “approximately half” that of the Japanese population, he told reporters.
Considering Japan has a low crime rate, “our ability to maintain our rate that is 50 percent less than the general population here is a strong indication that our actions are having an effect,” he argued.
A series of incidents including the alleged murder of a Tokyo taxi driver by a US deserter and a Marine’s sexual abuse of a 14-year-old girl in Okinawa has caused anger in local communities and triggered mass protests.
Amid public uproar, the US military pledged stricter discipline and education for its 40,000 troops in Japan.
“Despite all of our efforts, I believe there is often a misperception about the level of crimes committed by US service members,” Rice said.
I have to say I highly respect this man, as he’s shown he has the testicular fortitude to essentially tell the Japanese people to look at their own fucked up countrymen before acting like we’re the cause of all their problems. I know it won’t change much, and everytime we get a traffic ticket, we’ll have another thousand protesters at the gate screaming “Go Home USA!” That is, of course, right after they come to an open-base event and buy as much Anthony’s Pizza as they can carry home.
I got this story from one of the foreigner-in-Japan type websites I frequent, FuckedGaijin. Other posts in the thread question the math involved in Mr. Rice’s statement, since there are just under 50,000 US service member in Japan, and over 127 million Japanese residents. I have to agree that the numbers don’t quite add up, but I’d be willing to bet the percent of crimes committed by Japan-based US service members is substantially less than what USFJ stated. Unfortunately, there’s not enough solid data, such as breakdown per crime, etc., to really make an accurate analysis.
Additionally, one of the thread comments from “MeInJapanLongTime” brought up a good point, also arguing that the percentage of crimes by US military could be much lower when taking into account rotations, and lack of experience with living in Japan:
Well, when folks quote numbers that X number of crimes have been committed over the last decade, I believe it is important to take into account that (and this is a major wag in the numbers) there were perhaps 5 “major” (rape, murder, and such) crimes out of perhaps 400,000 military members that rotated through Japan. That drops the “percentages” significantly.
In a perfect world there would be no crime. No society is perfect, regardless of how much military training and discipline you instill in that group.
If you transplanted 40,000 Japanese businessmen into the US and then monitored them for drunk driving, I wonder what those statistics would look like.
My point here isn’t to say one group would do better than the other, simply that it’s not a perfect world, and there are idiots in every culture who will break laws and do idiotic crap. You can’t weed them all out. The US military tries its best to do so.
How many AFN propaganda commercials does it take to get it through people’s heads not to drink and drive?
Apply that same logic to the general populace. How many public service announcements and restrictions on sales and so forth would actually bring drunk driving to zero?
It’ll never happen. There are always idiots out there who think they’re above the law or “won’t be caught.”
If leaders should get anything out of this, it’s that it’s OK to call bullshit when you see it, instead of just bowing and mumbling sorry.
Comments 2
Jim,
I have read some of your other posts regarding this subject and have come to this conclusion. Mr. Rice is basically just echoing what you have been saying all along. Except that he is in a Political position and just can’t tell the Japanese to shut the hell up like you can so easily in your blog. In accordance with his position Mr. Rice has to do it in a Political and tactful manner utilizing statistics to back up what he says.
It will never get better for the US servicemen who serve there…after all this is Japan. They are a proud people and we did nuke them once upon a time. Defeat is a hard pill to swallow even 60+ years later.
Posted 20 Jul 2008 at 3:25 pm ¶If they really don’t want us here, we should just tell the Japanese government that we’re leaving for a minimum of five years. Imagine what would happen to the local (as in Yokosuka) economy, and it will be a similar story in Rappongi, and any other place that us “Stupid Foreigners” like to congregate.
Erstwhile: Russia will take the Kuril and Sakhailin islands, NK will grow some more balls & launch more missiles over Japan & China will park more subs outside of their coastal waters.
They would beg for us to come back!
Posted 21 Jul 2008 at 5:06 am ¶Post a Comment
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