日米の国旗（イメージ）
琉球新報社 The past few weeks have been challenging for all of us who are stewards of the U.S.-Japan alliance following the alleged incidents involving U.S. servicemembers. Should the Japanese legal system find the allegations to be true, then we will have fallen well short of our own expectations and values. We must also acknowledge that it has been a difficult time for the people of Okinawa.
We would like to express directly to the people of Okinawa our deep regret over these alleged incidents. As guests of Japan and guarantors of our shared peace and security, we can do better, we should do better, and, crucially, we will do better. Japan is our ally, and the Japanese people are our friends and hosts.
It’s clear that our current protections and procedures are not meeting the standards we set for ourselves. While we continue to support local law enforcement efforts as the Japanese legal process runs its course, we are seizing this moment to rethink how we can better embody our core values as Americans and allies. We need to strengthen the ties of trust and friendship between ourselves and the communities that host our bases.
That is why we are taking concrete steps in three key areas to improve how we train and educate our personnel stationed in Okinawa:
Education: Senior U.S. military leaders in Okinawa are contacting every single military member to reinforce our core values, expectations for conduct, and regulations for off-base “liberty” time.
Monitoring: We have increased sobriety checks for drivers leaving military installations and military law enforcement personnel are increasing and enhancing patrols in Okinawa.
Uniform rules: We will introduce one set of liberty time rules across all branches of the armed forces, so that every service member, regardless of branch, follows the same rules of conduct and behavior.
We are constantly striving to do better in our efforts to meet the high standards expected of all American personnel—wherever they might serve—and expected by our hosts. But we must also improve the way we communicate among ourselves and with the local Okinawan community, which expects transparency and honesty from us, their local leaders, and Tokyo.
For decades, our servicemen and women have trained alongside Japanese allies and lived alongside Japanese communities. We have always been grateful for the gracious hospitality we have received every day from residents across the archipelago, whether in Okinawa, Sasebo, Yokosuka, Misawa, or elsewhere.
On their own time, U.S. personnel across Okinawa build bridges and form lifelong connections with local communities through language exchanges, beach cleanups, sports events, and base tours. But the recent alleged incidents have undermined those community efforts. Which is why we must now repay the trust and goodwill invested in us by the people of Okinawa with concrete actions, not just easy words.
While U.S. forces in Japan serve alongside the nation’s Self-Defense Forces to provide security and deterrence across the Indo-Pacific region, our relationships with the communities that host us are every bit as vital.
Our two nations and peoples have forged a deep friendship over many decades. There have been challenging moments along the way, but the measure of any relationship is not the absence of disagreement, but the ability to overcome those difficulties, find common ground, and become stronger and more resilient. We have done so in the past and will do so, again, now.
