Revision of SOFA is a pressing national demand -- Akahata editorial, March 23Calls are increasing for the Japan-U.S. Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) to be revised.
According to reports, 28 prefectural assemblies, including those which do not host U.S. military bases, have adopted resolutions calling for a drastic revision of the SOFA.
In Okinawa Prefecture, which has the highest concentration of U.S. bases in Japan, a movement calling for a SOFA revision is gaining impetus as it did in the wake of the 1995 gang rape of a young girl by U.S. marines.
Under the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty, the SOFA stipulates the status of U.S. forces stationed in Japan and guarantees them various extraterritorial rights. The SOFA is a causal factor of the many crimes and accidents committed by U.S. servicemen.
No control in Japan
The Japanese people were enraged by the 1995 gang rape incident, particularly because the Japanese police were not allowed to detain the suspects for interrogation.
In a recent trial for a robbery in Okinawa resulting in bodily injury, the three suspects admitted that they were not restrained in the base and were allowed to get together. The prosecutors pointed out that there was a possibility that they collaborated beforehand to make sure that their stories would be consistent.
We must not overlook the fact that Japan has no jurisdiction over crimes, including serious injury on Japanese nationals by U.S. soldiers if a U.S. commander says that they were on duty.
There is an endless list of crimes by U.S. soldiers, including murder, rape, and arson, in which victims are Japanese nationals. Okinawans are now afraid that serious crimes will increase when soldiers return from the war in Iraq, just like during the Vietnam War.
The Koizumi Cabinet rejects the call for a revision of the SOFA. It is reported that in negotiations over ways to improve the implementation of the treaty, the Japanese and U.S. governments have basically agreed to allow the presence of U.S. government personnel during interrogations of U.S. soldiers suspected of committing serious crimes. It amounts to increasing the extraterritorial rights for the U.S. forces if the treaty allows the presence of a lawyer for a criminal U.S. soldier, which is denied to Japanese criminals.
Crimes committed by U.S. forces in Japan and the extraterritorial rights protecting them are only part of the problem.
While environmental protection standards are applied to the U.S. Forces at home, the USFJ are exempt from such regulations even though deafening noise from touch-and-goes is disrupting the peaceful lives of the residents and live-shell bombings are destroying land near the bases, creating "free fire zones".
Amendments to the SOFA proposed late last year by the Okinawa Bar Association calls for an article to be added to provide that the U.S. Forces "shall comply with Japanese domestic laws and ordinances". However, the central government does not even try to make this minimal request.
The SOFA, along with the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty, is at the very root of Japan's deep subordination to the U.S., distorting Japan's political, military, diplomatic, and economic policies as well as its national interests. It was because of this extraordinary submission to the United States that the Koizumi Cabinet readily expressed its support for the U.S.-led Iraq War even though 70 percent of the world's governments were opposed to it.
The contingency laws make local governments more apprehensive about a likely increase in crimes by U.S. forces in Japan, which led them to call for the SOFA's amendment. The Koizumi Cabinet is trying to use the whole set of war contingency laws to allow Japan to be used as a sortie and logistics base for the USFJ in U.S. preemptive wars and mobilize the public for wars. The urgent need now is for us to oppose each government step to mobilize the nation for U.S. wars and call for the SOFA to be revised so that U.S. forces' outrageous acts will be curbed.
As if under total occupation
It is quite extraordinary that Japan, even in the 21st century, continues its subservience that began when it was under total U.S. occupation (which ended in 1951).
A complete solution to this abnormal situation requires us to abrogate the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty and get all U.S. bases withdrawn from Japan. At the same time, majority public opinion is in favor of the call for the SOFA's revision. This is why the movement for a revision to the agreement is gathering momentum among a broad section of people regardless of political party or organization.
In its 23rd Congress Resolution last January, the Japanese Communist Party stressed that the demand for the SOFA's revision and the lifting of extraterritorial rights for the USFJ is a national demand.
Let us join forces to urge the government to take concrete steps to achieve this end. (end)