Japan Press Weekly

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2009 November 3 - 10 [OKINAWA]

Hit-and-run accident caused by U.S. serviceman in Okinawa

A dead body was found by a passerby in Yomitan Village. Okinawa prefectural police recognized the man, later identified as Hokama Masakazu, 66, as the victim of a hit-and-run accident.

On November 9, police seized a vehicle used by U.S. military personnel in connection with Hokama’s death. It was brought to a garage on November 7 close to the site where his body was found.

The site was close to the U.S. Yomitan Auxiliary Airfield and about 1km from the U.S. Army Torii Station, where the special forces (Green Berets) are stationed.

Near the site, a vehicle driven by a drunken U.S. serviceman hit a residents’ house in September last year, according to Japanese Communist Party Yomitan Village Assembly member Isa Shinbu.
- Akahata, November 10, 2009