There has been an uptick in COVID cases in Okinawa with five of them being US military personnel:
The Okinawa prefectural government building (Asahi Shimbun file photo)
Okinawa prefecture on Sunday reported 231 newly infected people, a pandemic one-day high for the prefecture, according to its coronavirus tracking website. Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suge declared a state of emergency there starting Sunday until June 20, according to public broadcaster NHK.
The Okinawa prefectural government is asking individuals traveling to Okinawa to have a negative COVID-19 test within 72 hours of their arrival, according to a Monday post on Yokota Air Base’s Facebook page.
“This is not a requirement, but travelers are advised to check with their airlines prior to any scheduled departures for any airline specific changes,” the message said.
Okinawa expects bars and restaurants that serve alcohol to close and shopping malls and sport clubs to close at 8 p.m., according to NHK.
President Biden is sending one of his buddies to Japan:
In this Jan. 15, 2017, file photo, then Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel speaks during a news conference in Chicago. (AP Photo)
President Joe Biden is expected to nominate former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel to serve as the U.S. ambassador to Japan, according to a person familiar with the president’s decision.
The person, who was not authorized to comment publicly about the matter and spoke on condition of anonymity Tuesday, said the White House plans to announce Emanuel’s nomination later this month.
Emanuel is a former three-term congressman who served as Barack Obama’s first White House chief of staff and was a senior adviser in Bill Clinton’s administration. Biden had considered naming Emanuel to serve as his transportation secretary but ultimately passed him over in the face of fierce opposition from some in the liberal wing of the Democratic Party and liberal activists.
You can read more at the link, but a good thing about being an ambassador to Japan is that if he needs to send a dead fish to anyone they will be easy find.
I wonder if anyone on the Korean left is going to claim this is training to assault Dokdo:
American, Japanese, French and Australian commanders salute their flags during the opening ceremony for exercise Jeanne D’Arc at Camp Ainoura in Sasebo, Japan, Tuesday, May 11, 2021.
French forces are training on Japanese soil for the first time during drills this week that will include beach raids alongside U.S. Marines and Japanese amphibious troops supported by an Australian frigate.
The Jeanne D’Arc 21 exercise began Tuesday at Camp Ainoura, home of Japan’s Amphibious Rapid Deployment Brigade at Sasebo in Nagasaki prefecture, III Marine Expeditionary Force said in a statement Wednesday.
The brigade, modeled on U.S. Marines, has about 100 people in the exercise, including infantry, engineers and command and control troops, according to Marine Capt. Thomas Delaney, a firepower control team leader on Kyushu.
Japan’s has seen a recent surge in coronavirus cases which includes USFJ personnel:
Travelers in coronavirus masks wait for their trains at Kamakura Station in Kanagawa prefecture, Japan, April 27, 2021. AKIFUMI ISHIKAWA/STARS AND STRIPES
U.S. Forces Japan reported 47 COVID-19 patients at 10 installations across Japan on April 27.
Sasebo Naval Base, on the southern island of Kyushu, reported via Facebook on Sunday that two people tested positive during a medical screening and were quarantined.
The Marine Corps had three new COVID-19 patients between Saturday and Monday, one each at Marine Corps Air Station Futenma and Camps Hansen and Courtney, according to a Facebook post by Marine Corps Installations Pacific on Monday.
Like other places in the world there has been a spring time surge in the coronavirus in Japan that has effected the US military troops as well:
Niki Franceschi, 30, a spouse and Marine veteran from Ohio, receives the one-shot vaccine by Johnson & Johnson at Camp Foster, Okinawa, Tuesday, April 13, 2021.
U.S. bases in Japan reported another 26 people had contracted the coronavirus between April 7 and 6 p.m. Tuesday.
The Marine Corps announced 16 new cases on Okinawa and one at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni near Hiroshima. Kadena Air Base reported another eight patients between April 7 and Monday. Yokota Air Base in western Tokyo said one person tested positive sometime between Saturday and Tuesday.
Via a reader tip comes this interesting read about Lee Hak-rae who was a convicted war criminal from World War II who served as a prison guard during the construction of the Thai-Burma railway line:
Lee Hak-rae, who has died aged 96, was the last surviving Korean war criminal from World War II. He joined the Japanese army at the age of 17 and was sent to guard POWs in Thailand. Photo: Reuters
The last Korean to be convicted of war crimes after serving in the Japanese military during World War II has died without receiving the apology and compensation he insisted Tokyo owed him for his suffering. Lee Hak-rae, 96, died on Sunday. (…….)
Interviewed in 1988, Lee said he had never abused prisoners in his charge and that he had been frightened of them because of their stature.
That claim was undermined by the diaries of Sir Edward “Weary” Dunlop, the Australian army colonel who served in the Medical Corps and was captured at Java in 1942. In one passage, Dunlop wrote that he had become so incensed at the brutal treatment by “The Lizard” – the nickname the POWs gave to Lee – that he found a length of wood and hid alongside a jungle path he knew Lee would be taking. His intention was to kill Lee and conceal the body in the undergrowth, but he changed his mind after realising that he and other POWs would be held accountable for Lee’s death. (……)
“The Japanese guards were bad, but the Koreans and the Formosans were the worst,” he told The Daily Telegraph. “These were men who the Japanese looked down on as colonials, so they needed to show they were as good as the Japanese. And they had no one else to take it out on other than us POWs.”
You can read more at the link, but Lee after the war was originally sentenced to death for abusing prisoners and on appeal it was reduced to jail time. He ended up serving 11 years in prison and was released in 1956.
An increase in coronavirus cases on Okinawa has led to a ban on off base dining again:
A hospitalman fills a syringe with the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine at Naval Hospital Okinawa on Camp Foster, Jan. 27, 2021.
The Marine Corps and Air Force ordered an indefinite end Monday to indoor dining at off-base restaurants on Okinawa, citing an increase in coronavirus cases on the island and at their respective installations.
Since March 5, the Marines have seen “a steady rise in COVID-19 cases both on and off-base,” Marine Corps Installations Pacific announced in a Facebook post. “Due to this result, the [health protection condition] measures were re-evaluated and changed for the health and safety of everyone on island.”
The sharp decline in coronavirus cases in Japan has led USFJ to ease its travel restrictions:
The commander of Yokota Air Base on Tuesday lifted the coronavirus ban on off-duty travel to the most popular districts in Japan’s capital city and reduced the restricted movement period for vaccinated travelers.
Shibuya, Shinjuku and Roppongi, known for their crowded city streets, shopping, restaurants and nightlife, are open once again to people associated with Yokota, the headquarters in western Tokyo of U.S. Forces Japan, 5th Air Force and the 374th Airlift Wing.
Here is an issue that women in Japan are looking to see addressed:
Mari Inoue is a 34-year-old English professor in Tokyo. She got engaged to her boyfriend Kotaro Usui three years ago. A wedding, they say, is out of the question.
It’s not the pandemic that is preventing them, but an archaic Japanese law that requires married couples to adopt the same surname. (…..)
Japan is among only a few advanced economies to stop couples holding separate surnames after marriage – through a law that explicitly discriminates against women, according to a UN committee.
You can read more at the link, but lawsuits have failed to change the law because the judges think this is something that should be addressed through legislation. Will women care enough to make this a major election issue? I guess we will find out in the coming months and years.
The Japanese have responded to the Chinese escalation over the Senkakus:
Japan on Friday matched a move by rival China and will permit its coast guard to fire on foreign vessels attempting to land on the Senkakus, two square miles of uninhabited islands in the East China Sea.
The two countries’ coast guards regularly face off around the chain as Chinese vessels arrive to shadow or intimidate Japanese fishing vessels and Japan’s coast guard arrives to drive them away. Japan controls the islands, although Taiwan and China, which calls them Diaoyu Dao, also make claims.
