GIs in Japan Cautioned to Avoid Missteps

Amid continuing resentment in Japan over the U.S. military presence, Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen on Tuesday cautioned American troops here to avoid the “one bad deed” that can hurt the military’s image and set back their nation’s interests.

Eighteen months after the rape of an Okinawan girl involving three U.S. servicemen set off widespread anti-military protests, Cohen told the troops that a single misstep can catch headlines “and changes people’s perceptions of what we are doing as a nation.”

“You’re not only soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines, you also are ambassadors, and you have to keep that in mind,” Cohen said. He met with members of the 374th Air Wing at Yokota, outside Tokyo, then visited the U.S. naval base at Yokosuka to talk to sailors of the 7th Fleet.

His stops came during a two-day visit to Japan, his first as secretary, in which he met with Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto and other senior Japanese officials to discuss a range of security issues.

Negotiations over those issues have been clouded by tensions in Japan over its half-century-old military alliance with the United States--arguments that have been inflamed by the misdeeds of GIs.

Reaction to the Okinawa rape continues to echo. On Sunday, several thousand Japanese demonstrated against the 40 U.S. military installations on the island.

And the critics gained new ammunition when it was disclosed recently that an American sailor at Yokosuka had been arrested for allegedly striking his 21-year-old Japanese girlfriend and breaking her collarbone during an argument.

“The fact is, we have to be very sensitive about all this stuff,” said one U.S. military officer. “We’ve talked to all the troops about this, over and over. But the people who don’t want the U.S. here will seize anything, whenever they can.”

The military’s official behavior too has been called into question. When it was learned earlier this year that the Army had fired low-radiation depleted uranium shells at a tiny island off Okinawa, critics said that fact showed the dangers of the military’s presence. A Nagasaki newspaper said the U.S. forces had been firing “little atomic bombs,” according to one U.S. officer.

Cohen has a particular reason to want the troops on their best behavior this week: The Japanese legislature is debating a proposal to extend land leases for U.S. installations that expire May 14.

On other matters, the defense secretary has been urging Japanese leaders to make more specific pledges on defense guidelines that spell out how the Japanese armed forces would help the Americans in a war or humanitarian emergency.

The U.S. government wants a pledge that if such an emergency occurs--on the Korean peninsula, for example--Japan will allow U.S. troops passage across the country, permit some use of Japanese facilities and help in noncombat areas.

Cohen also wants the Japanese to provide at least an interim answer to the U.S. request that Tokyo take part in its effort to develop a “theater missile defense” to shield troops from missile attack. Japanese officials, their government strapped for cash these days, have questioned the project’s price and feasibility.

Cohen and aides stress that, with the North Koreans believed close to testing a new missile that could reach Japan, this is a Japanese problem in any case.

Cohen left Japan today for South Korea and two days of talks with that country’s leaders.