Obama condemns slaying on Okinawa
U.S. military worker arrested as protests demand base closing
The U.S. is “committed to doing everything that we can to prevent any crimes from taking place of this sort.” President Obama
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe expressed “strong indignation” to President Obama during a face-to-face meeting Wednesday about the death of a young Japanese woman allegedly murdered by a U.S. military worker.
“As Japanese prime minister, I protested sternly to President Obama over the recent incident in Okinawa,” Abe said at a joint news conference after their meeting. “I feel strong indignation about the selfish and extremely mean crime,” Abe said, according to the Kyodo News Service.
Obama, who arrived in Ise-Shima, Japan, for the meeting of the Group of Seven industrialized nations, called the Okinawa crime “inexcusable” and said the United States is “committed to doing everything that we can to prevent any crimes from taking place of this sort.”
The crime has tapped into longsimmering resentment toward U.S. troops and bases on the island of Okinawa, an important hub of the U.S. “rebalance” to Asia, and threatens to derail the relocation of a key U.S. airbase there.
It could also imperil Abe’s plans to tighten the U.S.-Japan defense alliance as a counter to China’s growing military strength and assertiveness.
Abe and Obama initially planned to hold a one-on-one meeting early Thursday to discuss the G-7 agenda, along with U.S.-Japan bilateral issues. But that meeting was rescheduled for Wednesday night, shortly after Obama arrived from a three-day trip to Vietnam.
A former U.S. Marine, Kenneth Gadson, 32, was arrested May 19 in connection with the death of a woman who went missing in late April after telling a friend she was going for a walk.
Local media reported that Gadson, a civilian contractor at Kadena Air Base on Okinawa, was arrested after showing police where the woman’s body had been dumped in a wooded area. His attorney said Gadson confessed to raping and murdering the woman and dumping her body. Police said the victim had been chosen at random.
Earlier, U.S. Ambassador Caroline Kennedy was summoned to Japan’s Foreign Ministry to receive an official protest, and the senior U.S. military officer on Okinawa, Marine Lt. Gen. Lawrence Nicholson, traveled to the Okinawa governor’s office to formally apologize.
On Sunday, about 2,000 demonstrators gathered at the gates of a major U.S. base on Okinawa, chanting slogans and calling for the closure of all U.S. bases there.