Herro Flom Japan

Somebody better get fired over this. In happened in of all places, Dallas.

Doors opened to the public at 10 a.m., and for the first hour security officers scanned each person who came in and checked their belongings in a process that kept movement of the long lines at a crawl. Then, about 11 a.m., an order came down to allow the people in without being checked.

Several Dallas police officers said it worried them that the arena was packed with people who got in without even a cursory inspection.

They spoke on condition of anonymity because, they said, the order was made by federal officials who were in charge of security at the event.

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This is getting ridiculous. The first incident was intolerable, what are we up to now, four in the past month?

Details are sketchy, but a Philippine woman living in Okinawa claims that she was attacked by two US marines in a hotel on the night of the 17th. Police are investigating, and the two marines have been identified and detained.

Meanwhile, since February 20th military personnel and their family members (over 55,000 people in total) stationed in Okinawa and at Iwakuni near Hiroshima have been forbidden to leave their bases until further notice. I feel no sympathy for them whatsoever, and I completely understand the indignation felt by the citizens of Okinawa. The military either needs make a very, very serious effort to get its act together or leave Okinawa entirely, preferably the latter. At this point, it seems like the entire country is against them being there.

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Update: Looks like Asahi got some of the facts wrong. Today it's being reported that the local police are seeking an arrest warrant for only one person in the US Army, and it's being investigated as a rape instead of an attack.

And we all know that the US military isn't going to pull up stakes and leave, no matter how many crimes are committed by its members. The common perception among citizens and politicians from Okinawa is that every time someone in the military commits a crime, US officials offer a token response but nothing ever really changes.

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This BBC article has a more level-headed report on the latest incident and how the Japanese media is focusing a disproportionate amount of attention lately on crimes committed in Okinawa by members of the US military. For example, here's something I haven't read on any Japanese news site:

Last year just 46 US military personnel were arrested on Okinawa in connection with criminal cases, a tiny proportion of those stationed there, and that figure was less than half the number five years ago.

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As if relations weren't bad enough already between the US military and the citizens of Okinawa, a 54 year old resident of Nagoshi City found Corporal John Cody Jake passed out drunk on her sofa at 4 am this morning and called the police. They're not sure how he got into her house, but after the cops were finally able to wake him up, it's obvious how he exited.

P.S. Over the weekend another marine was arrested for drunk driving. Okinawans are really getting sick of this crap, to say the least.

Maybe I should change the name of this blog to "Dumbass people in Japanese news."

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• Save Net Radio Before May 15

I don't know how many people are familiar with popular websites in Japan, but 2ch is the most widely used online forum. The interface is absolute crap, but that's par for the course when it comes to Japanese websites. Check out the Wikipedia article for more info. It's pretty interesting, especially the story about Densha Otoko.

On the first of this month a 23 year old vagrant used his cell phone to post a message on 2ch saying that he was going to kill an elementary schoolgirl in Chiba Prefecture on Feb 15 at 3pm. As a result, over 15,000 community volunteers and parents in Chiba were mobilized to ensure the safety of children going to and from the nearly 1,300 schools in the prefecture. When the police tracked down the person who posted the threats, he said he wrote the messages because he thought the replies were funny. The authorities disagreed.

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Another link, so you can see what a typical 2ch thread looks like.

If you want to see how far and wide his threats reverberated through the net, Google this:  千葉の女子小学生を２月１５日１５時に殺しちゃいます

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Early this morning a 31 year old unemployed man sneaked up behind a 41 year old taxi driver taking a wizz in a public toilet at a shrine in Shinjuku and whacked him in the head a few times with a hammer. Two guys passing by heard the driver's screams and held the attacker until the police arrived. The attacker said he wanted to die, and figured if he killed somebody he'd get the death penalty. Luckily the victim wasn't seriously injured. Must not have been a sledge hammer.

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