US Military behavior in Japan

[dannavy85]

The latest incident in Japan with US servicemen has me wondering where the discipline has gone. It seems problems have increased every year since my old ship USS Midway left for decommissioning in 1992 and the US Government ended a long standing policy on "homesteading" shortly after. The latest outrage is the murder of a cab driver near Yokosuka naval base.

It takes me back to the incident Tezuka had with the American soldier, though isolated and seperate incidents like this happened before USS Midway's departure, the increasing frequency and severity of incidents since threaten to undermine what has been a beneficial relationship.

The whole situation places a negative view of Americans and drowns those things we have done for the communities we are based around and as one who served a long time with people I have great affections for, I can't help but feel a sense of rage at the current Commanders and their lack of control over our servicemen.

General Douglas MacArthur's control of the occupation period was absolutely blunt, crimes and injustices by American forces of occupation would not be tollerated. 57 American soldiers were given death sentences by MacArthur for rape and murder (all commutted by Harry Truman) and their Commanders were reduced in rank or removed for failure of discipline. Perhaps the same brute instrument should now be restored upon current US troops in Japan.

The latest incident should be the last one. If they can't control their troops properly, we should close our bases and leave Japan to salvage our reputation.

[cybotron]

These incidents would happen in any male population of any country of any navy in the port cities of Japan. Some are the work of antiforeigner Japanese intelligence ops. Others are individuals overcome by hormones.
It does not require Sherlock Holmes/

[dannavy85]

Nice kitty

[tonigirl1000]

Thanks Dannavy85 for serving in the military. People like you make this country great, thanks and hugs.

[jeffbert]

I recall reading that the Army's cheif executioner had killed about 350 men before the high point of his career, hanging the Nazi war criminals. I do not think that he executed enemy soldiers, though, so whom did he kill? It seems that as dannavy85 has said, disipline has deteriorated. But when soldiers are recruited rather than inducted, you cannot possibly expect to have the same degree of disipline--err, severity in penalties as you did before.

But on the other hand, I think that the end of the draft brought with it a respect for the soldiers that was absent during the draft. I do not want to introduce politics, but lack a better anology, so here goes:

Politicians seem to spend tax payers' $ all to eagerly; I attribute this to the ease at which they can raise taxes to cover their spending: thus, as far as they are concerned, there is no end to the $. Generals were all to eager to spend lives in ill-planned battles when there was literally no end to the men they could draft. I know that in the 50s & 60s, the helicopters were at least able to take wounded men to the medical units, but would we have all the body armor if not for the fact that soldier are recruited rather than drafted?

[tonigirl1000]

Please why would they do that? Don't they realize human life is precious, thanks and hugs.

[jeffbert]

In an ideal world all life would be precious, but in the real world it is often very cheap.

[tonigirl1000]

All human life is precious, just some people do not have the intelligence and morals to see that. Thanks and hugs everyone

[fafner]

All human life is precious, just some people do not have the intelligence and morals to see that. Thanks and hugs everyone

While I do agree on the preciousness of life, I must say that not respecting life is a lack of moral, but certainly not a lack of intelligence. An exemple would be Al Capone, who was able to evade justice for years while commiting various crimes (including murder). Al Capone certainly wasn't moral, but wasn't stupid either. He finally got caught because he didn't pay taxes on his income from crime

[jeffbert]

Besides that, mad scientists may be mad (insane), but to be scientists they must be intelligent.

Evil Geniuses such as Blofeld and Dr. Evil, though they are evil, because they are geniuses, they must be geniuses.

I just bought a book called "How to be a villain: evil laughs--" but now I cannot even find it. Please do not fret over this, tonigirl1000, the book was found in the 'humor' section.