US military chief apologizes for calling Okinawa leaders "nuts"
TOKYO, Feb 8 (AFP) -
The US military chief on Okinawa apologized Thursday after labelling local leaders "nuts" and "wimps" for demanding a reduction in the sub-tropical Japanese island's huge number of US forces.
Lieutenant General Earl Hailston visited Okinawa governor Keiichi Inamine and prefectural assembly chairman Kokichi Iramina to deliver a letter of apology, prefectural spokesman Atsushi Shinzato told AFP.
Hailston made the derogatory remarks in an e-mail sent to his officers on January 23 following the passage of an unprecedented resolution by the Okinawa assembly calling for a cut in US forces.
"I wish to communicate personally to you my most profound regret about the e-mail," the general said in the letter, according to a copy sent to AFP.
"I also want to deeply apologize for the inappropriate remark contained in that message," Hailston wrote.
"I used inappropriate words that do not reflect my true feelings as they pertain to you, your colleagues and the Okinawan people. I am sorry."
Hailston had already sent a letter of apology to assembly members and news outlets on Okinawa, but the governor sought a personal meeting to express his "intense discomfort" over the insulting remarks, the spokesman said.
The assembly's resolution was prompted by the January 9 arrest of a Marine sergeant for taking indecent "upskirt" photographs of a local schoolgirl, the latest in a succession of sex attacks on Okinawan women by US servicemen.
On Wednesday, the assembly of Okinawa City, where the sprawling Kadena US air base is located, unanimously adopted a resolution demanding the commander be dismissed.
The governor told Hailston that the US commander had failed to understand simmering discontent in Okinawa, which is a reluctant host to two-thirds of the 47,000 US troops stationed in Japan.
"Okinawa is standing on accumulated magma that will explode if you dig too deeply," Inamine was quoted by the spokesman as saying.
Okinawa, where the bloodiest land battles of the World War II Pacific theatre were fought, was under US administration until 1972. There is strong antipathy against the continuing military presence.
The 1995 rape of a local schoolgirl by three US servicemen sparked mass protests demanding the removal of US forces from Okinawa, a strategic island chain within striking distance of China and the Korean Peninsula.
Then-president Bill Clinton later promised to cut the number of US bases, including a huge marine air station which has inhibited urban redevelopment.
The general's controversial e-mail showed anger at the passage of "an inflammatory and damaging resolution" through the Okinawan prefectural assembly.
"I think they are all nuts and a bunch of wimps," according to a leaked copy obtained by Kyodo News agency. The e-mail has yet to be formally released to the media.