US Marine from the base in Okinawa where the Covid-19 cluster erupted suspected of drunk driving. (25de21)

In the early dawn of 25 December, Okinawa Prefectural Police announced they had arrested Corporal Jarett Michael McMahon, 24, stationed at the US Marine base Camp Hansen, in the act on suspicion of violation of the Road Traffic Law (drunk driving).

Police said he partly denied the charge stating, “I drank alcohol, but I didn’t think enough was left in my body to get arrested for it.” 



According to the Naha Police Station, just after midnight on 25 December, the Marine was suspected of driving a motor-bike while intoxicated on a city road at District 2 in Matsuyama in Naha. 


In a breath analysis, McMahon’s alcohol level registered 3 times the legal limit.

Police say he stated, “From about five in the evening until midnight, I was drinking beer and whiskey on and off at a bar in Naha.”


A policeman spotted 2 people without helmets riding a motor-bike. He investigated and said he found the 2 were both Marines from Camp Hansen and had been drinking alcohol.

The location was a bar district in Naha, over 30 kilometers south of Camp Hansen.


A huge cluster of Covid-19 infections broke out at Camp Hansen, where a total of 240 cases were confirmed between 15 and 24 December. Moreover, 10 workers, including Japanese, also at Camp Hansen, have been confirmed as having the Omicron strain of the disease. Their connection to the cluster is unconfirmed, but the Prefecture feels that the Omicron strain may well have been brought in by a unit of Marines transferred to Okinawa from the US.


Confronting US Military authorities related to Camp Hansen, Governor Denny Tamaki requested that leaving the base premises  be prohibited due to the confirmed cluster. However, immediately thereafter, in the early dawn of 21 December, an incident occurred with the arrest in the act of a drunk driving suspect in the town of North Chatan.


On 22 December, Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi phoned Commander of US Forces Japan, Lieutenant General Ricky N. Rupp. Hayashi expressed his feeling of regret over the Covid-19 response as well as such incidents and pushed for tightened discipline and renewed prevention.

 

Original Japanese article: Asahi Shimbun Digital, published Saturday 25 December 2021 at 07:21. Byline: Tsukasa Kimura

https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/a6602fdde202d325604165b02a9b21e36ca35018


Translator’s note:

Denny in the News: news about Okinawan Governor Denny Tamaki.

Denny Tamaki is the governor of Okinawa Prefecture in Japan. Although Okinawa is important as an international tourist destination and a key element in strategic US Military Forces, its governor receives very little coverage in the Japanese press and almost none in the English language media. 

  1. This blog hopes to  translate one news article a day on the governor.  It is unsponsored and unauthorized. The translator simply hopes to improve his skills and perhaps give the governor an English speaking audience. 

  2. Any suggestion on improving the translation will be gratefully accepted. However, please leave political comments for another forum.

  3. Where they occur, words and phrases in Ryukyuan (the Okinawan language) are rendered in italics and translated in parentheses. Names  whose readings are uncertain are rendered as Name (=Kanji?) as in Nagayuki (=長行?). Any corrections in such instances would be gratefully appreciated.

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