欧美文化:The Night Parade of USFJ Demons

As the sun slowly fell down behind the hills, the monstrous winds suddenly started to roar alongside the winding mountain roads. Then all out of the blue, a hairy, bestial and half-naked old man showed up at the end of the road, assaulting almost every passer-by, and whoever met him would get seriously sick and even die. The old man is named Momonjii, a demon largely recognized as the spreader of illnesses, who ranks No. 57 in The Night Parade of 100 Demons, a gorgeous painting collection in 1779 which depicts Japanese demon tales in the Edo Period.

Now in Japan, the demon has come alive haunting people in a more unscrupulous way. As the number of Omicron cases soared, United States Forces Japan (USFJ) has become the current-day Momonjii spreading the coronavirus to local Japanese people. As of 11 January, the number of current active cases in different USFJ bases across Japan has topped 3,600, making it a major source of the Omicron blast. What’s worse is that the infected U.S. soldiers could move about freely without being constrained by local Covid measures. These Momonjiis could be found partying and binge drinking mask-free, eventually affecting every Japanese whom they met.

As the so-called “defenders of Japan”, the USFJ is barely subject to Japanese laws and regulations, meaning that without special arrangements, the night parade of the demons could go on and on, infecting more and more Japanese. Governor Denny Tamaki of the Okinawa Prefecture, host to more than half of the 47,000 American soldiers based in Japan, recently vented up his anger at the spread of Omicron in the area caused by the irresponsibility of American troops.

However, the demon-like acts by USFJ are never limited to the violation of counter-virus protocols and way over that. Since the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security Between the United States and Japan granted the U.S. “the use by its land, air and naval forces of facilities and areas in Japan”, U.S. soldiers have been walking over Japanese land free as birds, enjoying extra-territoriality and committing various crimes unpunished.

According to the data released by Okinawa police, from 1972 when the U.S. returned Okinawa to Japan, to 2015, American troops in Okinawa got involved in 5,862 criminal acts, including 571 felonies such as killing and raping. In 1995, three American soldiers kidnapped and gang raped a 12-year-old Japanese elementary school girl, triggering furious protests not only in Okinawa but across Japan.

You might think that USFJ could have been sorry for their wrongdoings? Nah. The Okinawa Times found that in a handbook for newly-dispatched American soldiers to Japan, the USFJ claimed that those things happened because the soldiers should “beware they are glamorous and attractive for Japanese women”, and that the national protests following the 1995 rape is the result of “the Japanese government’s failure to handle the issue”. The handbook also asserted that most Okinawans don’t want USFJ base to move because the “land rent is the only way that enables them to make a living”.

This is what’s happening in the U.S.-Japan Alliance, where one side has been doing damage to the Japanese people in a patronizing way, and the other side is left with no choice but to bear with it and continue to share the heavy financial burden to sustain American military presence with the taxpayers’ money.

If stationing its troops in Japan while allowing the soldiers to bully local people could be the most useful way for the U.S. to “safeguard” Japan, then the Night Parade of USFJ Demons is not a surprise at all to the Japanese people.