.I feel like this article is trying too hard to paint the US military as being a monster that its made it too confusing to follow. There are so many easier stories to use to accomplish this that I don't understand what this article is even trying to report.
My questions after reading are:
I don't understand what is being done for the first time since 1974, is it Japan and US jointly investigating charges against a US military member or is it the first time they're doing a sort of audit of criminal charges?
If Japan has numbers for criminal charges against US military personnel are they the ones enforcing the charges?
Did the 2 rape investigations go uninvestigated until the change that happened days ago and why wouldnt Japan investigate their own people being raped?
If the US was brick walling Japan from investigating criminal charges of US personell then why all of a sudden allow this extended investigation by Japan?
Found waaaaaay more information from these articles:
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/18/world/asia/us-marines-japan-okinawa.html
https://asiatimes.com/2024/12/the-truth-about-us-bases-on-okinawa/
Would you spend trillions of dollars building something that was "unlikely" to result in catastrophic failure? I would prolly want more confidence of its longevity before dumping generations of wealth to build a structure that will cost billions more even to repair minor maintenance to.