April 18, 2008American military personnel doing time in Japanese jails get plenty of chances to chew the fat behind bars. And a Sunday Mainichi (4/20) report says there may be plenty more fat in the works, judging by how much these military prisoners get fed.
U.S. military criminals jailed in Japan receive 13 tons of food a year, with a daily intake allowance of around 4,000 calories -- almost double the roughly 2,620 calories dished out to Japanese prisoners in the same lockup.
U.S. military convicts are jailed in the Yokosuka Prison, a branch of the Yokohama Prison in the same city as the biggest U.S. Navy base in the country. As of the end of 2006, the most recent figures available, there were 247 prisoners incarcerated in the jail, 16 of who were members of the U.S. military.
At first glance, the menu for U.S. military prisoners rivals most fare available at posh hotels, according to information the Justice Ministry made available to Yokosuka Municipal Assembly Member Hiroshi Ichiyanagi.
On June 8, 2006, a U.S. military prisoner in Yokosuka Prison was served a breakfast of fruit, scrambled eggs, a sausage patty, French toast with jam and cereal. His lunch comprised pot roast, boiled rice, asparagus, coleslaw and baked custard. And his evening meal, meanwhile, was vegetable soup, steak with tomato sauce, curry and rice, corn, macaroni salad and spice cake.
On the same day, Japanese prisoners at the same institution were served onion in miso soup, natto fermented soybeans, grated radish and pickled vegetables. For lunch, they got twice-cooked pork, bean sprouts and marinated fish. Dinner was a croquette, macaroni salad, miso soup with egg and salted cucumber.
And it's not just food where the American military offenders are getting it better than their Japanese counterparts.
"They have individual cells about three tatami mats (around nine square meters) big and the toilets are Western-style," a journalist tells Sunday Mainichi. "They also have their own TVs and are allowed to watch some American TV shows."
Justice Ministry officials explain that the preferential treatment extended to U.S. military prisoners incarcerated in Japanese jails extends back decades.
"It apparently started around 1955, and it was a decision Japan and the United States made together in consideration of the cultural differences between the countries," a Justice Ministry Corrections Bureau spokesman tells Sunday Mainichi. "The U.S. military is paying for the costs of the food."
Even if the pricey food bills aren't a burden on Japanese taxpayers, not everyone is happy with the cushy way U.S. military prisoners are looked after.
"Jeez, they're getting treated well, aren't they? If they commit crimes in Japan, they should be treated the same as the Japanese behind prison walls," Shuichi Sanada, whose sister Yoshie Sato was savagely beaten to death in 2006 by a U.S. sailor now serving a life term in Yokosuka Prison, tells Sunday Mainichi. "Unless we improve on things like this, we'll never be able to keep crime under control." (By Ryann Connell)
(Mainichi Japan) April 18, 2008