Police arrested two US military personnel Saturday on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa after separate incidents, just two days after a US airman was charged with the rape of a local woman.
Fernando Blanes, a 22-year-old soldier stationed at Kadena Air Base, was arrested for setting fire to a car, destroying it, a local police spokesman said.
Television news reports said Blanes was drunk when the incident allegedly occurred at a parking lot in the residential area of Yamauchi.
The spokesman said a witness called police about 5:00 am (2000 GMT Friday) and told them where Blanes had fled to.
Blanes was in the custody of Okinawa police. It had not been said whether he had admitted to the charge.
In a separate incident earlier Saturday, a 19-year-old marine stationed at the Futenma base was arrested for damaging a motor bike in Uechi, police said.
He allegedly pushed over the bike, destroying its muffler. The marine's name was withheld because of his age.
Saturday's cases were the latest in a series of crimes allegedly committed by US military personnel on the subtropical island.
On Thursday Japanese prosecutors charged Timothy Woodland, a 24-year-old US staff sergeant, with the rape of a Japanese woman in Catane, near Yamauchi.
Woodland is also attached to the Kadena base.
Seiichi Oyakawa, spokesman for Okinawa governor Keiichi Inamine, voiced indignation, according to the public network Japan Broadcasting Corp. (NHK)
"We feel a rush of anger as the incidents occurred at a time when we are considering effective measures to prevent a recurrence after the rape case by the US sergeant last month," NHK quoted Oyakawa as saying.
"It is necessary for representatives of the state, the (Okinawa) prefecture and the United States to get together as soon as possible and discuss countermeasures," he was quoted as saying.
Woodland allegedly raped the woman on the hood of a car in a shopping mall's parking lot in the early hours of June 29.
Okinawa's hostility to the US military presence spilled over in September 1995 when a 12-year-old local girl was raped by three US servicemen.
Last month's alleged rape has provoked fresh anger and threatened to sour Japan-US relations.
Questions over the behavior of the US military would be high on the agenda when US Secretary of State Colin Powell makes an overnight stop Monday in Tokyo as the first leg of his five-nation Asia-Pacific tour.
The Japanese foreign ministry conveyed its regret to the US embassy here, a ministry official said.
No immediate comment was available from the US military -- TOKYO (AFP)
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