Ridge Alkonis prison sentence strained US-Japan relations

Tomoko Ichihara’s family was preparing a birthday lunch near Mount Fuji when the celebration turned into horror.

A silver Toyota sped across the street and into the parking lot of a noodle restaurant, crushing her brother-in-law and mother Ichihara between the cars and injuring them.

The driver of the minivan, a US Navy lieutenant, would eventually be sentenced to three years in prison in Japan. To his supporters, the officer, Ridge Alkonis, is a model sailor who has been labeled harshly by a foreign legal system after an accident they say he did not. can be prevented.

His wife called the sentence a blunder of justice and campaigned for his release, pleading her case with President Biden this month in a brief exchange after the speech. about his Federal Status.

However, in Japan, Lieutenant Alkonis is widely regarded as a criminal justifiably imprisoned for taking the lives of two innocent people.

A court found that he was careless when he fell into a “drowsy state” while driving, rejecting his assertion that he had passed out from altitude sickness. Experts say his sentence, despite the claims of his supporters, is in line with the punishment given to Japanese defendants in similar cases that have resulted in many deaths.

Lieutenant Alkonis, 34, struggled to navigate Japan’s customs and legal apparatus after the accident. He pleaded guilty to negligent driving in the hope of a suspended sentence. He wrote letters of apology and paid bereaved families about $1.6 million, through insurance money and cash from him and friends.

Sentencing decisions in Japan, however, weigh heavily on the wishes of the victim’s next of kin, and in this case, they asked the judge to issue a “severe punishment,” calling Lieutenant Alkonis’ actions after the incident. collision was incomplete and said he was not fully aware of the seriousness of the offence. his crime.

While U.S. lawmakers say Lieutenant Alkonis was denied due process, the Status of Forces Agreement governing the 55,000 U.S. troops in Japan does not protect them from the Japanese legal system. Copy or give them the right to have an attorney during the interrogation.

Takashi Shinobu, a political scientist at Nihon University in Japan, said: “I’m not saying that the Japanese justice system is okay, but it’s only natural that the suspect is not allowed to see a lawyer. .

Supporters of Lieutenant Alkonis in Congress argued that he should be allowed to serve his sentence in the United States. Some TV commentators have accused the US military of giving him only superficial support in the hope of maintaining strong ties with Japan, where tensions over a large US military presence have doubled. when flared up after the military was accused of a crime.

Senator Mike Lee, Republican of Utah, Warning on Twitter this month that he would scrutinize security ties with Japan if the sailor is not on U.S. soil by February 28.

The interventions created a diplomatic distraction for two close allies are increasingly working together to counter threats from China, Russia, and North Korea.

News about Lieutenant Alkonis revolves around a trip to Washington in January by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida of Japan. When the officer’s wife, Brittany Alkonis, 35, attended the State of the Union speech at the invitation of a Republican congressman, Mr. tell her then that the United States will not drop the case.

“My children are counting on you,” she replied.

Japan’s Ministry of Justice and Foreign Affairs declined to comment. The US Embassy in Tokyo said the State Department was working with the Pentagon to “provide all appropriate assistance”.

Lieutenant Alkonis’ accident happened shortly after 1pm on May 29, 2021, while he was driving with his wife and their three children, now 5, 7 and 9 years old. They were on their way to eat pizza and ice cream after visiting Fuji Mount.

The lieutenant, who is stationed at the Yokosuka naval base south of Tokyo, “dozed off” while driving, the US Navy said in an accident report obtained by The New York Times, and his Toyota. We got off the road and crashed into five cars outside a restaurant. Seiko Sano, 85, and Takeshi Endo, 54, later died from their injuries. One of Ms. Sano’s daughters was injured and was hospitalized for about a week.

In court, Lieutenant Alkonis said he “should have stopped immediately” after he felt his arm momentarily weaken about five minutes before the collision.

He also once said during interrogation that he felt “drowsy” before the crash – a word he later told his wife was mistranslated in a statement he signed. At trial, he said he had suffered from “acute mountain sickness” shortly before the accident, referring to the diagnosis he received from his doctor.

The judge said it was hard to believe that Lieutenant Alkonis suddenly lost consciousness from mountain sickness, in part because he had driven down to a lower altitude before the crash.

Peter Bärtsch, an expert in altitude sickness at the University of Heidelberg in Germany, echoed the judge’s assessment in an interview, saying that the sudden loss of consciousness from altitude sickness would be unlikely in the schools. fit.

In addition to the medical questions, the verdict revolved around perceptions of how Lieutenant Alkonis interacted with the victim’s family in the hours, days and weeks after the accident.

He said at the trial that he did his best to help the victims at the scene. He also said that, in addition to paying compensation – a custom in Japan – he made efforts to apologize to the families, a statement supported by an email his wife provided to The Times. .

But apology letters “are not accepted,” Lieutenant Alkonis said.

Ms. Alkonis said in an interview that the Navy and her husband’s Japanese lawyer had told the family that relatives of the victims were not interested in expressing an apology.

“We really wanted to meet these people and have this healing moment when we said, ‘We’re sorry about what you’ve been through and we want to do what we can,'” she said. “But we said, ‘That’s not appropriate.’”

The families of the victims asked the judge to sentence Lieutenant Alkonis to four and a half years in prison.

Ms. Ichihara told the court she did not believe Lieutenant Alkonis “really realizes the gravity of the crime he has committed.” She said he didn’t do enough to help the two seriously injured in the crash and that his attorney didn’t communicate quickly enough with the victim’s family.

Families could not be reached for comment. Lieutenant Alkonis’ lawyer said he had not received his client’s permission to comment on the case.

Lieutenant Alkonis, a Mormon who had previously served as a missionary in Japan, began his three-year term in July after losing an appeal to have his sentence reduced.

Mamoru Shibata, a law professor at the Nagasaki Institute of Applied Sciences, said extenuating circumstances, including compensation for bereaved families, often help reduce sentences in Japanese courts.

“But in this case,” added Professor Shibata, “it is important that the bereaved family’s strong desire is to punish him.”

Ms. Alkonis said she felt that the Navy exaggerated their support for her family in communications with members of Congress.

The Navy declined to respond to specific allegations, but a spokesman, Cmdr. Katharine Cerezo, said it has “provided and will continue to provide Lieutenant Alkonis and his family with all assistance consistent with United States laws and regulations.”

“This is a tragic event,” she added, “and we recognize the impact it has had on the families of those involved.”