By JOSEPH DITZLER | STARS AND STRIPES Published: May 19, 2021
Stars and Stripes is making stories on the coronavirus pandemic available free of charge. See more staff and wire stories here. Sign up for our daily coronavirus newsletter here. Please support our journalism with a subscription. TOKYO – U.S. Army Japan joined the other service branches Wednesday and relaxed its coronavirus mask order for fully vaccinated people. The order signed Tuesday by Maj. Gen. Viet Luong, commander of U.S. Army Japan, and publicized Wednesday permits anyone fully vaccinated on an Army base to remove their masks indoors or outdoors, with some exceptions, including in medical facilities and in proximity to Japanese citizens. Unit commanders may set stricter rules.
By JOSEPH DITZLER AND KAT BOUZA | STARS AND STRIPES Published: May 14, 2021
Stars and Stripes is making stories on the coronavirus pandemic available free of charge. See more staff and wire stories here. Sign up for our daily coronavirus newsletter here. Please support our journalism with a subscription. TOKYO U.S. military bases in Japan reported eight individuals tested positive for the coronavirus since Wednesday, according to statements as of 6 p.m. Friday. Also Friday, the Japanese government announced a state of emergency would be expanded to three additional prefectures struggling to contain the country’s fourth wave of the coronavirus.
By SETH ROBSON AND HANA KUSUMOTO | STARS AND STRIPES Published: May 11, 2021 TOKYO Three U.S. service members were arrested on suspicion of illegally entering Japanese homes in two unrelated incidents over the weekend, one south of Tokyo and the other on Okinawa, according to Japanese police. A sailor identified by police as Tanner Nicholas Moseley, 20, was taken into custody at 8:12 p.m. Sunday on suspicion of trespassing into a home in the Shiomidai area of Yokosuka city, a Kanagawa prefectural police spokeswoman said Tuesday. Government spokespeople in Japan traditionally speak to the media on condition they are not identified by name.
By MATTHEW M. BURKE | STARS AND STRIPES Published: April 28, 2021 CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa – Principal James Strait has led Defense Department schools through a hurricane and a global pandemic, and his nine years of academic leadership have not gone unnoticed. Strait, 51, a soldier-turned-educator in charge of Kubasaki High School at Camp Foster, a Marine Corps base on Okinawa, was named the 2021 Principal of the year by the Department of Defense Education Activity, according to a DODEA statement on April 20. Strait was lauded for bringing the community together to support Kubasaki’s students and excellence in education. Next, he’ll compete with middle and high school principals from the civilian world for the National Association of Secondary School Principals’ Principal of the Year award, DODEA-Pacific spokeswoman Miranda Ferguson told Stars and Stripes on Monday. The winner will be announced in October.