Okinawa police seize U.S. military vehicle over hit-and-run

NAHA, Japan, Nov. 9 (AP) - (Kyodo)—Okinawa prefectural police seized a windshield-broken private vehicle of a U.S. military service person Monday in connection with the death of a man in a possible hit-and-run accident in the village of Yomitan.

The police said they are trying to identify the owner of the vehicle -- a domestically produced white passenger car -- whose "y" number plate shows it is privately owned by a U.S. military service person.

The vehicle was brought for repair to a garage about 3 kilometers southeast of the spot where the body of 66-year-old Masakazu Hokama was found bleeding from the head on Saturday evening, according to the police. He died of a broken neck, they said.

A man in plain clothes who was about 180 centimeters tall and looking non-Japanese in his 20s drove the vehicle to the garage alone sometime between 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. on Saturday, a witness said.

Hair was found on the car's broken windshield and the police plan to conduct a DNA test to see whether it came off the deceased.

The car had the left half of its windshield smashed and its front section dented, but the man who brought it did not clarify what caused the damage, according to the witness.

In Tokyo, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi Hirano indicated that if a U.S. military service person indeed caused the deadly accident, it may have some impact on the issue of where to relocate a U.S. Marine Corps airfield in Okinawa Prefecture.

Crimes committed by service personnel and others related to the U.S. military have often triggered mass resentment in Okinawa against the presence on the relatively small southern island of the bulk of U.S. forces in Japan.