From the Archives

Take thousands of high-spirited people, fill them full of high-fructose, high-starch Japanese carnival food, shove them in a two-block area, throw in a gigantic straw rope — and you’ve got yourself the world’s largest tug of war.

Okinawans gathered by the hundreds to welcome reversion Monday, and by the thousands to protest the inclusion of U.S. bases in the reversion agreement.

When accused U.S. Army deserter Sgt. Charles Jenkins arrived, saluted and turned himself over to Camp Zama authorities Saturday, this small, quiet Army base outside Tokyo found itself in a very unaccustomed spot: the cross hairs of the international media.

U.S. Army deserter Charles Jenkins left Camp Zama on Tuesday morning and was greeted by a cheering crowd Sado Island in Niigata Prefecture, Japan, with his wife, Hitomi Soga, and their two North Korean-born daughters.

The Charles Jenkins saga drew nearer an end Wednesday when the Army sergeant was reduced in rank to E-1, dishonorably discharged and ordered to forfeit all pay and allowances and serve six months in prison after pleading guilty to desertion and aiding the enemy.

Though the subject of a media frenzy in Japan and South Korea, the plight of a former U.S. Army soldier labeled a deserter after spending the past 40 years in North Korea stirs little passion or sympathy among servicemembers in the Pacific.