A great little thread, though the Korean War did see some tensions rise between the Japanese and UK Governments. One such incident involved some Matelots from HMS Belfast. 1/ https://twitter.com/LOS_Fisher/status/1276073062220337153

By 1952, Japan was a sovereign nation, no longer under occupation thanks to the 1951 San Francisco Treaty. However, some concessions had to be made to the Americans on the part of the Japanese. A key concession was the US-Japan Security Treaty. 2/

The Treaty, among other things, covered the status of foreign forces stationed in Japan. This covered both forces involved in the UN campaign and the defence of Japan proper. The controversial element was the provision on jurisdiction regarding legal matters. 3/

In essence, the provision meant that US forces were subject only to US jurisdiction in both criminal and civil court. Naturally this would cause issues with the Japanese. 4/

UN forces of course also included contingents from the British Commonwealth nations, and these nations assumed that the same arrangements applied to their own forces. The Japanese, refused to recognise this. 5/

Sir Hugh Cortazzi, a member of staff at the embassy at the time, and later ambassador, believes much of this was due to Japan attempting to assert some of it's new found sovereignty. 6/

Eventually, the inevitable happened. In the summer of 1952, two sailors from HMS Belfast, on a visit to Kobe, were arrested by Japanese police for an incident involving a local taxi driver. Sir Else Denning claims the sailors beat up the driver and stole 1,000 yen. 7/

Despite sharp British protests, the sailors were tried and convicted in a Japanese court, being initially sentenced to five years hard labour. They were subsequently released and expelled from Japan. The incident did raise a substantial amount of nationalistic feeling in Japan 8/

As Cortazzi noted: “The British were powerless to prevent this trial and the Americans, fearing for their own position, were unwilling to do more than give moral support…” Following this, naturally Anglo-Japanese relations became rather frosty. 9/

The British grew increasingly frustrated as no headway could be made until eventually the Americans made concessions on their own agreement. Consequently, an Anglo-Japanese compromise was reached. Parallel jurisdiction was agreed upon. 10/

Ultimately it's a rather small story in the grand scheme of the Korean War. But it highlights the operational difficulties of coalition warfare and, more importantly, how the actions of but a few individuals can lead to geopolitical effects. End/