In the strange case of U.S. Army Sgt. Charles Robert Jenkins, four seemingly obscure people have been caught up in diplomatic maneuvering among the United States, Japan, South Korea, North Korea, China and Indonesia.
The issue: The U.S. Army wants to arrest Jenkins on charges of desertion and aiding the enemy, among the most serious of military crimes, to keep faith with the hundreds of thousands of American men and women who have served honorably over the past 40 years and to preserve good order and discipline.
In contrast, the Japanese government and a wide segment of the public want to see an aging and ailing Jenkins reunited permanently with his wife, a Japanese citizen, and their two daughters and allowed to live out his life peaceably.