U.S. Marine accused of raping teen in Okinawa

[Bonobo]

Source: CNN.com

TOKYO (Reuters) - A U.S. Marine was arrested on suspicion of raping a 14-year-old Japanese girl in the southern Japanese prefecture of Okinawa, police said on Monday, an incident that could strain ties between the two security allies.

A spokesman for the Okinawa Prefecture police said the 38-year-old Marine, based at Camp Courtney on the island, was suspected of raping the schoolgirl on Sunday and that the two were in a car at the time.

Japan is home to some 50,000 U.S. troops, the bulk of them in Okinawa, where many residents have long resented bearing what they see as an unfair burden for maintaining the U.S.-Japan security alliance, a pillar of Japan's post-war diplomacy.

The incident comes as Japan's government tries to persuade Okinawa residents to accept a plan to relocate U.S. Marine Corps Futenma Air Station from the densely populated central Okinawa city of Ginowan to the coastal city of Nago.



Read more: http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/02/10/japan.rape/

---

This girl is a junior high school girl.

Japan lost the war over 60 years ago. Imagine how a US citizen would feel if foreigners did that to one of our children in our own country!

[defendandprotect]

1. AGAIN -- !!! Boy, would they love to get rid of us ---

[clixtox]

2. Unlikely that this is the first time...

this 38 year old predatory rapist and perverted child molester has committed crimes against women and/or children. I hope that his DNA, finger prints and photos are circulated around any previous locations where he was based while in the Marines and everywhere he lived before becoming a Marine.

At this time of controversy about aggressive Marine recruiting practices and other issues domestically, this acutely embarrassing Okinawa, Japan incident overseas indicates another dramatic downside of our mindless, uncritical, military adoring culture.

AmeriKKKans are the terrorists the world fears. Our corporate masters vast legions of military minions are, tragically, a reflection of AmeriKKKa's alienated, misogynistic, jingoistic, puritan, racist, violent and boundlessly hypocritical, relentlessly consumerist culture.

Why do they hate us?

Not everyday American citizens, we are not hated individually or in small groups, generally. Our current government and the perennial greed of our corporate class in the service of maintaining/preserving their almost world-wide hegemony is part of why AmeriKKKans and others are occasionally victimized by zealots.

[katsy]

3. No, not the 1st time:

http://216.109.125.130/search/cache?ei=UTF-8&p=soldier+rapes+child+in+okinawa&SpellState=n-3564402450_q-FcEsDGNOhK.ETgzzBICQzwAAAA%40%40&u=www.geocities.com/nomorebases/struggle.pdf&w=soldier+soldiers+rapes+rape+raped+child+children+okinawa&d=YpQMNXDuQLNi&icp=1&.intl=us


http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9603/okinawa_rape/


http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=41479&archive=true

[kristopher]

4. Actually, it is a regular occurance.

Every couple of years there is a rape or murder of a Japanese civilian by someone within the US Armed Forces community. Thankfully, the Japanese don't hold all US service members responsible, they are more intelligent than that. Under the Status of Forces Agreement we have with Japan, the cuplrit is almost always turned over to the Japanese to be tried and punished. They do not have a jury system, only judges that decide both guilt and sentencing.

The real issue that sticks in their craw is the real estate our bases occupy. That is what makes the incident more newsworthy than it otherwise would be. Powerful factions are dueling and this is a PR bit that will be exploited.

BTW, in Japan, rape is fairly common and almost never prosecuted.

[Steerpike]

5. You make it sound so innocuous.

I seem to recall that the citizens of Okinawa have staged many large protests over the years due to violent crimes against their women and children by U.S. Service Men.
As an american and a veteran I will never condone or diminish the crime of rape. We must insure that it is neither common nor safe to rape.
I have known many Japanese people and I have lived in Japan. My impression was that this is exactly the sort of thing that will stick in their craw.

[Okinawa]

6. What

What was he thinking, or was he? After the problems the last time this happened...protests and more.

[Bobbieo]

7. He is a f----ing predator . Cut off his viagra!!

[Megahurtz]

16. Cut off something else! n/t

[psychopomp]

8. I'll wait until the facts are in before passing judgement

Until the court determines whether a crime is committed, I will just wait. In the court of public opinion, though, Okinawans will find the government in Tokyo and the US military guilty of colluding to act against the interests of the people of Okinawa and hurt their children.

[Steerpike]

9. That is a good point.

That the little girl was raped is almost certainly a fact. It is important to find the rapist and prosecute him.

[tinymontgomery]

10. When it happens here by a foreigner

When it happens here we scream bloody murder and want to build a wall to keep out all the Mexicans, and say that their all criminals.

[dysfunctional press]

11. we need to close the books on ww2, and bring our troops back from japan & germany...

as well as korea, iraq, and turkey- and anywhere else we have huge overseas mega-bases.

bloated military spending is what destroys empires from within, and it doesn't look like history is going to be any different for ours.

[0007]

12. This girl is a mere child. The story will be that she is nothing but

a military installation lizard of the worse kind. Passed from man to man from barrack to barrack.

The G.I. defense will be;

They paid this little worthless whore more than she was worth.

[Steerpike]

13. Hopefully not.

After fair trial if he is found guilty he will be making big ones into little ones at a federal prison. I am offended by your choice of words. Regardless of her history, no women deserves to be raped.

[kristopher]

14. He wont go to federal prision

As I stated earlier, his crime is under the jurisdiction of the Japanese courts.

Even though they don't commonly prosecute rape it is mostly because rape is never reported. However, the crime is on the books and it is treated seriously when brought to authorities. There are claims made by Japanese nationalist types that their criminal rape stats show that they are more "civilized" than Americans, but social research shows that the act occurs probably just as often, but the social mechanisms that evaluate the response to the crime (victim self guilt etc) are dramatically different and result in less of an inclination to view the act as a "crime".

I'm not defending the perpetrator, just sharing my knowledge of how they think and behave.

[Steerpike]

20. I understand that attitudes are changing.

I also hear that advocates are working tirelessly to raise awareness in Japan regarding rape. I personally don't care where the rapist is incarcerated. As I hear that Japanese prisons are not as comfy as American prisons.

[Barrett808]

15. k & r

[Bonobo]

17. Thanks!

[MADem]

18. WTF, why does this keep happening? If it's not young ladies getting raped, it's

cabbies getting robbed.

And it's ALWAYS Marines, it seems.

We're not long for staying on Okinawa, I don't think. If their SDF gets serious and decides to step up their role, we're outta there.

Twenty or thirty years ago, Okinawans preferred the US to Japan--because the Japanese tended to look down on them. Nowadays, they fucking hate us. The bloom is off the rose....

This creep isn't an eighteen year old kid with hormones raging, either. This is a thirty eight year old pervert. Or, to be fair to the accused, an "alleged pervert."

[Roon]

19. Foxnews will probably call the victim a "woman" n/t

[martymar64]

21. An apropos punishment

He has brought dishonor and shame to the corps.
This baka gaijin should be forced to commit seppuku on national TV with a second standing over him to make sue he doesn't waver. Either that or Japan should kick all of our bases out of japan.