1995 Okinawan Rape incident

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Contents 1 The Incident 2 The Fallout 3 The Trial 4 Follow Up 5 References

[edit] The Incident

On September 4, 1995, three U.S. servicemen, Navy Seaman Marcus Gill and Marines Rodrico Harp and Kendrick Ledet, all from Camp Hansen on Okinawa, rented a van and kidnapped a 12 year old, 6th grade Japanese schoolgirl. They beat her to ensure compliance, duct taped her eyes and mouth shut, and bound her hands. Gill and Harp then proceded to rape her, while Ledet claims he only pretended to do so out of fear of Gill.

[edit] The Fallout

Outrage over the incident was extreme, and put into question the U.S.-Japan Status of Forces Agreement that allows the U.S. the right of extraterritoriality. While the crime was committed off of the base, the U.S. initially took the men into custody, but later handed them over to Japanese law enforcement for trial and imprisonment.

According to the Status of Forces Agreement, article xvii (3) (c): "The custody of an accused member of the United States armed forces or the civilian component over whom Japan is to exercise jurisdiction shall, if he is in the hands of the United States, remain with the United States until he is charged." The suspects were thus free while they remained on base, until the Japanese officials charged them with the crime. The outrage over the attack caused the largest anti-American demonstrations in Okinawa since the treaty was signed in 1960. As a consequence, the U.S. made concessions and agreed to consider handing suspects over to the Japanese before an indictment, if the severity of the crime indicated it. This agreement was hashed out at an emergency meeting between President Bill Clinton and Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto. The people of Okinawa also placed a full-page ad in the New York Times decrying the rape and other aspects of the U.S. bases in Okinawa. In 1996, the United States and Japan signed a bilateral agreement to reduce the amount of land on Okinawa covered by U.S. bases by 21 percent--the U.S. military had previously occupied 19% of the island.

United States Navy Admiral Richard C. Macke was commander of United States Pacific Command at the time of the attack. At a press conference in November, 1995, in which the Admiral discussed the attack, he said of the men's actions: "I think it was absolutely stupid. I have said several times: for the price they paid to rent the car [used in the crime], they could have had a girl [prostitute]". Due to these insensitive comments, the admiral was immediately removed from his post and forced into early retirement, and at the rank of a two-star admiral rather than a four-star admiral, which affected his pension severely.

[edit] The Trial

Japanese courts encourage guilty pleas, generally acting more leniently to those who plead guilty and admit remorse. Gill pled guilty to the rape, and the other two men pled guilty to conspiracy.

Prosecutors had asked for the maximum sentences for the men, 10 years each. The judge (Japan does not have jury trials) gave Gill and Harp seven years. Ledet received six and a half years.

Their families also paid "reparation money" to the family of the victim, a common practice in Japan.

[edit] Follow Up

The three men served prison terms in Japanese prisons, and were released in 2003. After release, Rodrico Harp decried prison conditions in Japan, claiming that he was forced to do slave labor: assembling electronics.^[1]

Ledet, who had claimed he did not rape the girl, died in 2006 in an apparent murder-suicide. He was found in the apartment of a female college student acquaintance of his whom he had apparently raped and then murdered (by strangulation). It appears that he then took his own life by slashing his wrists.^[2]

[edit] References