Marine accused of raping 14 year old girl in Okinawa
Marine accused of raping young teen
Date Posted: 2008-02-11
A 38-year-old Marine is in police custody this morning, charged with the Sunday evening rape of a 14-year-old girl.
The incident began about 8:30 p.m. last night in Okinawa City’s Goya area, when a man on a motorcycle stopped in front of Koza Music Town and began talking to a group of eight junior high school girls. One of the girls, Okinawa City Police say, accepted his offer of a ride on his motorcycle, and they drove away.
A police emergency was declared about 10:30 p.m. after the girl’s parents, worried about her not returning home, called their daughter’s cell phone to ask where she was. When she said “Oh, my God. I can’t get out of the car” and the cell phone abruptly shut off, the parents called police. An island wide call went to all police stations and a search began for the young teenager.
Police checking the Chatan Araha Beach parking area spotted the girl getting out of a car at 10:50 p.m., and they rescued the shaken youngster. The abductor had fled, and police began searching for him. The girl, still in shock, told police the man had initially given her a motorcycle ride, then put her in a car and drove her to the secluded location. She described her assailant as a foreigner and told police “he did rape me”.
Police apprehended the suspect, and took him into custody. The girl reportedly identified the man, telling police “Yes, that’s him”. The man, tentatively identified by authorities as Tyrone Hadnutt, a 38-year-old Marine, admitted taking the girl, but denied the rape allegation. “No, I didn’t rape her”, he told police. “I just tried to kiss her. That’s all”
Now all of the facts on this case are still pending and he is, after all, innocent until proven guilty (or unless a confession is signed in Japan). His last comment is a shocker though - he shouldn’t even have been kissing the girl if she was 14. I know J-girls can sometimes be hard to judge the age of (especially in the 16-25 age range) but that’s even more reason to find out!
This is making the national news headlines on TV in Japan and on the news websites. Wouldn’t be surprised if it sparked off some protests. Regardless of what happens in this case the marine will be seen as guilty by many Okinawans. The 1995 gang rape of a 12 year old sparked off huge protests and also affected some foreigners with no military attachments (e.g. the foreign teaching community) in Japan. If this story blows up any more I can see it having a similar effect here.
And lastly, what is the Japanese that translates to “Oh my god”? All I can think of would be “ooo mai goddo”.
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Trackbacks & Pingbacks
- Big in Japan | Protests in Okinawa follow alleged rape pingbacked on February 12, 2008, 7:17 pm
- Big in Japan | U.S. Ambassador assures Japan over alleged rape case pingbacked on February 14, 2008, 10:14 am
- Big in Japan | Okinawan lockdown to stay in place until at least March 3rd, and a rumour pingbacked on February 26, 2008, 9:14 am
- Big in Japan | STOP PRESS: Hadnott released!!! pingbacked on February 29, 2008, 11:09 pm
Well, its cases like this that makes me a bit frustrated. Yes, no matter what the Marine was stupid, military even has briefings on making sure about a girls age. Yes, no matter what the girl was stupid, who gets on a motorcycle with a guy and then later gets in his car. Two stupid people. Or even if one of them is lying, we have at least one stupid person.
And if we take away who they are, a Japanese school girl and a military member, we have something that happens all the time all over the world. There are bad and stupid people everywhere and rapes do happen, even on peaceful Okinawa.
But because the girl was Japanese and he was military we have a huge big media monster on your hands that makes all Americans look bad (and foreigners in general). And the protests have already started by the way, I was warned of one of the way home from work today.
I didn’t know about the briefings about checking a girl’s age. That’s a very interesting comment - thanks Crystal.
And I agree completely about it getting blown out of proportion because it was a foreigner (and even worse, a US military member) and a Japanese girl. Could you really see the same coverage if it was a Japanese guy and a US dependent schoolgirl in Okinawa? I think now.
I have just posted an article about the protests. There was one at Butler this evening, wasn’t there?
i agree with u guys.. well it gets me a lil frustrated that the japanese media always put a focus on “american” guy who raped a japanese girl or whatever he did only god knows what he really did to her. eh what im tryin to say is its so unfair that the media only blames the guy for this incident… i mean serisouly everyone knows how that happened.. obviously the girl was stupid enough to follow a stranger and get a ride from him.. and cmon shes 14 she should know what could happen in that kinda case too. or maybe she wanted it. who knows.. neways today when i was at work i heard my co-workers talkin bout the US marines in okinawa. i was jus shocked.. u kno what they said?? they were like “most of the marines in okinawa are criminal back in the states.”…. i was like excuse me??? cuz i have a lot of marine friends and i know a bit bout the marine stuff but no, they are not criminals back in the states its like almost impossible to be in the marine if u had some criminal record ya know. well its true that old okinawan ppl have some sort of stereotypes on foreigners since the old war in oki but its like long long time ago and its even rediculous how they think all american and foreiners always commit crimes in oki..lol even my grandma hates it when i hang out with my marine friends, she thinks ill get raped or something but i always tell her that what she thinks is totally wrong and i know them for a long time so its like impossible to get hurt by them or anything..
so yeah i jus wanted to share something here and especially cuz im japanese i thought it might be interesting for u guys to know what a japanese girl thinks bout the incident and how the local ppl have such a narrow point of view on foreiners.
hope this gave u guys a lil bit of new info on the topic
Firstly, thank you very much for visiting my site and posting your comments on this. It is very interesting to hear comments from someone who is Japanese about this story. I really don’t want to draw attention away from this guy who really deserves what he gets as he must have known she was underage (you would think). Whether he kissed her or raped her, he was seriously playing with fire and is going to get very burnt.
But let’s take away the nationalities away for a second and you have an alleged rape which might have made the Okinawan newspapers (but certainly not the nationals). But because it’s a foreigner who has done the alleged rape then it’s turned into an international incident.