Okinawan rape: the backlash begins?
Two small but significant stories to report today for you all, and both might be a little from what you were expecting. The reason is that both events were directed against Americans by Japanese. Last night (Friday) one Japanese woman was in her husband’s Y-plate car (I should explain; all cars registered to the military here in Okinawa have a “Y” prefix before the number) parked in Naha. She was waiting for her friend I believe when a few Japanese people were walking along and pointed towards their car. Paint was then thrown at the car in question before the perpetrators ran away. The girl was understandably shaken by the event. And then one of my friends has seen his neighbours car get pelted with stones while he was in the house. Both incidents were reported to the police who came and promptly told them there was nothing they could do.
Japan Update (that wonderful bastion of Okinawa news!) is now reporting that, “Hadnott, a 38-year-old Marine staff sergeant assigned to Camp Courtney, has told police “I do confess for what I did to the girl, but I didn’t know she was so young…the girl didn’t like for me to touch her”" (full story here). Firstly, the story insinuates that Hadnott has admitted to raping the girl, but this has not happened, and as I reported earlier the deputy prosecutor has said that no sex has occurred. My main gripe with this particular story is the way they use quotes to mark what Hadnott has said. I can’t be positive, but I’d be willing to stake a large amount of my savings that he has not said what is in quotation marks in this article. He may have said words to that effect, but there’s a lot of difference between indirect speech and direct speech.
Well those are Saturday’s updates. More to come as it comes in.
No Rape! No Base!
I don’t know if it’s my slightly twisted view of the world, a combination of 
all the goings on in Okinawa over the last 2 weeks, or just the amusement I find in strange English slogans here in Japan. Whatever it is, I saw this picture in the latest BBC news article about the Okinawan situation made me smile. The Japanese love their slogans and sayings, but they frequently seem to say them a little wrongly. For example I have often heard in Japan people say, “Boys be ambitious”. I have to confess I really couldn’t work out what it was supposed to mean. I researched it and found it was something said by William S. Clark when he left Japan. In fact, his full quote was, “Boys, be ambitious. Be ambitious not for money or for selfish aggrandizement, not for that evanescent thing which men call fame. Be ambitious for that attainment of all that a man ought to be.” Now call me the fussy English teacher, but that comma in the first sentence is pretty important and makes the sentence actually mean something. Without any sort of pause it’s tough to comprehend.
But there is something a little more serious in the photo and the context in which it is shown. You look at the photo and your initial reaction is probably one of, “Wow - the Okinawan people are really against the bases, and are out protesting”. But then look again. Firstly, there is no way that woman is Okinawa. I’ve lived here for 3 and a half years, and am a pretty good judge of whether someone is Okinawa or not. And then secondly, that photo was not even taken in Okinawa. The temperature in Okinawa has been around 17 degrees and up in recent days. Even for Okinawans who are used to these tropical climes, it is not scarf weather. Although the story doesn’t state that the women are in Okinawa, that is the impression it is trying to give. As I said in my last article, don’t believe everything you read in the news.
Drove a little around Chatan today (a town very close to military bases). It was like a ghost town. When I walked into a Makeman (a large DIY and general shopping store, like Wilkinsons in the UK) it was like a Spaghetti Western where the cowboy walks into a rough bar and suddenly everything stops and everyone looks up. The staff there looked at me with this kind of “What is he doing here? Should he not be locked up behind the fences like the others?” look! And Gate 2 Street, where there are lots of bars and clubs catered for the military, was completely dead on a Friday night at about 8pm. Bet it’s not looked that quiet for a while.
So that’s the evening report for you all. Will report more news over the weekend as it comes in.
Rape allegation against airman in South Korea a complete lie
Well it was only a matter of time before something like this happened, although I’m sure it won’t be as widely reported. Stars & Stripes are now reporting that South Korea’s top news story about a woman who alleged an airman raped her was a complete fabrication. The full story below:
SEOUL - South Korea’s top news story on Thursday turned out to be a lie, after an 18-year-old South Korean woman told police she fabricated a story about an Osan airman raping her because she didn’t want to tell her mother she was having sex.
The woman initially told police during questioning Wednesday that the airman, also 18, raped her in a Seoul motel late Tuesday night.
She recanted that story during a second round of questioning late Thursday afternoon, said a police lieutenant for the Gangseo Police Station, identified as only as Yoon.
Police and U.S. military officials said the airman, a member of Osan’s 51st Fighter Wing, was detained, questioned and released Wednesday by Korean National Police, who found him in his motel room early that morning.
Yoon said the airman denied raping the woman and said he would have run away from the hotel if he had raped her.
According to South Korean media reports based on the woman’s initial statements, the pair had been chatting online and met face-to-face for the first time the night of the alleged rape.
The woman told police the airman asked her to find a motel for him in Seoul because he cannot speak Korean, according to the reports.
The woman reported the rape early Wednesday morning, after she came home, began bleeding from the pubic area and lost consciousness, Yoon said.
The womanfs mother called an ambulance, and during the ride to the hospital, the daughter regained consciousness and asked why she was going to the hospital.
When her mother described her symptoms, the daughter said she had been raped because she was afraid of being chastised, the spokesman said.
Surveying of off-base military begins in Okinawa
Not so much news to report on events happening in Okinawa today. All is quiet on the Western Front, as they say. But the main news story in the Japanese news feeds is that the Japanese government is going to request that the US military reports how many people and families are living off base annually (as I reported earlier). They are also asking the military for stricter screening procedures to determine who is allowed to live off-base.
Firstly, can anyone see any reason at all in surveying how many families live off-base? There just seems to be no justification for it at all, unless it’s just something they want to do so that they look as if they are doing something. And secondly, they surely can’t feel that restricting the number of people who live off base is going to decrease the crime rate any more? Hadnott could have easily picked up this girl on his motorbike, taken her to a love hotel and allegedly raped her. Note that love hotels are huge business in Japan, especially with the schoolgirls that take part in Enjo kousei (aka compensated dating) and the Japanese businessmen they see.
Maybe I’m not looking at the big picture, and this survey of families living in Okinawa will suddenly make the island completely crime-free! Let me know your thoughts on this one.
I’m going to head up to some of the places in Okinawa usually frequented by the military this evening or tomorrow. I’ll try to report back with the atmosphere and photos.
Okinawan police want arrest warrant for US soldier for sexual assault
Things just get worse and worse at the moment for the military here in Okinawa, as the rumour I reported this morning has turned into an alleged offence. The Japanese police are now seeking to obtain an arrest warrant for an assault which allegedly took place on Monday of this week by a member of the US Army. “Basically, the case should be handled strictly under Japanese judiciary procedures… it would help assuage social feelings if the suspect is sent back to the United States after he pays for his crime first”, local police chief Hachiro Tokutsu told the prefectural assembly.
If this has actually happened then this guy deserves a Darwin Award for doing probably the most stupid thing anyone could have a week after this alleged rape. Of course, all the facts as to what preceded the alleged offence are unknown, and the Philippino women can go a little crazy from time to time on people. Assaulting a woman is a shocking offence in my book at any time, but with the situation so delicate in Okinawa at the moment, surely he could have had a little restraint.
But what is lacking in any of the statements is the shock in the offence and people saying how horrific it is. The story is making the news, but only because it was carried out by a member of the US military, who are a very easy and visible target at the moment. It could also be because the victim was a child, which generates a different reaction worldwide for some reason. In my books, a rape is a rape, whether it be a 14 year old, a 24 year old or an 84 year old. But it’s always offences against the young that generate the most reaction.
What hasn’t been said is if the Okinawan police are going to investigate and get the “snack bars” closed down in that particular red light area of Okinawa. For some reason I doubt I’m going to hear much more about that line of the issue. More to come when I hear anything.
Just got an interesting quote from the BBC website which should get you some perspective on what’s been happening:
“There is no evidence that more crimes are being carried out than before.
Last year just 46 US military personnel were arrested on Okinawa in connection with criminal cases, a tiny proportion of those stationed there, and that figure was less than half the number five years ago.”