So I’m sure everyone has heard about the 38 year old Marine being accused of rape in Okinawa. Despite the fact that it is only alleged he did something wrong, the Japanese media, public, and Okinawa’s political leaders, as well as THE JAPANESE PRIME MINISTER, have already declared him guilty. There is no right to a fair trial here if you are in the US Military as too many people have it out for you, and should you be accused of anything, the US leaders out here will hastily throw you to the wolves under the guise of “cooperating” and “strengthening ties” with the same Japanese leaders who will spit in their face in order to look good to their public.
Now, I am not condoning what this guy did…IF he is found guilty. Unfortunately, there’s so much emotion from the Japanese public involved in this case already, that I don’t see how this Marine could possibly get anything even remotely resembling a fair trial. Why did we even turn him over? Under the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), we’re not required to turn any service members over to the Japanese government until they have been charged, so why do we do it? Why can’t NCIS investigate, along with the Japanese law enforcements agencies, and then come to a conclusion with their counterparts? Should we really trust a country that has such an obvious bias against the people that are ultimately responsible for defending them?
From the Wikipedia article on SOFA:
In Japan, the U.S. SOFA includes the provision that service members are not turned over to the local authorities until they are charged in a court. In a number of cases, local officials have complained that this impedes their ability to question suspects and investigate the crime. American officials allege that the Japanese police use coercive interrogation tactics and are concerned more with attaining a high conviction rate than finding “justice”. American authorities also note the difference in police investigation powers, as well as the judiciary. No lawyer can be present in investigation discussions in Japan, though a translator is provided, and no mention made of an equivalent to America’s Miranda rights. No jury trials exist in Japan, as they are all bench or multiple judge trials. For these reasons American authorities insist that service members be tried in military tribunals.
Correction: Gidget wrote in to correct me on the SOFA article about turning service members over. I was specifically talking about the stipulation that a service member can remain in US custody until he is charged in court. My point is, why can’t the US hold on to them until everything is sorted out?
If this is the case, why are service members, those who choose to dedicate their lives to defending others, completely stripped of their most basic rights when being sent to Japan? To hell with that “guests of Japan” shit. We are not guests. We are not here to sight see and enjoy a 2 year vacation in Japan. We’re here to defend Japan against the many countries that want to seriously stomp the shit out of them (Hi North Korea, China, Russia!), because they can’t do it themselves. Let’s make one thing perfectly clear, Japan’s Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) is not a independently sustainable Naval force, and when it comes to armed conflict, will not be able to run the show by itself. If they were capable, we wouldn’t have to work ourselves to the point of exhaustion training to defend them.
Another thing that boggles my mind is the pure hypocrisy of Japan. Rape is always a bad thing, but no one seems to get bent out of shape when reading the daily stories of Japanese men molesting children, or when a Japanese serial rapist is caught. You might hear one story about the incident, and then never hear about it again. Why is that? For one, Japan is one of the most racist countries around. Sure, you might see a lot of foreigners with a Japanese girlfriend, but there are many places that they’re not allowed in simply because they’re not Japanese. The older Japanese generation is very xenophobic, and as has been my experience, has no problem in making you feel unwelcome. Secondly, Japan is just a fucked up country. I don’t mean to offend all you proud Japanese, or the misguided foreigners who secretly wish they were Japanese, but let’s cut the bullshit and look at how morally confused Japan is.
This is the country that has the highest demand for rape-fantasy or “schoolgirl” porn. Have you ever watched Japanese porn before? The whole time it’s on, the chick is pretty much crying “itai itai” which basically translates to “it hurts.” This is the country that has compensated dating, in which middle school and high school girls, will be “girlfriends” of adult businessmen for financial compensation. The same country where underage girls sell their used panties to older men. This is the same place where in 2004, 166 teachers were charged with “sexually harassing” their students. (It seems in Japan, “sexual harassment” is the catch-all term for any sexual misconduct.) Has anyone heard of this outside of Japan? Has it been played all throughout the local and international media? Have their been protests from parents who don’t want their kids being fucked by their teachers? Of course not. They’re Japanese, so it’s OK. This is the same country that literally raped entire conquered nations during World War II and to this day, doesn’t speak about it. And we have the audacity to come into their country and commit crimes, crimes that are still well below the national Japanese average, but who cares about that, right?
As for the Marine, Tyrone Luther Hadnott, he’s screwed. No doubt about it. I know I’m making a dangerous assumption here, but from his name, there’s a good chance the Marine is African-American. While the Japanese are usually fair in being racist toward everyone, they have a special dislike for African-Americans, so you can pretty much count on Hadnott being found guilty and given the maximum allowed by law, or more actually. Look at the case of Lance Corporal Josh Major:
A Marine general and an Auburn mother are asserting the woman’s Marine son is being unduly punished for a crime he committed while stationed on the Japanese island of Okinawa. Lance Corporal Josh Major, 26, is serving four-and-a-half years of forced labor in a Japanese prison for assaulting a 20-year-old Okinawa man without provocation two years ago…Major initially drew a two-year suspended sentence for the assault. But the prosecution appealed the sentences and convinced a higher court [he] should get stiffer punishment. A U.S. military trial observer said the prosecutor’s argument was laced with anti-American rhetoric. Teresa Boyd, Major’s mother, admits her son was wrong to beat up the man. “Such a dishonor,” she said… “It was bad, it was mean…But it’s nowhere near the severity of a crime that would get a four-and-a-half year sentence for the first offense in America.” The commanding Marine general…appears to concur…writing, “the high court’s unprecedented harsh sentence clearly indicates a bias by the court against the accused.”
Since they obviously don’t want us, let’s just say “Roger, that” Japan and leave. Send all the Marines and Airmen to Guam, and make all the Japanese tourists on Guam go back to their own country. Then bring all the forward-deployed ships back to San Diego. Give the various Japanese self-defense forces a couple months to take the reigns. Then watch as North Korea does some more missile “tests” that fly over Japan, or as Russia sends in more jets to invade Japan’s air space and finally decides to take the disputed Kuril Islands. Then China, still a little pissed off from that whole mass-rape-murder-beheading-baby-bayoneting known as the Rape of Nanking, decides to completely obliterate Japan. Good luck!
UPDATE: Someone thinks my citing of Wikipedia is unfair to Japan. In that case, here are some other sources:
The 1960 Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) between the US and Japan in full here.
A report on compensated dating or Enjo Kosai, in TIME Asian magazine here.
A BCC report on the disputed Kuril Islands here.
Another BBC report on the Rape of Nanking here.
Comments 8
Dude, you and I are on the same page. this is bullshit! we should leave Japan for the wolves to eat. with-out the military here, china, N. Korea, and the Russians will rape these Japs. i can’t believe how quick our military leaders are to kissing japanese ass. i don’t know whether it’s them or the US ambassador to JP Thomas Douchbag Scheiffer ordering the military to do these dirty deeds. Japanese are the most racist people in the world. i swear, they think they are the superior race. America should stop kissing their ass already. this marine fucked up and the US is just going to abandon him??? WTF! they got Commander of US forces Japan, the Ambassador, and all sorts of big wigs apologizing already. get the hell outta japan already so we can watch them go to war with China and get crushed…
Posted 14 Feb 2008 at 2:47 pm ¶Pronociation point-the word is Itai………..
And I always thought it was caused by the blurry blue dot on the screen in Japanese porn movies………
Posted 14 Feb 2008 at 9:49 pm ¶“Then watch as North Korea does some more missile “tests” that fly over Japan, or as Russia sends in more jets to invade Japan’s air space and finally decides to take the disputed Kuril Islands. Then China, still a little pissed off from that whole mass-rape-murder-beheading-baby-bayoneting known as the Rape of Nanking, decides to completely obliterate Japan. Good luck!”
These were my exact thoughts 2 years ago….you guys get my angst now…
Posted 14 Feb 2008 at 11:40 pm ¶You could just as easily make parallels to our own culture when it comes to outrage over rape. Just like Japan, we have cases of teachers sexually assualting students, torture/rape porn, and escort services. The International press makes a big deal over a japanese citizen being harmed by a servicemember for the same reason that we were outraged when allegations of sexual assualt on young boys by Catholic priests began to surface, it doesn’t happen on a daily basis. Servicemembers are an easy target in Japan because there is already a strong anti-american sentiment combined with centuries-old xenophobia. I agree, that it would be unfair to try StSgt. Hadnott under the Japanese legal system, because public opinion would definately affect the verdict.
I don’t think the answer is to abandon Japan entirely, but like you said in your earlier post, to weed out individuals that cause trouble through more intensive overseas screenings. Japan is a valuable ally, strategically, for all of the reasons you stated above, leaving them entirely would not only leave them defenseless, but would also leave us without early warning/counterstrike abilities should China ever decide to try and wipe us off the map.
On a side note…did you read about the Japanese guy who was arrested for spitting hot coffee on schoolgirls? The papers were calling him “Coffee Bukkake Man”.
Posted 15 Feb 2008 at 4:44 am ¶The past few cases of assault and murder caused by service members in recent memory really disgusts me. I say that with full acknowledgement that I am not perfect, but neither do I rape little girls or assault and kill old women. But having said that, I think the US Congress and the Justice Dept should do an investigation into the way the DOD handles criminal cases against service members in relation to the SOFA agreement in Japan. Of course this is Japan and not the US, but the US Government (not the military) negotiates and signs the SOFA. Since the military sends its citizen military members to Japan, it has a legal obligation to do all it can to protect the rights and physical well-being of those same individuals. And to ensure that its personnel are not being railroaded in some trial by public opinion rather than a fair and just court of law. As in this case, if USFJ is unilaterally ignoring the tenets of the SOFA that were put in place to protect guys like this Marine, then USFJ and the Ambassador should be held accountable to the Federal government in the US (representatives of the American people) for dereliction of duty. Most congressmen and American’s in general assume that the military does what is humanly possible to protect its personnel overseas. In Japan that’s not the case. Because the military has this sweetheart deal where the bill is paid for by the Japanese, both countries get what they want but the US Service members pay the price for the politics.
Someone previously stated, hey lets just go home. I’ve been saying that to every Japanese that protest against us. Why don’t you just vote us out of here and end the issue. Well I get the bottom-dweller look of stupidity from the individuals I say that to. Yes, all those young protestors would be donning the uniform of the Japanese Military and doing their time in boot camp rather than being the shut in, no life, Otaku’s that many seem to be. The Tokyo government would have to spend 10 times their current defense spending budget and wait 5-10 years for all the gear to get built Ships planes etc….. and still we’d have to come along and wave Ole Glory in the China sea to say hey, don’t beat up our little brother Japan while they build up to Superpower status. In the mean time, the 7th fleet would go to Guam and Hawaii, and San Diego while Guam is built up to be the replacement forward base. Oh did you know it would take about 2 billion buck to Apra Harbor(Guam) and shore facilities up to snuff to handle what is already built up here in Japan. So naturally, the USFJ knows it could get kicked out of Japan (like it did in the PI) on some whimsical public relations BS. And in order to complete the mission the 7th flt is tasked with doing it would have to spend billions getting Guam ready. Now flip that over and look at it from the Japanese gov side. A vast expansion of the Japanese military would cost billions more, and require the Japanese youth to be inducted into the military. Something they’ve not had to do involuntarily in defense of their country since 1945. Which ever political party has to implement that will suffer the first casualties. And let’s not forget Japanese pride. Pride I’d equate to that little yep,yep dog that acts like a big dog by barking at anyone that’ll listen. They will throw themselves blindly into the sea holding bamboo sticks to fight back the the N.Koreans and Chinese……..Nah… I think the black van guys will go into hiding and the Japanese left standing will run back under Uncle Sam’s skirt. I love this country. But they really need to grow up, or get some leaders with balls like Tojo.
Posted 15 Feb 2008 at 9:28 pm ¶Well get the fuck out then. Voxman, you dont care for the country and they’re culture then stop yer yappin and leave. Like duh, it’s their fucken country and obviously they don’t like you there. Whose getting manipulated here? The US? The US wants to be there because they want a presence in Asia - they’re so paranoid about the sudden rise in Chinese power and all. Staying there and getting the Japanese to pay them for doing so is like a dream. SO you dumb service men think before saying stupid one-sided, ignorant remarks like that. THe rest of world wasn’t brought up to serve American needs.
Posted 21 Feb 2008 at 11:18 pm ¶Mutha Goose! I welcome your Black van-wannabe ass. I do love this culture and I am married to one of them, AND I will be here long after you rotate back to the hick town you came from. Guys like me have to stay and support the US Mission long after the current personnel transfer, so given that it’s important that we get the facts straight and know what our rights are. Like I said before, Yeah it is Their country, but they don’t own our asses. Well maybe yours. So try laying down the game controller, get off the ship and out the gate and learn something besides how to hate and pound your pud. My apologies to Jim and the rest of you. I thought I was posting on JT there for a moment.
Posted 23 Feb 2008 at 6:33 pm ¶As being a former Kitty Hawk sailor and being married to a Japanese woman, I can attest that everything in this article is 100% true.
Its no secret that were here, and its no secret that people commit crimes, but the big secret that everyone isn’t let in on is the ratio of DOD personel crimes to overall crime in Japan, which is extremely low. Yea there are only a fraction of DOD personel stationed in Japan, and yea most people would schewe those numbers to show that we are a bunch of war-mongering, child-raping thugs, but the reality of it all is that those few people that commit these unspeakable crimes aren’t the many. And it doesn’t help that our country that we serve dishonor us as individuals and prosecute us anyways even though all charges were dropped against the person.
Something you guys should know about the Japanese legal system too, is that they will keep you in prison until they build a strong enough case against you to make sure you don’t walk away. So if they dropped charges against that Marine thats got to tell you something (to spell it out for some of the people that I read comments from: They don’t have a case.).
Posted 06 Mar 2008 at 10:33 am ¶Trackbacks & Pingbacks 1
[...] for Commander of US Forces Japan, Air Force Lt. General Rice. Mr. Rice stated the obvious, as I’ve been doing for a while, that US troops stationed in Japan commit much fewer crimes, on average, than the [...]
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