(NewsWorthy.news) – The US Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel has expressed regret for how sexual assault cases involving US soldiers were handled. The island of Okinawa, which houses the US Air Force’s Kadena Air Base, has long been plagued by issues surrounding sexual assault. The two incidents, which were reported by local media outlets in late June, reignited Japan’s resentment towards the strong US military presence in the country’s southwestern strategic island.
One member of the US Air Force was arrested in March and charged with kidnapping and sexually assaulting a teenager. A US Marine was arrested in May and charged with attempted rape that resulted in injury. No additional details relating to the purported victims have been released.
Anger has built in Japan over multiple sexual assault incidents linked to US military personnel over the years. In one of the most high-profile incidents in 1995, three African American Navy personnel kidnapped and raped a 12-year-old girl. Japanese media reportedly avoided showing the race of the suspects out of concern the incident might fuel racial tensions.
Another African-American serviceman, air force sergeant Timothy Woodland, was jailed in 2002 for two and a half years for rape after he claimed that he was being persecuted because of his race. Former US base worker Kenneth Franklin Gadson was jailed for life and sentenced to hard labor in 2017 for the 2016 rape and murder of Rina Shimabukuro, a 20-year-old Okinawan office worker.
Emanuel expressed deep regret over the latest sexual assaults, though stopped short of apologizing. He stressed the need to let the justice process “play out”, but acknowledged the need to express regret on a human level. The ambassador promised that the US would do better, adding that the US military needed to work on its protocols and military standards. Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi stated that Japan’s authorities would strive to ensure that alleged crimes linked to US armed forces were promptly disclosed while respecting the privacy of victims.
The resurgence of cases could pose a setback to the White House’s defense relationship with Japan at a time of increasing tensions with China regarding Taiwan and support for Russia. Roughly 50,000 US troops are stationed in Japan under a security pact, half of whom are deployed to the strategic island. Residents of the island have long protested incidents of noise and crime linked to America’s military presence.
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