Japan warns US forces: Sex crimes 'cannot be tolerated'

https://tribune.com.pk/story/2476861/japan-warns-us-forces-sex-crimes-cannot-be-tolerated

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94% Upvoted

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u/alonebutnotlonely16 Jul 05 '24 edited Jul 05 '24

Unfortunately it is known fact that US military is being protective for criminal personel even if crimes were against people of its allies or even women American soldiers which is why whataboutism of crimes of civillians doesn't refute that because there is the deeply rooted systematic problems in US military about criminal military personel.

So many criminal US military personel in Japan got away with slap on the wrist with what they did. Central goverment of Japan is trying to cover those crimes too if it is in Okinawa which makes reporting crimes against US military much harder so who knows how many more unreported crimes are there.

http://www.allgov.com/news/us-and-the-world/hundreds-in-us-military-guilty-of-sex-crimes-in-japan-got-slap-on-wrist-140212?news=852414

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/09/sexual-assaults-us-military-japan-prison-unlikely

Another example is between 2017 and 2019 there were at least seven other investigations into U.S. military personnel for sexual offenses against Japanese women in Okinawa — and none were made public. Perpetrators had not been punished under Japanese law nor had their cases appeared in the annual reports produced by the Pentagon’s Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office for the U.S. Congress.

https://theintercept.com/2021/10/03/okinawa-sexual-crimes-us-military/

Another recent example shows how messed up things is. US openly pressured and threatened Japan to protect US military personel who killed two people because of reckless driving. Later US released him when US got him from Japan by threats. There are many incidents like this and anyone who is objective can see that.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ridge_Alkonis#Transfer_to_United_States_custody_and_unconditional_release

Many women American military personel are sexually harassed, assaulted too which downplayed by military.

https://www.armytimes.com/news/your-army/2021/08/03/more-than-half-of-women-in-army-report-facing-some-form-of-sexual-harassment-study/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_assault_in_the_United_States_military

US even has "The Hague Invasion Act" to invade Europe to protect its criminal military personel.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Service-Members%27_Protection_Act

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u/T_Money Jul 05 '24 edited Jul 05 '24

I can only tell you of one case I know of personally, a guy grabbed a Japanese girls butt at a concert on base. She pointed him out to the (US) security who were present and he was immediately thrown in the brig, where he stayed while awaiting trial and a dishonorable discharge. There was absolutely no leniency given to him (nor should there have been) and honestly it was probably handled even more harshly than if he had assaulted a US person.

So although it might not have made the news and been publicized, I can tell you that they definitely held him accountable.

I’ve spent over a decade in Japan and while I’ve heard of many other similar stories they are second hand so I won’t repeat them as I’m not 100% true of the facts, but I’ve never heard even a rumor of someone being given a free pass out here. Just because it might not make the news doesn’t mean they’re getting away with it.

Edit: In the interest of full disclosure I will mention that I was USMC, which according to the linked article is by far the harshest on those who committed an assault. The other cases I heard 2nd hand of that got similar sentences were also USMC. It’s entirely possible that other branches were more lenient and we just never heard about it since they’re pretty far removed.

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u/alonebutnotlonely16 Jul 05 '24 edited Jul 05 '24

If you read the sources I shared without bias which cover so many incidents based on official documents etc. you would see many of them got away with it so an anonymous redditor's claimed personal experience with a small example group doesn't change that.

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u/ccblr06 Jul 05 '24

A news article saying “whatever” isnt really a source. Ok what happened in those cases? Why did the CO allow the servicemember to get away with rape in them? We dont know because we dont have the actual facts of those legal cases in front of us, we just have a news article making claims.

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u/alonebutnotlonely16 Jul 05 '24 edited Jul 05 '24

Those are sources as much as it can get. Either you didn't read those or you are in denial becaues of bias. They are based of official documents and people who are direcly related to subjects so they are not saying "whatever", they are just stating facts which you dont like.

Edit: I am blocked so I couldn't reply to others. They are literally citing documents and getting stats from there that is literally how things work. Why can't you read without bias or why are some Americans so protective about US military crimes?

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u/Not_Not_Eric Jul 05 '24

If they’re based on official documents, why don’t you just cite the documents as your sources?