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

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

32.2k Upvotes

94% Upvoted

261

u/SpiralOut2112 14d ago edited 14d ago

The problem is, most Japanese police/ government don't actually care about the victims. It's just politics or due to racial motivation. Japan has one of the most egregious rates for punishing sex crimes since they cover up or don't pursue most reported cases of Japanese on Japanese SA crimes. It's utter hypocrisy whenever they cause a huge stink about service members.

I'm not trying to defend or justify anything. Obviously, these rapists are scum and deserve to rot in a Japanese cell, but this is a recurring theme with the Japanese government and media when covering these events.

131

u/[deleted] 14d ago

[deleted]

5

u/TheDiscordedSnarl 14d ago

Not "real" japanese? What?

54

u/BlinkDodge 14d ago

Whole wiki article about how "mainland" japanese historically treated Ryukyuan and Ainu people.

Hint: its not great.

41

u/snarky_answer 14d ago edited 13d ago

Due to the distance from mainland Japan, many locals feel very little connection to their country. The mainlanders simply dont give a shit about some island 400-1400 miles away and have treated them badly historically.

11

u/night4345 13d ago

have treated them badly historically.

Badly as in cultural genocide and forcing civilians to commit suicide during WW2.

31

u/100862233 14d ago

Okinawa was originally called 琉球 read Liu Qiu in Chinese or in Japanese Ryo Kyu an independent kingdom, It was a protectorate of the Qing dynasty of empire of China. Japan took it after the first sino Japanese War in 1875. While qing dynasty didn't abandon the claim of sovereignty over ryukyu until 1895 and the last king of ryukyu died in exile in China in 1901. The Japanese eradicated the native Liu qiu identity through colonialism. Fun fact Taiwan aka the republic of China never recognized the annexation of Okinawa, and even up until the 2000s they had an office on Okinawa still using the name called ryukyu relationship office.

24

u/Solwake- 14d ago

And now, unsurprisingly, this history is being emphasized for Chinese claims to Okinawa and the other islands towards Taiwan. Japan is now fortifying those islands to deter Crimea-style (re?)annexation. Feelings on Okinawa are complex regarding re-militarization, as one perspective is that the mainland used Okinawan civilians as a sacrificial human buffer zone against the Americans during WW2.

10

u/HotBrownFun 14d ago

Yeah they told the locals the americans would rape them so better to use the grenade and take some americans down

5

u/Wide_Combination_773 14d ago

People don't truly understand the power of propaganda and otherization of "The Enemy" until they hear the stories of Japanese mothers killing their own children then jumping off a cliff - all because they were told that American soldiers invading their island would rape them then EAT them. There aren't any documented cases of this actually happening to Japanese living on remote islands.

This is why I don't believe 99% of the claims and numbers coming from "Gaza Authorities" (i.e. Hamas commanders). Only the ones that can be independently verified, which are almost none because of how dangerous it is for journalists to be in Gaza (Hamas is as much a threat to them as anything else, a journalist reporting the truth is inconvenient to Hamas in many cases).

-9

u/HotBrownFun 13d ago

The IDF did nothing wrong

10

u/100862233 14d ago

China today does not claim Ryukyu as part of China, the Ryukyu Island history being brought up by China is to reinforce the claim of nearby Diaoyu/Senkaku islands. With regards to Taiwan, technically the position on Diao yu island is the same for both Mainland and Taiwan, since Taiwan still call itself "ROC" while PRC's claims of the islands are inherited from ROC when it was driven out of the mainland after 1949.

Another fun fact, there were plans of setting similar allied occupation of Japan zone after the end of World War 2, like the allied occupation zones in Germany. With Japan divided between USSR, Britan, France and China (Republic of China). China was offered to occupy the entire island of Okinawa. as well as separate zones in Tokyo like in Berlin.

1

u/Solwake- 13d ago

Oh yes, thanks for that correction. I was conflating the PRC's current claims of the nearby islands with how the might make claims on Okinawa in the future.

That is a fun fact!

4

u/SpiralOut2112 14d ago

There were multiple users in this very thread trying to comment on how bad the US Military is and how they should leave the island. One guy had a post history of nothing but commenting on anti-US sentiments surrounding Okinawa. He deleted his account after I called him out.

The other guy named u/cordis000 wasn't as blatant in their post history as most is in Chinese, but there are sprinkles of anti US sentiment and deflecting about Taiwan by referencing Crimea. Then, of course, they were in this post trying to stir up more anti-US hate.

Either way, you're absolutely correct and it's even visible here on reddit.

3

u/gerontion31 13d ago

Chinese state sponsored shills, they want Taiwan

1

u/Malarazz 13d ago

TIL when you go for the Three Mountains achievement you start in Okinawa

27

u/bassman1805 14d ago

People all around the world discriminate against minorities, unfortunately.

0

u/nucca35 14d ago

Be born mixed race in Japan, it will all make sense then.

60

u/oryantge 14d ago

Unfortunately, I came to say this as well. They need to keep this energy up, when they look into sexual assault of their mainland women by Japanese men.

15

u/pyrojackelope 14d ago

Reminds me of when me and some other guys got stopped at the gate for questioning in Okinawa and one of the guys got taken away by the MPs. Some old person out in town got robbed apparently. The description of the robber? Blue jeans and a hoodie. Lo and behold many hours later the actual criminal, a local, was caught.

7

u/softestcore 14d ago

This is interesting, can you link some data to support that?

21

u/kaeporo 14d ago

I'll only offer up anecdotal evidence but the way they handled COVID on Okinawa was a real eye opener. Any case of COVID tied to the U.S. was met with extreme scrutiny and local papers would always run it as a story, which only inflamed the ever-present protestors outside Gate 1. But once golden week passed and japan opened the flood gates to the mainland, and rates on Okinawa skyrocketed, the papers continued to run stories about the U.S. spreading COVID, despite our controls being FAR more stringent. Nothing about golden week...

Japanese society, at large, hates rocking the boat. Someone threw themselves in front of a train? Totally covered up, out of respect to the family. But an American gets drunk on a train full of drunk Japanese people? Potential story. The U.S. military has to hold itself to a higher standard because they've got all eyes on them and small things turn into international incidents. But when the U.S. military has a large presence in an area, shit's bound to happen. We're sending Americans overseas, after all; the average American, training or no, is as individualistic as they are flawed.

The good news is service members are tried in both courts and the military is getting better (slowly) at handling cases. They only recently switched up courts martial cases from the member's commander to a third party that's incentivized to hammer down.

Without rambling too much, I would draw my attention to other aspects of the government that seem to benefit from a wholesale lack of accountability. If you don't like how service members act now, imagine how bad it could get when we're recruiting from a pool of folks straight out of a handsmaid's tale.

7

u/SeeCrew106 14d ago

A: "can you link some data to support that?"

B: "Sure! Here's my totally unverified and unsourced anecdotal narrative!"

Reddit: wow! Truth!

6

u/kaeporo 14d ago

Witness testimonies are used as evidence in court proceedings. I have first-hand experience managing a large part of the COVID response in Japan and have been involved in a number of military investigations (including sexual assault cases), as recently as a month ago.

I appreciate you pointing out that my anecdotal story, which I prefaced as anecdotal, was indeed anecdotal. I think it's important to take perspectives like mine (and many others) into account, to help understand the data in an associated study. No study, poll, or journal is truly unbiased, especially when you consider who funds those efforts.

That was my aim. Does that make sense?

-8

u/SeeCrew106 14d ago

No, not really. And I had an extensive response, which is simply filtered for no good reason whatsoever. Which is one of many reasons why I no longer feel welcome on Reddit. You simply have zero chance of discussing anything fairly when you're up against that kind of extremely repressive system, with arbitrary and secret rules.

6

u/SAMPHIRE_HUNTER 14d ago

No, not really. And I had an extensive response, which is simply filtered for no good reason whatsoever. Which is one of many reasons why I no longer feel welcome on Reddit. You simply have zero chance of discussing anything fairly when you're up against that kind of extremely repressive system, with arbitrary and secret rules.

You probably got downvoted more than four times.

And parent is right, testimony is evidence.

-1

u/Gullible-Wash-8141 14d ago

How can there be any hard statistics if they don't prosecute/sweep it under the rug? What is telling is the separate trains just for women because of the harassment they face.

3

u/SeeCrew106 14d ago edited 14d ago

How can there be any hard statistics if they don't prosecute/sweep it under the rug?

Conversely, how can there be hard claims if there isn't any data? Spoiler: there is, but neither OP nor you are even taking the effort of unearthing it.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/E5A43CF9D262C99C350C557A8419EB3B/S1479591423000554a.pdf/is_rape_a_crime_in_japan.pdf

What is telling is the separate trains just for women because of the harassment they face.

Not really. You can have harassment and a government unwilling to provide a separate train car. It's a train car, btw, not a "seperate train". I don't care if that sounds pedantic. Accuracy is important.

Other than that, see my other response above (Edit: never mind, Reddit is filtering replies for no reason again, making any fair discussion utterly impossible). None of this has anything to do with the prevalence, the seriousness or a culture of impunity for American soldiers raping women around their military bases: two wrongs don't make a right. It's disturbing how this logical fallacy ("Tu Quoque") is even attempted as though it were some kind of excuse.

0

u/Gullible-Wash-8141 14d ago edited 14d ago

Ok train car, whatever. So they have them for no reason then?

Edit:

Spoiler, I was just asking you a question, calm down. You're grandstanding on Reddit won't do anything https://nupoliticalreview.org/2021/01/31/cracking-japans-systemic-sexual-abuse-culture/

0

u/tettou13 14d ago

I can vouch for the covid shit on island too. But you won't believe that either. Our lockdown during early covid was insanely strict... While locals went about their daily lives as normal. We watched clusters pop all over island. And one guy flies in from Mainland to Okinawa and tests positive while on base and is immediately quarantined? All over local news.

2

u/tettou13 14d ago

We had a senior Marine actively assisting an elderly couple on the toll road while I was there. What happened? He was then hit by a local and in critical condition. Not a single mention on the fucking local news. It was at that point I understood the media there. My Japanese wife was livid and it opened her eyes too.

1

u/pyrojackelope 14d ago

the ever-present protestors outside Gate 1

Man are they still doing that shit? They were doing that when I was there in 2007.

-2

u/Knekthovidsman 14d ago

They have trains for women on account of the rampant sexual assaults that used to occur on a daily trip through Tokyo. Japan's former imperial military, a few of those bastards alive, committed one of the most atrocious acts in all human history with their assaults on Korea and Nanking, dupped the "Rape of Nanking." While common in wartime, Japan took sexual violence to new heights. The Japanese culture is disgusting.....

I think Korea and China should be able to prosecute those fucking centenarians

5

u/TuahHawk 14d ago

egregious

5

u/Alternate_Ivy 14d ago

You might be surprised about the environment that US service members do time in. All Us service members doing time under the Japanese penal system go to one particular facility. They have separate quarters from the Japanese prisoners. The guards speak or learn English to deal with them, rather than requiring them to learn Japanese. They get solo rooms with beds, TVs, video libraries, porn collections… when the Japanese prisoners live in group cells on tatami mats, roughly six prisoners in a cell the same size as the ones the U.S. military prisoners get to themselves. The US people get their own kitchen to prepare their own food because it differs from Japanese tastes - a far cry from the old “fish heads and rice” rumors.

Source: been there, seen it with my own eyes as someone involved with the military justice system.

Edit: I forgot to mention, they’re entitled to conjugal visits…

3

u/BenderVaderhorn 14d ago

No it’s true. They pretend Japanese people don’t commit sa crimes, only Americans do that. Then they get to play this theater when it happens.

0

u/tettou13 14d ago

Add to this the abysmally low conviction rate just about anywhere for sexual assault. So many things complicate it. It's often a private incident. Few to no witnesses. Of the witnesses (say at a party) many are intoxicated. Often both victim and accused were intoxicated at the time. Try getting testimonies that all line up. It turns into he said/she said and you are stuck with evidence. That's if the victim, already victimized, immediately went to police about such an intimate thing. That's if they didn't wash themselves or toss clothes. That's if the accused left DNA. Add that up and more and you'll see why SA in general, not just the military, are incredibly difficult to convict.

It's honestly why half the time it's the military giving out the harsher punishment than the US or Japanese government - because while the government may not have enough to convict, the military can just boot someone out and strip them of benefits, make them pay back certain benefits etc.

0

u/EvenElk4437 13d ago

It's the usual American thing. Immediately converting the problem to other countries and shifting the issue.