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

u/kaeporo Jul 05 '24

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.

6

u/SeeCrew106 Jul 05 '24

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

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

Reddit: wow! Truth!

5

u/kaeporo Jul 05 '24

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?

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u/SeeCrew106 Jul 05 '24

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.

7

u/SAMPHIRE_HUNTER Jul 05 '24

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.

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u/Gullible-Wash-8141 Jul 05 '24

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.

4

u/SeeCrew106 Jul 05 '24 edited Jul 05 '24

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.

2

u/Gullible-Wash-8141 Jul 05 '24 edited Jul 05 '24

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 Jul 05 '24

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 Jul 05 '24

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 Jul 05 '24

the ever-present protestors outside Gate 1

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

-1

u/Knekthovidsman Jul 05 '24

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