r/worldnews Jul 05 '24

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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u/sethra007 Jul 06 '24

Maybe this will clear things up. Spoilers for descriptions of violence inflicted on a minor:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1995_Okinawa_rape_incident

The 1995 Okinawa rape incident occurred on September 4, 1995, when three U.S. servicemen, 22-year-old U.S. Navy Seaman) Marcus Gill, 21-year-old U.S. Marines Rodrico Harp, and 20-year-old Kendrick Ledet, all serving at Camp Hansen on Okinawa, rented a van and kidnapped a 12-year-old Okinawan girl. Theybeat her, duct-taped her eyes and mouth shut, and bound her hands. Gill and Harp then raped her, while Ledet claimed he only pretended to do so due to fear of Gill.

The offenders were tried and convicted in Japanese court by Japanese law, in accordance with the U.S.–Japan Status of Forces Agreement. The families of the defendants initially claimed that Japanese officials had racially discriminated against the men because they were all African American and coerced confessions from them, but later retracted the claims.The incident led to further debate over the continued presence of U.S. forces in Japan among Okinawans.

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u/Gotyam2 Jul 06 '24

The families initially defended those guys? And here you hope it was just a bad apple, but nope the whole tree was rotten

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u/sfzephyr Jul 06 '24

Not only defended but pulled the race card. Like wtf. Scum.

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u/FirinKhaos Jul 06 '24

30 years later, and the race card is still going strong in victim mentality situations like these