Prosecutors on the Japanese island of Okinawa have charged a US air power man with the kidnapping and rape of a teenage lady in December.
In keeping with an indictment dated 27 March, Brennon Washington, 25, invited the lady to talk to him in his automobile at a park on 24 December and drove her to his residence earlier than committing indecent acts.
Investigators mentioned an individual identified to the lady – mentioned to be between 13 and 15 years – reported the incident on the day it occurred. However Washington was not charged for 3 months and the indictment solely made public on Tuesday.
The Japanese overseas ministry has lodged a grievance with the US ambassador to Japan, the previous Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel, mentioned the Okinawa governor, Denny Tamaki.
The incident involving navy personnel is prone to additional inflame native opposition to their presence, Tamaki warned, saying that it “introduced a big stage of mistrust”. Tamaki described the allegations to Kyoto Information as “not simply disturbing to prefectural residents but in addition a violation of the lady’s dignity”.
Yoshimasa Hayashi, authorities spokesperson, mentioned Japan “will proceed to request the US facet to forestall such incidents at each alternative”.
Okinawa is dwelling to one of many largest US overseas navy bases, dwelling to greater than half of the 54,000 US troopers serving in Japan, a part of a legacy of the second world battle and a part of present political and navy alliances.
With tensions rising over China’s ambitions to carry Taiwan, lower than 500 miles from Okinawa, below Beijing’s management, in addition to North Korea’s missile exams, the most recent incident could also be unlikely to considerably have an effect on bigger diplomatic goals.
Washington, Tokyo and Seoul goal to signal a trilateral safety partnership by the top of 2024, partly pushed by fears {that a} second Donald Trump presidency may roll again current safety agreements.
The allegations of rape by a US serviceman come nearly 30 years after a 12-year-old Okinawa schoolgirl was raped by three US servicemen in 1995 that triggered a wave of public opposition to the US navy presence.
Different incidents embody a automobile accident in 2012 when a US navy officer killed two Japanese residents throughout a visit to Mount Fuji, and the rape and homicide of a 20-year-old lady in 2016 by a former US base employee who was later sentenced to life in jail. That case led to curfews for US troops throughout Japan.
The most recent incident comes as one other layer of historical past performs out within the area: final week, households of US marines who fought within the Battle of Saipan in June and July 1944 participated in a wreath-laying ceremony on the island.
The battle with Japanese forces on the island within the North Marianas archipelago was pivotal to the battle within the Pacific, as D-day had been to the battle in Europe. Japan designated the islands as a part of its “absolute nationwide protection sphere” and had stationed greater than 30,000 Imperial Japanese troops there.
On 7 July, three weeks after 71,000 US troops landed on the island, an estimated 4,000 Japanese charged US positions in one of many largest “banzai” expenses of the battle. Simply 921 Japanese troopers survived the Saipan assault, and the US took greater than 16,500 casualties, together with shut to three,500 killed.
The archipelago was utilized by the US air power to firebomb Tokyo and, a 12 months later, to launch the Enola Homosexual and Bockscar to bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki with atomic bombs.
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