Posts Tagged ‘rape’

Koala screams in Japanese

A TV program concludes that the screaming sounds a female koala makes when trying to avoid the unwanted advances of a male koala sound exactly like, “Nooo!! Don’t come near me!” in Japanese:

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Japan Drops Charges Against Okinawa Marine

Japanese authorities have decided to drop charges:

TOKYO — An American marine accused of raping a 14-year-old girl on Okinawa was released by Japanese police on Friday after the girl dropped her accusation, the police said.

It was unclear if the marine’s release could help defuse the furor in Japan over the case, which had led to wide questioning of the military alliance with the United States and the presence of more than 40,000 American troops here. Fallout from the accusation had reached the high into United States ties with Japan, when Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice expressed deep regret to the Japanese prime minister, Yasuo Fukuda.

Earlier, Mr. Fukuda had called the incident “unforgivable” and demanded that the United States take action to prevent crime by its service members.

The marine’s arrest on Feb. 11 prompted major protests on Okinawa, where memories are still raw of a 1995 rape of a 12-year-old girl by three American servicemen.

The accused marine in this case, Staff Sgt. Tyrone Luther Hadnott, 38, was returned to Marine custody after Japanese prosecutors dropped the rape charges. Sergeant Hadnott had denied the charges, saying that he only kissed the girl as he gave her a ride home.

It was also unclear why she had retracted her story. Japanese authorities seemed to suggest that she had decided against legal action, possibly to avoid the glare of public attention. Some media commentators and blogs had begun to question why the schoolgirl was in a car with the marine.

Yaichiro Yamashiki, the chief prosecutor at the Naha District Public Prosecutors Office, said the determination to drop the charges had been made “out of consideration for the victim’s feelings,” according to the Kyodo News Agency. “The girl herself wants to be left in peace,” he was quoted as saying.

The situation is not over, though. The U.S. military has announced that it will continue its own investigation into the incident. There also might be a protest rally later this month.

Side Note: In case you were wondering, no charges will be pressed against the marine who wandered drunk into a home in Okinawa and took a nap on the living room couch on February 18.

Another American in Okinawa Facing Allegations

Apparently it has happened again:

U.S. military law enforcers have taken the accused man into custody, but the woman who accuses him of rape has not pressed charges with Okinawa Prefectural Police.

Police are questioning the woman and others associated with the case and will take out a warrant for the soldier’s arrest for rape if the alleged victim files a criminal complaint.

The victim, a Filipina woman, claims the incident took place on February 18th. The U.S. military has since put a curfew into place, limiting 45,000 troops, civilian employees and their families to bases, workplaces or off-base homes indefinitely:

The order, which focused on Okinawa but also affected Marines throughout Japan, was issued after a string of crimes blamed on American servicemen stoked long-simmering sentiment against the U.S. military presence.

Top Japanese officials welcomed the move, but said it was not sufficient.

“We need further concrete measures to prevent a recurrence. The restrictions are worthwhile as the first step of earnest discussions,” said Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura, who has sharply criticized U.S. forces in recent days.

Yoshihiko Fukuda, the newly elected mayor of Iwakuni, which hosts a Marine base, said the step was unlikely to make much of a difference until anti-crime education programs for American servicemen are strengthened, the Asahi newspaper reported.

Do U.S. Troops in Japan Need Babysitters?

Some within the Defense Ministry seem to think so:

The Defense Ministry’s Hokkaido bureau is considering assigning officials to accompany U.S. servicemen during off-duty outings when they visit the prefecture for a drill later this month, in light of the recent alleged rape of a local girl by a U.S. Marine in Okinawa Prefecture, a senior bureau official said Friday.

A four-day drill will be held Feb. 25-28 at the Air Self-Defense Force’s Chitose base in the southwestern Hokkaido city of Chitose, according to Tomohiko Futamata, head of the planning department at the Hokkaido Defense Bureau.

“We are considering regular patrols of the area when U.S. soldiers go out and in certain circumstances having bureau employees accompany them,” Futamata told reporters after notifying local municipalities of the drill in a liaison meeting.

“We take seriously the unforgivable incident in Okinawa and will strongly request that U.S. soldiers maintain strict discipline,” Futamata said in the meeting.

Update: The Okinawa prefectural government will begin surveying the number and circumstances of U.S. service personnel living outside local military bases. (The marine involved in the most recent incident lived off-base.)

Marine Arrested For Rape of Japanese Schoolgirl

A U.S. marine has been arrested for rape in Okinawa:

Police officers arrested Tyrone Luther Hadnott, a 38-year-old marine of Camp Courtney in Okinawa, Japan’s southernmost prefecture (state), on a charge of raping the 14-year-old girl, an Okinawa police official said.

The arrest stirred memories of mass protests in Okinawa in 1995 following the rape of another schoolgirl by three U.S. servicemen.

Hadnott, whose hometown was not immediately available, is accused of attacking the girl in a parked car in a town in central Okinawa Sunday evening, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity, citing policy.

Okinawa police took the marine into custody for investigation, he said. Hadnott has not been charged.

“I can never forgive such a crime, especially when the victim is a junior high school student,” Okinawa Gov. Hirokazu Nakaima said. “I feel anger.”

So much for that optimistic Stars & Stripes article about reductions in crime.

Inspired By Adult Videos

Osaka police have arrested a man who has confessed to a nation-wide rape spree:

The suspect has confessed to some 20 instances of raping, and could be forensically linked to 10 of those crime scenes, through fingerprints.

The man traveled between the different cities on the Shinkansen, and stayed at internet cafés at every location for a couple of days while searching studio apartments, often occupied by women. After confirming, by looking at the amount of shoe pairs in the entry hall, that the inhabitant was a woman living by herself, he would enter through the unlocked door to threaten and rape the apartment resident.

“I was watching adult videos at the internet cafés and thought to myself, ‘I could be doing this,’” the man told local police.

The original Japanese language version of the article, complete with the criminal’s quotable explanation for his act, can be found on Sakei Shinbun’s site.