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View Full Version : Japan asks U.S. to finally stop military-related rapes, deaths




timosman
05-24-2016, 01:14 AM
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/japan-us-military-related-rapes-deaths-okinawa/


May 23, 2016

http://cbsnews2.cbsistatic.com/hub/i/r/2016/05/23/524955b8-df1c-4edc-87c5-5d11d90dc55e/thumbnail/620x350/bf288bdc8c29fddf670b31914d2ee21e/japan533399412.jpg

TOKYO - Japan's prime minister expressed his "strong indignation" Friday after an American working on a U.S. military base in Okinawa was arrested on suspicion of abandoning the body of a woman who disappeared last month.

"I have no words to express, considering how the family feels," Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told reporters. "We urge the U.S. side to take thorough measures to prevent the recurrence of such events."

The arrest sparked outrage on Okinawa, where anti-U.S. military sentiment is high because of a heavy American troop presence, and repeated instances of violent encounters between American military personnel and locals. It could fuel further opposition to the relocation of a U.S. Marine Corps air station on the southern Japanese island, a long-delayed project that Abe has been trying to push forward in the face of large protests.

The infamous 1995 rape of a schoolgirl by three U.S. servicemen sparked the initial outcry that lead to an agreement to relocate the Marine Corps Air Station Futenma to a less crowded part of the island.

Police said Kenneth Shinzato, 32, was arrested Thursday after he was questioned and investigators found the body at a location he provided, a forest in central Okinawa.

Investigators determined that the body is that of a 20-year-old woman missing since April 28, when she messaged her boyfriend that she was going for a walk.

Police said they suspect Shinzato was also responsible for her death. He has not been charged.

In Washington, Defense Department spokesman Peter Cook said the man arrested was a U.S. military contractor. "This is an appalling tragedy," he said. The U.S. military extends its "deepest sympathies to the people of Japan, and express our gratitude for the trust that they place in our bilateral alliance and the American people."

Kyodo News agency said Shinzato used to be a Marine.

State Department spokesman John Kirby said the U.S. military was cooperating fully with local authorities in their investigation. "This is a terrible tragedy and it's obviously an outrage," he told reporters in Washington.

Okinawa Gov. Takeshi Onaga said he was "outraged" and that the death of the woman broke his heart. "As I look back at all the developments to date, I'm simply speechless," he said.

Onaga has spearheaded opposition to the relocation of U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma from a densely populated neighborhood in central Okinawa to another site on the island, saying the facility should be moved away from Okinawa instead.

Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida summoned U.S. Ambassador Caroline Kennedy to convey his "regret" over the crime.

Kennedy said: "Nothing that I can do or say will make up the loss or to bring her back, but I want to express to you my determination and that of my military colleagues to cooperate fully with Okinawan police and the Japanese government, and we will double our efforts to make sure this will never happen again."

Okinawa is home to more than half of about 50,000 American troops based in Japan. Many Okinawans complain about crime and noise connected to the bases.

Ronin Truth
05-24-2016, 08:34 AM
Bring the US military home .............. from everywhere.

AngryCanadian
05-24-2016, 08:47 AM
That wont be happening. Just like how Obama wont be apologizing for the nuclear bombings. Stopping military-related rapes, deaths wont be happening any time soon.

mrsat_98
05-24-2016, 08:57 AM
Bring the US military home .............. from everywhere.

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to Ronin Truth again.

timosman
05-24-2016, 09:07 AM
You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to Ronin Truth again.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMzd40i8TfA

asurfaholic
05-24-2016, 10:20 AM
We need to honor the brave service men and women who fight for our freedoms.

jkr
05-24-2016, 11:10 AM
Just
Let
Them
F f f finish

Ronin Truth
05-24-2016, 11:16 AM
We need to honor the brave service men and women who fight for our freedoms.

Which two are those?

Ronin Truth
05-24-2016, 11:17 AM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMzd40i8TfA

Neither can Jack. That's just a movie. :p :rolleyes:

Ender
05-24-2016, 11:27 AM
Bring the US military home .............. from everywhere.

Bu....but Japan, I mean, is one of those countries that needs to pay for us protecting them....I mean.....they need to pay their fair share....I mean.....we nuked 'em and everything and they never paid.......I mean....they need to pay their fair share....even, I mean.

ligant
05-24-2016, 02:06 PM
We need to honor the brave service men and women who fight for our freedoms.

civil forfeiture, patriot act, police state and many others.
What freedoms you speak of? ;)

Spikender
05-24-2016, 03:04 PM
This is what happens when you soldiers and military contractors bored and sitting around doing nothing. They need to come home and re-integrate into our society or be given duty on the border. Enough occupations around the world.

timosman
05-24-2016, 03:15 PM
This is what happens when you soldiers and military contractors bored and sitting around doing nothing. They need to come home and re-integrate into our society or be given duty on the border. Enough occupations around the world.

Mandatory movie: Buffalo soldiers(2001)


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5eTLoiQi-E

Mani
05-25-2016, 02:24 AM
Oh but it's just one bad apple...

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/03/23/national/crime-legal/u-s-sailor-admits-okinawa-rape-police/#.V0Vg6eQgSrY

U.S. sailor admits to Okinawa rape: police



NAHA, OKINAWA PREF. – A U.S. Navy sailor arrested on a charge of raping a Japanese woman in Okinawa has admitted to the crime, investigative sources said Wednesday. They said he reversed an earlier denial.

Justin Castellanos, 24, who is based at the U.S. Marines’ Camp Schwab in northern Okinawa, was arrested on March 13 on suspicion of raping the woman in her 40s at a hotel in Naha early that morning.

Police allege Castellanos took the woman, a tourist from Fukuoka Prefecture, into his room after finding her asleep in a hotel corridor and raped her.

The suspect and the woman were both staying at the hotel but were not acquainted, the police said.

The alleged incident resulted in protests by thousands of people in Okinawa, which hosts the bulk of U.S. military facilities in Japan.

Mani
05-25-2016, 02:35 AM
Hundreds of Rapes? Over 1,000 allegations over an 8 year period? Almost no one goes to jail.

http://i673.photobucket.com/albums/vv99/soldave/Japan_US_Military_P_19873c.jpg

Did she just call US the terrorists????? Someone needs to bomb that woman. We are the GOOD GUYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11111111111




http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/09/sexual-assaults-us-military-japan-prison-unlikely




At US military bases in Japan, most service members found culpable in sex crimes in recent years did not go to prison, according to internal Department of Defence documents. Instead, in a review of hundreds of cases filed in America’s largest overseas military installation, offenders were fined, demoted, restricted to their bases or removed from the military.

In about 30 cases, a letter of reprimand was the only punishment.

More than 1,000 records, obtained by the Associated Press through the Freedom of Information Act, describe hundreds of cases in graphic detail, painting a disturbing picture of how senior American officers prosecute and punish troops accused of sex crimes. The handling of allegations verged on the chaotic, with seemingly strong cases often reduced to lesser charges. In two rape cases, commanders overruled recommendations to court-martial and dropped the charges instead.

Even when military authorities agreed a crime had been committed, the suspect was unlikely to serve time. Of 244 service members whose punishments were detailed in the records, only a third were incarcerated.

The analysis of the reported sex crimes, which were filed between 2005 and early 2013, shows a pattern of random and inconsistent judgments. The marines, for example, were far more likely than other branches to send offenders to prison, with 53 prison sentences out of 270 cases. By contrast, of the navy’s 203 cases, more than 70 were court-martialled or punished in some way. Only 15 were sentenced to time behind bars.

The air force was the most lenient. Of 124 sex crimes, the only punishment for 21 offenders was a letter of reprimand.

Victims increasingly declined to cooperate with investigators or recanted, a sign they may have been losing confidence in the system. In 2006, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, which handles the navy and marine corps, reported 13 such cases; in 2012, the figure was 28.

In two cases, both adjudicated by the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing, the accusers said they were sexually abused after nights of heavy drinking, and both had some evidence to support their cases. One suspect was sentenced to six years in prison, but the other was confined to base for 30 days instead of getting jail time.
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Taken together, the cases illustrate how far military leaders have to go to reverse a spiraling number of sexual assault reports. The records also may give weight to members of Congress pushing to strip senior officers of their authority to decide whether serious crimes, including sexual assault cases, go to trial.

“How many more rapes do we have to endure to wait and see what reforms are needed?” asked Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, chair of the Senate armed services personnel subcommittee. She leads a vocal group of lawmakers from both political parties who argue that further reforms to the military’s legal system are needed.

Air Force Colonel Alan Metzler, deputy director of the Defence Department’s sexual assault prevention and response office, said the department “has been very transparent that we do have a problem”. He said a number of changes in military law is creating a culture where victims trust that their allegations will be taken seriously and perpetrators will be punished.

The number of sexual assault cases taken to courts martial has grown steadily – from 42% in 2009 to 68% in 2012, according to DOD figures. In 2012, of the 238 service members convicted, 74% served time.

That trend is not reflected in the Japan cases. Out of 473 sexual assault allegations within navy and marine corps units, just 116, or 24%, ended up in courts martial. In the navy, one case in 2012 led to court martial, compared to 13 in which commanders used non-judicial penalties instead.

The authority to decide how to prosecute serious criminal allegations would be taken away from senior officers under a bill crafted by Gillibrand that is expected to come before the Senate this week. The bill would place that responsibility with the trial counsel who has prosecutorial experience. Senior US military leaders oppose the plan.

“Taking the commander out of the loop never solved any problem,” said Senator Lindsey Graham, the personnel subcommittee’s top Republican. “It would dismantle the military justice system beyond sexual assaults. It would take commanders off the hook for their responsibility to fix this problem.”

Gillibrand and her supporters argue that the cultural shift the military needs will not happen if commanders retain their current role in the legal system.

“Skippers have had this authority since the days of John Paul Jones and sexual assaults still occur,” said Lory Manning, a retired navy captain and senior fellow at the Women in the Military Project. “And this is where we are.”






A slap on the wrist and a boys will be boys comment should take care of all that rape nonsense.


These people just hate us for our freedom. Don't they realize we protect them? Just a few hundred/thousand get raped, the rest are being protected! They are so ungrateful that we sit on their soil, rape a few of them, but overall provide them with protection from danger.

ligant
05-25-2016, 04:37 AM
Hundreds of Rapes? Over 1,000 allegations over an 8 year period? Almost no one goes to jail.

http://i673.photobucket.com/albums/vv99/soldave/Japan_US_Military_P_19873c.jpg

Did she just call US the terrorists????? Someone needs to bomb that woman. We are the GOOD GUYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11111111111




http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/09/sexual-assaults-us-military-japan-prison-unlikely




What religious right has to say about this?
What pro-war pastors has to say about this?

Mani
05-25-2016, 10:30 PM
What religious right has to say about this?
What pro-war pastors has to say about this?


A few bad apples...Or thousand...or whatever...

There's always a disconnect for the pro-war folks...They just gloss over it.


Can't fathom how they would feel if there was another country's military base on our shores that raped thousands of our women and hardly anyone gets punished. For whatever reason empathy doesn't exist.

timosman
06-19-2016, 11:22 AM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnLIj7RFWVg

enhanced_deficit
06-19-2016, 12:08 PM
Culture of sexual and non-sexual violence/harassment should be eradicated from top to bottom. Hopefully tax payers funded current commander-in-chief of militaries will speak up against violence.






http://img.thesun.co.uk/aidemitlum/archive/00859/SNN0425OB_682_859402a.jpg


https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/6c/fa/5a/6cfa5a307fd8e866c3891bf82f12f9d6.jpg

enhanced_deficit
06-19-2016, 12:18 PM
Biden: No rapist should ever be paroled.

What does Biden, assistant to commander-in-chief, suggest should be done to those who commit such violent acts?

TheTexan
06-19-2016, 12:52 PM
Japan making demands, ha, ha ,ha

We all know how well that worked out for them last time

enhanced_deficit
06-19-2016, 10:11 PM
Hundreds of Rapes? Over 1,000 allegations over an 8 year period? Almost no one goes to jail.

http://i673.photobucket.com/albums/vv99/soldave/Japan_US_Military_P_19873c.jpg

Did she just call US the terrorists????? Someone needs to bomb that woman. We are the GOOD GUYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11111111111




http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/09/sexual-assaults-us-military-japan-prison-unlikely






A slap on the wrist and a boys will be boys comment should take care of all that rape nonsense.


These people just hate us for our freedom. Don't they realize we protect them? Just a few hundred/thousand get raped, the rest are being protected! They are so ungrateful that we sit on their soil, rape a few of them, but overall provide them with protection from danger.


Although DGP had been slammed in the past for alleged killing of innocent children of other races with drones, this is the first time disgraced SWC (http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?433586-Majority-of-Americans-now-believe-Obama-is-quot-dishonest-and-untrustworthy) has been slammed by a head of State over an alleged murder :

Japan PM Shinzo Abe slams Obama over "despicable" Okinawa murder

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe publicly chastised President Obama Wednesday over the recent murder of a woman in Okinawa (http://www.cbsnews.com/news/u-s-military-worker-suspected-of-murder-arrested-in-okinawa/), which Japanese police have linked to an American worker at a U.S. military base.
"At the outset of our small group discussion, I firmly launched a protest against President Obama as the Japanese prime minister with regards to the most recent case in Okinawa," Abe said at a press conference with Mr. Obama, shortly after the two leaders' bilateral G7 summit meeting in Shima, Japan. "I feel profound resentment against this self-centered and absolutely despicable crime," adding that the case has shocked not just Okinawa but all of Japan.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/japan-pm-shinzo-abe-slams-obama-over-despicable-okinawa-murder/




http://www.gannett-cdn.com/-mm-/2a8367e43d5e247b2d92869ab22245a8df78f905/c=0-0-1536-2048&r=537&c=0-0-534-712/local/-/media/2016/05/20/USATODAY/USATODAY/635993459116027148-EPA-JAPAN-OKINAWA-US-CRIME.jpg




https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/ovF52uJIX0Q.0zz_NmSomQ--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjtzbT0xO3c9ODAwO2lsPXBsYW5l/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/afp.com/Part-HKG-Hkg10180172-1-1-0.jpg
http://www.gannett-cdn.com/-mm-/b4e84d301cbac05d3b75d2538a95104b942db0a1/c=226-0-3773-2667&r=x408&c=540x405/local/-/media/2016/05/20/USATODAY/USATODAY/635993470943866967-EPA-JAPAN-OKINAWA-US-CRIME.1.jpg






Obama's War Crimes: The U.S. Drone War (http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?391485-Obama-s-War-Crimes-The-U-S-Drone-War&)

enhanced_deficit
06-21-2016, 05:56 PM
That wont be happening. Just like how Obama wont be apologizing for the nuclear bombings. Stopping military-related rapes, deaths wont be happening any time soon.

DGP hasn't apologized to families of children killed by drone bombings that he is responsible for, why would he apologize for nuclear bombings that occured even before his dad came from Kenya to US.

juleswin
06-21-2016, 06:05 PM
Imagine what they would do once Trump starts charging Japan for our military bases.

Other countries actually pay (e.g Russia to Ukraine) to have their military bases in the country but Trump somehow thinks he can hustle money from the Japanese. And no, Japan doesn't need our protection.

liveandletlive
06-21-2016, 06:06 PM
our "heroes" need to GTFO of Japan.

Tywysog Cymru
06-21-2016, 06:13 PM
Imagine what they would do once Trump starts charging Japan for our military bases.

Trump won't let the bases close.

The Japanese people I know don't like Trump at all, unsurprisingly.

enhanced_deficit
06-24-2016, 02:25 PM
Trump won't let the bases close.




Trump will tell Japan: All your bases are belong to us

Ronin Truth
06-24-2016, 02:47 PM
All in all, that doesn't really seem like an unreasonable request.

enhanced_deficit
06-25-2016, 10:38 PM
All in all, that doesn't really seem like an unreasonable request.

Freedom has no price tag.