1995 Okinawa rape incident

The 1995 Okinawa rape incident took place on September 4, 1995, when three African American U.S. servicemen – U.S. Navy Seaman Marcus Gill and U.S. Marines Rodrico Harp and Kendrick Ledet, who were all serving at Camp Hansen on Okinawa – rented a van and kidnapped a 12-year-old Japanese girl. They beat 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 out of fear of Gill. The incident led to further debate over the continued presence of U.S. forces in Japan. The offenders were tried and convicted in Japanese court by Japanese law, in accordance with the SOFA agreements. The families of the defendants initially claimed that Japanese officials had discriminated against the men because they were African American and coerced confessions from them, but later retracted the claims.

After the incident became known, public outrage erupted, especially over the U.S.–Japan Status of Forces Agreement, which gives the U.S. service members a certain measure of extraterritoriality (exemption from jurisdiction of local law) only as it relates to the place the suspects were detained. While the crime was committed away from a U.S. military base, the U.S. initially took the men into custody, on September 6. Although false rumors spread that the suspects were free to roam the base and had been seen eating hamburgers, the suspects were in fact held in a military brig until the Japanese officials charged them with the crime. Despite an immediate request by Japanese law enforcement for custody and eventual trial, the men were only handed over on September 29, after the Japanese had formally indicted them. This delay followed the Status of Forces agreement, which states, "The custody of an accused member of the United States armed forces or the civilian component over whom Japan is to exercise jurisdiction shall, if he is in the hands of the United States, remain with the United States until he is charged." Although the military drove the suspects to police headquarters in Naha for daily interrogations, the SOFA provision and the delay in handing over the suspects increased the outrage over the attack, causing the largest anti-American demonstrations in Okinawa since the treaty was signed in 1960.

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