The Amoeba
02-12-2008, 06:26 PM
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/13/world/asia/13japan.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/02/12/world/12japan-600.jpg
People in front of a U.S. base in Okinawa on Tuesday protested after a a U.S. Marine was arrested for allegedly raping a 14-year-old Japanese girl.
TOKYO — Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda of Japan voiced anger Tuesday over the alleged rape of a 14-year-old girl in Okinawa by a United States marine, calling the incident “unforgivable.”
“Even though this has occurred several times in the past, it has happened again,” Mr. Fukuda said. “I take this very seriously.”
Staff Sgt. Tyrone Luther Hadnott, a 38-year-old marine from Camp Courtney in Okinawa, was arrested after being accused of attacking the girl inside his car on Sunday night. Mr. Hadnott, who has denied raping the girl, has yet to be charged.
The alleged incident quickly drew anger in Okinawa, as several dozen protesters demonstrated outside an American military base there and the regional assembly passed a resolution of protest both against the United States and Tokyo.
After being summoned by the Japanese foreign ministry, Joseph R. Donovan, the deputy chief of mission at the United States embassy in Japan, told reporters that this “is an extremely regrettable case and that we take this very, very seriously.”
“I pledged our complete cooperation with the ongoing investigation of the Japanese authorities,” Mr. Donovan said.
In 1995, three American marines gang-raped a 12-year-old girl in Okinawa, triggering massive protests there.
According to the Japanese police, Mr. Hadnott met the young girl on Sunday and offered to take her home on his motorcycle.
Instead, he took her to his home where he tried to kiss her. After the girl started crying, he said he would take her home in his car, got inside and is said to have then raped her.
Mr. Hadnott has denied raping her, although, according to the police, he has acknowledged pressing her down and kissing her.
Officials in Okinawa, a set of subtropical islands hundreds of miles away from the main Japanese islands and an independent kingdom until the 19th century, have long complained that the prefecture hosts most of the more than 40,000 United States soldiers stationed in Japan.
Even as Tokyo has lobbied Okinawa to accept the relocation of a long-delayed Marine air station in the town of Futenma, the United States is scheduled to transfer 8,000 troops from Okinawa to Guam over the next several years.
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/02/12/world/12japan-600.jpg
People in front of a U.S. base in Okinawa on Tuesday protested after a a U.S. Marine was arrested for allegedly raping a 14-year-old Japanese girl.
TOKYO — Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda of Japan voiced anger Tuesday over the alleged rape of a 14-year-old girl in Okinawa by a United States marine, calling the incident “unforgivable.”
“Even though this has occurred several times in the past, it has happened again,” Mr. Fukuda said. “I take this very seriously.”
Staff Sgt. Tyrone Luther Hadnott, a 38-year-old marine from Camp Courtney in Okinawa, was arrested after being accused of attacking the girl inside his car on Sunday night. Mr. Hadnott, who has denied raping the girl, has yet to be charged.
The alleged incident quickly drew anger in Okinawa, as several dozen protesters demonstrated outside an American military base there and the regional assembly passed a resolution of protest both against the United States and Tokyo.
After being summoned by the Japanese foreign ministry, Joseph R. Donovan, the deputy chief of mission at the United States embassy in Japan, told reporters that this “is an extremely regrettable case and that we take this very, very seriously.”
“I pledged our complete cooperation with the ongoing investigation of the Japanese authorities,” Mr. Donovan said.
In 1995, three American marines gang-raped a 12-year-old girl in Okinawa, triggering massive protests there.
According to the Japanese police, Mr. Hadnott met the young girl on Sunday and offered to take her home on his motorcycle.
Instead, he took her to his home where he tried to kiss her. After the girl started crying, he said he would take her home in his car, got inside and is said to have then raped her.
Mr. Hadnott has denied raping her, although, according to the police, he has acknowledged pressing her down and kissing her.
Officials in Okinawa, a set of subtropical islands hundreds of miles away from the main Japanese islands and an independent kingdom until the 19th century, have long complained that the prefecture hosts most of the more than 40,000 United States soldiers stationed in Japan.
Even as Tokyo has lobbied Okinawa to accept the relocation of a long-delayed Marine air station in the town of Futenma, the United States is scheduled to transfer 8,000 troops from Okinawa to Guam over the next several years.