Japan Aff Michigan
Bases Make Areas Vulnerable
Download 1.23 Mb.
|
- Navigate this page:
- SoFA Prevents Justice
- Justice System Corrupt
Bases Make Areas VulnerableAreas around Okinawa bases are poor and desperate, making women in them vulnerable to sexual abuse and rape Funabashi, 99- Chief diplomatic correspondent of Asahi Shimbun and contributing editor of Foreign Policy, doctorate from Keio University, a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University (1975-76), a visiting Fellow at the Institute for International Economics (1987), a Donald Keene Fellow at Columbia University (2003), Distinguished Guest Scholar at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. (2005-2006), and Visiting Professor at the University of Tokyo Public Policy Institute (2005-2006) (Yoichi, Alliance Adrift, Council on Foreign Relations Press New York, page 298) If there was an accident involving U.S. aircraft, it was always front-page news. The Prefectural Assembly discussed it. When it was a women victim of sexual assault by a U.S. soldier, however, it only made the social section. Prior to the schoolgirl rape, an incident had taken place in May in Naha City in which a 24-year-old Okinawan woman had been hammered to death by a U.S. soldier. The newspapers pigeonholed it as a “love triangle gone wrong”, writing that the woman had been divorced-as if that had anything to do with it. Takazato cited that example and called for a change in journalists’ attitudes. Takazato had worked for many years as a women’s counselor. She had seen many of the victims of rapes perpetuated by U.S. servicemen. Unable to tell anyone and with no one’s help, the victims bore huge psychological scars. Takazato continued, “In this rape, the perpetrators say they discussed first going to a brothel on the side of the base. But they decided not to because it was poor and dirty and reminded them of home. So they rented a car, drove a long way out and committed the rape. American economic power is not as strong as it once was and the areas around the bases are some of the poorest, the American soldiers now prowling around residential areas demanding free sex. The housing area is totally vulnerable without any fencing. The whole of Okinawa is exposed to the sexual violence of the bases.” By posing the violation of human rights derived from the structural violence of the military as the “base question,” Takazato challenged the equation by changing it from one of “peace” and “land” and “accidents” to one of “human rights” and women’s rights.”
(Yoichi, Alliance Adrift, Council on Foreign Relations Press New York, page 299) Massive Denunciation was fierce. The Girard case, which took place almost 40 years ago, immediately flashed in people’s minds. Why couldn’t they be handed over to the Japanese when they were arrested? Article 17 had been criticized as an “unequal provision” ever since SOFA had come into force in 1960. There had been more than 4,500 U.S. military-related crimes since Okinawa’s reversion in 1972, including 12 murders. Each time there had been trouble with handling the suspects over into Japanese custody and compensation for the victims. With the suspects held in custody inside the bases, if they escaped back to the United States, there was nothing the Japanese authorities could do. Additionally, jurisdiction depended on whether the crime had been committed “on duty” or “off duty”. If it had been committed on duty, then the Americans had primary right. However, whether it was on or off duty was determined by whether the commander of the U.S. armed forced issued a testimonial to that effect. Justice System CorruptMany cases are never brought to light by a justice system that goes to extreme lengths to prevent rape trials Motoyama, 08-Executive Director of the Asia-Japan Women’s Resource Center in Japan (Hisako, Off Our Backs, Volume 38, Issue 1, “Not a ‘yankees-go-home’ Solution to the Sexual Violence of the U.S. Military”, 2008, accessed via questia.com, Questia Media America, Inc.) Massive The police closed the case when the girl in Okinawa, who was under enormous pressure, dropped the accusation against the soldier, saying that she just wanted to be left alone. Under Japanese criminal law, the crime of rape cannot be brought into the court unless the victim files the case, supposedly in order to protect the victims. In fact, it has served to prevent victims from pursuing justice in the Japanese court, where a victim of sexual violence still often faces insensitive questions or attack based on sexual prejudice. Even if a victim wishes to pursue the case, the prosecutor's office may not want to press the charge when they see little chance of winning. The Hiroshima case also proved that the Japanese justice system can offer little help for victims of sexual violence. We were terribly shocked when the prosecutors dropped the charge against the Marines without clarifying the reason. The victim recently told in tears that she was too ashamed to tell that she had agreed to have sex with one of the Marines. That the prosecutors failed to understand her fears and feelings of shame and failed to acquire enough evidence to disprove the Marines' claim that their sexual acts were on mutual agreement-despite the fact that the victim was robbed, forcibly raped several times and left crying in the car park-clearly shows serious flaws in the Japanese criminal justice system. Both cases were brought to the U.S. military court for trial regardless of the Japanese criminal procedure. Unequal punishments for American soldiers and Okinawan residents exemplify the prejudice and lack of concern with the rights of Okinawan women Takazato, 97-Co-Chair of Okinawa Women Act Against Military Violence (Suzuyo, Canadian Women Studies, Volume 19, Number 4, report to the International Confrence on Violence against Women in War and Armed Conflict Situations, “Report From Okinawa: Long-Term U.S. Military Presence”, October/November 1997, http://pi.library.yorku.ca/ojs/index.php/cws/article/viewFile/7929/7060) Massive T h e freedom of activity of U.S. military forces stationed in Okinawa is guaranteed, but policies to prevent crimes or support victims of crimes committed by U.S. troops has never even been discussed. There is no systematic data on U.S. military crimes. U.S. authorities proclaimed that the rape of the wife or daughter of a U.S. serviceman would result in the death penalty for the assailant. In contrast, punishments for U.S. military crimes were light. In many cases, because the suspect was returned to the U.S., the trial verdict was never known. Until 1972, U.S. military crimes were handled by military courts-martial, and only after Reversion were trials held under the Japanese legal system. During the 27 years 0fU.S. military control there was no accurate report of the results of military courts- martial. Even today, there is no complete report of the total number of incidents and how they are dealt with. Some cases are adjudicated through the Japanese courts; while crimes committed inside U.S. bases that result in a court-martial are tried entirely separately. Twisted logic in Japan holds the victim with blame for crimes committed by the U.S. service men, as sacrifice for security Motoyama, 08-Executive Director of the Asia-Japan Women’s Resource Center in Japan (Hisako, Off Our Backs, Volume 38, Issue 1, “Not a ‘yankees-go-home’ Solution to the Sexual Violence of the U.S. Military”, 2008, accessed via questia.com, Questia Media America, Inc.) Massive The attack against the victim was even more severe in the rape case against a 14-year-old girl in Okinawa because it reminded many people of the 1995 rape of a 12-year-old girl that shook the foundation of the U.S. Japan military alliance. While many protest actions were organized, abusive comments against the victim flooded the internet, and some mass media in mainland Japan exploited the traditional sexual prejudice to shift the blame onto the victim. A popular weekly magazine published an article titled "The girl followed the Marine when she should have known that it might be danger- ous," suggesting that the victim was partly responsible for her carelessness in accepting the soldier's offer of a ride. Sankei, a major newspaper, even published an editorial claiming that the real problem was the lack of education on the part of the girl about the danger of U.S. Marines. They went on to blame the anti-base groups as "exploiting the case" and being "irresponsible" because the retreat of the U.S. military in Japan may destabilize the military balance in East Asia and may invite danger for the nation. It is such twisted logic that those so-called realists preach that women and girls living next to the U.S. military should behave well and accept the danger of rape, for the sake of the safety of the nation. My office ( the Asia-Japan Women's Resource Center) and Okinawan women's group also received a lot of nasty calls and e-mails, including some from women. US military personel have no boundaries on their sexual violence because of such weak regulations; the US government will turn over rapists to the Japanese government just because they know there will be a lighter sentence Takazato, 07-Co-Chair of Okinawa Women Act Against Military Violence (Suzuyo, Peace Work, “Outposts of Violence: Sixty Years of Women’s Activism Against US Military Bases”, February 2007, http://www.peaceworkmagazine.org/node/451) Massive US soldiers' sexual crimes know no national boundaries. On November 1, 2005, a woman was raped by a US Marine while three others looked on. The four Marines belonged to a unit stationed in Okinawa, but were at Subic Bay participating in a joint "war-on-terror" exercise with the Philippines military. On December 4, 2006, only one of them, Lance Cpl. Daniel Smith, was convicted in Philippines court, while the others were acquitted and immediately returned to Okinawa. Smith may face 20 to 40 years of imprisonment, though he has since been returned to US custody and many doubt that he will serve his sentence. In a similar case in Okinawa in June 2001, the sentence was only three years, demonstrating a clear contrast between the criminal justice systems of Japan and the Philippines regarding sexual crimes. In fact, the US government has agreed to turn suspects over to Japanese authorities in cases of rape because of the light sentences for sexual crimes in Japan. Dichotomies between the rapist and victim prevent the victim from winning their case, and are often oppressed by the military Akibayashi* and Takazato**, 09-*Ed. D from the Teachers College Columbia University, associate professor at the College of International Relations at Ritsumeikan University, International Vice President of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, **Co-Chair of Okinawa Women Act Against Military Violence (Kozue and Suzuyo, The Bases of Empire: The Global Struggle Against Military Posts, ed. by Catherine Lutz, page 266, accessed via Google Books) Massive Feminist international scholars have already argued that a gender perspective effectively reveals an unequal dichotomy between the protector and the protested on which the present security system has been built (Peterson 1992). The OWAAMV movement illustrates from a gender perspective that “the protected,” who are structurally deprived of political power, are in fact not protected by the militarized security policies; rather their livelihoods are made insecure by these very policies. The movement has also illuminated the fact that “gated” bases do not confine military violence to within the bases. Those hundreds-of-miles-long fences around the bases are there only to assure the readiness of the military and military operations by excluding and even oppressing the people living outside the gated bases. Directory: files files -> Answer True False 2 points Question 2 files -> Integer programming and game theory files -> 4 Integer Programming files -> Bpa vehicle Window Repair Scenario #1 task: Procure vehicle window relacement. Objective files -> Pop Warner History files -> North Carolina Inclusion Initiative Mapping Where Children with ieps are Being Served Purpose files -> Fall 2013 Spring 2014 Program Data: Standard 1 Exhibit 4d files -> Hanban – asia society confucius classrooms network 2010 request for proposal files -> Northern England’s set-jetting locations Download 1.23 Mb. Share with your friends:
|