As a military brat, when I heard that a woman had been raped by two men in Okinawa that just so happened to be service members, my blood boiled. I have a family member serving on the base in question, and called him right away, wanting to know what was going to be done to correct this... mistake. He couldn't tell me anything, but this article gave me the information I wanted to know.
The actions of the General are the ones that should have been committed. After hearing of the charges and the attack, a curfew has now been enacted on all military personal in Okinawa, from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m., until further notice. This will ease the minds of the citizenry, and quell the out pour of anger directed at the U.S. military. There have been other attacks in Okinawa, with the most notable being the one from 1995, as the article notes, "a gang rape of a school girl by 3 service personnel", and as such, the population are justifiably upset. The article goes on to point out that Okinawa has felt the presence of the United States Military unfairly heavy since the end of World War II--the base there has more than half of all the service members in the country present. Citizen's of the cities near the base claim the base is a source of crime, according to the article.
This was, to be blunt, a blight on the honor of those who serve our country. The relationship of the United States in that area was already a tenuous one, at best, and these two men have fractured it even more. When you wear your uniform, you represent us, and as one raised around combat boots and fatigues am sorely disappointed in these men. Military members are held to higher standard, and as such, you are a model of sorts for your country and what your country stands for. When people enter the service, they are told to behave a certain way, and to always abide by the honor code. There was no such abiding happening here, and as such, even I, as a child of two service members from a family that has a long history of being all of the branches of this countries military, felt the need to apologize.
Recently in the news it was reported that an unfortunate incident occurred in Okinawa, Japan. The Japanese police reported a rape by two drunken US Navy men of a young woman who was walking home before dawn. As expected, this was rightfully an outrage to the island locals as well as an embarrassment to the United States. The people of Okinawa have had a long standing “anti-sentiment bias” (Fackler, NY Times) toward the stationed military base, which holds around 50,000 soldiers, for this isn’t the first situation involving a case of rape. There have been seven reported rape cases over the past thirty years (Fackler, New York Times), but this current one has been most exceptionally prominent to the protesters of the island.
ReplyDeleteI agree with A.R. Perry that our military men “are held to a high standard” and should better represent our country with such a title. Which brings me to the observation that since military men and women reflect our country they should be more aware of their actions, especially in foreign countries with a different standard of culture. The simplest of actions that we consider the norm here in America could very easily be turned around and viewed as an act of wrongdoing in a different country. And since we don’t know the exact details of this case, who is to say that the men are to blame? The girl could have easily either maliciously trapped these men into this predicament or genuinely acted out of her own acculturation. What stays the same is that women will be women. For all we know this could have been a crude stunt for publicity in order to gain infamy, which is sought after by girls in Japan, or a political move to try and have the military base moved once and for all.
I do feel that the new laws of the curfew are a great first step, but only a first step. Plenty more needs to be done to completely stop these crimes and all others from occurring. The soldiers should definitely be trained to act as citizens would in the country and get well acquainted with the culture, traditions, and taboos, and then to act accordingly in public. My advice to A.R. Perry is to keep an open mind to the situation because we don’t have all the facts.