Okinawa trial: US soldier charged with sexual assault of minor

A hearing is being held in Japan against an American soldier accused of sexually assaulting a minor in Okinawa.
The case revives trauma for Okinawans, already exasperated by the crimes and pollution brought by the large US military contingent.
Locals are angered by Tokyo’s apparent suppression of the crime.

Al Jazeera’s Eunice Kim explains.

#USSOLDIER #unitedstates #japan #okinawa

[Kulo_WC]

BBC, CNN, CBS, NBS, etc etc.
Where are you?
Why aren't you reporting this news?

[lasagnadevy]

imagine what they have done in iraq, syria, vietnam and still get a away with it..

[nalaabdou]

It's not just in Japan, you'll find cases all over Africa, US soldiers, some soldiers working under the UN mission. Few years back a British soldiers took a girl's life and his government quickly smuggle him out, then sent him back to the Uk from where he is still making fun of the situation, even saying that an African life is not of much value...

[springpocket]

Hate how Americans think laws don't apply to them when they are overseas

[ThomasCraig-rgbg]

This is disgraceful. As an American, I am ashamed.

[peterjanjanin]

You won't see this in the US media...

[stundardutch]

Japans Government still surrendering to the USA. Stand up for yourselves!

[rdpowel]

People in Okinawa has been suffering greatly from US military activity from noise pollution land prices are going up left and right and the Native are getting poorer everyday.

[minuteofgaming]

Okinawans have the right to defend themselves.

[rdpowel]

Its sad thing to see the outcome of foreign occupation

[Whatsthbgda]

For anybody wondering why US news seems to have forgotten to report on this, there have been high-profile cases of this type of abuse since at least 1997 so this isn’t surprising

[rsmybest]

There was even more cases during the Iraq war, but most of them were hidden and not taken seriously. One reason why I don't believe at soldier = hero, just based on their title. Now the same is happening against Palestinians.

[Burnlit]

I was deployed to Oki and the people there are amazing and kind to us but there are great amount of them that resent us in their island. And yet I saw my fellow Marines and servicemen out in town being ignorant American tourists instead of representing our country and the uniform they wear. Even though it is only a very small handful of servicemen and women, it really only takes one to make us all look bad.

[cmgoblin]

Gotta love how no American new networks are reporting this.

[de]

Americans in these comments are saying it's because of race is so typical for Americans. The reality is, there's a subset of unhinged people in the military and Okinawa has a history of covering things up to protect U.S. personnel. This sort of thing is a common powderkeg issue in Okinawa, which is why the indigenous locals tend to dislike Americans.

[tristanbw]

Here in Africa we have a similar problem, people thinking that since they are US soldiers they are invincible and immune to repercussions

[bernardjameswilson]

Japan's not gonna do anything to that soldier. I wouldn't be surprised if the japanese officials are bowing and apologizing to US atm for this.

[whimsicaldamsel]

These people are monsters or what! They are really revealing their true colours

[marufhasan]

dude thought he was still in afganistan

[dustspark_]

What more do you expect from your occupiers?