A Marine Officer?s Ordeal from Okinawan ?Justice?

[thedrifter]

05-22-2003

A Marine Officer?s Ordeal from Okinawan ?Justice?



By Matthew Dodd



What would you think about a fictional story in a strategic allied nation of the United States, where the female alleged victim of a sexual crime reportedly committed by a U.S. military officer testified in court that the police, her employers and local government prosecutors pressured her to sign papers not in her native language (and without an interpreter present) to press charges and to testify against the officer?



What if I told you that the alleged victim further testified that she does not believe a crime was committed against her, that she accepts the falsely-accused officer?s apology, and that she does not want the officer to be punished?



How about if I told you that in the alleged victim?s own testimony, the local government prosecutor prevented her from withdrawing the charges against the officer?



What if I told you that officials then held the accused officer in solitary confinement for five months without bail in a local jail while the case dragged on?



Well, in an incident that proves the old adage that truth is, indeed, stranger than fiction, what I just described has been the ongoing legal, ethical and political drama unfolding in Okinawa, Japan, to a U.S. Marine major.



From multiple sources, I have pieced together most of the details of this bizarre case:



The officer is 40 years old, a 19-year veteran of the Marine Corps, and is married with two children. The woman, who is in her 40?s, is a Filipina married to an Okinawan and a 20-year resident of Japan.



On Nov. 2, 2002, the officer was drinking at the Camp Courtney Officers Club, where the woman worked as a bartender. After the club closed, the woman agreed to give the officer a ride home. Somewhere along the way the car stopped. There was some sort of interaction between the two (she testified that they kissed and fondled each other). Somehow her cellular phone was broken as a result of their interaction.



Sometime after that fateful night, the woman signed official Okinawan police papers alleging that she was raped, and also accused the officer of destroying her phone. On Dec. 3, the Okinawa police obtained an arrest warrant and officially sought custody of the officer. On Dec. 19, the officer was indicted in a Japanese court, and in compliance with the status of forces agreement between the United States and Japan, U.S. military officials turned the officer over to Japanese authorities who placed him in solitary confinement.



The case was tried by the Naha District Public Prosecutors Office. It is well known that Okinawan prosecutors rarely try cases unless all but guaranteed of a guilty verdict. In fact, it has been reported that Okinawan prosecutors have a conviction rate of 99 percent after indictment.



In sworn testimony, the woman repeatedly claimed that she was pressured by the police, her employers and the prosecutors to press charges; that without an interpreter, she did not understand the Japanese papers she was pressured into signing; that she tried to withdraw the charges, but the prosecutor prevented her from doing so; that the police and her employer pressured her to not withdraw the charges; and that she was being forced to testify against the officer whose apology she accepted because she did not believe he had sexually assaulted her.



The court denied the officer?s request for bail four separate times. On May 16, only a couple of days after the woman?s startling testimony apparently shattered the prosecutor?s case, the officer was released on $86,000 bail and moved to Camp Courtney for confinement. The trial is expected to last until July.



Based on my own personal experience from several deployments to Okinawa during my Marine Corps career, numerous conversations with individuals familiar with this case and knowledgeable of U.S.-Japanese/Okinawan relations, and from a thorough reading of news articles about the matter, it is obvious that this case is all about money and politics, and has very little, if anything, to do with a pursuit of fairness and justice.



For a long time, Okinawan political officials have resented their lack of status within their national government, particularly the fact that mainland government officials all but ignored Okinawa and the island?s population and their concerns. By far the biggest frustration has been the fact that most of the 39,000 U.S. military personnel serving in Japan are based on Okinawa.



In turn, many Okinawan officials acting on this frustration have engaged in a cycle of manipulation to extort power, money and influence from Tokyo and Washington. Their primary tactic was, and still is, exaggerating the consequences of accidents or criminal incidents to incite local residents to oppose the U.S. military presence.



This manipulation cycle has worsened as a result of years of escalating politically-correct and politically-driven U.S. responses to military crimes and mishaps on Okinawa. Okinawan officials recognized the U.S. hypersensitivity as a form of political weakness and have figured out how to exploit it for their own gain.



On the heels of the hypersensitive U.S. responses, local Okinawan officials publicly exerted themselves and began to gain political influence on U.S. military bases and policies. This increased influence led to a gradual and steady decrease in U.S. military activities, and even more hypersensitivity to Okinawan interests.



The increased U.S. visibility of Okinawan concerns and interests resulted in increased U.S.-Japan government-government contacts. Those contacts meant that Okinawan interests were given exposure at the highest levels of Japanese government. The bottom line is that the U.S. military helped to legitimize the Okinawan government in the eyes of the central Japanese political system ? something the Okinawan political leaders were not able to do by themselves.



Despite frequent rhetoric demanding that U.S. forces leave the island, the last thing Okinawan political leaders want is a complete U.S. military pullout. That fact has little to nothing to do with regional security concerns. Such a pullout would mean a loss of jobs and money for the local economy, compliments of the U.S. government. That pullout would also reduce Okinawa?s new political clout with the central Japanese government.



Against this political backdrop, the current travesty of justice taking place in the Naha District Court is understandable. However, the woman?s powerful testimony has not only upset the Okinawan police and public prosecutor?s carefully laid plans, it also threatens to expose the true nature and intentions of the Okinawan political system.



The Marine officer at the heart of this political game is, at worst, guilty of questionable judgment: By drinking all night until closing time, and leaving with and getting in a car with a female bartender, he put himself in a very compromising position. But that pales in comparison with the cynical campaign of Okinawan officials to create a major political incident out of what appears to be a non-event.



Finally, I have to wonder about what the U.S. government is doing about negating the cycle of manipulation described above. It is an embarrassment for the U.S. government to admit that it is being manipulated, but it is even more disturbing to think that U.S. officials value political correctness and political expediency more than fairness, justice and protection of our military personnel deployed overseas.



The nightmare experienced by this one officer should serve as a cautionary tale of the danger facing all U.S. military and civilian government personnel who may unexpectedly find themselves as political pawns and hostages in the land of one of our closest allies.



Lt. Col. Matthew Dodd USMC is a Senior Editor of DefenseWatch. He can be reached at mattdodd1775@hotmail.com.



Sempers,

Roger