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U.S. soldier in Japan charged with sexually assaulting teenage girl in Okinawa
Tokyo — Japan’s government is calling for stricter oversight of U.S. troops stationed in the country after a soldier was charged over the alleged sexual assault of a Japanese teenager in Okinawa. Prosecutors in the southern island region charged the U.S. soldier in March, top government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters on Tuesday.
Local media said the 25-year-old man had been accused of assault, adding that he knew the girl was under 16, the age of consent in Japan.
The government expressed “regret” to U.S. Ambassador Rahm Emanuel over the incident and called for stronger oversight of behavior by military personnel, Hayashi said.
Okinawa accounts for just 0.6% of Japan’s land mass but hosts about 70% of all the U.S. military bases and facilities in the country.
PHILIP FONG/AFP/Getty
A litany of base-related woes has long grieved Okinawans, from pollution and noise to helicopter crashes and COVID-19 outbreaks, leading to complaints that they bear the brunt of hosting troops.
The 1995 gang rape of a 12-year-old girl by three U.S. soldiers in Okinawa prompted widespread calls for a rethink of a 1960 pact that outlined the legal status of Japan-based U.S. military personnel.
Okinawa governor Denny Tamaki voiced his “strong indignation” at the latest case.
“That something like this was done to a minor not only causes great fear to local residents living side-by-side with U.S. bases but tramples on the dignity of women,” he told reporters. “The excessive burden of hosting military bases is an everyday matter for us, and is intolerable.”
RICHARD A. BROOKS/AFP/Getty
Anti-base sentiment in Okinawa has been displayed in particular over a plan to relocate the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma.
While the central government wants to move the base to a less populated part of Okinawa’s main island, many locals would prefer it be transferred elsewhere in the country. A nationwide poll by broadcaster NHK in 2022 found 80% of Japanese consider the current disproportionate distribution of U.S. forces “wrong” or “somewhat wrong.”
The latest point of test for U.S.-Japanese ties comes at a crucial time, with concern over nuclear-armed North Korea‘s ongoing weapons tests rising along with tension between Washington and China over Beijing’s increasingly assertive stance on Taiwan’s status and its territorial disputes with other nations.
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“Feral and not trained” emus Thelma and Louise on the loose in South Carolina as state’s monkey search continues
Two more animals are on the loose in South Carolina as the state continues its search for fugitive monkeys that escaped a medical research facility in Beaufort County. But this time, it’s two emus named Thelma and Louise that escaped about a three-hour drive north.
The Horry County Police Department wrote about the large missing birds Wednesday, saying, “We are not emu-sed.”
“The department is aware of the reported emus and we have made contact with the owner. We are working to aid the owner in the effort to locate and capture the animals,” the Facebook post says. “There is no risk to the community associated with the emus at this time.”
When asked by CBS News on Friday morning, police said they did not have an update about the missing birds and that any additional information would be posted online.
Sam Morace, the owner of the birds, told CBS News on Friday that the emus are named Thelma and Louise and that they have yet to be captured. “They decided they wanted to hop the fence when we were trying to grab one of them to move her to another paddock and well she didn’t like that,” she said in a message. “So she’s living the wildlife, well both of them are.”
Morace posted in a community group Tuesday saying that the birds got loose three months ago.
“They are feral and not trained like the ones we have at the house,” Morace wrote. “Local law enforcement has already been at my house, we are trying to get a tranquilizer approved so we can bring them home. Thank you for all the concerns and questions. But if the emus were that easy to catch they would be home already.”
The large, flightless creatures are the second-largest living bird, with an average height of more than 5 1/2 feet. Females, like the ones that escaped in South Carolina, can weigh more than 130 pounds. The animals are not native to the United States and only naturally reside in Australia.
Morace’s Facebook post drew significant attention from community members, with one person suggesting that herding dogs could help. But Morace said that one of the emus had been attacked by three wild dogs before and that the bird managed to kill them before they could kill it.
“If your dogs try and attack her she will fight back. But she’s just not randomly going to go to anyone or any animal,” Morace said, saying elsewhere in the post that the bird is “more scared of you than you are of her.”
Some community members said they had spotted the bird.
“I was pretty shocked and so was the wife,” one person commented. “Like is that an emu next to the fire station? I turned around to take a picture and it was gone already!”
The news of the fugitive emus comes days after the escape of another batch of animals — 43 monkeys. They deserted the site after a caretaker failed to secure their enclosure gate. Thirty-two rhesus macaque primates had been recaptured after they broke out of the Alpha Genesis research facility in Yemassee.
