CBS News
Second U.S. service member in months charged with rape in Japan’s Okinawa: “We are outraged”
Tokyo — Japan’s government protested Friday to the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo over at least two sexual assault cases involving American servicemembers on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa that were only recently made public.
In one case, an Air Force member is accused in March of assaulting a teenage girl in December, while the other, which dates from May, involves a Marine accused of assaulting a 21-year-old woman.
The case involving the assault of the teenager is a reminder to many Okinawans of the high-profile 1995 rape of a 12-year-old girl by three U.S. servicemembers, which sparked massive protests against the heavy U.S. troop presence on Okinawa. It led to a 1996 agreement between Tokyo and Washington on a closure of a key U.S. air station, though the plan has been delayed due to protests at the site designated for its relocation on another part of the island.
PHILIP FONG / AFP via Getty Images
Some 50,000 U.S. troops are deployed in Japan under a bilateral security pact, about half of them on Okinawa, whose strategic role is seen increasingly important for the Japan-U.S. military alliance in the face of growing tensions with China. Japan’s southwestern shift of its own military also focuses heavily on Okinawa and its nearby islands.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters Friday it was “extremely regrettable” the two alleged sexual assaults occurred within months. Japan “takes it seriously” and Vice Foreign Minister Masataka Okano conveyed regrets to U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel, requesting disciplinary and preventive measures, Hayashi said.
“I believe that the U.S. side also takes this matter seriously,” Hayashi said. “Criminal cases and accidents by U.S. military personnel cause great anxiety to local residents, and they should never occur in the first place.”
The U.S. Embassy in Tokyo declined to confirm details of the meeting between Emanuel and Okano and how the ambassador responded, citing diplomatic rules.
Hayashi said Japanese prosecutors in Naha, the capital of Okinawa, had pressed nonconsensual sex and assault charges against the Marine on June 17, which were only announced Friday. Both suspects were handled by the Japanese authorities.
An Okinawa police spokesperson told Agence France-Presse the Marine is accused of “assaulting the victim for the purpose of sexual intercourse and injuring her,” adding that, “The fact that he used violence for that purpose and wounded her constitutes non-consensual sex resulting in injury.”
The woman was “bitten in the mouth” and took two weeks to fully recover, he said. Media reports said she was also choked.
The two cases have sparked outrage and echo Japan’s fraught history with US troops, including the 1995 gang rape of a 12-year-old girl by three U.S. servicemen.
The Naha District Prosecutors’ Office refused to confirm indictments in the two cases over the phone with anyone who is not a local press club member. Okinawa prefectural police said the two cases were never made public out of consideration for the privacy of the victims.
Okinawa residents and the island’s governor, Denny Tamaki, have long complained about accidents and crime related to U.S military bases and expressed anger over the alleged crime and lack of disclosure.
Tamaki, who opposes the heavy U.S. troop presence on Okinawa, said he was “speechless and outraged.” He stressed the need to “reconstruct” the communication system in case of crime and accidents involving American service members.
“I’m deeply concerned about the severity of this allegation and I regret the anxiety this has caused,” Brig. Gen. Nicholas Evans, Commander of the 18th Wing at Kadena Air Base on Okinawa, who visited the Okinawa prefectural government with several U.S. officials, said on Thursday, though he did not apologize.
He promised the US military will fully cooperate with the investigation by the local authorities and the courts.
Okinawa Vice Gov. Takekuni Ikeda told Evans and other officials that the alleged assaults were serious human rights violations against women. “We find them absolutely unforgivable, and we are outraged,” he said.
Ikeda also protested the delayed notification of the criminal cases, saying they caused anxiety for residents near the U.S. bases. He said the prefecture was only notified this week about the December case, when the suspect was indicted in March, and only after inquiries by the Japanese Foreign Ministry.
Mesquite, Texas — For Earl Guynes and his son, Jared, cars have always been their love language, bonding over Bondo and brake pads since Jared was young.
And through the years, the one thing they’ve talked about most is the 1967 Chevrolet Camaro that Earl used to own.
“Anytime that we saw a Camaro, he would definitely bring it up,” Jared said. “It’d be a reoccurring theme in a reoccurring story…The joke was, or the way that he just summed it all up, was that I had to sell this car for your diaper money.”
Actually, Earl was only half-joking.
“You got to build a nursery, find a crib and a cradle, and it was time to settle down and raise the family,” Earl said.
So in 1983, it was goodbye hot rod, hello lukewarm minivan.
Since then, his car dreams have been mostly confined to helping others with their vehicles. He works at O’Reilly Auto Parts in Mesquite, Texas, where he has continued to share that story of the Camaro that got away.
Of course, Jared knew his dad never really regretted selling that car. But he still felt like he owed his dad more than he could ever repay. So, he went to work.
A car, exactly like the one his father had, just didn’t exist. So, Jared spent three years scouring the internet for parts and putting it together piece by piece. Until last month, when he handed over the keys to a restored Camaro to Earl for his 65th birthday.
“And it hit him, and he was just overcome,” Jared said of his father’s reaction. “And he just wrapped his arms around me. It was the best.”
We all give up something to start a family. But if you’re lucky and patient, sometimes you can have your Camaro, and keep it too.
Said Earl: “He loves me a lot, as much as I love him.”
Watch CBS News
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
Los Angeles — Bobby Djavaheri is trying to stock up his warehouse with appliances from overseas, while he can still afford it.
“We’ve been preparing for the last six months — both our factories and us as importers — for Trump to win,” Djavaheri told CBS News.
Djavaheri is president of Los Angeles-based Yedi Houseware Appliances, which manufactures its products in China. He says President-elect Donald Trump’s threat to increase tariffs will force him to charge more.
His company’s Yedi Evolution air fryer is currently priced at $130, Djavaheri said. He estimates that Trump’s proposed tariffs would raise that price to about $200. Yedi’s two-quart air fryer currently costs between $30 and $40. Trump’s tariffs could raise that to almost $100.
Trump campaigned on implementing a blanket tariff of 10% to 20% on all imports, along with an additional 60% or more on goods from China.
“It would decimate our business, but not only our business,” Djavaheri said. “It would decimate all small businesses that rely on importing.”
Djavaheri says it is not Chinese companies that pay the tariffs, it is his own business.
“We’re getting the bill, the bill comes straight to us from the government,” Djavaheri said.
Brian Peck, adjunct assistant professor of international trade law at USC, says Trump’s tariffs could also be a negotiating tactic.
“If he doesn’t like a certain practice or policy initiative, he can use it as leverage to threaten them,” Peck said. “…It’s important for the American people to understand that the people who pay tariffs are U.S. importers. Not China, not foreign governments, not foreign companies. That’s going to come down to your wallet.”
An August study by the Peterson Institute for International Economics indicated that Trump’s proposed tariffs could cost middle-income households more than $2,600 a year.
In 2018, when Trump slapped tariffs on imported washing machines, prices jumped almost $100. But foreign appliance makers also moved some production to the U.S., and a year later they had created 1,800 new jobs.
Other countries, however, retaliated with tariffs on U.S. exports, which led to job losses.
According to Djavaheri, most of Yedi’s products cannot at the moment be manufactured in the U.S.
“There’s no factory in America,” Djavaheri said. “A factory that could potentially produce hundreds of thousands of air fryers in one year, same quality, there’s no where in the world other than the Chinese.”
Djavaheri’s advice? If you’re considering a purchase, make it before the potential tariffs kick in.
