Japanese Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura summoned U.S. Ambassador to Japan Thomas Schieffer and Bruce Wright, top commander of Japan-based U.S. forces over the case of a U.S. Marine's alleged rape of a minor girl in southern Japan's Okinawa Prefecture.
It's very regretful that such crime happened again despite Japan's repeated requests for improved disciplines and sufficient preventive measures of the U.S. forces after each incident, Komura said to the two senior U.S. officials at the foreign ministry.
The minister asked the U.S. side to "earnestly and continuously" reinforce disciplines and moral education among its soldiers to prevent such heinous crimes from happening again, according to the ministry's press release.
Schieffer promised all-out cooperation for finding the facts as well as revaluation and strengthening of exist preventive measures to reassure Japanese people.
Wright said he will order his underling officials to thoroughly recheck educational procedures for the U.S. troops.
Tyrone Hadnott, a 38-year-old staff sergeant belonging to the Camp Courtney base, was arrested Monday on suspicion of raping a 14-year-old local girl on Sunday night.
Hadnott was sent to prosecutors earlier Tuesday. He admitted touching the girl's body, but denied the charge of raping.
The incident has aroused widespread civil protest throughout Okinawa.
Okinawa hosts about 75 percent of U.S. forces in Japan in terms of land occupied. In the past more than ten years, about 100 U.S. soldiers in Okinawa were sued on suspicion of raping local women. Such repeated crimes strained the relationship between the U.S. army and local residents, and often led to anti-U.S. rallies.
Source: Xinhua
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