Naha District Court on Okinawa, Japan. (Keishi Koja/Stars and Stripes)
CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa — Japanese officials lodged multiple complaints with U.S. authorities after a Marine was indicted for attempted sexual assault on Okinawa last month.
Lance Cpl. Jamel Clayton, 21, was indicted June 17 by the Naha District Public Prosecutors Office on charges of nonconsensual sex resulting in injury, according to the indictment.
Clayton’s indictment follows the March 27 indictment of another U.S. service member that came to light June 24. Brennon R. E. Washington, 25, an Air Force member assigned to Kadena Air Base, was accused of kidnapping and sexually assaulting a minor in December. Local police and prosecutors did not immediately publicly disclose either incident, citing the need to protect the privacy of the woman and the girl they identified as victims.
Okinawa Gov. Denny Tamaki, who complained that Tokyo authorities kept his administration in the dark about the Washington case, repeated his claim Friday about this second case.
The case against Clayton was “unhumanitarian and contemptible” and “not only causes strong concern to the locals but also violates women’s dignity,” a spokeswoman for the prefecture’s Military Base Affairs Division told Stars and Stripes by phone Monday.
Tamaki said the rules on information sharing between the prefecture, Okinawa Defense Bureau, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the prefectural police, should be reviewed.
Prosecutors allege Clayton choked a woman May 26 in Yomitan village, unbuttoned her pants and attempted to sexually assault her but failed when she resisted, according to the indictment.
The unidentified woman suffered injuries to her eyes and mouth, the indictment states.
Clayton fled the scene but was arrested outside a military base the same day after the woman reported the incident, a prefectural police spokesman told Stars and Stripes by phone Monday.
Some Japanese government officials are required to speak to the media only on condition of anonymity.
Clayton is still in police custody and no date has been set for his trial, the spokesman said.
This latest incident involving a U.S. service member on Okinawa is “very regretful,” Japan’s Minister of Defense Minoru Kihara told reporters Friday.
“Crimes and accidents committed by U.S. service members cause strong anxiety to the local citizens; these must not happen,” he said.
The ministry’s Bureau of Local Cooperation filed a protest with U.S. Forces Japan commander Lt. Gen. Ricky Rupp and “requested the enforcement of discipline and rigorous efforts to prevent the reoccurrence,” Kihara said Friday.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi refrained Friday from directly commenting about the latest incident, citing the ongoing case. He also described the incident as “very regretful”.
Hayashi said that Masataka Okano, Japan’s vice-minister for foreign affairs, filed another protest with U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel, to whom Okano had also protested the December incident.
Marine Corps Installations Pacific did not respond to an email seeking comment on Monday.
