The Okinawa Prefectural Assembly building in Naha, Okinawa, Japan, on July 12, 2024. (Keishi Koja/Stars and Stripes)
CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa — The Okinawa Prefectural Assembly agreed this week to file a complaint with the governments of Japan and the U.S. over the indictments of two U.S. service members for alleged sexual offenses on Okinawa.
The assembly unanimously approved two letters Wednesday, one a protest and the other a petition, a spokesman for the prefecture’s Political Affairs Research Division told Stars and Stripes by phone Thursday.
The letters will be sent next week to several U.S. officials, including U.S. Forces Japan commander Lt. Gen. Ricky Rupp and U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel, the spokesman said. The assembly is also planning to send a delegation to Tokyo between July 31 and Aug. 2 to personally deliver the letters.
The letters were drafted by an assembly special committee on U.S. bases on July 4 after the two indictments were disclosed in June. The committee heard on July 1 of another three arrests on similar allegations going back to February 2023.
Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi at a press conference July 3 said the government was aware of the three incidents and that none of the three suspects were charged, but he refrained from providing details.
Prefectural officials, led by Okinawa Gov. Denny Tamaki, expressed disappointment that the national government and local police and prosecutors failed to notify them of the arrests and indictments. Tamaki met last week with Cabinet officials, including Foreign Affairs Minister Yoko Kamikawa, to register a complaint and establish communications.
The assembly letter noted specifically the indictment of an Air Force member accused by prosecutors of picking up a girl under age 16, taking her to his home and sexually assaulting her Dec. 24.
The incident is causing “anxiety and shock to the local community since the victim was a minor,” according to a copy of the letter posted on the assembly’s website.
The airman, Brennon R. E. Washington, 25, of Kadena Air Base, was indicted March 27 on charges of kidnapping and sexual assault and is scheduled to appear Friday in Naha District Court.
In the second case, Lance Cpl. Jamel Clayton of the III Marine Expeditionary Force was indicted June 17 on charges that he attempted to sexually assault a woman May 26 in Yomitan village.
No date has been set for his trial, according to a district court spokesman Thursday. Some government officials in Japan may speak to the media only on condition of anonymity. The committee’s petition calls on the U.S. government to take measures to prevent further incidents, and to apologize to and compensate the girl and the woman identified by police as victims.
The committee also requested that Japan and the U.S. “drastically revise” the status of forces agreement, saying that it privileges U.S. military members. SOFA establishes the rights and responsibilities of military and civilian personnel in Japan with the U.S. armed forces. koja.keishi@stripes.com @KeishiRKoja
