A United States Navy sailor admitted raping a woman in Japan. The admission came after the sailor was arrested on suspicions of assault in a hotel in Naha City, Okinawa.
24-year old Justin Castellanos, who was based on the US Marines Camp Schwab in northern Okinawa, initially denied the charges of raping a woman after he was arrested last March 13, according to The Japan Times.
Castellanos, however, admitted the charges later on, revealing he raped a woman who's at her 40s. The victim was just visiting a hotel in Naha from Fukuoka prefecture. The police found out that the victim and Castellanos have not beenacquainted. The victim reportedly fell asleep in the corridor were Castellanos was staying when he brought her to his room and raped her, as per The Manila Bulletin.
The incident started a mass protest in Okinawa and made the local citizens furious about the US military facilities that were built in Japan and also the increasing number of crimes that have been committed by US personnel's against the inhabitants of the island. According to Latin American Herald Tribune, Tokyo and Washington signed an agreement in 1995 to move the base in Futenma following the rape of a 12-year old Japanese girl by an American soldier.
Both the US and the Japanese government must now make concrete steps in making sure that all US personnel will have discipline on and off duty, as requested by the Okinawa prefectural assembly via their resolution.
The assembly also found out that the US military authority has been negligent in their responsibility in making sure that these types of incident would not happen. They are now asking the US military to give them the list of activities of their service people are undergoing in order to prevent similar cases. The agreed resolution will now be sent to both U.S and the Japanese government.
