Japan protests to US over Okinawa woman’s death
Rina Shimabukuro
Press TV – May 19, 2016
Japan has submitted an official letter of protest to the US diplomatic mission in Tokyo over the brutal murder of an Okinawan woman, which is suspected to have been carried out by an American.
On Thursday, Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida summoned US Ambassador Caroline Kennedy to the Foreign Ministry and handed over the letter after the police arrested the 32-year-old suspect.
The body of Rina Shimabukuro, who had been missing since late April, was recently found in a weed-covered area in southern Okinawa. Police have found DNA matching the dead woman’s in a car belonging to Kenneth Franklin Shinzato, a former US Marine, who lives in southern Okinawa and works at the US Air Force’s Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, Japan’s southernmost prefecture.
The police, accordingly, suspect the man of having murdered the victim and disposed of her body.
“It is extremely regrettable that the very cruel and atrocious case occurred,” Kishida told Kennedy, according to Nippon Television Network.
Okinawa has become known as the site of enduring tensions with the US forces deployed there, and hence a lasting source of conflict between Washington and Tokyo. Pacifist inclinations as well as security and safety concerns have prompted the Japanese to protest against the deployment.
Multiple cases of misconduct by US forces have raised anti-American feelings among the islanders.
Back in 2013, two American sailors admitted to raping a woman in Okinawa a year earlier in a case that sparked huge anti-US sentiments in Japan.
In 1995, the gang rape of a 12-year-old Okinawan girl by US servicemen also sparked mass protests.
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Let’s hope this 20-year-old lady’s murder will be fully prosecuted and the perpetrator — who, by his name, seems to be of Japanese ancestry — be allotted the stern justice due him. Rina, R.I.P. All good people grieve for her family and all of the Okinawan people under US occupation (initially official, currently de facto) for decades. May Obama be severely chastised and humiliated during his visit. I say: let’s withdraw all (est.) 50,000 US troops from all over Japan, the vast majority of them in Okinawa.
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Japan has what is called a SOFA or “Security of Forces Agreement” with the US that protects US servicemen from being prosecuted under Japanese law. In the earlier case of the kidnapping and rape of the 12 year old Okinawan girl, a navy admiral commented that for the price of the rental car, the four sailors could have hired a prostitute instead of kidnapping and murdering the girl. Somehow I do not think the US military is trustworthy when it comes to prosecuting US military servicemen for rape of foreign women or even their own fellow military personnel.
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Not by his photos:
https://www.google.com/search?q=Kenneth+Franklin+Shinzato&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwigpMX5s-vMAhUELmMKHd7YBUYQsAQIOA&biw=1024&bih=466&dpr=1.88
Perhaps mixed ancestry, but if I didn’t know otherwise I’d say he’s black.
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Thanks, RudyM. That’s a head-spinning collection of photos (‘m a computer dunce)! I found this by chance at a usatoday site via idly clicking on one of the photos:
“Shinzato also has been identified by authorities as Kenneth Franklin Gadson; he apparently also uses the family name of his wife, who is Japanese.”
Words fail…stay tuned, everyone. In my naïve, idealistic dreams, I’d like to hope that something positive might result and make the tragedy of Rina Shimabukuro’s murder a legacy to her life and memory: Get all US troops (including civilian workers, contractors, hangers on et al) the hell out of Japan and South Korea! Sue for a long-overdue peace with North Korea. Allow North and South Korea to reunite via their own volition and processes. Given the entrepreneurial prowess of the South and the natural resources of the North, one can only think that an obvious symbiosis would make “Korea” an (economic, political…) powerhouse in the region and the world. Perhaps that’s what the empire fears and plots to prevent….
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