1995 Okinawa rape incident The 1995 Okinawa rape incident refers to a rape that took place on September 4 , 1995 , when three U . S . servicemen , U . S . Navy Seaman Marcus Gill and U . S . Marines Rodrico Harp and Kendrick Ledet , all from Camp Hansen on Okinawa , rented a van and kidnapped a 12 - year - old Japanese girl . They beat her , duct - taped her eyes and mouth shut , and bound her hands . Gill and Harp then raped her , while Ledet claimed he only pretended to do so out of fear of Gill . The incident led to further debate over the continued presence of U . S . forces in Japan . Reaction . After the incident became known , public outrage erupted , especially over the U . S . - Japan Status of Forces Agreement , which gives the U . S . service members a certain measure of extraterritoriality ( exemption from jurisdiction of local law ) . While the crime was committed off of a U . S . military base , the U . S . initially took the men into custody , on September 6 . Although false rumors spread that the suspects were free to roam on base and had been seen eating hamburgers , the suspects were in fact held in a military brig until the Japanese officials charged them with the crime . Despite an immediate request by Japanese law enforcement for custody and eventual trial , the men were only handed over on September 29 , after the Japanese had formally indicted them . This delay followed the Status of Forces agreement , which states " The custody of an accused member of the United States armed forces or the civilian component over whom Japan is to exercise jurisdiction shall , if he is in the hands of the United States , remain with the United States until he is charged . " Although the military drove the suspects to police headquarters in Naha for daily interrogations , the SOFA provision and the delay in handing over the suspects increased the outrage over the attack , causing the largest anti - American demonstrations in Okinawa since the treaty was signed in 1960 . As a consequence of the protests regarding jurisdiction , the U . S . made concessions and agreed to consider handing suspects over to the Japanese before an indictment if the severity of the alleged crime indicated it . This agreement was hashed out at an emergency meeting between U . S . President Bill Clinton and Japanese Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto . The people of Okinawa also placed a full - page ad in the " New York Times " decrying the rape and other aspects of the U . S . bases in Okinawa . In 1996 , the United States and Japan signed a bilateral agreement to reduce the amount of land on Okinawa covered by U . S . bases by 21 percent — the U . S . military had previously occupied 19 percent of the island . U . S . Navy Admiral Richard C . Macke was the commander of United States Pacific Command at the time of the attack . At a press conference in November 1995 , Macke said of the men ' s actions : " I think it was absolutely stupid . I have said several times : for the price they paid to rent the car [ used in the crime ] , they could have had a girl < nowiki > [ < / nowiki > prostitute < nowiki > ] < / nowiki > . " These remarks were condemned as insensitive , and Macke was removed from his post and forced into early retirement . He was also reduced in rank to rear admiral ( two - star ) from full admiral ( four - star ) , which reduced his pension from US $ 7 , 384 / month to US $ 5 , 903 / month . Trial . The families of the defendants initially claimed that Japanese officials had discriminated against the men because they were African American and coerced confessions from them , but later retracted the claims . Gill pleaded guilty to the rape , and the other two men pleaded guilty to conspiracy . The trial concluded in March 1996 . Prosecutors had asked for the maximum sentences for the men , 10 years each . The judge sentenced Gill and Harp to seven years imprisonment ; Ledet received six and a half years . Their families also paid " reparation money " to the family of the victim , a common practice in Japan . Aftermath . The three men served prison terms in Japanese prisons and were released in 2003 and then given dishonorable discharges from the military . After release , Rodrico Harp decried prison conditions in Japan and said that the electronics assembly prison labor he was forced to do amounted to slave labor . Ledet , who had claimed he did not rape the girl , died in 2006 in an apparent murder – suicide in the United States . He was found in the third - floor apartment of Lauren Cooper , a junior Kennesaw State University student and acquaintance whom he had apparently sexually assaulted and then murdered ( by strangulation ) . It appears that he then took his own life by slashing his wrists . In Japan , the crime continues to be well known and to have effects many years later . In December 2011 then - Defense Minister Yasuo Ichikawa was the subject of a censure motion from the opposition Liberal Democratic Party for failing to know the details of the rape . This followed his subordinate Satoshi Tanaka speaking with reporters in a bar and using euphemisms for sexual assault to discuss moving the US Futenma airbase . Tanaka was terminated as director of the Okinawa Defense Bureau , and in the cabinet reshuffle of January 13 , 2012 Ichikawa was replaced by Naoki Tanaka .