Cave of the Negroes incident The Cave of the Negroes incident was a killing of three African American Marines by Okinawans from the Katsuyama village near Nago , Okinawa after the Battle of Okinawa in 1945 , shortly before the end of the war in the Pacific . Their bodies were hidden in the nearby cave and the incident was kept a secret until 1997 . Since the killings , the cave has been known as " Kurombo Gama , " which translated means " Cave of the Negroes " in English . Background . Villagers of the Katsuyama village in Okinawa claim that they were victims of sexual attacks . According to villagers , three men , US Marines , came to the village every weekend , forced the men to hand over the women , and then sexually assaulted them . The attack . Decades later , villagers revealed that the marines were so confident that the Japanese were powerless that they often came to the village without weapons . Taking advantage of this , the villagers ambushed the Americans with the help of two armed Japanese soldiers who were hiding in the nearby jungle . Shinsei Higa , a retired teacher , who was sixteen at the time , remembers that " I didn ' t see the actual killing because I was hiding in the mountains above , but I heard five or six gunshots and then a lot of footsteps and commotion . By late afternoon , we came down from the mountains and then everyone knew what had happened . " To cover up the American deaths , the bodies were dumped in a local cave that had a 50 foot ( 15 m ) drop off close to its entrance . Ever since the bodies were dumped in the cave , it has been known as " Kurombo Gama " , which translated means " Cave of the Negroes " . When the men did not return to their Marine Corps posts , they were listed as possible deserters in the summer of 1945 . After a year with still no evidence of what happened to them , they were declared missing in action . Discovery . Kijun Kishimoto was almost thirty during the incident and grew up in Katsuyama . He was away from the village when the men were killed . In an interview , he said , " People were very afraid that if the Americans found out what happened there would be retaliation , so they decided to keep it a secret to protect those involved . " Finally , a guilty conscience led Kishimoto to contact Setsuko Inafuku , a tour guide for Kadena United States Air Base in Okinawa who was involved in the search for deceased servicemen from the war . The two searched for the cave in June 1997 but could not find it until a storm blew down the tree blocking the entrance that summer . The local Japanese police were informed but they kept it secret for a few months to protect the people who discovered the location of the bodies . When they finally told Marine officials , the USMC located the bodies at the bottom of the mine shaft . Using dental records all men were identified as the 19 year - old Marines who went missing in 1945 . Their names were Pfc . James D . Robinson of Savannah , Ga . , Pfc . John M . Smith of Cincinnati , and Pvt . Isaac Stokes of Chicago . Aftermath . No plans were made to criminally investigate the incident by either the United States military or the Okinawa police . After the Battle of Okinawa , the island chain was occupied under the United States Civil Administration of the Ryukyu Islands until 1972 . At that time , the U . S . government returned the islands to Japanese administration . Under the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security , the United States Forces Japan ( USFJ ) have maintained a large military presence : 27 , 000 personnel , including 15 , 000 Marines , contingents from the Navy , Army , and Air Force , and their 22 , 000 family members are stationed in Okinawa .