罰せられない犯罪＠日本

このエコノミストの記事、とても憂鬱になった。被害者の女性をこんなに苦しませるなんて…
Jane's story - Asia.view

THIS story is of no material importance to Japan. It is the story of Jane. And it is a story of a very small, dark sliver of 20th century geopolitics that festers still.

Jane is an attractive, blonde 40-something Australian, resident for many years in Japan and a mother of three boys. She is also the victim of a rape. Jane is not her real name.

She is actually the victim of two violations. The physical one was committed on April 6th 2002 near the American naval base at Yokosuka by Bloke T. Deans, an American serviceman. He violently raped her in her car.

What Jane refers to as her “second rape” happened afterwards, when she reported the crime to the Kanagawa prefectural police. There, she alleges that she was interrogated for hours by six policemen, who mocked her. At a later meeting, they laughed and made crude sexual comments. She was initially denied medical treatment, water and food. Jane was denied a receptacle to keep a urine sample—key forensic evidence in a rape. After four hours, all she could do was relieve herself on a cold police toilet and cry. The police made no attempt to preserve sperm or DNA on her body.

Her torment at the hands of the police so amplified the trauma of the evening that she actually tried to dial emergency services to report that she was being held against her will at the station, but an officer ripped the phone from her hand. Ultimately she was kept in custody for some 12 hours following the crime, before having to drive herself home.

The police located the assailant, Mr Deans, of the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk, but for reasons that remained unclear, no charges were filed against him.

Jane, however, filed and won a civil case against him: a Tokyo court ordered him to pay \3m (around $30,000) in November 2004. But unbeknownst to Jane or the court, soon after the suit was filed, the American navy had quietly discharged Mr Deans, who returned to America and disappeared. Later, she received compensation from Japan’s Ministry of Defence, out of a discreet fund for civilian victims of crimes by American military personnel.

ジェーン（仮名）は、日本に在住して長いオーストラリア人女性で、３児の母である魅力的な女性だ。彼女は2002年4月6日に、横須賀の米軍基地近くで米兵に強姦された。しかし、神奈川県警に駆け込んだジェーンは、まともに取り合ってもらえないばかりか、一人で家に帰されるまで12時間も警察署に留め置かれた。警察は、犯人がキティーホーク乗組員のディーン氏だとつきとめたが、なぜか起訴しなかった。ジェーンは、民事訴訟で勝訴し防衛省から見舞金を得たが、肝心のディーン氏はこっそり米国へ帰国していた。

なんじゃこのひどい話?これはけっきょく1953年の密約によるというのです。

On October 28th 1953, a Japanese official, Minoru Tsuda, made a formal declaration to the United States (not intended for public disclosure), stating, “The Japanese authorities do not normally intend to exercise the primary right of jurisdiction over members of the United States Armed Forces, the civilian component, or their dependents subject to the military law of the United States, other than in cases considered to be of material importance to Japan.”

In other words, Japan agreed to ignore almost all crimes by American servicemen, under the hope that the military itself would prosecute such offences—but with no means of redress if it did not.

1953年10月28日、米国に対してこのような密約がなされた。「日本にとって重大事項以外は、米軍、その民間組織、米国の軍法に従う者の犯した犯罪に対し、日本政府は裁判権の行使をしない」
つまり、日本は米国軍人のほとんどの犯罪について目をつぶることに合意したわけだ。

さらに：

Why did America fight so hard in 1953 to maintain control of criminal cases involving its boys? The documents do not say, but provide a clue: in numerous settings, American officials express unease that American servicemen commit roughly 30 serious crimes each month. Having 350 soldiers sent to Japanese jails each year would have been bad for America’s image. According to a separate document, America struck similar, secret agreements with the governments of Canada, Italy, Ireland and Denmark.

なぜ米国はそんなに必死になって軍人の犯罪を隠そうとしたのか?米兵は毎月30件もの犯罪を犯している。毎年日本の刑務所に軍人が350人づつ収容されることになれば、国のイメージが失墜する。アメリカはカナダ、イタリア、アイルランド、デンマークとも同様の取り決めをしている。

一人の女性の被害は、日本にとって「重大な事項」に当たらないとみなされているのですね・・・これでは日本に「誇り」がもてませんよ。