Yumiko-chan incident

The Kadena Rape Murder Case (Japanese: 嘉手納幼女強姦殺人事件), also known as the Yumiko-chan incident, refers to the rape and murder of six-year-old Japanese girl Yumiko Nagayama (sometimes reported as Yumiko Arakaki) by American soldier Sergeant Isaac J. Hurt in Kadena, Okinawa on 3 September 1955.

Yumiko's body was found near Kadena Air Base during the U.S. occupation of Okinawa, and an investigation led to the conviction of 31-year-old Sergeant Hurt on charges of murder, rape, and kidnapping.[1] The Yumiko-chan Incident caused anti-American outrage in Okinawa and contributed to the first major Okinawan protests against the U.S. occupation and military presence.

Incident

On 4 September 1955, the mutilated body of a young girl was discovered in a landfill belonging to the Kadena Air Base, an installation of the Far East Command in Kadena, Okinawa, at the time governed by the United States Civil Administration of the Ryukyu Islands. The girl was found to have been raped and her body was described as if it had "been cut up with a sharp knife from the abdominal region to the bowel". The girl was identified as Yumiko Nagayama (sometimes reported as Yumiko Arakaki), a six year-old kindergarten student from Ishikawa (now part of the city of Uruma) who had been reported missing at about 8 p.m when she did not come home from playing outdoors. When a brown hair was discovered on Yumiko's body, investigators suspected that the perpetrator was foreign, prompting a joint investigation by the U.S. military and the Ryukyu Police, the civilian police agency in Okinawa at the time. The investigation suggested that Yumiko was abducted at an Eisa performance where eyewitnesses claimed to have seen her leave with a white man, indicating that the perpetrator was a U.S. serviceman. An indictment was submitted against Sergeant Isaac J. Hurt (sometimes incorrectly reported as Isaac J. Hart) of B Battalion, 32nd Artillery Division, on charges of murder, rape and kidnapping. [2]

Reaction

News of Yumiko's violent rape and murder by a U.S. serviceman provoked outrage among Okinawans, who were further angered by the fact that due to extraterritoriality laws, Yumiko's alleged rapist-murderer would not undergo an Okinawan trial, but rather a U.S. military court-martial. A Rally for Protection of Children was held in Okinawa and the Association for Protection of Children was formed with this incident, and many Okinawans rallied in support of the cause.[3] Okinawans demanded that the U.S. military "Punish offenders of this kind of case with the death penalty without leniency regardless of nationality or ethnicity." Okinawans demanded that he be tried in a civilian court and that the trial be broadcast, but these requests were declined.

Trial

Sergeant Isaac J. Hurt was brought up on charges of rape and murder by a U.S. court-martial in Okinawa. Hurt insisted upon his innocence, but his court martial lasted 13 days and he was convicted after a deliberation of less than an hour, and sentenced to death. At the time, Hurt was the second conviction of a U.S. serviceman on Okinawa for rape in less than a month.[4] Though he was initially sentenced to death by a US court martial, Hurt was returned to the US without the Okinawan public being informed, and his sentence was eventually reduced to 45 years.[5]

Aftermath

The Yumiko-chan Incident caused an increase in Okinawan opposition against the United States Civil Administration of the Ryukyu Islands and ten years of U.S. military occupation in Okinawa, and led to further debate over the continued presence of U.S. forces in Japan. The Yumiko-chan Incident was the springboard for the first serious, coordinated anti-U.S. military protests in Okinawa following the beginning of the occupation in 1945.

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See also

References
  1. The Okinawa Times, Sept 10, 1955.
  2. The Okinawa Times, Sept 10, 1955.
  3. The Okinawa Times, Sept 10, 1955
  4. St. Petersburg Times, December 6, 1955
  5. Tanji, Miyume. Myth, Protest, and Struggle in Okinawa. New York: Routledge, 2006, p. 71.
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