Normalization of Military Sexual Violence by Allied Forces through the Criminal Justice System

The gang rape of a twelve-years-old girl by the US marines in Okinawa in 1995 provoked massive protests against unbearable insecurity caused by the presence of the US military in the name of national security. However, as post-Cold War US-Japan military cooperation has deepened, the presence of the US military has been increased while sexual assaults keep happening despite promises of prevention. How sexual assaults by the allied forces which could severely damage legitimacy and stability of the military alliance as well as global operation of the US military are renormalized as “collateral damage” of (inter)national security, despite the strengthened international norms on women’s rights in international security? I will focus on the criminal justice system as a major institution through which military sexual violence is normalized. The Status of Forces Agreement that restricts the Japanese sovereignty has been pointed out as the major factor leading to impunity of crimes committed by the US military personnel. However, such explanation neglects that states do not necessarily exercise sovereignty over human rights violation when they could do so. I will examine how impunity of US military sexual violence is facilitated and justified, by analyzing discourses on the issue as well as judicial responses to the sexual assault cases that occurred after 1995. As evident from “the secret agreement” of 1953, the Japanese state after occupation has refrained from exercising jurisdiction over US military crimes, while positing itself as full-fledged sovereign state. Gender-discriminative criminal justice system helps this by allowing cases dropped without accountability. Judicial practices of the allied states indicate that they have systematically prevented victims from seeking justice, while imagining themselves as properly responding to sexual violence under the rule of laws in contraposition to “unruly” perpetrators of sexual violence.