One night while driving in Okinawa, my eyes wandered to the side of the road where a young Japanese woman was walking. She wore heels and walked slowly. She had her headphones in both ears, had her phone out and was distracted by it and wore her hair in a ponytail. As I watched, she took a right-hand turn down a poorly lit alleyway.
It was in that moment that it became abundantly clear that the United States had taught me a different set of skills that I needed in order to stay safe so that I wouldn’t be blamed if something happened to me.
The young woman I observed endured no such lesson and was able to walk unconcerned about her own safety in an area where the unthinkable had actually already happened barely 5 years earlier.
She didn’t have her keys in between her knuckles is a measure of self-defense. She seemed unconcerned that her ponytail would be easy for an assailant to yank. She was distracted by her cell phone and had both headphones in–she couldn’t hear her surroundings. She walked by herself at night down a dark alleyway without fear: no head on a swivel, no furtive glances over her shoulders or trying to remember license plates for cars that drove a little too close or a little to slow, or that circled the block and came back.
Some people stationed in Japan make an effort to stay as long as possible, removed from gun violence and with the benefit of an overwhelming sense of safety. One former service member did just that, separating from the Marine Corps and moving back to Okinawa. Kenneth Franklin Gadson Shinzato, a contract employee on the Kadena Air Force Base, leveraged that incredible sense of safety possessed by Japanese women to kidnap and murder a young woman, abandoning her body in a suitcase.
My best resource in this case was the book Night in American Village: Women in the Shadow of the U.S. Military Bases in Okinawa. I also referenced articles covering the case from the NY Times, Stripes, LA Times, Marine Corps Times, XinhuaNet, Japan Times, Wikipedia, and Newsweek. For more information about Miranda v. Arizona, I’m linking the US Courts syllabus on the case. Last but certainly not least, I’m including a link to the LA Times with more information on the anti-slavery initiative that passed in Nevada and failed in California.
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Disclaimer: Conduct Unbecoming is a podcast where I get to talk about interesting crimes and cases that involve US military service members. I research, write, and produce the podcast myself… the opinions expressed are my own and, perhaps it’s obvious, Conduct Unbecoming is not approved, endorsed, or authorized by the Department of Defense. I am not a military JAG and have never been a military JAG. While I’m a practicing attorney, I don’t do direct criminal defense. This podcast is a passion project, not legal advice or expert opinion.
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