Tokyo, May 28 (RHC)-- U.S. forces stationed On Japan’s Okinawa island will be put under a month-long curfew following the rape and murder of a Japanese woman by a former U.S. Marine. Lawrence Nicholson, the head of U.S. forces on the island of Okinawa, said that a night-time curfew and some other regulations will come into effect for a month beginning on Monday.
The military official said: “This period of unity and mourning will include the postponement of all festivals, celebrations and concerts on our bases and stations,” he added.
This came after U.S. President Barack Obama expressed his regrets over the Okinawa crime and described it as “inexcusable.”
Former U.S. Marine Kenneth Gadson was arrested on May 19 in connection with the death of a 20-year-old woman, Rina Shimabukuro, who went missing in late April. Her body was found dumped in a wooded area near the U.S. airbase, where the 32-year-old American was serving as a civilian contractor.
Police have found DNA matching the dead woman's in a car belonging to Gadson. According to his attorney, Gadson confessed to raping and killing of the women.
The incident came only two months after a U.S. Navy sailor was arrested for raping a Japanese tourist who had fallen asleep in the hallway of a hotel in Okinawa.
More than half of the 47,000 US military personnel in Japan are stationed in Okinawa. Rapes and other crimes by U.S. service members have sparked local protests in the past. In 1995, the abduction and rape of a 12-year-old girl by three U.S. servicemen triggered huge protests throughout Japan.
