First, I would like to introduce myself. My name here will be AgehA, and I am 17 years old. Please feel free to visit my myspace account and adding me at
http://myspace.com/ubercode-mvvxaolxkanoma
My blog posts will mostly consist of international affairs in which I believe this is one of the most important issues facing America right now, and there is a need for citizens, like you and me, to discuss them. For my first post, I would like to bring up the U.S. military and Japan's actions taken in Japan resulting from a incident that U.S. personnel created on Feb. 10 by *"raping" a 14-year-old girl, off-base.
After the incident, the U.S. military made a descision of not allowing military personnel go off-base. The people who live off-base were told to be in the military base as much as possible. And there will be educational programs provided for all military personnel stationed in Japan.The Japanese government/citizens are "not happy" with this incident. There has been protests made by parents living around the base--
What I would like to know is, what the girl was thinking. And how they came about. Yes, I believe that an 38-year-old man should have been more responsible of his actions, especially in foreign land representing American Military. But, is it for sure that this 14-year-old girl was truly insignificant of escaping, or even preventing the whole situation?Did she speak English? Did he speak Japanese? What time did this take place?...
Many question rise when trying to determine whether the marine was fully responsible.
What do you guys think?
*The marine accused of raping the 14-year-old girl denies that he rape the girl, but admits to kissing her.
Info from
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41249
http://www.asahi.com/english/
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/02/20/okinawa.rape/index.html
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How can you possibly accuse the victim of pedaphylia of doing something wrong! And defend the rapist! 38 year olds have no business even kissing children!
I second this opinion.
Rather than punishing all the military personnel, the criminal should be removed from Japan and jailed according to US law.
Pedophilia is an attraction, not a crime. The girl was fourteen - not a prepubescent child, we can assume.
I agree with you though... except, in Japan, the age of consent is 13... so in Japan it's actually legal for 38-year-olds to kiss 14-year-olds.
WTF? Why are you blaming a 14-year-old girl?? It's NOT her responsibility to escape, it's the ADULT'S responsibility to not attack her in the first place!
When you actually read the news article and if you've seen the news, it seems to me that the girl willingly followed the man at first anyways. And maybe she didn't I don't know. But in the news it said that, the marine said he would take her home, and the girl agreed and got on his motorcycle with him. Many people in Okinawa (where the marine was stationed) speak English because some are half American due to the fact that there are many military bases there. But if she didn't speak English, why did she ride on his motorcycle with him?
If you were a 14-year-old girl, would you ride on a motorcycle with a person that doesn't speak your language? I mean, I wouldn't.
And I'm not blaming the girl, I'm simply saying that she might have failed to pay attention more of what was going on. And I'm NOT saying he is innocent of what he did.
AgehA
Why wouldn't she believe him? She was obviously naive and he was a soldier, why wouldn't she trust him? And whether or not she paid attention is TOTALLY irrelevant, what's your point in saying that?
I understand your point too. He was a soldier and soldier's, SHOULD be trusted.
But besides that, she didn't speak the language and even though he was a soldier, he was still a stranger to her.
Would you ride on a motorcycle with a man,that you don't know, who is 24 years older than you, and doesn't speak your language?
AgehA
Sure, if he was nice to me and I was naive.
But, how is it relevant in any way to his raping her?
I didn't ask for your personal opinion about the girl, possibly being "naive".
It's relevant because, rape doesn't happen with one person. There has to be at least two people for a rape to take place. As a person that has been to Japan, and went to school there, I say she had it coming. And some girls at that age, this doesn't apply only to Japan nor does it apply to every girl in the universe but, they know exactly what they're doing. And the consequences.
AgehA
She HAD IT COMING? Are you fucking kidding me? How the hell did she "have it coming"? You're acting like she deserved to be raped... simply for being naive and trusting someone! That's ridiculous.
Only ONE person has any responsibility for rape, and that is the person who chooses to rape in the first place. Your comments are sickening.
I don't appreciate you cussing at me. I don't believe it was necessary either. And why is this becoming a personal attack to me? I'm simply stating my personal opinion as you are. Am I cussing at you? No, because I am more mature, and don't think it is necessary to cuss at you on a blog on the internet. And I probably wouldn't cuss at you either even if you were right in front of me.
Did you know the girl personally? Have you been to Japan? Do you know the situation in Okinawa? Do you even know where Okinawa is? Have you even read the news?
Two more questions, are you defending the girl because you think you "should" as an American and because it was on foreign soil? And what if this happened here, and it was a foreigner that raped an American girl.
The whole reason I am arguing with you is because I am just stating the "what if"s of the bad side. And I think you're stating the traditional way of determining guilty-innocent point.
But I am saying again, I do NOT believe that his actions were right or can be justified in any way. Neither do I believe he is innocent in any way either. AND I AM NOT SAYING THAT THE GIRL DESERVED TO BE RAPED. NO ONE, NO ONE, (let me write it one more time), N-O -O-N-E, is DESERVED TO BE RAPED.
AgehA
I am not cursing at you, please don't assume that if I use curse words they are a personal attack against you.
Why are you blaming the girl at all? How is it relevant in the least if she was stupid or not? Are you saying she went with the man AGREEING to have sex with him? Or are you saying, as I am saying, that she was naive and trusted him because he was American and a soldier? Why are you bringing it up at all?
You said "she had it coming". That's sickening. No one has rape "coming to them", especially not a CHILD.
Kiota, I second your opinions.
Perhaps this blogger is not mature enough to realize that not everyone wants to participate in sex, and it is wrong to force them.
Take it from a victim of rape (I was 15) the event is devastating, and it extends far past your sexual life for years into the future. Please do not ever use the phrase, "she had it coming" on this site ever again. It's inappropriate, and wrong. That is not an opinion, it's a statement of ignorance.
Thank you! As a victim of multipule rapes myself, and as someone who has worked extensively with survivors of abuse and studied the subject in depth, I find it sickening that a young woman on a progressive blogging site, no less, could say that a 14-year-old child "had it coming" when a man twice her age and in a position of authority raped her. O.o
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Please see my recent blog post, "Genocide and Student Activism": http://www.progressiveu.org/041447-genocide-and-student-activism
It is true that there is no situation where a woman, or a man for that matter, "Has it coming." That is a flimsy argument sexual criminals use in an attempt to absolve themselves from guilt.
"She had it coming because..." -she wore a short skirt... he was weak and wanted sex... she was drunk...
These are ignorant statements that are the root of abuse and selfishness.
I am glad that there are others who help fight the cycle. : )
Glad to see that as well! Thanks for commenting, I appreciate the support. :) I'm also very pleased to see that you include men - sexual abuse of guys is a huge problem (not as huge as sexual abuse of girls, but still huge) and people don't take it seriously... which is ridiculous. Abuse is abuse and rape is rape, it doesn't matter if you're a guy or a girl, and attitudes towards guys who were raped, especially by females (like, "He had to be aroused so he must've wanted it", "It's not like she was ugly, so what's the problem", "It's impossible to rape guys because they always want sex) actually end up harming everyone by encouraging myths about sexual assault and also about male sexuality (i.e., guys always want sex, it's not possible for a guy to simply not desire sex with any female who offers. Not true, and sexual abuse wouldn't be such a huge problem among guys AND girls if people didn't believe that sort of shit).
Kind of went on a tangent there, sorry. It's an issue I'm really passionate about (and will be blogging about quite a bit in the future).
I empathize with the desire to ramble on this particular topic.
I have a male friend who was raped, by a former girlfriend, and it was a total disaster. Ugh.
ProU has taught me a lot both about the surprising ignorance and surprising intelligence of people today.
I'm really sorry about both of your situations and also feel bad now that I might have said something that could have been taken the wrong way, and hurt your feelings. Yes, that would be my ignorance about your situations. And I won't talk about mine. But, one last thing I would like to say.
I was only stating different situations this girl could have been in. Maybe she was naive, maybe she was gullible as you said, or maybe she was revealing, or lied about her age. I don't know, because I don't know the details. And I understand there are many different situations when rape occurs. I commiserate with her and her family if she was truly a naive, gullible, innocent 14-year-old girl. Even if she wasn't, I feel truly sorry for her to have to experience such thing at a young age. I really do. But if that wasn't the case, this might have, could have, been prevented.
And I thank you both for taking the time to argue with me, from a different point of view. It was a good experience.
AgehA
I think you have completely missed the point.
It doesn't matter if she was any of the things you mentioned, or if she was a conniving diva. The girl was raped; she was taken advantage of by a man twice her age and in authority. That is wrong.
I also agree.
Similar to http://progressiveu.org/003838-the-girl-who-cried-rape-or-in-this-case-d....
Fourteen year olds, no matter how smart and grown they think they are, are NOT. There's no reason to blame a fourteen year old girl for "agreeing to go along." that's SO ridiculous.
I don't really have to say anything, though, because you all said it for me. :)
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You are the Voice of the Childwen of the Revowution! [Toulouse, Moulin Rouge]
This isn't even an issue of her age. She said he raped her, not that he had consensual sex with her (which is illegal for him as he is from the US military, and very questionable ethically, but that is a different topic - in Japan, sex with a 14-year-old is legal as the age of consent is 13).
Well, yes. I agree with that, too.
I'm just aghast at the blogger's argument, and I'm trying to wrap my head around it.
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You are the Voice of the Childwen of the Revowution! [Toulouse, Moulin Rouge]
okay, so are you saying that i had it coming by my friends boyfriend raping me when i was 13, and he had offered me a ride home from school/????? watch how you put your words..
i understand it takes two to tango, but at 14 you hardly have finished puberty.
thats sick weather it was consensual or not
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