Today has been very interesting to say the least. A 56 year old woman was murdered in Yokosuka and an American sailor stands accused:
YOKOHAMA (Kyodo) Police launched a murder investigation Tuesday after a woman was found lying in blood in a building in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, and later died. A neighbor found the woman, who was bleeding from the head, at around 7 a.m. on a stairway landing and alerted police. She was taken to a hospital but was pronounced dead, according to investigators. The woman was wearing a black sweater and trousers and appeared to be in her 50s, police said. (Japan Times).
Subsequent to that, using surveillance cameras and tracking technology at Yokosuka, (they have an ID card tracking system there……isn’t that scary…) they figured out who to go talk to.
The result:
Thursday, January 5, 2006 at 18:49 EST
YOKOHAMA- A U.S. serviceman from the U.S. aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk has admitted killing a 56-year-old Japanese woman in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, informed sources said Thursday, citing investigations by U.S. forces in Japan. More than one U.S. serviceman was taken into custody following the incident, including the one who admitted killing the woman, they said.
The victim, Yoshie Sato, was found bleeding from her head near a building in Yokosuka at 6:30 a.m. Tuesday.
The U.S. forces started investigating the case following inquiries from the local police, who found footage on a security camera near the crime scene showing Sato with a person who appeared to be a foreigner, the sources said.
She was on her way to work when she was attacked and severely beaten, and died from loss of blood and with ruptures to her internal organs, the police said.
Sato’s bag was found in a parking lot nearby but there were no bills in her purse, they said.
Japanese police plan to seek an arrest warrant for the serviceman on suspicion of killing Sato, as he had been found in possession of a blood-stained 1,000-yen note, investigative sources said.
The U.S. naval forces in Japan said in a statement, “The U.S. Navy continues to cooperate fully with and support Japanese law-enforcement officials” in the murder investigation. Rear Adm James Kelly, commander of the U.S. Naval Forces Japan, said in the statement, “I sincerely regret and am deeply saddened by this absolutely abhorrent incident and promise our complete support and cooperation with all authorities.”
This is going to get ugly. And it probably should, but it could not have come at a worse time for the US / Japan relationship. Having put forth a series of bad proposals to “transform” the disposition of forces in Japan, including the highly controversial homeporting of a nuclear carrier in Yokosuka, an incident such as this will be used to inflame opposition opinion.
Plus, to be honest, I want to know “what in the hell were these guy(s) thinking?” Who in their right mind, no matter how much he has been drinking, decides to go out and beat up a citizen and take their money? That’s not an accident, but a conscious decision to commit a criminal act. I submit that the folks who believe that they can do such things are of poor stock to begin with. The US military recruited them, sadly because there are no real ways to predict this type of behavior, except to look at external circumstances, such as education and breeding. I’ll bet if one pulls the string, neither of those factors will come up on the plus side.Wonder how many other psychopaths are out there, because we failed to reach for the other half of society….or the fact that the US does not have a mandatory national service program that cuts across all aspects of society.
More to follow in the coming days. In the meantime, all US Navy personnel have been instructed to be back in their quarters and/or residences by midnight. No exceptions.
“You can build a thousand bridges. Just screw up once though, and that’s all they remember.”
This is terrible.
