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full text of my comment about "Naha prosecutors bring additional charges against US military contractor in murder case"

last month, follow-up articles on this incident exposed in may 2016 was released, because the suspect, shinzato, US military contractor and ex-US-Marine, wanted to tell US people his thought, and his lawyer made hearing him in jail and delivered his statement to US. the victim's name and photos have not been made public in japan since several days after her body was discovered. (maybe because her parents want to do so and actually because japanese media are refraining from reporting them on the ground that in recent years, there is great criticism on media for making sensation-seeking stories, and for disclosing information that doesn't need for investigation into incidents and trials --for example, unrelated part of private lives of victims, their families, and offenders' families-- with the result that their daily life is utterly interrupted, and for inciting prejudice, hatred and discrimination by using unnecessarily exposed privacy.) US media have been disclosing her name and photos. after some consideration, I've decided on not making bookmarking such articles this time. japanese media didn't make a report in english about his statement, and so I make bookmarking a piece released on 1st july 2016 by japanese media.

according pieces about his statement written in february 2017, he had "thought about shooting his fellow marines as a way to commit suicide" and had a fantasy that he rapes women, and he hadn't been afraid of being arrested, because rape is offense subject to prosecution only on complaint from victims in japan, and because the rate of formal complaint made by victims is low in japan, and because japan has "cultural and social stigma". and he said that he had thrown away the knife with which he had stabbed her and clothes which he had been wearing in a dumpster at camp hansen. according the lawyer, "he has no sense of guilt for the victim" and he thought that "it's her fault for having been there at the time".

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the japan-US SOFA prohibits japanese police from inspecting US military bases in japan. he well understood that the dumpster at the US military base was the best place to destroy the evidence. it's tradition of US military that just after US soldiers stationed in japan commit crimes outside US military bases, they quickly return the bases, and their bosses send them to US. this tradition, the SOFA, secret agreements, and japanese govt who have been servile to US have effectively protected US soldiers and civilian employees from japanese police, prosecutors, judges and victims of their crimes. he shifts blame to japanese "cultural and social stigma". but they well know they are privileged occupiers in japan and are trained to kill/oppress/insult the occupied, which must have strongly pushed him who wanted to realize his fantasy. and he looks away from a fact that there are rape victims in japan who file a complaint against criminals of rape, and that their brave actions have been encouraging other victims to raise their voices. the occupiers always refuse to confront inconvenient facts of countries they occupy.

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her death and the two deaths have been etched on my mind. whenever I remember one of them, I remember the rest of them whether or not I want to do so. though I attempted to write a comment about the three deaths/lives late in May when media stared to report the deaths (her body was discovered on 19th May, and the two men were killed by US drones on 21th May), I couldn't do so because I couldn't resolve my feelings. and so I wrote a comment only about the latter, probably because there was virtually no US people's voice of protest against the US killing of the latter. to be precise, no US people saw killing Mullah Akhtar Mansoor as a problem, very very very few US people said that it's a problem that US forces killed taxi driver Mohammad Azam as "collateral damage" and that the drone bombing was infringement of sovereignty of pakistan, and very very few US people released a statement about killing her to protest and condole. because I heard the news of the deaths of three people at approximately the same time, and because I believed that if US hadn't occupied afghanistan/japan, these three people wouldn't have been killed, and because there were very very little US people's protest against the killing of them, in short, because their deaths have several points in common, I collectively remember these three deaths/lives.

mansoor was a non-american muslim and was regarded "terrorist" by US and his country has been occupied by US for more than 15 years. oazam was a non-american muslim civilian. because US forces and CIA have carried out countless drone bombing in pakistan since the 911, they must have regarded themselves as occupier of pakistan. she was a non-american, non-muslim civilian whose country has been occupied by US for 71 years. US people treat these deaths much more lightly/cold-heartedly than they do americans' (and europeans') deaths. the point is that: US people's degree of disregard of human death are related to whether they are non-american (non-european) or american (european), muslim or non-muslim, "terrorist" or civilian, and the occupied or the occupier.

(because of a fact that shinzato is brought to trial, afghans/pakistanis might think that US is more "polite" to the japanese than it does to them. but from 1945 to 1952 --in the occupation period just after the end of WWII, US soldiers hated the japanese so deeply--, despite no generally-called armed groups against US-puppet-japanese-govt and occupation in japan due to japan's unconditional surrender, disarmament and definite feeling of war-weariness, the occupation soldiers killed 3,903 japanese people by intentionally causing car accidents or by doing murders, etc., according to the then research by a labor union of a japanese govt agency. and they regarded japanese women as war trophy, and as if it were a game, they raped countless japanese women/girls, and after committing rape, some of them said sorry, showing up with a smile and no sign of remorse on their faces. undoubtedly, they took advantage of absolute authority as the occupiers rather than of japan's "cultural and social stigma". due to censorship by the occupation forces, japanese people weren't able to know these facts. of course, US made no apology/compensation in almost case, and most victims had to give up and suffer in silence. US has cried up the occupation of japan as a huge success till today. until the okinawa reversion from US in 1972, the situation okinawans were in wasn't improved very mush, and even after 1972, they had to struggled for human-rights/dignities. the situation of today's okinawa, where many US military bases in japan are located, is the result of their seven decades-long struggle.)

the US killing of the three people makes me reacknowledge points in common among the three countries:
even if occupiers kill local people in marginalized areas of the countries or impair their dignities seriously, most of the people living in non-marginalized area of the countries little care about them (though the incident of killing her sent a big shock wave throughout japan), and are unwilling to protest against US killing/impairing and security agreements with US, and the ruling class of the countries only pretend to raise a protest against them (it seems that ghani hasn't even pretended to do so), and cling to the maintenance of the status quo to preserve their vested interests, and mainstream media release pieces or ignore the incidents in complying with the ruling class wishes. (on the other hand, just after the arrest of shinzato, US absolutely denied the possibility to drastically revise the SOFA, and later it offered a stopgap.)

are there US people who are interested in the bereaved of the three people? the bereaved of mansoor released a statement (https://justpaste.it/uryb). a brother of azam directed his protest against US/pakistani govts, showing a photo of four little children orphaned by US, but his voice has been ignored (https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/29/opinion/the-taxi-drivers-last-ride.html?_r=0). her father released a note six months after his daughter's body was discovered (http://www.okinawatimes.co.jp/articles/-/71851). according to it, "I'm hoping that the defendant will get the maximum penalty", and talked about his memory of her -from her birth to the last conversation with her-- and in the last paragraph of it, "I want that this incident will be the last incident committed by US soldiers and civilian employees and that no one will suffer such pain and grief as we've experienced. these incidents occur because US military bases are stationed at okinawa. as a citizen of okinawa, I'm wishing that the bases will be removed as soon as possible."

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to prevent constructing a new US military base in henoko, some okinawans launch canoes into the cold sea again today, with their determination that okinawa should not be used by war any longer and that okinawa must not be either war victim or war victimizer again (https://henokoblue.wordpress.com/). one of them is a writer and was detained by US military due to a fairly minor violation a year ago. after his release, he said at his lecture meeting, "there are journalists who can't write nor access the net around the world, and there are countries where they are arrested due to their writings and are detained for an unspecified period of time. in afghanistan, some people are abducted to military bases and are killed. my one-day detention in US military base is nothing to speak of." a few days ago, a well-known leader of okinawan protest against US military bases, was released after five months detention in jail on a japanese court order. he had been arrested for accidental, very minor violations by japanese police, and a japanese court (and prosecution) had refused his release, saying fear of destruction of evidence, which was complete fabrication, and hadn't allowed him his family visitors. additionally, the five-months-detention was severe for him, who was a convalescent. more than 40 japanese scholars of criminal law and procedure had delivered a statement against his unjust long-term detention, which they called hampering of freedom of political expression. some human rights activists at home and abroad had called him political prisoner and denounced japanese govt for invocation of its state power.

just a year ago, a dead body with a sign of torture including electroshock was found in kandahar. his family said, "he was tortured by security forces". he was Bashir Ahmad Reyan, student of kandahar university and journalist. he fell under groundless suspicion for sympathizer with taliban and was abducted, detained, tortured, and killed (http://www.latimes.com/world/middleeast/la-fg-afghanistan-slain-student-20160407-story.html). needless to say, whether or not one is a sympathizer with taliban, and whether or not one is taliban, he/she must not be tortured. did afghan scholars, human rights activists, and kandahar university do anything to rescue him? it's hazardous to their lives to do so in war-torn, occupied country and I'm not qualified to encourage them to do so. but who have taken an action to protect students' freedom of expression, which is one of fundamental human rights of democracy. does the "law for prohibition of torture" have real effects? how many afghans were tortured and killed like him? (according to this piece written last april, "afghanistan human rights commission reported recently that there have been at least 11 mysterious deaths in kandahar province in the last two weeks." in afghanistan where they can irreprehensibly abduct, torture, and kill one under groundless suspicion for sympathizer with taliban, how brutally they treat taliban and their sympathizer? imaging it disgusts me.

historically, political prisoners were often called "terrorists" by their countries' govts. if a bill of crime of conspiracy is passed in japan, which japanese PM insists that japan must enact in order to stage the tokyo olympics, and which was approved in a cabinet meeting few days ago, the day will very soon be here when these okinawans are officially regarded "terrorists" by the authorities. and it's likely that I'll be done so sooner or later, if I keep posting comments without exercising powerful self-censorship. (but my comments have never been free from self-censorship, especially those about armed muslims, japan's self-defense forces, system of the emperor as a symbol of the state, issues of liberal democratic party, oppression of minorities by countries that japanese empires waged aggressive war and colonized, and nationalism in these countries, especially since after the legislation of the secret law in 2013.) (I abhor today's olympic, which displaces/marginalizes the poor living in a host city, and which diverts public attention away from serious, urgent political/social/economic issues, and which justifies introducing surveillance system, oppression by police, reinforcement of police authority power, and hideous waste of taxpayers' money, and in which politicians and capitalists greedily/corruptly flock to interests, and which whips up nationalism horrifyingly. in the world today, we have no time/money/energy/tolerance for such a "celebration of peace" and shouldn't waste them on it.)

if taliban admin had been ousted by someone except the west, and if they had not been muslims, the west would have called them detained in prison not "terrorists" but political prisoners. if occupier of afghanistan had been someone except US/NATO, what would the west have called reyan?

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from information on twitter, since last february, US/NATO forces or/and ANSF trained by US/NATO forces have carried out bombing/raids in helmand, urzgan, nangarhar, laghman, farah etc,. and killed civilians or/and destroyed their houses, bikes, etc., or/and abducted some of them. very recently, they bombed a funeral in paktika and killed more than ten civilians. they raided a wedding in kandahar and some civilians were killed. I can't confirm the accuracy of these information because mainstream media and other human-rights organizations don't report them.

taliban seem to not stop violent resistance against the occupation, while they are expanding their influence areas and struggling to help people in these areas rebuild islamic human (education, freedom from poverty, and peace) life. it seems that the more information about possibility of reinforcement of US soldiers in afghanistan spread, the more afghans, including those who had kept silent on appropriateness of the occupation while speaking about violation of human-rights in afghanistan, are raising an objection about it. ignoring this movement in afghanistan, US activists are staring fixedly only at trump. even US leftists' websites which I regularly visit have discontinued releasing articles about afghans' suffering.

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his words "it was her fault for having been there at the time" is burned in my mind. a reason most of all US people keep silent on US occupation might be that they think it's afghans/okinawans fault for afghanistan/okinawa being located in areas which are geopolitically important for US and that it's pakistanis fault for pakistan bordering on afghanistan, and that it's afghans/pakistanis/okinawans fault for living there since they were born, and that it's azam's fault for being a tax driver and for putting a man with iranian passport (mansoor) in his taxi. and so, they might not stop US killing them, thinking to themselves, "we, the 99% are the very victims not only of the 1% but also of afghans/pakistanis/okinawans. it is their fault."

during the WWII, because they were jews, jews were killed. nazis thought that it's their fault for being jews. crimes by nazis were carried out with the connivance of german public and some other europen govts. they were dehumanized. it's racism. is it ridiculous to say, "because they are afghan muslims, they have been killed. it's their fault for being afghan muslims. US killing has been carried out with the connivance of US public for 15 years. they have been dehumanized. it's racism."? if there is "racist feminism" in the world, we'll easily find it in US.