US Serviceman In Japanese Court 50 Years Ago

[Mulboyne]

With another crime involving servicemen hitting the headlines, here's coverage of a famous incident 50 years ago which isn't much remembered today:



LATimes: Soldier Kills Woman
June 5, 1957, Tokyo -- Until the moment he pulled the trigger on that day in January, Spc. 3rd Class William S. Girard of Ottowa, Ill., was a just bored 21-year-old soldier with an IQ of 90 guarding a machine gun on a firing range. Until the moment Girard pulled the trigger, Naka Sakai of Somagahara, Japan, was just a 46-year-old wife and mother of six children from an impoverished village scavenging shell casings from the range. Maybe as a warning, maybe out of boredom, Girard had his companion, Spc. 3rd Class Victor N. Nickel, throw some empty cartridges out on the firing range. As Sakai and the other scavengers scrambled to pick up the precious brass, Girard fired a warning shot: a spent casing from a grenade launcher mounted on a borrowed M-1 rifle. But the casing struck Sakai, killing her and touching off an international furor...To the U.S. military, Girard was acting while on duty and thus under American jurisdiction while Japanese officials insisted that Girard shot Sakai during a rest period, making him subject to local laws. After deliberations, U.S. military authorities decided to surrender Girard to Japan for a civilian trial, provoking furious protests from U.S. veterans groups like the American Legion.



According to [writer John] Hersey, Girard was "a short, slight, sandy-haired man with a faded scar on his forehead, a prominent nose and wide-flying ears, a thin-lipped mouth and weak chin. He leaves his mouth open much of the time in court. Before the killing, Girard was a kind of bumpkin clown. He drank quite a bit and ran up petty debts in the Japanese shops near his camp." Girard's Japanese wife was a hindrance and help. Haru "Candy" Sueyama was born in Formosa and came to Japan as a teenager, where she worked various jobs before meeting Girard as a bar hostess. "Her kind is deeply scorned by the Japanese," Hersey said, describing her as small, freckled and brighter than her husband. Still, she paid the traditional visit of condolence and apology to the Sakai family on behalf of her husband. The trial revealed the unbridgeable gulf between Japanese and American customs. "Girard will never look apologetic enough to the Japanese," Hersey wrote. Americans, even sensitive Americans--and Girard cannot be charged with overdeveloped sensitivity--simply do not have it in their tradition to fall to their knees and bow to the floor in abject humility, either literally or figuratively."

Even an attempt to present money in a condolence gift misfired and seemed to be nothing more than "a materialistic American attempt to buy off justice," Hersey wrote. Girard, who was reduced in rank to private, was ultimately found guilty and given a three-year suspended sentence, a lighter punishment than he might have received in a court-martial, U.S. legislators noted. On his way home to Ottowa in December, Girard was booed by other soldiers. At her first American Christmas, Candy Girard told a reporter: "I'm just happy. I'm just happy." Akikichi Sakai and his six children received $1,748.32 ($12,527. 21 in today's dollars) in consolation money for the death of his wife. He said: "I do not thank you for it."

[Greji]

With another crime involving servicemen hitting the headlines, here's coverage of a famous incident 50 years ago which isn't much remembered today:

Has it been that long already?

Actually, there have been more than a few firing range shootings over the years. Fortunately, not all have ended in death, but obviously, a few have. Recent years have featured Okinawa primarily because of the marine artillary.

The scavengers were even known to sneak on the the range while it was Hot (firing practice was underway). Normally they would sneak out on the range at night and some would get dinged when they didn't get out of the way when practice started the next morning.

I don't know of any that were actually proven to be willful shootings, but as always, everyone of them was classified as, or at least, indicated as a cold-blooded murder in the press.

It is also good that most of the firing ranges for big bangers and fast movers are moved out and away from areas where they can develop into a lucrative scrap business, like the good old days.

[Mulboyne]

Has it been that long already? Actually, there have been more than a few firing range shootings over the years.

Would you have any idea if this was one of the first cases to be handed over to a Japanese court?

There's a lengthy discussion of the legal issues here. There's also a lengthy account of the incident in the body of the text:

On the afternoon of 30 January 1957, about 30 members of Company F, 8th Cavalry Regiment, were engaged in a small unit exercise at Camp Weir range area, Japan, involving an attack by one squad on a hill defended by another squad. Specialist 3/C William S. Girard was in the "attacking" force. The Commanding Officer of the 8th Cavalry Regiment, COLONEL HERBERT A. JORDAN, states that during the morning he was appalled at the large numbers of Japanese civilian trespassers present in the area and interfering with the conduct of the exercise. He estimates that their number was in excess of 150. In one case a group of six to eight civilians pounced on a machine gun position as soon as the gun ceased firing and, before the gunner could clear his weapon, physically pushed him away from the gun in order to retrieve expended cartridge cases.

The maneuver area consists of approximately eight square miles. It is provided by the Japanese Government for part-time use of United States forces. The Japanese Defense Force uses the same area about 40% of the time. When the area is not in use by either the United States or Japanese armed forces, Japanese civilians are permitted to farm or otherwise use the area. The Japanese civilians of the local village follow the practice of scavenging the expended brass cartridge cases from the maneuver area.

Upon the failure of efforts of military personnel to move the trespassers out of the danger area, Col. Jordan directed that all ball ammunition be withdrawn from the troops, and that blank ammunition be substituted in the afternoon exercise. He also directed that the Japanese police be contacted for assistance in clearing trespassers from the area, so that normal field training might be resumed. Up until the early afternoon, when the shooting incident occurred, this assistance was not forthcoming.

After one squad had attacked the hill and before the squads had changed their respective positions so that the attacking force became the defending force, and vice versa, two soldiers, Girard and Specialist 3/C Victor N. Nickel, of the "defending" force, were ordered by their platoon leader, SECOND LIEUTENANT BILLY M. MAHON, who was personally directing their activities to guard a machine gun and some items of personal clothing that had been left on a nearby ridge.

GIRARD in an early statement made during the course of the investigation, stated that he was ordered to get the Japanese away. He is quoted as having stated that he did not receive orders to fire at them to get them away. There is no evidence, other than the statement of Girard, that he was ordered to get the Japanese away.

LIEUT. MAHON stated that he was advised that a machine gun and several field jackets had been left on the other side of Hill 655 and that he instructed Specialist 3/C Girard and Specialist 3/C Nickel to guard the machine gun and keep the Japanese from stealing personal equipment. There were about 20 or 30 Japanese in the area] direction to a depth of 3 1/2-4 inches, causing her death. The exact distance between Girard and the victim at the time of the incident is uncertain. The Japanese witnesses put it about eighteen meters (approximately 20 yards). On one occasion, Girard stepped off what he thought to be the distance and found it to be 29 feet; on other occasions, he has estimated it to be 20-30 yards. Nickel puts it as 25-30 yards. Girard has stated that he did not intentionally point the rifle at the woman and did not believe the cartridge case would injure anyone if it hit them.

According to the U.S. military authorities in Japan, the act of firing an empty shell case from a grenade launcher is not authorized.

ONOSAKI, a Japanese witness, stated that Girard, after enticing him and the victim toward Girard by throwing some brass on the ground and indicating that it was all right for them to pick it up, suddenly shouted for them to get out and thereupon fired one shot in the direction of Onosaki. As the victim was running away, Onosaki stated that Girard, holding his rifle at the waist, fired a second shot at the victim at a distance of about eight to ten meters. This testimony is corroborated in part by other Japanese who were located at a distance of from 100-150 meters...more...

[Greji]

Would you have any idea if this was one of the first cases to be handed over to a Japanese court?

There's a lengthy discussion of the legal issues here. There's also a lengthy account of the incident in the body of the text:

It is the first I know of and could only "guestimate" that it was the first ever. The majority of the range incidents of which I am aware, or have read about, were from larger non-handheld weapons such as howitzers and the like. The reason is obvious in the scrape residue from the heavy firing ranges provides much more weight and make for a more lucrative target(?) for the scavengers. The ranges for handhelds are much shorter and have less area for the scavengers to hide in. Back when they used to have outdoor locations, I do remember a lot of the J-scavengers being nabbed on the rifle and pistol ranges at Atsugi and Yokota at night while digging the lead out of the sand banks.

I would assume that the fact there seemed to be intent indicated here, it was sufficient grounds to allow Japan to exercise primary jurisdiction under the Status of Forces Agreement. As stated in the article, the slug was probably lucky, because if charged under Courts Martial and convicted he would have undoubtably drawn time in the slammer. The Japanese Courts tend to be more lenient where duty or work is involved. They love "Professional Negligence" as a charge, however, it tends to carry much less of a sentence because it can only occur in the performance of duties. This is held to be that the perp was actually doing good work until he messed up and killed someone. The only exception to offences involving professional negligence in work is an offense committed while privately driving, as the private driver's license is considered a professional license. So when you turn the neighborhood Obachan into a hood ornament while driving home, you could be charged with homicide by professional negligence.

Back to the good PFC in question, quite a bit contrary to the information so widely reported in the news, the Military Courts tend to be much heavier in issuing penalties for offenses than the Japanese. However, the Rules of Evidence are of course, under US Law and are therefore much stricter, so it is technically possible for some of the more damming evidence collected by Japanese authorities to be in-admissible in a US Court, which would possibly give the doer a better chance to beat the case. However, if he goes to the Japanese court, he might get convicted through the more admissible evidence, but he would undoubtable get an easier sentence.

Having said that, if it is in the interest of justice, or the US Government, an active duty service member who has been convicted and even sentenced by a foreign court, can be re-tried for the exact same offense by the military, or a federal court in the US. This rarely occurs, but is both legal and permissible under the law.

Your only chance to beat the case then is if Bird was the prosecutor.