Discussing US Soldiers Sexually Assaulting Other US Soldiers

U.S. soldiers go all around the world making war. Usually they say that for “justice,” a so-called universal value must be found: human rights. These human rights, of course, are humans’ rights in the country where troops are being sent. And other countries have human rights, but not the U.S.’s human rights. In the whole world, it seems you can’t find another army as passionate about human rights as them, “the human rights army,” “the human rights elite.” However, this “human rights army’s” own record on human rights is in reality quite terrible.

On Jan. 25, the Associated Press reported that a new documentary screened at the famous Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. “The Invisible War” used information provided by the Pentagon to reveal the sexual assault that takes place within the U.S. Army. Sexual assault and sexual violence are common, yet almost no one is prosecuted. Here is one statistic that the film tells the audience: In 2010, at least 20 percent of women and 1 percent of men serving in the U.S. Army suffered “sexual harm,” with the total number of victims exceeding 19,000. This number includes about 14,000 women and 5,000 men. After interviewing around 70 soldiers who had been sexually assaulted by fellow soldiers, director Kirby Dick and producer Amy Ziering discovered that soldiers who were sexually assaulted were not only the victims of violence and harassment, but they also couldn’t obtain a hearing. After reporting their attackers, some soldiers were retaliated against, further adding to their suffering.

“[This is] just so astonishing that at first we didn’t believe it” said the director. I think, what Dick “can’t believe” is just that U.S. Army soldiers could sexually assault so many of their comrades. Given the record of sexual assault left by American soldiers all over the world, citizens of other countries are not the least bit surprised. In my mind, the notorious sexual assault case involving American soldiers is Dec. 24, 1946, “Christmas Eve,” when Shen Chong, a college student, was raped. In the previous few years, American troops had often sexually assaulted young local women at military bases in Japan, Korea and the Philippines, leading to protests from the local people. Related news was often seen in various newspapers. In recent years, there seems to have been less of it; whether the perpetrators moved to another location or switched to assaulting their fellow soldiers still remains to be seen. Speaking objectively, American soldiers raping American soldiers and abusing fewer women from other countries can be considered a historical improvement in America’s record defending global human rights when viewed from the perspective of human rights; it could be called the new record. As for the human rights of America’s female soldiers, other countries and peoples are powerless to interfere. They can only save themselves.

Judging from all the information I’ve seen, the Japanese are the most capable in dealing with sexual assault from American troops. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has John W. Dower, a history professor who at the end of the last century wrote “Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II.” In the fourth chapter of the book, “Cultures of Defeat”, the first section is “Servicing the Conqueror”. It says Japan announced its surrender on August 15, 1945; on August 18, 1945, Japan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs sent out a secret telegram to every police district in the country instructing them to set up special “Recreation and Amusement Associations” for the occupying American troops. The government called on the “new Japanese women” to “sacrifice for the country.” By Aug. 27, 1,360 women had been conscripted. The next day, they held an “inauguration” in the square in front of the emperor’s residence and made a pledge: “We are absolutely not trying to ingratiate ourselves with the occupying army. Our moral integrity won’t be tarnished, or our souls betrayed. We’re simply trying to show our courtesy that cannot be exempted, carry out our responsibility listed in the treaty and contribute to the security of the society. We can announce aloud that this is a sacrifice we make to protect our state system.” There were 1,360 Japanese Hairpins; their numbers were over 10 times greater than in “The Flowers of War.” These “Japanese Hairpins” were called RAA, the English abbreviation for the “Recreation and Amusement Association.” That day, the first wave of occupying troops reached Japan, and hundreds of American soldiers arrived at one of Japan’s “Associations.” The girls gathered there were completely inexperienced. Since there were no beds or other furniture to lie on and no separate rooms, fornication took place everywhere openly, even in the hallway. Japanese eyewitnesses later angrily testified that it was shameless “animal intercourse” and that it had exposed the nature of so-called American civilization. “It is estimated that the RAA women each entertained 15 to 60 US soldiers per day. One 19-year-old who had previously been a typist committed suicide almost immediately. Some women had nervous breakdowns, some women fled.”

What’s ironic is that, in January 1946, the U.S. Army occupying authorities ordered a complete prohibition of “public” prostitution, publicly asserting that it is anti-democratic and a violation of women’s rights. But they admitted in private that the main reason for closing down the RAA was that the incidence of sexually transmitted disease among the occupying army was increasing rapidly. A few months later when the prohibition took effect, almost 90 percent of the RAA women tested positive for sexually transmitted diseases. At the same time, in the U.S. Army’s 8th Division, tests showed that 70 percent of the soldiers had contracted syphilis, and 50 percent had contracted gonorrhea.

The main reason that American soldiers talk of “democracy” and “women’s rights” is that 70 percent of an American army troop was almost annihilated by syphilis. Japanese prostitutes used syphilis and gonorrhea to defeat the American troops that the Japanese soldiers couldn’t beat on the battlefield. History is just that absurd and ridiculous. Is this the tragedy of war, the comedy of war or “tragicomedy”? Is this the tragedy of American style democracy and human rights, or the comedy of American style democracy and human rights or “tragicomedy”? The headquarters of the Human Rights Watch, an NGO located in New York city, issued their “Global Annual Report (2012)” on the eve of the Chinese New Year (Jan. 22), which criticized the human rights situation in over 90 countries, including China. This group’s “Human Rights Observers” not knowing about American soldiers’ record of sexual abuse all over the world is ignorance; them not examining U.S. soldiers raping other U.S. soldiers is “selective blindness.” Are the U.S.’s female soldiers not people? Can their human rights be freely trampled within the “human rights army”?