2 US sailors arrested in alleged rape of Japanese woman on Okinawa

Two U.S. Navy petty officers are in custody in Okinawa in the alleged sexual assault and robbery of a Japanese woman in an incident that could further inflame anti-American sentiment on the strategic Japanese island.
The two sailors followed a 27-year-old woman to her apartment complex where they allegedly raped and robbed her in the parking lot about 4 a.m. Tuesday, authorities in Japan said.  A third sailor who reportedly witnessed the assault was taken into custody by Japanese police and later released to the U.S. Navy, according to NBC News.
Police say they have arrested two U.S. sailors in the alleged rape of a Japanese woman in Okinawa that has sparked a diplomatic protest.
Japanese police say the two 23-year-old suspects were arrested Tuesday. They were identified as Seaman Christopher Browning and Petty Officer 3rd Class Skyler Dozierwalker of the Fort Worth Naval Air Base in Texas.

The case has drawn protests from the Japanese government and an outcry on Okinawa, where the presence of U.S. military has long been a sore point. The island hosts more than half the 47,000 U.S. troops in Japan.

"I want to personally apologize for the grief and trauma the victim has endured and the anger it has caused among the people of Okinawa," Angelella told reporters.

Angelella said American military personnel are "held to a higher standard."

Both he and U.S. Ambassador to Japan John V. Roos said the U.S. will cooperate in the Okinawan police investigation. Roos said the U.S. government viewed the situation with "utmost seriousness."

"We will put forward every effort to make sure that incidents like this do not happen," Roos said.

The Naval Criminal Investigative Service has begun its own investigation, although Japan has primary jurisdiction.

The latest case has inflamed chronic tensions between the U.S. military and Okinawa over base-related crimes and other issues. Okinawans also have been protesting plans to deploy the Marine Corps' MV-22 Osprey to a base there because of safety concerns.

Local opposition to the U.S. bases over noise, safety concerns and crime flared into mass protests after the 1995 rape of a schoolgirl by three American servicemen. That outcry eventually led to an agreement to close a major Marine airfield, but that plan has stalled for more than a decade over where a replacement facility should be located.