RAPE OF AN INNOCENT, DISHONOR IN THE RANKS

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Anti-U.S. feeling in Japan has sharpened as a result of trade disputes over the past two years, and Washington is eager to calm the tensions. So, for diplomatic reasons, and no doubt feeling genuine moral outrage, Mondale was quick to apologize for the Okinawa rape. Appearing on a Larry King radio special, Clinton said the U.S. "deeply regrets" the incident. "We do not condone any misconduct or any abuse of the Japanese people," he said. "We think that anyone who violates the laws should be treated accordingly."

It was a dispute over how to apply Japanese law to the alleged rapists that turned a crime into an international incident. After the suspects left the scene, the girl found her way to a house nearby and called home. She was admitted to a hospital where doctors determined that she had no serious physical injuries. Police quickly alerted U.S. military police, who traced the Subaru rental. A day after the assault, they detained Marine Privates Kendrick Ledet, 20, and Rodrico Harp, 21, and Navy Seaman Marcus Gill, 22. Ledet and Gill have since confessed to the allegations, while Harp is denying them.

When Japanese police arrived to take custody of the three, however, the U.S. military police denied the request, invoking Article 17, Paragraph 5C of the 1960 Status of Forces Agreement, which covers the rights and obligations of U.S. forces in Japan. The U.S. is obliged to hand over criminal suspects only after they have been indicted. In some countries, like South Korea, the U.S. does not surrender accused service members until they are convicted and have exhausted all appeals. In the Okinawa case, the U.S. compromised by permitting the police to take the suspects each day for questioning, but insisted that they stay overnight in the brig at Camp Hansen.

The decision angered local police. "We would get a lot more done if we had them in confinement here," said an investigating officer. But U.S. military lawyers stood firm: Article 17 is aimed at protecting the rights of U.S. service members in a country where police solve the vast majority of cases by pulling confessions out of suspects, a record not achieved by gentle means.

Once Japanese authorities produce an indictment, which is expected this week, the U.S. will give up the suspects for trial and, if they are convicted, let them be imprisoned in Japan. Still, the special protection for Americans rankles. Says Tsutomu Arakaki, deputy chairman of the Okinawa Bar Association: "Why should U.S. military personnel be above the law? It's been 35 years since the agreement was drawn up, and it's time for a review." In an effort to salve Japanese public opinion, Tokyo and Washington have agreed to form a committee to study the treaty, but both sides cautioned that neither government felt substantial changes were in order.

For Okinawans, the special treatment afforded U.S. service members is symbolic of a deeper problem. The bases represent the latest face of the hard fate that Okinawa has endured since the once independent kingdom, the heart of the Ryukyu island chain, was annexed by Japan in 1879. The Japanese then tried with partial success to exterminate the local culture and language. Toward the end of World War II, 150,000 local people--nearly a third of the population--and 12,520 U.S. troops and 100,000 Japanese soldiers died there in the bloodiest of the campaigns in the Pacific.