[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 183 (Friday, November 17, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S17331-S17332]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            THE OKINAWA RAPE

  Mr. BIDEN. Mr. President, I want to speak very briefly to something 
that was called to my attention only an hour or 2 hours ago. That is, 
according to the wire services, Admiral Macke said, and I quote, with 
regard to the case where two Marines and a Navy seaman are on trial in 
Okinawa on charges that they abducted a 12-year-old girl on September 4 
in a rental car, drove her to a secluded sugar cane field where one of 
the persons, Seaman Marcus D. Gill, admitted in court that he had raped 
the girl.
  In response to that incident, which has international consequences 
for us, it is probably the most significant disagreement we have had 
with Japan, including trade agreements, caused as much of a stir and 
outrage, and understandable stir and outrage, on the part of the 
Japanese.
  This admiral, probably one of the two or three most visible people 
known by name in Japan, because he is head of the Pacific Fleet, 
instead of him getting off of his ship, getting in a car and going to 
wherever the hell that family or the relatives of that child lived, and 
begging the forgiveness on the part of this Nation for something in the 
nature that occurred back when Attila the Hun came down into Japan and 
raped and pillaged centuries ago, instead of doing that, this fellow 
says--if this is true, this guy should be disciplined. If any one of us 
said this, it would be enough, in my view, for the voters to never vote 
for us again. If it were a Cabinet Member, we would probably dismiss 
them. We have had Cabinet Members dismissed for less insensitive things 
than this.
  He says--if this is true, because what the press says is not always 
true; so that is the one caveat that I will make--but if he said, ``I 
think that it was absolutely stupid, I've said several times,'' Macke 
said, ``for the price they paid to rent the car they could have had a 
girl.''
  I realize I am accused, rightfully so, by my colleagues on occasion 
of being a little too emotional, but I want to tell you, if that were 
my daughter and that admiral said that, I would go find the son--I 
would go find him. I would look for him. I would--it would not be 
right; I would be wrong; it would be a violation of law--but I would 
find him and rip his ears off, if I could, or get killed in trying.
  Mr. McCAIN. Will the Senator yield?
  Mr. BIDEN. I will yield to my friend from Arizona.
  Mr. McCAIN. I share my friend's anger. Where was this--how was this 
report carried?
  Mr. BIDEN. Mr. President, it is carried by the AP Wire Service. Date: 
The 17th, today, 19:22 hours, Eastern Standard Time, Copyright 1995. 
All rights reserved, AM----
  Mr. McCAIN. I thank my friend. The AP.
  Mr. BIDEN. Again, I will publicly apologize--I want to make this 
caveat. 

[[Page S 17332]]
 If he did not say this, then this is unwarranted, what I am saying. 
But I just do not think that after all the time and all the effort we 
have made here, the men in the Senate--not just the women in the 
Senate--the men in the Senate, the people on this floor, to deal with 
the Violence Against Women Act, which is all about changing attitudes--
and my friend, the Senator from the State of Arizona, I know how he 
feels about these things. I know how he votes on these things. I know 
how the Senator from Mississippi and the Senator from Iowa feel about 
this. We have tried very hard to change attitudes, attitudes about 
women and whether or not women are property, whether or not women are 
``our woman,'' whether or not we men have a right to ever touch them. 
That has been a central debate in this Nation.
  And to have one of the highest ranking military officers of the 
United States of America saying--in command of thousands of young, 
impressionable men--that his response to this tragedy, instead of being 
an instinctive gut-wrenching anger and empathy, is, ``They could have 
gotten a girl.'' Why would he do this? That is simple. Unfortunately, 
we know a fair number of people think like this. ``This is kind of 
dumb. If they wanted sex, they could have gotten and bought it in 
Okinawa for the price they rented the car. That is a reasonable 
calculation, is it not?''

  And until recently, the last decade or so, that was kind of an 
accepted notion. ``We should think of these things logically.'' Well, 
my God, it is absolutely--I mean, all the debates that we have had on 
the floor, all the times--and, Mr. President, if there is anyone who is 
guilty of ``hoof in mouth'' disease, if there is anyone who has stuck 
his foot in his mouth more than this Senator, if there is anybody that 
has made more verbal faux pas than me, I do not know.
  I challenge anyone to think, in 23 years, of any time I have gotten 
up on the floor and criticized someone like this for misspeaking, 
because I am a champion at it, I have made a career of it, 
unfortunately, but, thank God, never on something like this, never on 
something that has affected someone, affected the representation of the 
philosophy of a nation.
  Mr. HARKIN. Will the Senator yield?
  Mr. BIDEN. I will be glad to yield.
  Mr. HARKIN. I thank the Senate for bringing this to my attention. I 
never heard of this, like the Senator from Arizona. I can say, as 
someone who spent 4 years in the Navy ROTC, 5 years as a Navy pilot on 
active duty, 3 more years in the Active Reserve flying for the Navy--
that adds up to a lot of time in the Navy--I have an instinctive pride 
in the Navy. We all do, those of us who served. And I love the Navy. I 
love its rich history. But I must say to the Senator from Delaware, 
that if this is true--I just heard this; I went over and read the AP 
wire report that the Senator had--I say, if this is true, if this is 
what Admiral Macke said, I would go the Senator one better. It is not 
that he should be disciplined. Our Commander in Chief, the Commander in 
Chief of the Armed Forces of the United States, which is the President 
of the United States, ought to bring him to Washington and publicly 
strip him of his rank and take away his commission in the U.S. Navy.
  The Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces, the President of the 
United States, has the power to do that. And I call upon President 
Clinton, if this is true--and I share the Senator's thought--I want to 
make sure that he actually said that. If Admiral Macke said that, I 
call upon President Clinton to bring Admiral Macke to Washington, strip 
him of his rank, take away his commission, and deny him all the 
benefits that he has accrued as a naval officer to send a signal to 
every other naval officer that this kind of action, this kind of 
attitude, will never be tolerated again in the United States Navy.
  I thank the Senator for bringing this to our attention. It is a sad 
day for those of us who so dearly love the United States Navy.
  Mr. BIDEN. Mr. President, I will not take any more time--I see the 
Republican leader--except to say it was not--I cannot take credit or 
blame for bringing this to the attention of the Senate. It was the 
Senator from California. But let me just say, to look at it the other 
way around, let us assume that Japanese troops--let me give it an 
analogy. When the Prime Minister of Japan made a reference several 
years ago that the reason why we were not productive is because of race 
relations with our black population, this country, understandably, was 
in a furor. And it ended up being one of the elements to bring down 
that Prime Minister in his own country.
  Let me just ask the rhetorical question--and I will yield the floor 
after I do--what do we think we would do if a 12-year-old girl was 
driven to a cornfield in any one of our States by three Japanese 
servicemen stationed in the United States of America, was brutally 
raped, and one of the Japanese sailors saying, ``I did it,'' in open 
court, and then the commander of the Japanese fleet, sitting off of San 
Diego, said in an interview with American reporters, that ``This was 
stupid on the part of the Japanese sailors. All they had to do was, for 
the money they had to rent a car in San Diego, they could have went and 
gotten a girl and had her''?
  Can you imagine the indignation of this Nation? There would be every 
other Senator on the floor of this Nation demanding a public apology 
and action taken against that admiral. I just think sometimes we do not 
understand that what is good for the goose is good for the gander. We 
do not understand how people feel. We never put ourselves in their 
shoes.
  And I will say, if we had a problem with United States-Japanese 
relations before, as a consequence of this rape, just what are they 
now? Purely in terms of the United States naked self-interest in the 
relations with Japan, what has this guy done, if this is true?
  I think it is deplorable. I do not know--I am not as certain as my 
friend from Iowa what the appropriate action is--but I just think as a 
Nation, we should be publicly apologizing to the people of Japan and we 
should be publicly vilifying anyone who says things like this.
  I yield the floor.
  Mr. HARKIN addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Iowa.

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