Posted on 07/18/2004 8:55:26 PM PDT by GATOR NAVY
CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa — When Rodrico Harp was sentenced to seven years at hard labor for his part in the infamous abduction and rape of an Okinawa schoolgirl in 1995, he never thought he’d be assembling cell phones or making auto parts. That’s what he claims “hard labor” meant at Kurihama, the Japanese prison near Yokosuka where most American servicemen convicted in Japanese courts wind up.
“I made parts for Mazdas and Nissans,” Harp said during a telephone interview from his home in Griffin, Ga. “You had no choice. If you refused to work, they put you in what we called a chill box, a little cell with nothing in it, and they forced you to sit rigidly all day at a desk until it was time to eat and sleep.
“Sometimes, if they thought you were too rowdy or misbehaving or just not doing what they wanted you to do, they’d put you in a straitjacket in a padded room.”
That’s wrong, says Michael Griffith, a New York-based lawyer who specializes in defending Americans overseas.
“Japan is in gross violation of international law by forcing prisoners to work for commercial companies,” Griffith said via telephone from his Long Island home. “It amounts to slave labor, nothing less.”
Japan prison officials and legal experts disagree. “We do not necessarily see inmates engaging in manufacturing commercial products as a problem,” said Makoto Teranaka, executive director of Amnesty International Japan. “We hear arguments criticizing that the practice harms fair competitive market activities. However, products made by inmates are no cheaper than those made in the regular commercial environment. The differences in the price for the products that a company pays and the amount an inmate receives goes in the prison coffer. … Every prison is supposed to be self supporting,” he said.
In addition, Japanese officials say commercial products made in Japanese prisons aren’t exported to countries banning forced prison labor.
“Prison labor is a part of punishment,” said Teranaka. “Therefore, what inmates receive are not wages, but a financial incentive. What we see as a problem is that they work a full eight hours, which deprives them of any opportunities to receive counseling or other necessary treatment.”
Griffith, who represented the families of Harp and another defendant in the 1995 case, said American prisoners are forced to work eight hours a day for what amounts to about one dollar a day. They made auto parts and assembled cellular telephones, the former prisoners said.
“It’s in direct violation of the Forced Labor Convention of 1930, which prohibits the use of prisoners for outside contractors,” Griffith alleged.
The U.S. State Department lists Japan as a party to the convention. According to papers filed in a 1994 Congressional subcommittee hearing on the prison labor issue, Japan ratified the convention Nov. 31, 1932.
Harp was a 22-year-old Marine private first class when sentenced in March 1996 with Pfc. Kendrick Ledet, 21, and Navy Seaman Marcus Gill, 23, a medic, for raping a 12-year-old girl they abducted from a street corner in Kin village, just outside Camp Hansen. The incident occurred on Labor Day 1995.
Harp and Gill were sentenced to seven years and Ledet to 6½ years of hard labor. All three were released last year and dishonorably discharged.
According to Japanese prison officials, about 20 U.S. servicemembers are serving time in Kurihama prison. Their work assignments include kitchen work and cleaning cellblocks, or manufacturing commercial products.
Prison officials declined any further comment.
“While in prison they were working for a Japanese automaker, making emblems for the front hoods and fabricating headrests,” Griffith said. “Harp told me that when the U.S. military guys came in to visit them, the Japanese would take the labels off the boxes so they wouldn’t see who the prisoners were working for.”
Griffith hopes to pressure Congress to hold hearings on the matter, in much the same way two house subcommittees met in 1994 on the Japanese prison labor issue.
At that time Rep. Gary L. Ackerman, (D-NY), chairman of the Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific, was disheartened, he said, to hear the testimony of Christopher Lavinger, a client of Griffith sentenced to 16 months in a Fuchu prison on drug charges.
Lavinger told the congressmen he was struck with an electrified baton twice when he teetered from a rigid position on a chair where he was forced to sit nearly motionless for 12 hours a day after refusing to produce goods for Sega and several Japanese department stores, for the equivalent of about three cents an hour.
“It is my firm opinion that not only is this practice morally reprehensible, but it is also in direct contravention of international agreements on to which Japan and most other industrialized and civilized nations have signed,” Ackerman said in a statement made June 10, 1994.
“Forced labor such as this violates the general conference of the International Labor Organization’s Convention 29, which was ratified by Japan on Nov. 21, 1932.”
The convention defines forced or compulsory labor as “any work or service exacted from any person as a consequence of a conviction in a court of law, provided that the said work or service is carried out under the supervision and control of a public authority and that the said person is not hired or placed at the disposal of private individuals, companies or associations.”
In some countries, including the United States, private companies use prison labor, but only with prisoner consent and for minimum wages.
Ackerman said a Japanese official told him the practice was not against Japanese or international law, but companies were instructed not to send any of the products to the United States because of the prohibition concerning prison labor.
“It’s too bad the Democrats lost control of Congress the next year and Ackerman lost the chairmanship of the committee,” Griffith said. “Nothing ever happened as a result of the hearing.”
In a letter to Griffith last year, Harp said he was forced to make and assemble cellular phone parts, car emblems and car panels. Pay ranged from 1,000 yen to 3,000 yen ($9.43 to $28.30) per month. He wrote to the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo complaining of being forced to work for private Japanese companies and was told in a two-paragraph response that, “SOFA status prisoners are the responsibility of the U.S. military in Japan, regardless of where the prisoner is serving his sentence. We have forwarded your letter to the Marine Corps Base Camp Fuji, for further action.”
Harp said no action was taken.
Embassy officials directed Stripes inquiries to U.S. Forces Japan for information concerning the issue. A July 8 response stated, “prisoners receive a monthly visit from their respective service component’s prisoner liaison officer.”
“During this visit, the status of the prisoner’s health and welfare along with any complaints are noted,” the USFJ response stated. “If any legal matters arise, they are addressed by the Judge Advocate’s office.”
“Yeah, they’d come by,” Harp said. “They’d walk through and talk to us and tell us we were doing a good job and then they’d go. They saw what we were doing.”
Amnesty International released a May report highlighting reports of torture and ill treatment of people while in Japanese custody.
However, Japanese members of the organization say the prison labor issue is not that serious.
Teranaka, the executive director, said the prison labor practices are under review by the Ministry of Justice.
At one of the posts I was assigned to in Korea, there was a village on the west side that was very strictly off limits and had been for years. Two GIs went over there one night and raped a young girl. They were found the next morning in pieces all over the perimeter fence. When the details came out, most of the GIs thought they hade been treated with far too much mercy.
I went back and looked, I think you're right. It can only be imposed by a court.
I guess the prisons in Japan don't provide gyms, law libraries, and entertainment the way ours do in the U.S. Maybe we should adopt their way of handling criminals.
And save billions of tax dollars in the process. In many states, they are no longer allowed to make license plates. Poor criminals would have to work like most of us do. Couln't have that now could we?
I like the guy in Arizona that houses his inmantes in a tent without AC and makes them eat bologna sandwiches.
Wouldn't the felony conviction cause this guy to lose his right to vote? I realize that it was in a Japanese court, so I'm curious as to what the law is.
How dare you speak about not voting. Don't you know that 50,00 felons were denied the right to vote in Floriday in 2000? The dems were very unhappy with that. Jesse Jackson swears is racist to deny such fine US citizens their God given right to vote. Don't dare say that again(sarcasm).
What, precisely, is the theory behind banning forced labor, anyway? I can't help but think that hard, forced labor would be a fantastic deterrent. On top of that, am I the only person that's ever seen the State Department's warnings that when in a foreign country you should dot your "i"'s and cross your "t"'s because some things that aren't illegal at home are illegal abroad, and some offenses carry much higher penalties abroad than they do at home, and that when you're in a foreign country you're subjct to their laws and their judicial system? I'd be willing to bet that Singapore gets a great deterrence value out of the "DEATH TO DRUG TRAFFIKERS UNDER SINGAPORE LAW" stamped on the immigration entry card that foreigners have to fill out to get into the country.
I tried that in Vietnam, except that our chow was worse. Hey, if it's good enough for me, it's good enough for criminals.
I would like to see the comments on this string shared with our friends in Japan, especially Okinawa. Can someone arrange that?
If you can't do the time, don't do the crime.
They should have thought of this before raping a Japanese girl.
Geoff Fieger. His brother Doug was the lead singer of The Knack.
Hey, whatever happened to the "Free Ted Maher" movement, anyway?
We should. Really. There was an article on this quite a few years ago. In a Japanese prison, you have ZERO leeway. You obey the guards, period, and keep your mouth shut. No luxuries. And the guards are no allowed to harm you. The result of this "extreme" discipline is that while the US has recidivism rate (rate of prisoners who return to prison) of about 40%, Japan has only 2%. Think about it. Japan has a way of making sure you don't ever want to go to prison again.
International law against working for civilian companies ??? I think a lot of telemarket sorts are working out of "US Prison system ".........??? I may be mistaken but I seem to remember stories about prisoners working for civilian firms here in the US ???
Stay safe and BTW.........Doom on this POS rapist whiner.........
Better still: ship him to Phoenix, where Sheriff Arpaio would be glad to have him as a guest at "Abu Cactus". The temperature right now is about 108.
"In some countries, including the United States, private companies use prison labor, but only with prisoner consent and for minimum wages."
The POS whiner is complaining that he was forced to work.
But since the pay was three cents an hour this would be an office in Bangalore.
That means they won't be allowed to vote. Good, that's 3 less votes for the Democrat criminal coddlers.
Personally, If I had been on the jury I would have recommended those creeps for a live re-enactment of the Bataan death march. A sharp Arisaka bayonet in the guts is good enough for any scum who forcibly raped a 12 year old little girl, I don't care what race or nationality she is.
Understand............Stay safe !!
He (Michael Griffith)was the lawyer for Ted Maher in the Edmond Safra murder
Hey, whatever happened to the "Free Ted Maher" movement, anyway?
Phil and Harpseal, can you help out with this???
I think the majority of Japanese understand that this trio is not representative of Americans in general and that Americans don't condone this kind of behavior.
The Japanese that want the U.S. military out of Okinawa and/or Japan know this too, but love to use this case as a big stick to beat the military with. It truly is their Abu Ghurayb.
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