November 1995 — The U.S. Navy admiral who announced plans to retire after touching off outrage with his off-the-cuff remark about the rape of a Japanese schoolgirl spoke out again Sunday, but this time Richard Macke was apologetic.
“My comments were insensitive and offensive,” he said.
In his original comments to reporters last Friday, Macke, U.S. commander of Pacific forces, had suggested the three U.S. servicemen accused of the crime and now on trial in Okinawa should have paid for a prostitute instead of raping the 12-year-old girl.
After saying military officials had found nothing in the background of the three accused servicemen to suggest they would commit such a crime, he said, “I think it was absolutely stupid. I have said several times: for the price they paid to rent the car (used in the crime), they could have had a girl”.
After the angry reaction he issued an apologetic statement, but the outrage did not die and the four-star admiral with 35 years in the military announced his retirement the same day.
Good point.Today the Japanese seem to have a far,*far* different attitude when a single one of their women is violated.Of course they’re correct to be disgusted in such a situation but with our military it happens once in a great while whereas during WWII the Japanese did it routinely.