Photo/Illutration A rally is held in Ginowan, Okinawa Prefecture, on Aug. 10 to protest a recent series of sexual assault cases by U.S. servicemen. (Satsuki Tanahashi)

GINOWAN, Okinawa Prefecture--Civic groups held a rally here Aug. 10 to protest sexual assault cases by U.S. soldiers that only recently came to light.

Participants raged against revelations that information on these incidents was not shared with the prefectural government until much later.

They also called for a resolution of the thorny issue of Okinawa Prefecture shouldering so many U.S. bases compared with the rest of Japan.

The event was organized by a group called “All Okinawa Kaigi” and residents involved in lawsuits about noise pollution at the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma and Kadena Air Base, both in the prefecture.

A series of incidents of sexual violence by U.S. soldiers have been uncovered in Okinawa since June.

In one instance, a U.S. airman who belongs to the Kadena base was indicted in March on suspicion of abducting and sexually assaulting a girl under the age of 16 last December.

But neither prefectural police nor the Naha District Public Prosecutors Office made a public announcement, and the central government did not report the incident to the prefecture based on a 1997 Japan-U.S. agreement.

It was also disclosed that a case of nonconsensual sexual assault resulting in bodily injury occurred in May.

The central government later also revealed that there had been three other incidents of sexual assault by U.S. military personnel since last year.

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