1945 Katsuyama killing incident

Rare card · No. 40760

On 14 July 1945, three African-American United States Marines were killed by the residents of Katsuyama, Okinawa, Japan. The villagers reportedly killed the three Marines after identifying them as the same Marines who had committed a series of rapes against village women following the Battle of Okinawa and hid their bodies in a nearby cave out of fear for retaliation. The killings were kept secret by the village until 1997, when a Japanese employee of a nearby U.S. Air Force base was informed about the killings by an anonymous resident. No one was charged as all those involved in the incident had died and the statute of limitations had run out.

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