Sailor Testifies About Raping Japanese Girl : Trial: Court interpreter breaks down as admitted assailant describes Okinawa crime. He denies coercing his co-defendants.

An American sailor who raped a Japanese schoolgirl reduced a court interpreter to tears Wednesday with a harrowing account of the attack and the role of two U.S. Marines.

Navy Seaman Marcus Gill, 22, of Woodville, Texas, told a Japanese court that the three servicemen planned the assault together, contradicting the two Marines’ testimony that Gill bullied them into carrying out the crime.

“Everything is pinpointed on me. They want to take as little blame as possible and put it all on me,” complained Gill, who has admitted raping the 12-year-old girl Sept. 4.

Marine Pfc. Rodrico Harp, 21, of Griffin, Ga., and Marine Pfc. Kendrick Ledet, 20, of Waycross, Ga., have admitted abducting the girl, but they deny raping her.

The rape has outraged many Japanese and spurred debate over the U.S. military bases in Okinawa.

More than half of the 47,000 U.S. troops stationed in Japan are in Okinawa, and residents have long complained of the noise, crime and danger they say the military brings.

Gill went into chilling details of the assault, and the court interpreter broke down upon hearing his account of lewd jokes he and his companions made about their unconscious and bleeding victim. Testimony was halted briefly.

Harp and Ledet testified Tuesday that they participated in the attack out of fear of Gill, whom they described as domineering and physically threatening.

In Gill’s account, however, Harp and Ledet were enthusiastic accomplices. He said they cruised the streets of a town in Okinawa, looking for a woman to rape, and that Ledet exclaimed “Let’s do this!” as they set out in their rental car.

The sailor said that Harp spotted the girl going into a stationery store and that Ledet suggested ambushing her. Gill also said the two Marines bound the girl with tape and pulled her shorts and underwear down to her ankles.

The girl was raped in the rental car on a remote roadside.

Gill said that after he raped the girl, Ledet asked, “How was she?” Gill said Ledet then suggested that the girl had enjoyed it.

Police later found a plastic bag in a trash can containing three pairs of bloodstained men’s underwear, a notebook and duct tape.

Gill spoke in a low voice and often rolled his head from side to side. Harp and Ledet, who sat behind Gill, showed little emotion but often bowed their heads.

Since Tuesday, all three have apologized and asked for forgiveness.

Their families have said they will each pay $5,000 in compensation to the victim but have not raised the full amount yet.

Apologies and compensation are an important defense strategy in Japan, where a show of remorse can bring about a more lenient sentence. Japanese courts have no juries, and more than 99% of defendants are convicted.

Testimony is scheduled to end with final statements today, and the three-judge panel is expected to decide verdicts and possible sentences in late January.

All three Americans are charged with rape causing injury, which carries a sentence of three years to life.

Harp’s lawyer, Mitsunobu Matsunaga, said that, under the Japanese system, Harp and Ledet could be convicted of rape causing injury for conspiring in the crime even if they did not have sex with the girl.

“Only one person knows if she was raped by one person or three people,” Gill said when defense lawyers asked whether the other two were guilty.

Officials have not identified the girl, who has not testified in court.