Marine in Japan Freed After U.S., Alleged Victim OK Deal

A U.S. Marine was released Wednesday after the military reached an agreement with a Japanese woman who had accused him of trying to rape her at a disco on the island of Okinawa, Kyodo News Service said.

Lance Cpl. Oswald McDonald, 29, was arrested Jan. 14 after the woman, whose name was not released, said he dragged her into a corner of the disco and tried to sexually assault her.

He backed off after the woman resisted, and she was not physically injured, police said. She dropped the charges Wednesday after reaching a settlement with the U.S. military, the news agency said, citing prosecutors in Naha, the capital of Okinawa prefecture.

Prosecutors were not available for comment, according to a guard who answered their office phone late Wednesday. An answering machine picked up at Futenma Air Station, where McDonald is based.

Officials could not immediately provide McDonald’s hometown after his arrest.

The arrest, in the city of Okinawa, came only months after the U.S. military lifted a four-year curfew barring service members from the city center. The ban, lifted in October, was meant to curtail fights and drunkenness.

The curfew was imposed in October 1995, a month after the rape of a 12-year-old girl on another part of the island involving three U.S. servicemen. The crime triggered protests against the U.S. military presence.

Okinawans have long complained about crime and congestion linked to the U.S. bases. About two-thirds of the 47,000 U.S. troops in Japan are on Okinawa, about 1,000 miles southwest of Tokyo.