Rina Gonoi, 22, a former Self-Defense Forces officer from Higashimatsushima City, Miyagi Prefecture, said she was sexually assaulted by several male members of the Ground Self-Defense Force Koriyama Garrison (Koriyama City, Fukushima Prefecture), where she belonged, on the 31st. We submitted to the Ministry of Defense a written request for a fair investigation by the Investigation Committee and a list of about 100,000 signatures.
At the ministry, Gonoi said, “I want you to investigate the facts from the perspective of a third party so that there are no SDF personnel who feel the same as I do.”
After receiving the letter, parliamentary vice-minister Jiro Kimura said, “As an organization, we will conduct a thorough investigation and take strict action based on the results.” The request was private, and Gonoi said he received no positive response to the third-party investigation.
Gonoi joined the Ground Self-Defense Force in April 2020 and was assigned to Camp Koriyama in September. During a banquet during a sleepover training in August 2001, he filed a damage report with the police on suspicion of forcible indecency after being held by several members of the police force. At the end of May this year, the public prosecutor’s office decided not to indict him because the suspicion was insufficient.
According to Gonoi, the public prosecutor explained, “There was testimony about the act of holding his neck, but no testimony about obscenity.”
In June, dissatisfied with the disposition, he resigned after appealing to the Public Prosecutor’s Examination Board for review. “I don’t want to obscure the facts,” he announced the damage on the Internet, and began collecting signatures.
The public relations office of the Tohoku Army (Sendai City), which has jurisdiction over Camp Koriyama, responded, “We are continuing our careful internal investigation.”
Enlisted in the army longing to become a female volunteer who helped victims of the Great East Japan Earthquake, but her hopes were shattered
Mr. Gonoi experienced the Great East Japan Earthquake when he was in the fourth grade of Omagari Elementary School in Higashimatsushima City. In junior high school, he won the Miyagi Prefecture tournament in judo. Aiming to participate in the Olympics, he enlisted with admiration for a female self-defense officer he met at an evacuation center, but her hopes were dashed because of sexual assault.
The first floor of Mr. Gonoi’s house was flooded by the tsunami caused by the earthquake, and he lost two of his dogs. It was the Self-Defense Forces of Hokkaido that rushed to the community center where they had evacuated. A female soldier carrying a bucket of bath water with both hands looked cool. When she was practicing judo, she said to me, “Be strong.”
Women accounted for less than 10% of the units assigned to Camp Koriyama. According to Ms. Gonoi, sexual harassment, such as being hugged by male volunteers in the hallway or having her breasts touched at banquets, was a daily occurrence. Still, she persevered because she enrolled in the Self-Defense Forces Physical Education School, which produces Olympic medalists, and because she wanted to support disaster relief efforts.
In the overnight training in August 2021, my patience exceeded the limit. During a banquet with about ten men, the superior officer instructed the members to perform a martial arts finishing move on Mr. Gonoi. The team members pushed Mr. Gonoi’s neck with both hands, laid him down on the bed, and forced him to open his crotch and shake his hips. The other two did the same thing, and people around them laughed.
After this incident, I returned to my parents’ house and was attacked by a sense of emptiness that I could not see the future. Trying to end her life, he sat down in front of the rope on her bed and was hit by a strong tremor. It was the March 16, 2016 Fukushima Prefecture Offshore Earthquake, which recorded a maximum seismic intensity of upper 6.
My classmates and pet dogs who lost their lives in the tsunami came to mind. “Don’t die. Fight to the end,” she decided.
When we conducted an online questionnaire about harassment within the SDF, we found that “a female soldier at the same camp was forced to have sexual intercourse and died as a result.” I was diagnosed with an adjustment disorder.” (20s, GSDF) received 146 reports. I got strength.
“I don’t hold a grudge because the Self-Defense Forces helped me, but I just want them to improve their working environment.”
