Word: girard
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1950-1959
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...uproar over the case of Army Specialist Third Class William S. Girard, and whether or not he should be tried by a Japanese court for the accidental shooting of a Japanese woman boils down to a heated argument over the much misunderstood status-of-forces agreements between the U.S. and 49 friendly countries. Just what do the agreements mean, and how well have they worked in the past? See NATIONAL AFFAIRS, The Girard Case and G.I.s in Foreign Courts...
Last Jan. 30 Army Specialist Third Class William S. Girard, 21, fired an empty cartridge case from a grenade launcher to scare off several Japanese who were scavenging for metal on a U.S. rifle range near Tokyo; he struck one woman in the back and killed her (TIME, May 27). The Army insisted that Girard fired while on duty (technically he was guarding a machine gun between target practice sessions) and was therefore subject to the primary jurisdiction of U.S. military courts under the status-of-forces agreement. The Japanese held that because Girard did not fire during official exercise...
...last week the death of Mrs. Naka Sakai had become an international incident. Japan demanded that Girard be tried for manslaughter in a civilian court (likely sentence: two to 15 years). The U.S., in the person of Defense Secretary Charles E. Wilson, refused to release him from Army custody "pending a complete review of the matter...
...much a bone of contention as Girard himself was the U.S.-Japanese "status of forces" agreement, which holds in general that U.S. military men shall be subject to Japanese law except when on duty. Japan claimed jurisdiction under the agreement because Girard shot the woman during a target-practice rest period, therefore was technically off duty. U.S. military authorities (who might have been able to head off the whole uproar by promptly court-martialing Girard) argued that he was on duty during the rest period, was therefore subject to military discipline. Finally, Rear Admiral Miles H. Hubbard, U.S. representative...
Countermanding Admiral Hubbard's decision last week, Secretary Wilson quickly received support from U.S. veterans' groups, criticism from the Japanese for his "lawless, wayward attitude." At week's end Girard was still in U.S. hands, and the "Somagahara incident" was becoming a rallying point for a swelling anti-American movement in Japan...