Okinawan murder victim’s photos of past foreign lovers surface online

Japan has been rocked by an incident in Okinawa where a 20-year-old member of the US Marine Corps has been arrested for the murder of a 39-year-old in a love hotel.

Anna Yagi’s (屋宜杏奈) body was discovered strangled to death in a hotel in Naha, where she lived. Lance Corporal Devin Jacob Ballard is alleged to have killed Yagi in the early hours of October 3, and stolen her wallet and backpack, and then fled the hotel before he was arrested on October 4.

The murder has sparked outrage in Japan, especially in Okinawa, which hosts the vast majority of US bases in Japan and so must also bear the brunt of the negative side of this, which includes crimes against the local population.

Due to the high-profile and sensational nature of the incident, it did not take long for netizens to bring their dubious skills to bear.

Netizens have since discovered Yagi’s social media posts, which seem to include a lot of pictures of her liaisons with foreign men, mostly likely US servicemen stationed in Okinawa. It suggests that she was quite promiscuous, possibly including threesomes. One post implies that she had to take emergency contraceptive.

We have to be very careful here: we don’t know what went on in that hotel room or why it seems that a 20-year-old Marine allegedly killed Yagi and stole her belongings, but it is absolutely not the case that she was responsible for her death through her lifestyle choices and taste in men.

The exact circumstances of Yagi’s death are still unclear; whether she was a party girl or not is irrelevant. Some people are using these images as “proof” that somehow Yagi caused her own death, but we believe it is simply a tragic crime over which she had no control.

We hesitated about writing this post and publishing the pictures, which began to appear already a few days ago. Nonetheless, we felt that it is large enough story to merit our attention, though we also do not want to join in any victim-blaming.

The online trail of Yagi’s apparent past conquests does reveal a glimpse into a certain section of society in Okinawa (and other base towns in mainland Japan) where women frequently have relationships with servicemen, and perhaps even seek them out due to sexual preference or because they hope it might lead to a better life elsewhere through marriage. These women are a very different kind of gaijin hunter to the ladies who haunt dating apps or the branches of the Hub.

Such women in Okinawa and elsewhere are sometimes disparagingly called amejo (America girls).