RYUKYU Moritoshi Oshiro still bears the scars from the 1945 Battle of Okinawa. He walks with a limp and cannot see out of one eye, the result of beatings he endured despite his father’s now-famous efforts to protect the then 12-year-old boy. [ASAHI]

RYUKYU More than 5,000 people attended a ceremony in Itoman on Okinawa to mark the 63rd anniversary of the end of fighting on Okinawa during World War II, which left tens of thousands of civilians dead. [MAINICHI]

KYUSHU A 57-year-old man died after being bitten on the throat by a Tosa dog he had kept at his home in Mizumaki, Fukuoka Prefecture, police said. (1) [MAINICHI]

KYUSHU The Nagasaki District Court on Monday ordered the government to scrap its decision not to recognize 20 people as sufferers of atomic bomb-related diseases, accepting their claims in a lawsuit against the government. [MAINICHI]

KYUSHU The Okinawa Meteorological Observatory said Tuesday that this year’s rainy season in the Okinawa area appears to have ended, about six days earlier than usual and four days earlier than last year. [KYODO]

KYUSHU A 22-year-old man with Asperger syndrome who stabbed a high school student to death and seriously injured another student in Nobeoka, Miyazaki Prefecture was sentenced to 26 years behind bars on Friday. (1) [MAINICHI]

KYUSHU Prosecutors on Wednesday demanded the death sentence for gangster Tetsuya Shiroo who is accused of fatally shooting Nagasaki Mayor Itcho Ito during his election campaign last April. [KYOTO]

KYUSHU The Fukuoka District Court handed a senior police officer a suspended 10-month prison term for forcing a suspect into confessing during questioning by having him step on documents bearing the names of his relatives. [THE JAPAN TIMES]

KYUSHU The Fukuoka District Court on Tuesday gave a suspended prison term to a former senior police officer accused of using the “fumiji” technique, in which a suspect is forced to step on documents in an effort to extract a confession, during investigations into election violations connected to the 2003 Kagoshima prefectural assembly election. [KYODO]

RYUKYU The U.S. consul general in Okinawa said Monday the United States is ready to discuss with Japan which country has the authority to arrest U.S. military-related people when illegal acts are detected during joint police patrols, which have been proposed by Japan. [THE JAPAN TIMES]

RYUKYU U.S. forces in Japan said late Monday they would ease a sweeping curfew on troops that was imposed nearly two weeks ago in a bid to calm public anger after an alleged rape by a U.S. Marine. [AFP]

KYUSHU Police arrested a U.S. Air Force serviceman Sunday on suspicion of trespassing in a private office in Okinawa Prefecture, despite a curfew imposed on all U.S. military and civilian personnel in the prefecture since Feb. 20 following the alleged rape of a junior high school girl by a U.S. Marine. [KYODO]

RYUKYU A U.S. nonmilitary employee at the U.S. Kadena Air Base in Okinawa Prefecture and two Japanese men were arrested on suspicion of using a stimulant drug, police said Saturday. [YOMIURI]

RYUKYU With an unprecedented curfew on U.S. military personnel in Okinawa tentatively due to expire Monday, central government and prefectural officials are rushing to assure those living near U.S. bases that anticrime measures are being taken in the wake of the alleged Feb. 10 rape of a 14-year-old local girl by a marine. (2) [THE JAPAN TIMES]

RYUKYU The United States said Friday its military will continue to probe a U.S. Marine’s alleged rape of a junior high school girl in Japan’s Okinawa Prefecture earlier this month, despite the release of the suspect after the victim withdrew the accusation against him. [KYODO]

RYUKYU The Naha District Public Prosecutors Office said Friday night it had decided not to indict a U.S. Marine Corps sergeant arrested on Feb. 11 on suspicion of raping a 14-year-old middle school girl, adding that it had released him. (1) [YOMIURI]

RYUKYU Six citizens groups are set to stage a rally on March 23 to protest the alleged rape of a junior high school girl in Okinawa Prefecture by a U.S. Marine, organizers said. (1) [MAINICHI]

RYUKYU The Okinawa prefectural police said Thursday that a Filipino woman living in Okinawa Prefecture told the police she had been assaulted by a U.S. serviceman at a hotel in the city of Okinawa. (1) [YOMIURI]

RYUKYU A week after a 14-year-old girl was allegedly raped by U.S. Marine Tyrone Luther Hadnott, U.S. military personnel on the streets of Okinawa were still discussing the attack, slamming Hadnott’s conduct. [MAINICHI]

RYUKYU In the wake of the alleged rape of a 14-year-old girl by a U.S. Marine Corps staff sergeant in Okinawa Prefecture, the central government on Thursday started to consider the possibility of considering setting up security cameras in entertainment districts in the prefecture, according to government sources. [YOMIURI]