Girard Incident - Extradition and Controversy

Extradition and Controversy

The strong Japanese outcry over the killing led to a jurisdictional dispute between the Japanese authorities and the U.S. Army. The Army maintained that Girard had acted while on duty and was thus under the jurisdiction of U.S. military courts, while the Japanese government held that Girard's actions had taken place during a period of rest, making him subject to Japanese law. Girard had been assigned to guard a machine gun at the firing range in between sessions of target practice; the Japanese contention was that since Girard had not fired a weapon during exercises, he could not be considered as actively on duty. Eventually, Secretary of State John Foster Dulles and Secretary of Defense Charles E. Wilson ruled that Girard's specific action "was not authorized", and he was turned over for trial.

American response to Girard's extradition was largely negative. Relatives and supporters in his Illinois hometown drummed up 182 feet of signatures for a petition decrying the decision, the American Legion protested vociferously, the Veterans of Foreign Wars said that Girard had been "sold down the river", Senator John Bricker of Ohio called the decision a matter of "sacrificing an American soldier to appease Japanese public opinion", and the New York Daily News summed up its feelings in a headline: "To the Wolves, Soldier". In the midst of the uproar, the New York Times, fearing that American reaction was eroding the good will earned in Asia by the initial decision to extradite, published an article lauding the positive interactions between most U.S. soldiers and Japanese civilians, including photographs of soldiers celebrating Christmas with a Japanese family while clothed in traditional Japanese attire.