Story of brutal Marine not credible to friends

Media report alleges Savannah man was killed on Okinawa by vengeful villagers

Web posted May 10, 2000

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By Ann Stifter
Morris News Service

SAVANNAH -- Olivia Palmer Gaines was 15 when her boyfriend, Pfc. James ``J.D.'' Robinson, joined the Marines in World War II. She remembered him as an intelligent young man who was going away to better himself.

And no way, she insisted, was he a soldier who brutalized villagers while stationed on Okinawa.

``Oh my goodness. Oh, no. No, I just don't believe that because he was a very nice man,'' the 71-year-old said Monday.

Pfc. Robinson's distant relative Zelma Johnson also disputed the allegations reported in a recent Associated Press story. The article stemmed from a 1978 history of Okinawa's Katsuyama Village.

Three black American soldiers had gone into the village each Saturday, raped the village women and become reckless, the history said. In retribution, refugee village men captured the soldiers, killed them and threw them into a cave.

``I'm not going to say it's not possible, but to me it doesn't seem right that in less than a year's time (Pfc. Robinson) had this much power over a village,'' Ms. Johnson said.

``That's a lot of power to have over people just that quick. And he was always writing to come home.''

Pfc. Robinson arrived on Okinawa in April 1945, assigned with two other black men -- Pfc. John M. Smith and Pvt. Isaac Stokes -- to the 57th Marine Depot Company, 7th Marine Service Regiment.

The three disappeared while in utility uniforms in July of that year and were placed on deserter status a month later, according to an Army report.

Their remains were recovered from the 45-foot-deep cave in February 1998. The cause of death was listed as unknown and is being investigated by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service.

``How could they say all this happened with the war being so intense?'' Ms. Johnson said. ``Where was the time that they had to go in there and rape these people?

``If (Pfc. Robinson) was such a good marksman and the war was so intense, why would they even go there without any weapons?''

Joseph Geeter, chapter historian with the Montford Point Marine Association in Beaufort, S.C., is troubled by the allegations. The association preserves stories of black recruits in the Marines' North Carolina black training camp.

``I pray it's not (true),'' he said.

The recent article also contained hearsay and unnamed villagers who told about hearing the Marines' story while growing up, Mr. Geeter said.

Former Montford Point Marines don't want to believe the allegations and are anxious for the investigation to be finished, he said.

Until then, Ms. Gaines will continue remembering Pfc. Robinson as the teen-ager she talked to while sitting on her porch.

``He never made a pass or nothing at me, so I don't think that could have happened,'' she said.