Yokosuka, Japan vs. Pearl Harbor, Hawaii: Two Navy-Marine Corps Installations Side by Side, 2013–2018
Yokosuka, Japan had 96 courts-martial from 2013–2018, and Pearl Harbor, Hawaii had 83. 65% of convicted enlisted members at Yokosuka received a punitive discharge, compared with 75% at Pearl Harbor.
Understanding Trends in Military Practice · 6 min read
Trends › By Installation › Yokosuka, Japan › vs. Pearl Harbor, Hawaii
Short answer: Yokosuka, Japan had 96 courts-martial from 2013–2018, and Pearl Harbor, Hawaii had 83. 65% of convicted enlisted members at Yokosuka received a punitive discharge, compared with 75% at Pearl Harbor. Article 92, failure to obey an order or regulation, was charged in 18% of Yokosuka cases with charges listed, compared with 6% at Pearl Harbor.
Fewer Punitive Discharges at Yokosuka
For an enlisted member, a punitive discharge is a bad-conduct or dishonorable discharge. 65% of enlisted convictions at Yokosuka ended with one, compared with 75% at Pearl Harbor. The Yokosuka total was 32 bad-conduct discharges and 20 dishonorable discharges.
2 convicted officers or warrant officers appear in the Yokosuka records, and 2 were dismissed. A sentence without a punitive discharge does not rule out an administrative separation later, and those separations are not in these records.
Charges at Yokosuka
The charge lists cover 91 of the 96 Yokosuka cases, and a case with three articles appears under all three. Article 128, assault, was the most common charge, in 45 cases (49%), compared with 46% at Pearl Harbor. Article 120, rape and sexual assault, was next, in 31 cases (34%), compared with 28%.
Article 92 appeared in 18% of Yokosuka cases and 6% of Pearl Harbor cases. Article 107, false official statements, appeared in 20% and 13%. Article 112a, the drug article, was less common at Yokosuka: 7% of cases, compared with 17% at Pearl Harbor.
| UCMJ Article | Cases | Share here | Share, the Pearl Harbor, Hawaii cases |
|---|---|---|---|
| Art. 128 Assault | 45 | 49% | 46% |
| Art. 120 Rape and sexual assault | 31 | 34% | 28% |
| Art. 107 False official statements | 18 | 20% | 13% |
| Art. 134 General article | 17 | 19% | 20% |
| Art. 92 Failure to obey order or regulation | 16 | 18% | 6% |
| Art. 80 Attempts | 14 | 15% | 13% |
| Art. 120b Rape and sexual assault of a child | 11 | 12% | 10% |
| Art. 112a Wrongful use, possession of controlled substances | 6 | 7% | 17% |
Contested Cases and Full Acquittals
94 of the 96 Yokosuka records list the plea: 60 guilty pleas and 34 contested cases. A contested case is one where the accused pleaded not guilty to at least one charge. The contested share was 36%, compared with 31% at Pearl Harbor.
Of the 34 contested Yokosuka cases that reached a verdict, 14 ended in a full acquittal (41%). At Pearl Harbor, 9 of 26 did (35%). Only 1 Yokosuka case (3%) ended in a partial acquittal, meaning not guilty of at least one charge or specification but guilty of another.
Cases charging Article 107 ended in a guilty plea 78% of the time (14 of 18), the most among the top charges. Cases charging Article 120 ended in a guilty plea 23% of the time (7 of 31). The records give no reason for any plea.
| Installation | Cases | Contested | Full acquittals (decided contested) | Median confinement | Punitive discharge (enlisted) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yokosuka, Japan | 96 | 36% | 14 of 34 | 6 months | 65% |
| Pearl Harbor, Hawaii | 83 | 31% | 9 of 26 | 6 months | 75% |
Conviction on Each Top Charge
Article 107 ended in a conviction on that article in 17 of 18 cases (94%), and Article 134, the general article, in 16 of 17 (94%). Article 128 did so in 36 of 45 cases (80%). Article 120 had the lowest share, 21 of 31 (68%).
The median confinement when the conviction included Article 120 was 1.8 years. For Article 134 it was 1.6 years. For Article 128 it was 6 months, and for Article 107 it was 5 months. Since one case can include several of these articles, the rows overlap.
| Article | Cases charging it | Convicted of it (share) | Median confinement when convicted of it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Art. 128 Assault | 45 | 36 (80%) | 6 months |
| Art. 120 Rape and sexual assault | 31 | 21 (68%) | 1.8 years |
| Art. 107 False official statements | 18 | 17 (94%) | 5 months |
| Art. 134 General article | 17 | 16 (94%) | 1.6 years |
Sentence Lengths at the Two Installations
77 of 82 Yokosuka convictions included confinement. The median term was 6 months, the same as at Pearl Harbor. A quarter of the Yokosuka sentences were 2 years or longer.
23 of 82 Yokosuka convictions (28%) carried more than one year, compared with 23% at Pearl Harbor. Sentences under 6 months were 43% of convictions at both installations. Sentences of 5 years or more were 11% at Yokosuka and 12% at Pearl Harbor.
Each figure is the sentence adjudged at trial. It does not reflect a later plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal, and it covers all charges in the case.
| Adjudged confinement | Convictions | Share here | Share, the Pearl Harbor, Hawaii cases |
|---|---|---|---|
| No confinement | 5 | 6% | 9% |
| Under 6 months | 35 | 43% | 43% |
| 6 months to 1 year | 19 | 23% | 24% |
| More than 1 year, under 5 years | 14 | 17% | 11% |
| 5 years or more | 9 | 11% | 12% |
General and Special Courts-Martial
Yokosuka had 46 general and 50 special courts-martial. The general share was 48%, compared with 55% at Pearl Harbor. The general court-martial can impose any lawful sentence, up to long confinement and a dishonorable discharge. The special court-martial is limited to one year of confinement and cannot order a dishonorable discharge.
Confinement was common at both levels. In general courts-martial, 95% of convictions included confinement, with a median of 2 years. In special courts-martial, 93% did, with a median of 4 months.
Rank and Yearly Counts
The Yokosuka accused were 40 junior enlisted members, 53 NCOs, and 3 officers. That rank mix was similar to the Pearl Harbor group.
Yokosuka had 17 cases in 2013, 20 in 2014, 14 in 2015, 11 in 2016, 16 in 2017, and 18 in 2018. The two installations tried a similar number of cases, so the comparison uses shares, not counts.
The Law at the Time and the Gaps in the Data
All of these trials took place before the Military Justice Act of 2016 took effect on January 1, 2019. Its later changes, such as fixed panel sizes and written plea agreements, did not apply.
The trial records leave out the evidence, the plea terms, and conduct handled outside a court-martial. Many Navy and Marine Corps records from before December 2020 omit the plea and forum, and plea counts here rely on the records that include them.
Dates and sources for the law changes mentioned here: UCMJ change timeline.
How We Counted
Every court-martial tried at Yokosuka, Japan (96) and Pearl Harbor, Hawaii (83) with trial dates in 2013–2018. Each figure for Yokosuka, Japan is set beside the same figure for Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
Source: public court-martial records (Article 140a, UCMJ) in Military Trial Results, data updated October 24, 2026. Definitions, sources, and known gaps: how this data was built. Errors: content@bodiesburied.com.
Related Analysis
- Yokosuka, Japan: Court-Martial Data and Trends (hub)
- Pearl Harbor, Hawaii: Court-Martial Data and Trends (hub)
- By Installation (hub)
- Bremerton, Washington vs. Camp Pendleton, California: Two Navy-Marine Corps Installations Side by Side, 2013–2018
- Bremerton, Washington vs. Okinawa, Japan: Two Navy-Marine Corps Installations Side by Side, 2019–2023
- Camp Lejeune, North Carolina and Norfolk, Virginia, 2024–2026: How Their Courts-Martial Compare
- Camp Pendleton, California and San Diego, California, 2024–2026: How Their Courts-Martial Compare
- Comparing Camp Lejeune, North Carolina and Mayport, Florida: Navy-Marine Corps Courts-Martial, 2013–2018
- Comparing Camp Pendleton, California and Camp Lejeune, North Carolina: Navy-Marine Corps Courts-Martial, 2019–2023
- Comparing Norfolk, Virginia and San Diego, California: Navy-Marine Corps Courts-Martial, 2019–2023
- Search every case in Military Trial Results (members)
About the author. Jocelyn C. Stewart is a retired Army JAG with more than 24 years of trying courts-martial and more than 200 jury trials. She hosts Where All The Bodies Are Buried and runs the Law Office of Jocelyn C. Stewart. This analysis is for education and information only. It is not legal advice, and every case is different.