Tokyo ( CNN ) -- A Japanese court Friday sentenced two American servicemen to prison for a rape committed last year while they were on duty at a U.S. military base in Okinawa . The Naha District Court handed down a sentence of 10 years to Navy Seaman Christopher Daniel Browning and nine years to Petty Officer Skyler A Dozierwalker for raping a Japanese woman after attacking her in a parking lot . The rape occurred in October 2012 . At the time , both men were visiting from Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth in Texas . After their arrests , Lt. Gen. Salvatore Angelella , commander of U.S. forces in Japan , put troops at Okinawa 's Kadena Air Base on a curfew and apologized to the victim . The curfew restricts military personnel to the base , a personal home or hotel between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m . The incident has prompted a women 's group in Okinawa to call for more restrictions on what U.S. military personnel can do when they are off-base . Violent crimes , especially rapes , by U.S. troops in Japan have divided the two countries for decades . The issue came to a peak in 1995 when a sailor and two Marines -- both American -- were convicted of raping a 12-year-old girl . Tens of thousands of Okinawans took to the streets at the time , demanding that the United States leave the island south of Japan 's main islands . In that case , the U.S. military at first declined to turn over the suspects to Japanese authorities . But in the most recent case , the suspects were in Japanese custody almost immediately . The alleged attack took place two months after a U.S. Marine was arrested , accused of assaulting and molesting a woman in Naha , the capital of Okinawa . Relations between the U.S. military and Okinawans have already been stressed over the U.S. Marine Corps ' deployment of MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft to a base on the island . Some residents are concerned because the Osprey has had a reputation for crashing . The Okinawan community has long been against the presence of the U.S. military , which has announced that thousands of Marines will be moved to a base in Guam . CNN 's Ben Brumfield contributed to this report .
The rape occurred in a parking lot . Assaults by U.S. servicemen are a hot - button issue in Okinawa . Many in Okinawa object to the presence of the military base .