Sakai, a housewife who was collecting spent shell casings at a military base to sell for scrap, was killed when Girard shot an empty grenade cartridge at her, apparently for his own amusement.
Sakai's death caused outrage from the Japanese public and the incident led to disputes between Japan and the U.S. Army over jurisdiction, resulting in the U.S. Supreme Court case Wilson v. Girard.
On January 30, 1957, Naka Sakai, a 46-year-old Japanese housewife and mother of six, entered Sōmagahara Air Base in Soma, Gunma Prefecture, for the purpose of collecting spent shell casings to sell as scrap metal.
[3] 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".
[2] The massive popular outcry in Japan over the Girard incident led directly to the Eisenhower administration announcing a 40 percent draw down in the number of U.S. troops stationed on Japanese soil, significantly easing tensions between the two nations and reducing local conflicts over military bases.