True. But the Bronze Age victims were mostly enemy civilians. This is affecting friendly combatants. That is most definitely a sign of the times.

War, and military life in general, bring out the worst in all the participants. Rape committed by American soldiers against civilians was reportedly common in Italy during the war. I spoke to the son of an eyewitness, who remarked that the Germans were highly disciplined and punished severely for this sort of crime (the Italians were their allies, and it was bad public relations), the Americans who replaced them weren't.

I once read a book by a Japanese scholar about Japanese war crimes (particularly sexual atrocities) in China and Korea (the man is not very popular in Japan, as you can imagine). He devoted an entire chapter to rape of civilians by American troops during the post WWII occupation of Japan. He conceded it was not officially sanctioned, but that the American military authorities did little to follow up reports, fully investigate crimes, or to punish the guilty.

These are just individual data points, and reports like this prove nothing in isolation. There is an enormous gulf from the inevitable occasional incident, and widespread practice, and one witness or report proves nothing. But there is no reason to believe Americans are intrinsically any different than anybody else.

My own experience in the Navy did not include rape, but I could plainly see that organized prostitution on a mass scale was going on, and with the support of local authorities. I imagined how it would be like if great foreign naval bases like Subic Bay, Yokosuka, and Sasebo existed in American ports, and it was our girls working in that industry instead. For many foreigners, this is all they know about Americans.

I knew the sex trade was widespread in European US bases as well, like Napoli and Rota, although I never stopped at any of them.

"Hey sailor, You number one. I love you no shit. Buy me dlink."