Catherine Fisher was once just another foreign resident of Tokyo, living out her life in a middle-class neighborhood with her children. But in April 2002, the Australian native made the fateful decision to arrange a meeting with her boyfriend, Jerry, near the U.S. military base in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture.

The story of what happened next is now well known, thanks to Fisher's rare and courageous decision to go public, first as simply "Jane" — her middle name — and later using her full name. In the back of her van, in a Yokosuka car park, U.S. serviceman Bloke Deans raped Fisher, leaving her shocked and bleeding. She managed to make her way to the local police station, where what she calls her second violation began.

Instead of taking her to hospital, the policemen forced her to look for the man who had just raped her. They took her back to the car park to "reenact" the rape and assault for a police photographer, apparently forgetting, she says, that the victim's body is the most crucial part of the crime scene.