What impact will Abe's sex slave 'coercion' remarks have? Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has said there is no evidence that women were forced to become sex slaves by the Japanese army during World War II. Historians believe at least 200,000 young women were forced to serve in the Japanese army's brothels during World War II. A large number of the victims - who were known as comfort women - were Korean, but they also included Chinese, Philippine and Indonesian women. Japan has acknowledged that the imperial army set up and ran brothels for its troops during the war, but some Japanese politicians have questioned the extent of the country's wartime atrocities. How will Abe's remarks be received in Asia? Will they damage Japan's relations with its neighbours? Send us your views. Published: Friday, 2 March, 2007, 13:19 GMT 13:19 UK http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thread.jspa?threadID=5711&edition=2&ttl=20070302132025 日本勢は押され気味です。
>Added: Sunday, 4 March, 2007, 12:56 GMT 12:56 UK > >Someone pls help me, I'm confused. >The japanese PM said "There is no evidence that women were forced >to become sex slaves BY THE JAPANESE ARMY" right? >But he did NOT deny the fact that there were women who were forced >to become prostitution(these women were actually paid as I recall). >He did not deny any of Japan's wartime atrocities. >So what's the problem with his remark? > >rox, los angeles
NN: http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/03/03/japan.sexslaves.ap/ Lee Yong-soo, 78, a South Korean who was interviewed during a recent trip to Tokyo, said she was 14 when Japanese soldiers took her from her home in 1944 to work as a sex slave in Taiwan. Lee Yong-soo(78歳韓国)は東京でのインタビューで、 彼女は1944年、14才のとき日本の兵隊に家から連れ出され、台湾で性奴隷として働かされた、 と述べました。
U.S. House of Representatives: Statement of Lee Yong-soo http://www.internationalrelations.house.gov/110/lee021507.htm In the autumn of 1944, when I was 16 years old, my friend, Kim Punsun, and I were collecting shellfish at the riverside when we noticed an elderly man and a Japanese man looking down at us form the hillside...... A few days later, Punsun knocked on my window early in the morning, and whispered to me to follow her quietly. I tip-toed out of the house after her. 1944年の秋、私は16歳で、友達のキムプンスンと私が川のそばでエビを捕っていたとき、 年老いた男と日本人が丘の方から私たちを見てるのに気づきました。…(中略)… 数日後の早朝、プンスンは私の部屋の窓をノックして、静かに私の後についてくるようにとささやきました。 私はこっそりと家を出て、彼女について行きました。
http://www.geocities.com/theaterapo689/ UNITED STATES OFFICE OF WAR INFORMATION Psychological Warfare Team Attached to U.S.Army Forces India-Burma Theator APO 689
Japanese Prisoner of War Interrogation Report No. 49. Place interrogated : Ledo Stookade Date Interrogated : Aug. 20 - Sept. 10, 1944 Date of Report : October 1, 1944 By : T/3 Alex Yorichi Prisoners : 20 Korean Comfort Girls Date of Capture : August 10, 1944 Date of Arrival : August 15, 1994 at Stookade >彼らは贅沢に暮らした、それは彼女らの食事や物質は大量には配給されず、 >彼女らが望む品物を買えるだけの十分なお金を持っていたからである。 >彼女らは服、靴、タバコ、そして化粧品を買え、実家から慰問袋を受け取った多くの軍人から、多くのプレゼントを貰っていた。 > >ビルマに留まっている間は将兵と共に、スポーツイベントに参加したり、ピクニックに出席したり、 >娯楽、社交ディナー等で彼女ら自身楽しんだ。彼女らは蓄音機も持ち、町の中では買い物に行くことも許された。
There is no problem in the remark of the Prime Minister of Japan.
Korean people has insisted that ”to make them to "SEX slave"Japanese army compulsorily prosecuted the woman, and took the resident to the battlefield. this is a lie though korea have insisted.
Even a leftist historian in Japan are to admit thier lie now. They are not the slave but prostitutes in the battlefield.
It is not too mysterious to take the prostitute to the battlefield. Moreover, money was paid enough.(refer the american army@s reports)
Korean people (It was usual also in Europe and America each other) fabricated prostitute's story in the battlefield, and insists, "I was forced to be slave by japan army".
However, though having originally come with the battlefield also had a Japanese trader of course ..Korean people's trader (There is material about this, too)
The thing to sell one's hip from poverty was not unusual in the age. The story that " the army's coming, and having taken the daughter from the farmer by force is lie.
As for japanese person "Yoshida" who only testified that did Korean people woman's "Hunting", the thing that is the fiction is admitted back. The lie of the talk came to light from his army. Korean people still says evidence this Yoshida's testimony. This is because of reporting of South Korea media arbitrary. They intentionally conceal such a thing.
Moreover, comfort woman's Korean people woman's testimony has changed fast since initial. There is no correspondence at all.
The woman of the South Korean who makes remarks in the House of Representatives in the US is also very famous because the testimony changes among researchers.
However, it is a fact for a Dutch event in Singapore. Dutch in Singapore and Indonesia was raped by Japanese army. However, masterminds became capital punishments as for this after the war.
Moreover, there would somewhat have been rape etc. in China. Therefore, it is a prostitute as a preventive plan. However, the comfort woman is a prostitution.
Moreover, the one that concerns Korea, the apology, too and compensation end. For what do they hope any further? When South Korea government concludes agreement with Japan The South Korea government received all celebration money including amends to such an individual.
The South Korea government gives priority to economic development. The thing that came without compensating the individual at all is a problem of South Korea.
The South Korea government seemed to open the fact to the public finally in last year, and to have brushed off money to the comfort woman a little. Till then, it was insisted that the South Korea government and the mass communication compensate Japan. (NOW korean says because it is a problem that has not turned out yet when the agreement is concluded ,japan has to pay more money.
They say that they did not turn out the problem in comparatively 1965 on which it is insisted that it be made to enslave compulsorily by as many as 200,000 people. In addition, money of about 20,000 dollars a person is collected by the contribution in calling of Mrs. Prime Minister in Japan instead of Japanese Government, and help money is paid to comfort womans.
Finally, Half the number of the prostitute in the battlefield who calls, Korean people was "Slave" is Japanese. Moreover, the South Korean gained a lot of children between Vietnamese people in the Vietnam war. This also was prostitution, and had the rape.
However, the South Korean keeps silent about this.
CNN: http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/03/03/japan.sexslaves.ap/ Lee Yong-soo, 78, a South Korean who was interviewed during a recent trip to Tokyo, said she was 14 when Japanese soldiers took her from her home in 1944 to work as a s-ex slave in Taiwan. Lee Yong-soo(78歳韓国)は東京でのインタビューで、 彼女は1944年、14才のとき日本の兵隊に家から連れ出され、台湾で性奴隷として働かされた、 と述べました。
U.S. House of Representatives: Statement of Lee Yong-soo http://www.internationalrelations.house.gov/110/lee021507.htm In the autumn of 1944, when I was 16 years old, my friend, Kim Punsun, and I were collecting shellfish at the riverside when we noticed an elderly man and a Japanese man looking down at us form the hillside...... A few days later, Punsun knocked on my window early in the morning, and whispered to me to follow her quietly. I tip-toed out of the house after her. 1944年の秋、私は16歳で、友達のキムプンスンと私が川のそばでエビを捕っていたとき、 年老いた男と日本人が丘の方から私たちを見てるのに気づきました。…(中略)… 数日後の早朝、プンスンは私の部屋の窓をノックして、静かに私の後についてくるようにとささやきました。 私はこっそりと家を出て、彼女について行きました。
I don’t agree the statement of our prime minister. We have to recognize the facts. We have to listen to testimonies of the women. We must not turn our eyes from documents of Japanese imperial army. That is the only way to build a beautiful state on this island. I believe so.
Nothing. It is pretty well known that those "comfort women" includes many frauds when their quarrels in korea were broadcasted 10 years ago. There might be real one enforced, but unless proofs are shown, no japanese would believe them as so. As for south Korea, it's already on stanpede along with north Korea, and it would show its political morbidity as time goes by, so nothing will change also. I can't understand why US congress went into this.
Abe's comments are thoughtless and it makes the Japan's message inconsistent. What I hope however, is we still maintain fairness to all parties and continue the discussion based on the scientific scrutiny. For example, BBC should at least clarify the references when it states "Historians believe at least 200,000 young women were forced to serve in the Japanese army's brothels during World War II.".
When it comes to the Japanese WWII issues, I have to say even BBC is being biased. It says "Historians believe at least 200,000 young women were forced...", but where is this actually coming from? At least 200,000 young women? What Historians are saying this?
The "comfort women" were prostitutes following the army camp, gathered by pimps or job ad, and properly treated. Moreover, most of them (about 2/3) were Japanese women. (It makes a lot of sense, because patrons were Japanese men.) Recently, Japanese communists trumped-up this story to blame Japanese government. Then, Korean and Chinese followed. Unfortunately, Japanese politicians were entrapped at the time. I think that this issue should be properly characterized in history.
http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thread.jspa?sortBy=1&edition=2&ttl=20070304043509&messageID=2424107? Added: Saturday, 3 March, 2007, 14:54 GMT 14:54 UK Yi Yong-Su testifies she was abducted by a man wearing a "seemingliy military uniform" in 1944 when she was 16 and she was forced to work as a "sex slave" for three years in Taiwan. That is, she was a "sex-slave" between 1944 and 1947. I wonder why those who critisize Prime Minister Abe never cast doubt on her testimony because Japan was defeated in 1945. Can anybody tell me how Japanese Army made her work as a "sex-slave" after Japan's surrender?
どうにも書き込めないので資料だけ。 2007年1月16日発表の米国立公文書館の10万ページに及ぶ戦争関連機密文書の公開及び調査報告 調査目的は日本の戦争犯罪(731部隊、南京事件、慰安婦)立証 http://www.exordio.com/1939-1945/codex/Documentos/report-49-USA-orig.html P69 New OSS Documents Relating to “Comfort Women" There is very little in the new OSS records relating to forced Prostitution, with the exception of a few documents that report the kidnapping of women and girls. These include a translation of 1943 Chinese newspaper describing the Japanese occupation in Singapore that reports Japanese forces had taken for hundred Chinese women. However, one newly released document, a Postwar interrogation report of a Japanese officer in Indochina, contains a brief mention that Japanese soldiers may have threatened local women if they did not agree to become prostitutes for Japanese staff officers. 概訳:売春婦の記録が大部分、インドネシアでの疑わしい報告のみが新発見
http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thread.jspa?sortBy=1&threadID=5711&start=45&tstart=0&edition=2&ttl=20070304150329 "Comfort women problem" is a propaganda made by Asahi Shinbun(Japanese(!) newspaper). It has ended in Japan when Seiji Yoshida ran away from the scene years ago. Today, most Japanese don't believe that. Are they all "revisionists"? Of course not. The book of Newest Reserch by Ikuhiko Hata isn't translated, and the lie still survives. Many Koreans and Taiwaneses were working in Japanese army. And 40% of "comfort women" were Japanese. But medias don't touch them. The answer lies there.
When I was a producer of NHK, the counterpart of BBC in Japan, I covered this issue for two months traveling to South Korea. We tried to find the evidence that Japanese army had forced women into the "war-brothels". But nothing was found. Nobody has ever found such an evidence.
Yes, there were many proof of the wrongdoings of brokers who "bought" women from Korea. But they were PRIVATE agents. Why should Japanese government be responsible for the private business practices?
U.S. House of Representatives: Statement of Lee Yong-soo http://www.internationalrelations.house.gov/110/lee021507.htm In the autumn of 1944, when I was 16 years old, my friend, Kim Punsun, and I were collecting shellfish at the riverside when we noticed an elderly man and a Japanese man looking down at us form the hillside...... A few days later, Punsun knocked on my window early in the morning, and whispered to me to follow her quietly. I tip-toed out of the house after her.
(注1)英BBCの本件に関する掲示板に採用されなかった私の投稿を若干敷衍してニューヨークタイムスの本件に関する掲示板に投稿した下掲がようやく掲載された。 Before arguing, please recognize the basic facts, folks. Japan had a culture of authorized brothels and top class prostitutes were sometimes highly esteemed, up to the period of the WW2. On the other hand, most of the country other than pre WW2 Japan have Victorian aversion, so to say, against these stuff. Japanese Imperial Army followed this Japanese tradition and established brothels around the military bases abroad, and even expected rapes against the natives by their soldiers would be prevented by this measure. Total numbers of such prostitutes are estimated to be between 20,000 and 200,000, of which a research concluded roughly 70% were Japanese, 20% were Korean, 10% were Chinese. These prostitutes were all paid lavishly without discrimination irrespective of the ethnicity of the prostitutes.
When I was a producer of NHK, the counterpart of BBC in Japan, I covered this issue for two months traveling to South Korea. We tried to find the evidence that Japanese army had forced women into the "war-brothels". But nothing was found. Nobody has ever found such an evidence.
Yes, there were many proof of the wrongdoings of brokers who "bought" women from Korea. But they were PRIVATE agents. Why should Japanese government be responsible for the private business practices?
I would like to commend Minako A from London who bravely wrote:
'It is a fact that those comfort women are kidnapped or tricked (they were told that they'd be working in factories) into this sex slavery. Think about those women who spoke out in spite of humiliation and pain and started to fight for it. Shinzo Abe must step down as a prime minister. Let everybody know about this and pressurize Japanese govenment. Imperialism can't come back.'
This is an informed and educated Japanese opinion.
This vacuum allows the right to push the theory that Japan was the main victim of WW2 because of the atomic bombings. There is an unspoken belief that if anything the US needs to apologise to Japan. The right wing here has no intention of giving the average Japanese any other impression.
CNN: http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/03/03/japan.sexslaves.ap/ Lee Yong-soo, 78, a South Korean who was interviewed during a recent trip to Tokyo, said she was 14 when Japanese soldiers took her from her home in 1944 to work as a s-ex slave in Taiwan. Lee Yong-soo(78歳韓国)は東京でのインタビューで、 彼女は1944年、14才のとき日本の兵隊に家から連れ出され、台湾で性奴隷として働かされた、 と述べました。
U.S. House of Representatives: Statement of Lee Yong-soo http://www.internationalrelations.house.gov/110/lee021507.htm In the autumn of 1944, when I was 16 years old, my friend, Kim Punsun, and I were collecting shellfish at the riverside when we noticed an elderly man and a Japanese man looking down at us form the hillside...... A few days later, Punsun knocked on my window early in the morning, and whispered to me to follow her quietly. I tip-toed out of the house after her. 1944年の秋、私は16歳で、友達のキムプンスンと私が川のそばでエビを捕っていたとき、 年老いた男と日本人が丘の方から私たちを見てるのに気づきました。…(中略)… 数日後の早朝、プンスンは私の部屋の窓をノックして、静かに私の後についてくるようにとささやきました。 私はこっそりと家を出て、彼女について行きました。
>>127 他よりマトモだとは思うけど、一番最初のコメントとか 従軍慰安婦が事実だと信じちゃってる気がする・・・。 >At some point the world is going to have to >stop asking for apologies for atrocities commited in the past and move on.
>Mr Honda was joined at a house subcommittee last month by three former "comfort women", >including Lee Yong-soo, who says she was snatched from her home in Korea when she was 15 > and taken to a Japanese military brothel in Taiwan.
In the World War II, 70 % of Japanese soldiers in Korea are actually native Koreans. It was completely impossible for the Japanese soldiers to hunt Korean young ladies and rape them without their permission. Dear Koreans, please understand the big contradiction. If you pursuit the Japanese Soldiers of the World War II for the fake story of the systematic Korean women hunting, it must convict your native Koreans finally.
Rape remained a serious problem. Between January and August there were 4,917 reported cases of rape and 2,281 prosecutions. Many rapes were believed to have gone unreported because of the stigma associated with being raped. The activities of a number of women's groups increased awareness of the importance of reporting and prosecuting rape, as well as of offenses such as sexual harassment in the workplace.
In latest hearing in US, Ms.Lee said "We called him(owner of brothel) Oyaji". J-word "Oyaji" means "Daddy" and is never used by female victims (If you have Japanese friends, ask them). Oh, no.
As I said before, keyperson is Seiji Yoshida, a professional liar. Western countries & S.Korea used "comfort women system",too. Your state has to apologize? Of course not.
You can know details of this political incident at Occidentalism blog or by historian Ikuhiko Hata's "Ianhu To Senjo No Sei".
To Uduak Many evidences, documents were found in Germany case, so you have to change your mind. And testimonies are good evidences if they don't have contradictions.
But what happened was the opposite. Every Koreans in Jeju-do said "There wasn't such brutality like abduction".
Your country defeated Japan, and US army recorded what they heard from comfort women & Koreans in J-army. They said nothing and even some disagreed.
So, medias don't touch them, but many evidences of denial were left by US and Koreans.
NYTのアーカイブ(閲覧は有料) http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F1061EFB38590C7B8CDDA10894DA494D81 --- Japanese Veteran Presses Wartime-Brothel Issue By DAVID E. SANGER, (Special to The New York Times); Foreign Desk Late Edition - Final, Section 1, Page 3, Column 1, 1158 words DISPLAYING ABSTRACT - From his modest house in this distant Tokyo suburb, Seiji Yoshida, now 78 years old and bent by age, has become something of a nightmare for the Japanese Government: a self-described former war criminal eager to confess in front of the television cameras. Again and again in recent months ...
http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/03/05/the-politics-of-apology-for-japans-comfort-women/ The Japanese despite the passage of time are extremely racist,esp.towards fellow Asians like Chinese and Koreans.One does not have to think of the “Rape of Nanking” or the “comfort women” to get an idea of this perverted group who pioneered Kamikaze suicide bombings and have a caste system that keep Borabaru(?) equal in status with the untouchables of India. They have an inferiority complex regarding their height and accent and try to ape Western values. The society is structured to the point of robot-like efficiency and after many visits to Japan, I feel embarrassed by their subservience to Western values. They owe the world big time apologies and need to revamp their values and give up their mistreatment of their own women. - Posted by Sam
もいっちょ The level of racism, denial and lack of accountability demonstrated in the posts above by Japanese men are truly astuonding. Perhaps you should question where you are getting your information - do you deny that Japan has revised the history of Japan’s role during WWII? Does it not occur to you that you should question what you hear from the Japanese government about its role in comfort women? Yamada, read the official documents - Japan was complicit. Please stop trying to be something that you are not - a western civilized culture. The rest of Asia knows you for what you really were - barbarians who were far behind civilized China and civilized Korea until you got guns from the western world while China and Korea ignored the westerners because they wanted to preserve their culture. Your barbarism was demonstrated during WWII. Judging by your reaction today, it has not changed. - Posted by HHC
When we talk about this issue, we have to read historian Ikuhiko Hata's "Ianfu to senjo no sei (Comfort Women and Sexuality in Battle Fields, 1999)" or "Showashi no Nazo o Ou#2(Purchase the Mysteries in Showa Era, 1993)" (I think it's negligence of us, but they aren't translated. Japanese in this thread mainly uses reserches in these). Because these are the only books written about details of professional liar, Seiji Yoshida.
Seiji Yoshida. This political issue started from his book. Asahi Shinbun(Japanese newspaper) pushed it strongly. Then, every foreign medias followed.
But Korean themselves disagreed with his story in 1989,1992, and Yoshida admitted completely that he was telling lies in 1998.
Can anybody remember the non-Japanese media wrote about his lies?...Yes. No medias did. And they continues to use his even today.(PM Abe also said his name that day, but most medias didn't touch it)
However, there is a smart paper which wrote Yoshida's Story and Hata's blame together before 1998. Nice ballance. It's NYT. In 1992, Tokyo bureau chief interviewed Yoshida. http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F1061EFB38590C7B8CDDA10894DA494D81 (Asahi is an affiliated company of NYT, and the bureau is in Asahi building)
The origin turned out to be a lie now, why NYT doesn't mention that? (Or already mentioned? Serch result of "Seiji Yoshida" was only this) That's a mystery.
Now you come to realize. This is not an issue of right or left. This is an issue of fact or non-fact. We have to wait until NYT makes a summary of "Ianfu to senjo no sei" and writes about Yoshida. And then, we'll be able to start the argument properly. NYT, please show me your soul of journalism again. Please.
We have to read historian Ikuhiko Hata's "Ianfu to senjo no sei (Comfort Women and Sexuality in Battle Fields 1999)". Because this is the only academic book that mentioned the lies of Seiji Yoshida.
And we can know the facts below.
1) This issue started from Yoshida's book. 2) Koreans in Jeju-do island disagreed with his story in 1989,1992. 3) Yoshida admitted he lied in 1998. 4) Many non-Japanese media wrote his story, but not corrected it yet. 5) NYT used his story in 1992, but not corrected it yet. http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F1061EFB38590C7B8CDDA10894DA494D81 6) PM Abe also said Yoshida's name that day, but every media didn't touched, explained about him.
Then, I have to say this also, PM Abe and we Japanese don't deny the brutality during WW2. We just refuse to accept incorrectness.