Monday, April 30, 2007

Comfort women/Testimony/Yong-su/

A japanese blogger asks why she changed her testimony again? What does it mean?
“When I resisted the rape by Japanese soldiers, my legs were severely damaged. Though my legs were bleeding, I didn’t feel the pain and begged them to let me live. But the Japanese soldiers tortured me with electric shocks. I can still remember calling out for my mother in fear." In a classroom of Harvard UniversityChosun ilbo/ Apr.30,2007


The man who had accompanied us from Taegu turned out to be the proprietor of the comfort station we were taken to. We called him Oyaji. I was the youngest amongst us. Punsun was a year older than me and the others were 18, 19 and 20. The proprietor told me to go into a certain room, but I refused. He dragged me by my hair to another room. There I was tortured with electric shocks. He was very cruel. He pulled out the telephone cord and tied my wrists and ankles with it. Then, shouting ‘konoyaro!’ he twirled the telephone receiver. Lights flashed before my eyes, and my body shook all over. I couldn’t stand it and begged him to stop. I said I would do anything he asked. But he turned the receiver once more. I blacked out. When I came round my body was wet; I think that he had probably poured water on me.Hearing on

Protecting the Human Rights of Comfort Women

Thursday, February 15, 2007

The person who tortured her with elect shocks has changed from a proprietor of the comfort station to a soldier. Hmmm. so did both soldier and the propietor tortued with electric shocks? Or Was Oyaji, the propriator, the soldier?

The blogger said she did it again. What does it mean?
It seems she is notroious for changing the content of testimony.
Here is the list.(The testimonies were made to the groups that support her.)

The year of testimony...the age she was recruited....the year she was recruied.....the length of the year she worked as a comfort woman......the people who recruited her.

1992...1944....16yeas
old....?.....a private broker.(case #8 "The Japanese beckoned to us to follow him....He looked as if he was in his late thirties and he wore a sort of People's Army uniform with a combat cap.He handed me a bundle and old me I would find a dress and a pair of leather shoes in it.
People's army uniform with a combat cap is kokuminfuku(national uniform) for male citizens.---zero)



2002 /june?......?......14 years old......the man recruited her at the point of a bayonet

2004/december
....1944.....3 years.....16years old....the man who looked like a soldier

2005/april1944.....16 Korean years old/14or15 Japanese years old... 10months(until the end of the war).a woman and soldier recruited her by force...the solder blocked her mouth(no mention of .a bayonet

2006/Oct...?....3years.....16years
old....a soldier abducted her.

2007/Feb
...1944....? ......15 years old.....a solder threaten her to come with him

2007/feb
1944....?......16years old....she followed the man who wore a sort of People’s Army uniform with a combat cap

2007/march 1944.....?.....14 years old.....a soldier took her from her house




The age she was recruited has changed but it might be due to the difference of counting system.

But what is notable is that she said she worked for 3 years since she was recruited in 1944.That means she worked as a comfort woman after the liberation. But she changed her testimony in 2005. Then again she said she worked as a comfort woman for three years in 2006. But for some reason In 2007 US hearing, she said she was released at the end of War and teturned home.

And the person who recruited her and the way she was recruited has changed from time to time.
イ・ヨンス

See also how was it parents sold their daughter
................................................................


toron

Sunday, April 29, 2007

Topics of my interest

I often talk about politics and history, but that is not my speciality. My true interest is the sites like Essays on Modern Buddhism, Philosophy and Science, hegel netand The Dooyeweerd Pages dialectical materialismetc.

Saturday, April 28, 2007

Abe-Bush press conference

An excellent analysis of Abe's policy and journalismEyes wide shut: The media and the Abe-Bush press conferenceAMPONTAN
Maybe Abe is not as bad as I thought?

Friday, April 27, 2007

Abe's apology to comfort women

Q A question on the wartime comfort women issue. Mr. Prime Minister, on this issue, did you explain your thoughts to President Bush, and on this matter, did you talk about further factual investigations on the matter, and any intent to apologize on the issue?


Also, a question for Mr. President on the comfort women issue. From the perspective of human rights and Asian history perceptions, I wonder if you could express your thoughts or views.

PRIME MINISTER ABE: Well, in my meeting with the congressional representatives yesterday, I explained my thoughts, and that is I do have deep-hearted sympathies that my people had to serve as comfort women, were placed in extreme hardships, and had to suffer that sacrifice; and that I, as Prime Minister of Japan, expressed my apologizes, and also expressed my apologizes for the fact that they were placed in that sort of circumstance.

The 20th century was a century that human rights were violated in many parts of the world. So we have to make the 21st century a century -- a wonderful century in which no human rights are violated. And I, myself, and Japan wish to make significant contributions to that end. And so I explained these thoughts to the President.

PRESIDENT BUSH: The comfort women issue is a regrettable chapter in the history of the world, and I accept the Prime Minister's apology. I thought it was very -- I thought his statements -- Kono's statement, as well as statements here in the United States were very straightforward and from his heart. And I'm looking forward to working with this man to lead our nations forward. And that's what we spent time discussing today. President Bush and Prime Minister Abe of Japan Participate in a Joint Press Availability
Camp David

Thursday, April 26, 2007

Among the Dead Cities

We scorched and boiled and baked to death more people in Tokyo on that night of march 9-10 than went up in vapour in Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined.

Killing Japanese didn't bother me very much at the time......I suppose if I had lost the war, I would have been tried as a war criminal....every soldier thinks something of the moral aspect of what he is doing. But all war is immoral and if you let bother that you, you're not a good soldier.

Genreral Curis LeMay [page 171 Among the Dead Cities notes ;Curtis LeMay, Mission with LeMay:My story, New York 1965, p. 387] 

The author of "Among the Dead Cities" examines if Allied bombing (otherwise called carpet bombing, saturation bombing, obliteration bombing and mass bombing) is a crime.

Here it is important to note that
Nothing in this book should be taken as any form of revisionist apology for Nazism and its frightful atrocities, or Japanese militarism and its aggression.....A mature perspective on the Second World War should by now enable us to distinguish between these two quite different points.


What is crucial is if it was necessary and proportional.

The author's answer is no, examining the case of Operation Gomorrah as the principal example where the war was by no means securely won.
And he argues if Operation Gomorrah was unnecessary and disproportional, . then the attacks on Dresden, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki, the firebombing of Tokyo and other cities are much more so when the war was effectively over.

As for "collateral damage", it is sometimes argued that
no wrong is committed by the belligerent if the harm he does to innocents is an unavoidable ancillary to military operations----even if such harm can be foreseen

Just as by increasing morphine doses to control the pain of terminal ill patients, thereby shorten the lives of those patient, only the former is intended and since it is good and legitimate goal, the second effect, though foreseen , is not wrong. However,
The principle of double effect is controversial....if someone sought to cure another person's toothache by cutting off his head, the second effect ... is out of proportion to achieving the intended effect....page 216

As for the inevitable involvement of civilians with the front line,
if any civilians are involved in working to support the military effort the military efforts of their country, it is because they are specifically the workers and technicians in the industries crucial to the military effort, they and they alone are certain to be a legitimate targets for attack therefore; and they are certain to be a minority of the civilian population of a whole(page 250)


As for the question what the Allies should have done instead.
Bomber Command should have continued its effort at precision bombing and devoted its energies to making this tactic safer for its bomber and more effective.


There are other interesting discussions, but as I understand the book, the above are the essentials of his argument.

.................................................................................

How the leader viewed Japan at the time, see the journal of Stimson below.
4 I told him I was busy considering our conduct of the war, against Japan and I told him how I was trying to hold the Air Force down to to precision bombing but that with the Japanese method of scattering its manufacture it was rather difficult to prevent the area bombing. I told him I was anxious about this feature of the war for two reason ;first , I didn't want to have the United States get the reputation in outdoing Hitler in atrocities. Second, I was little fearful we could get ready the air force might have Japan so thoroughly bombed out that a new weapon would not have a fair background to show its strength . He laughed and said he understood.Memorandum of Conference with the President, June 6, 1945, Top Secret
Source: Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library, Henry Lewis Stimson Papers (microfilm at Library of Congress)

Stimson

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Ototake



Hirotada Ototake(C), a best-selling author known for his book "No One's Perfect," speaks with school children after he was appointed full-time teacher at a Tokyo elementary school, 05 April 2007. Ototake is taking on a new challenge by becoming a schoolteacher in a bid to teach the next generation to accept differences in a society that has traditionally frowned on individuality.(AFP/File/Yoshikazu Tsuno)link

A good news, I am a fan of Ototake.

Tibet and Olympic

BEIJING -- Three Americans and a Tibetan-American were detained on Mount Everest on Wednesday as they called for independence for Tibet and protested against the Beijing Olympics, an activist group said.link


China has been keeping a low profile with regard to Japan. China was relatively silent about the issue of comfort women and for some reason, it seems China is trying to calm down anti-Japan sentiment.
Japan admits killing of civilians in Nanjing massacre/(Xinhua)link

It is long time ago that Japan admitted Japanese troop committed atrocity in Nanjing; it is only that China didn't let it known among Chinese people.

On the other hand, Onishi is still busy propagating his agenda.
Japanese fund to aid former sex slaves is denouncedlink


Politically, Japan has been taking ad hoc measures to handle these international issues, but there is nothing hard dealing with these issues.
Japan should speak out that she stands by human right, whatever nationality is involved.
As for Tibet, Japan should advocate she is against oppressing Tibetan people.
As for Nanjing, Japan just should declare that it was horrible massacre, and learning
from it, Japan is determined to respect human right in any situation.
As for comfort women, Japan should speak out that she is against any human trafficking and exploitation of women in any country. Japan might concede that Japanese dealing with the issue might not be sufficient, but then she can point out it is better than none and Korean and Chinese have been deteriorating women's situation, e.g. North Korean women in China.

Why can't Japanese government do that?

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Military related news

Japan wants the fighters US refused to sell Canberralink

Japan, U.S. hold joint Raptor drills this weeklink

It might be that the U.S. will not sell Raptor to Japan.
Some say nuclear weapon is much cheaper, but you have to assure the US first that the U.S. will take hegemony in Asia even if Japan develops a nuclear weapon.
Japanese military officials will visit Germany and examine Bundeswehr military equipment, such as the Eurofighter jet, choppers and submarines, the news magazine said.link

Anything will do. Buy Eurofighter if it works.

Tuesday April 24, 2:59 PM
2 Kitty Hawk crewmen convicted of robbery in Kanagawa
(Kyodo) _ Two crewmen from the U.S. aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk were given suspended terms Tuesday for skipping out on a restaurant bill and beating the restaurant manager who chased them down in Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, last December.

The Yokohama District Court sentenced both Seaman Apprentice Brian Burgess, 21, and Petty Officer 3rd Class Casey Turner, 24, of the U.S. flattop based in Yokosuka, also in Kanagawa, to three years in prison, suspended for five years.

"They drank too much despite being supervised by the military to maintain discipline. The crime in which servicemen on active duty used physical force against an ordinary citizen is vicious," Presiding Judge Kenichi Kurita said in handing down the ruling.

The two drank alcohol in the Kamakura restaurant on the night of last Dec. 10, left without paying a bill of about 24,000 yen, and hit the restaurant's 41-year-old manager in the face and other body parts, seriously injuring him, after he chased them down.

link

Just pay a bill,

Monday, April 23, 2007

Comfort women during Vietnam war for Korean soldiers.

Scientists seek sex slavery evidence in Vietnam war
I am not sure how the scientists came up with, but there are other things that Korean people must face----There are people called "laitaihan" who were born between Koreans and local Vietnamese wifes;Koreans left them after the Vietnam War. It is estimated that there are at least 5000 or 30000 at most. They have been despised and they have been poor. Korean government has done nothing to help them.*1
Pusan newspaper






*1
1964年から 1975年までベトナム戦争に参加した韓国軍人たちと民間人たちは皆約 40万人に推算される.軽蔑的な '混血雑種'を意味する 'ライ'と戦争当時ベトナムで韓国に対する名称で通じた 'タイした'の合成語である 'ライタイした'は凡そ '韓国係混血児'に翻訳されることができる.

'ライタイした' 問題は韓国人たちがベトナム戦争期間そして特に 1975年ベトナムの公算化後ベトナム '妻'とお子さんたちを捨てて無責任に韓国で帰国したことで始まる.ここにベトナムに対する韓国政府の無関心が加勢する.それに比べてアメリカ人たちとア メリカ政府はいろいろな手段を動員して彼らのベトナム '家族'をアメリカに連れて来るために努力した.

今日ライタイハンは最小 5千人で多くは 3万人に推算される.現在 30~40歳の間の年令層に属している彼らは去る 30年間ベトナム社会で '敵軍の子'で弾き出すことを受けながら暮して来た.やもめと共に貧しく暮しながらまともに教育受けることができなかった彼らはたいてい大変な労動が要求 されるとか蔑視受ける職業に携わって来た
.

ライタハンルーツ探し
wiki

Is Korean demand for apology sincere?

See, Korean demand for apology is insincere.

via Anpontan
Here’s an interesting article about Murayama’s apology that appeared in the International Herald Tribune at the time:
Japan’s apology to its World War II victims Tuesday was generally well received by Asian leaders, but many veterans dismissed it as inadequate and insincere.

And:

President Kim Young Sam of South Korea…said he hoped that Korea and Japan could put the past behind them. The South Korean Foreign Ministry, however, urged Japan to make “more positive efforts” to examine its history.


If Murayama's kowtowing was insincere and insufficient, then nothing is.

Saturday, April 21, 2007

The issue of Utro village

There are pros and cons about Utro village, some says it is a legacy of Japanese colonialism, others say that it is an internal problems of zainichi Koreans.
Here are articles that discuss the issue in favor of Utro villagers.
Ethnic Koreans in Japan's Utoro village wait for Seoul's help/hankyore
Kyoto's Korea Town Fights for Survival
What's UTORO ? /NEW YORK TIMES -1993.3.1

I have found the records of judgement at the local court, appellate court, and supreme court on the site that supports Utro villagers.

京都地裁(1998.7.17)魚拓
大阪高裁
最高裁

Reading them, I think there are several important facts that are missing in the articles above that support Utro villagers. And as is often the case, there are serious distortions.



The summary of the facts
Japanese government decided to build a military airport, the local Kyoto government designed the airport and executed the plan and civilian construction companies worked as subcontractors. Many Koreans worked there, their families living in bunkhouse huts. On the whole it is not known how those Koreans came there. There are many Koreans who moved there after the war.
(One defendant was engaged in the construction trade, and moved to Utro, another was working as a building constructor after graduating from junior high school at Kobe, and moved to Utro.*2)
The landowner was Japan aviation industry Co., Ltd.
The plan was abolished because the war ended, Korean workers has kept on living there, reforming huts or constructing new houses.*1
Japan aviation industry Co., Ltd was merged into Nissan factory.

Nissan factory was planning to evict the residents but realizing it was difficult, counseling Uji city, it offered the sale of the land to Kyo(許昌九) a mayor of Utoro Residents' Association. Kyo consulted Kou(河炳旭)*3,the directer of Kyoto Korean Residents Association in Japan for insufficient funds, and Kou set up the company and the company financed Kyo, and registered the land by the contract that Kyo sold the land to Kou.*4

The residents at the time agreed once that they would proceed with the contract.*5


Judgment; The defendant should evict the land to the plaintiff.*6

(The plaintiff is the company Kou set up;western Japan production Ltd.有限会社西日本殖産)

........... .......................... ......... ................
Some argue that since Koreans could have returned to Korea,(there were ships coming from Korea with Japanese returnees on them, so most of Koreans returned by the ships ), and since they could have naturalized,(many naturalized) , but they didn't ,and other ethnic Koreans and zainich Koreans own/rent the land/house legally there is no need to help those Koreans.
In view of law, they are illegal occupants, but I for one think there is nothing wrong with helping the villagers of Utro.
However don't distort the facts to use Koreans -as-victims- tactics. Utro people and those who help them should realize that the very tactics they are using is the one many Japanese are getting sick and tired of. More than that, as some ethnic Koreans in Japan say, it may be that it is damaging Korean dignity.
...................................................................................


*1

「ウトロ地区」の沿革 以下の事実は、争いがない事実の他、文中に記載の証拠及び弁論の全主旨により認定できる。

昭和一三年末、通信省が全国各地に飛行場と航空乗員養成所を建設する構想を発表した。昭和一四年、その構想の具体化として、国際工業株式会社(昭和一六年、日本航空工業株式会社と合併して、日本國際航空工業株式会社になった。)が設立され、京都府内においては、当時の久世郡佐山・御牧両村近辺が「京都飛行場」の用地と定められ、通信相航空局飛行場(三〇万坪)、同乗員養成所(二万坪)、國際工業飛行場(二二万九〇〇〇坪)、同予備地(二万2000坪)、同工場(四〇万坪)の各施設の建設が計画された。これらの施設の設計・施工は京都府が請け負い、大倉土木等の建設会社が下請として工事を請け負った。右工事には多数の朝鮮人労働者が従事したが、これらの者とその家族はウトロ地区の飯場小屋に住居していた。京都飛行場の建設に従事した朝鮮人がどのような経緯で渡航してきたのかについては、全体として明らかではない。
ウトロ地区の土地所有権は、昭和一五年六月二九日に北川半兵衛から日本國際航空工業株式会社に譲渡された(乙一)。
昭和二〇年の終戦に伴い、右計画は廃止され、右朝鮮人労働者は、引き続きウトロ地区に居住し、飯場小屋を改修したり、家屋を新築したりして現在に至っている。また、戦後、他から移り住んできた韓国・朝鮮人も多数存する。現在、同地区には、約八〇世帯、約四〇〇人の韓国・朝鮮人が居住し、民族学校や自治会が組織されている。
日本國際航空工業株式会社は、昭和二一年二月二七日、日國工業株式会社(以下「日国工業」という。)に商号変更され、昭和三七年八月一日、日産車体工機株式会社(「日産車体工機」という。)に吸収合併された。同社は、昭和四六年六月一日、日産車体株式会社(以下「日産車体」という。)に商号変更された(乙一)。

*2

前記1(九)及び(一〇)の認定事実のとおり、被告(中略 青ひょん)は、大正六年一二月九日、大韓民国慶尚南道で出生し、昭和初期に来日し、建築業を営んでいたが、昭和三七年六月ころからウトロ地区に転居したものであり、被告(中略 青ひょん)は、昭和二一年二月一〇日、香川県で出生し、神戸市内の中学校を卒業後、建築関係の仕事をし、昭和五一年六月三〇日にウトロ地区に転居したものであるから、右被告らに対し登記簿謄本の調査等による権利関係の確認を求めることが酷であるといえるような特段の事情は認められない。

被告鄭○○の父鄭○○は、その来日の時期や理由は不明であるが、昭和二五年六月一日、本件一1(三)土地上のバラックをペ某から譲り受けて、居住し、昭和三七年三月三一日、本件一1(一)土地上にあるバラックを広瀬某から譲り受けて、そこに転居し


*3
河炳旭

*4

その後、許昌九は、河炳旭に対し、右手付金相当額の融資を依頼して、昭和六二年二月から三月にかけて五〇〇〇万円の融資を受け、さらに、「日産車体に残代金を支払い、土地を買い取ったうえで、住民に分譲したいけれども、残代金の資金を集められない。」と言って、残代金の融資方を相談した。そこで、河炳旭は、信用組合大阪商銀(以下「大阪商銀」という。)と交渉したところ、(1)貸付先として法人を設立すること、(2)河炳旭が連帯保証することを条件に融資の承諾を得た。
右条件を受けて、河炳旭は、許昌九と相談のうえ、資本金一〇〇万円を出資して、昭和六二年四月三〇日に原告を設立し、河炳旭の養父である吉田重光が代表取締役に就任した(昭和六三年九月一四日に辞任。)
そして、許昌九は、原告との間で、昭和六二年五月九日、ウトロ地区の土地を代金四億四五〇〇万円で売り渡す旨の契約を締結した(甲六)。
大阪商銀は、原告に対し、ウトロ地区の土地に極度額五億円とする根抵当権を設定した。日産車体は、原告から残代金を受領し、許昌九の指示に基づき、中間省略により原告に対する土地所有権移転登記手続を行った(甲一)。
以上の事実によれば、原告は、許昌九から売買によりウトロ地区の土地の所有権を取得したことが認められ、これを覆すに足りる証拠はない


*5
このまま土地を買いましょうと話が一致して交渉や手続をするため左の様に代表者も選出しました。会社では特にご詮議の上私たちに売って下さる様おはからい下さいます様要請いたします。」と記載されており、ウトロ住民が当時の日産車体工機から土地を買い取ることによって土地問題を解決しようとしていたことは明らかである。このように、ウトロ地区の土地の所有権者が日国工業ないし日産車体工機であることは、ウトロ住民の共通認識であったと認められるべきであり、しかも、住民の代表者が土地の売却を要望するなど、自己が所有者であることと矛盾する行動に出たものということができる


*6
被告鄭○○は、原告に対し、別紙物件目録○○記載の建物を収去して、同目録○○記載の土地を明け渡せ。


................................................................................

[ウトロってなに?
ウトロ問題 朝鮮人同士の土地争いも日本の責任

◆住民たちはどのようにしてウトロへ来たのか

 ウトロを強制徴用と関係付ける見方が多い。日本政府による徴用令により1941年から始まった韓国人強制労働の犠牲者、またはその子孫だというのだ。ウトロ地区の形成は、戦時中に軍の飛行場建設労働者たちが不毛の地だったこの地域に仮住まいを始めたことがきっかけだった。飛行場の建設が始まったのは1941年。こうして強制徴用とウトロを関連付ける先入観が生じた。

 しかし、この地で働いていた韓国人労働者1300人は、当時の徴用令により連れて来られたわけではない。ウトロ国際対策会議ホームページには「いくつかの誤解について明らかにする。(ウトロ地区の韓国人労働者たちは)銃剣による直接の武力により移住したわけではなかったとしても、故郷で生活ができなくなった植民地の国民が、経済的問題などさまざまな理由により、自らの思いとは関係なく植民地宗主国へと移住したケース」と説明している。

東京=鮮于鉦(ソンウ・ジョン)特派員記事入力 : 2007/09/21

韓国の国務総理傘下「日帝強占下での強制動員被害者の真相究明委員会」も昨年末の報告書で、「強制徴用者ではなく、日本に居住していた朝鮮人がほとんど」と明らかにした。1930年代末、さまざまな理由で植民地朝鮮の経済的貧困を避けるために日本に渡った人たちだったということだ。

◆ウトロ地区問題はなぜ起こったのか

 ウトロ地区が国有地だったなら早期に解決していたという意見もある。国有地ならば、どのような形であれ長期間居住していれば住民に居住権を認めるケースが多かったからだ。しかし、ウトロは名目上軍の飛行場建設を引き受けた日本国際航空工業(国営企業)の所有地だった。戦後に軍の飛行場建設が中断した後も、ウトロ地区は企業所有のままだった。

 その後ウトロ地区は多くの曲折を経た。戦後、軍需企業からバスやトラックを製造する自動車会社へと変わった日本国際航空工業は1962年に日産車体と合併し、ウトロ地区も日産の所有となった。日産車体は、韓国でも自動車を販売している日産自動車系列だ。

 その後、ウトロ地区は個人所有を経て1987年、西日本殖産という不動産会社に転売され今日に至っている。現在、ウトロ地区の住民と土地売却交渉を行っているのは西日本殖産だ。

 しかし、この過程で恥ずべきことが起こった。日産車体からウトロ地区の土地を買い取って西日本殖産に転売した個人とは、ウトロに住む在日韓国人、 A氏だったのだ。売却金は3億円。A氏に資金を融資したのも在日韓国人団体である在日本大韓民国民団(民団)」の幹部B氏であり、そのB氏がウトロ地区を買い取るために急きょ設立したのが西日本殖産だった。A氏は日産からウトロ地区の土地を買い入れた直後、「土地を4億円で買い取った」と主張し、西日本殖産(B氏)から4億4500万円を受け取り転売した。このように同胞をだまして巨額を手にしたA氏は夜逃げし、B氏もまた西日本殖産を1988年に日本の企業に売却、ウトロから手を引いた。当時B氏がいくらで西日本殖産(ウトロ地区)を売ったのかは明らかではない。

東京=鮮于鉦(ソンウ・ジョン)特派員

Abe expressed apology .concerning comfort women

"We are responsible for situations in which they had to serve as comfort women," Abe said. He also said that as human being, he felt pity for them from the bottom of his heart. "As a prime minister, I feel truly sorry for them."

Abe said his past remarks to the effect that the Japanese military didn't force women to become sex slaves is in line with the Japanese government's official view. But he also said that his Cabinet stood by the 1993 statement by then-Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono, which admitted the Japanese military's involvement in the issue and expressed an apology.April 21, 2007/maihichi


And an interesting analysis of it.Rok drop

And for a critical account of Abe, see 机の上の空 大沼安史の個人新聞

................................................................................

4月21日15時1分配信 時事通信

 安倍晋三首相は26日からの初訪米を控え、米ニューズウィーク誌とウォール・ストリート・ジャーナル紙のインタビューに応じた。首相は従軍慰安婦問題について「当時の慰安婦の方々に心から同情するし、日本の首相として大変申し訳ない」と改めて謝罪。「歴史に常に謙虚でなければならない。慰安婦として存在しなければならなかった状況について、われわれは責任があると考えている」と述べ、軍の関与を含め日本側に責任があるとの認識を表明した。
 首相はこれまで、慰安婦問題を謝罪した1993年の河野洋平官房長官談話を政権として継承する立場を繰り返し強調。今年3月には元慰安婦へのおわびも表明したが、日本の「責任」を明言したのは初めて。人権問題に敏感な米国で「狭義の強制性」を否定した首相らの言動が反発を招いたことから、訪米を前に沈静化を図る狙いがある。jiji


首相「慰安婦問題は人権侵害」、責任認め改めて米誌で謝罪

4月21日14時0分配信 読売新聞
 安倍首相は、26日からの訪米に先立ち米ニューズウィーク誌のインタビューに応じ、いわゆる従軍慰安婦問題について「慰安婦の方々に人間として心から同情する。日本の首相として大変申し訳ないと思っている」と改めて謝罪した。

 さらに、「20世紀は人権が世界各地で侵害された世紀で、日本にもその責任があり、例外ではない」と述べ、慰安婦問題を人権問題と位置づけ、日本の責任を明確に認めた。

 また、「我々は歴史に常に謙虚でなければならない。彼女たちが慰安婦として存在しなければならなかった状況に我々は責任がある」と語ったうえ、1993年の河野洋平官房長官談話を継承する考えを重ねて表明した。訪米を前に、米メディアの批判の鎮静化を図ったものだ。



最終更新:4月21日14時0分yomiuri



<安倍首相>従軍慰安婦で日本の責任認める 米メディアに

4月21日13時13分配信 毎日新聞
 安倍晋三首相は、今月末の訪米を前に米国メディアの取材に応じ、いわゆる従軍慰安婦問題について「人間として心から同情する。首相として大変申し訳なく思っている」と改めて陳謝したうえで「彼女たちが慰安婦として存在しなければならなかった状況につき、我々は責任がある」と述べ、日本側に責任があるとの認識を示した。
 米誌ニューズウィークと米紙ウォールストリート・ジャーナルの取材に首相官邸で17日、それぞれ答えた。慰安婦問題については首相の「(旧日本軍による)狭義の強制性を裏付けるものはなかった」との発言に米国内から批判が出ており、首相は今月3日のブッシュ大統領との電話協議でも見解を説明、先月の国会答弁で「同情とおわび」に言及するなどしていた。今回の発言は日本側の「責任」も指摘することで、沈静化を図ったものとみられる。
 一方で首相は強制性をめぐる過去の自身の発言について「私が初めて述べたものでなく、これまでの政府の見解を述べた」と説明。「ここで事実関係を述べるのはあまり意味がない」としたうえで、「(軍の関与を認め謝罪した93年の)河野洋平官房長官談話を私の内閣では継承している」と改めて強調した。
 また、首相は憲法改正に関し「21世紀にふさわしい自分たちの国のかたちを物語る憲法を自身の手で書くことが大事だ」と強調。日米同盟の強化について「法的整備をしなければならない。憲法の関係についても集団的自衛権行使の研究をしなければならない」と述べた。【小山由宇】
 ◇米メディアに対する安倍首相の発言の要旨は次の通り。
◆従軍慰安婦問題◆
 慰安婦の方々に人間として心から同情する。そういう状況に置かれたことに、日本の首相として大変申し訳なく思う。(軍による狭義の強制性はないとした過去の発言は)私が初めて述べたのでなく、今までの政府見解だ。ここで事実関係を述べることにあまり意味がない。彼女たちが慰安婦として存在しなければならなかった状況に、我々は責任がある。非常に苦しい思いをしたことに責任を感じている。河野洋平官房長官談話を私の内閣は継承している。
◆拉致、北朝鮮核開発問題◆
 拉致問題が解決しなければ、日朝国交正常化はなく、北朝鮮は未来をつくることができない。訪米の際、今後の北朝鮮政策について(ブッシュ大統領と)突っ込んだ話をしたい。
◆憲法、日米同盟◆
 時代に合わない条項があり、プライバシーや環境といった盛り込まないといけない新しい価値観もある。21世紀にふさわしい自分たちの国の形を物語る憲法を自身の手で書くことが大事だ。その精神が大事だ。日米同盟をより強化する必要がある。そのため、法的整備をしなければならない。憲法との関係でも、いわゆる集団的自衛権行使の研究をしなければならない。mainich

Friday, April 20, 2007

Projection

Projection
In psychology, psychological projection (or projection bias) is a defense mechanism in which one attributes ("projects") to others, one’s own unacceptable or unwanted thoughts or/and emotions

I want to use the word more widely in a sense someone i s projecting when s/he attributes to others his/her own thoughts or/and emotions.

A Korean author writes, citing Armitage . report,

....
A new Asia is emerging......
this landscape may cause the U.S. to fear or at least engender a sense of American isolation in the Asian economy.(7) This also possibly means that America's political influence in Asia may gradually wane in times to come. In light of this situation, Japan's role in their alliance should come to the fore and occupy a more critical position than it presently does in America's economic and foreign policy toward Asia.
....., its effort could be undermined by a significant outside factor. The new challenge to the U.S. now seems to be its closest partner in Asia, Japan. Specifically, the problem is Japanese nationalism, which has been provoking China and South Korea. South Korea is one the U.S.'s traditional Asian allies. Japan is being intransigent on sensitive issues such as history text books, wartime sex slavery, Yasukuni shrine visits, and territorial disputes.


Japanese Nationalism and U.S. Foreign Policy


I wonder whose natinoalism is affecting the regional stability. Chinese nationalism is still strong, but wisely enough the head of China has controlled it. Granting that there is a rise in Japanese nationalism, there is also counter movements against it in Japan. But Korean ultra-natinoalism is getting out of control.
Besides, read Armitage report carefully, Armitage is worried about---and I am also worried about---the impact of the unification of Korea:not because Korea will be a stronger country that will threaten the region as some Korean people fancy, but because it might cause a great instability. I would say there will be a good possibility that South Korea will not be able to stand it.
I think the author is just projecting Korean situation onto Japan.


Come to think of it, I think Korean people are also projecting in case of VT incident.
Rokdrop
Marmot

Korea may be a mirror for Japan.In this sense Korea has
something we can learn from .Let's learn from Korea.

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Koreans and Japanese after the liberation

The followings are some excerpts from Under the Black Umbrella This part is of interest because it is the part that is directly related to the debate about So Far from the Bamboo Grove . See “
“Advancing Soviet Soldiers, Fleeing Japaneseby occidental-ism.
It is also interesting how Korea people accepted Japanese surrender and how Japanese in the peninsula faced it.

page 139
Tabocco authority officers, North Hamgyong Province
On the morning of August 9, Russia declared war on Japan , and Russian airplanes attacked the city of Chongin. Everything went into chaos. On the eleventh, communication to Seoul was severed. We couldn't get through. We were on our own. Isolated......On August 15 I ran into a classmate and he told me that Japan had surrendered. I could not believe it.

page 142 physicist, North Pyongan Province
The Japanese rule was over? I jumped and ran to Grandmother to ask if it was true.......Life for Japanese changed overnight. In our Chongju are, our people policed themselves, and treated the Japanese well. The Japanese went to live in shelters or schools, and went out during the day to find jobs. We ourselves hired a Japanese woman as our maid......People tried to police themselves and in some areas it worked better than others. .. Much later I learned that terrible things happened in some places, especially in Hamgyhong Province to the north east near the Russain border. Anti-Japanese nationalist let out all their frustrations, and also the Korean communists who had been biding their time , became militants. Cruel guerrilla attacks made everyone nervous. ....After we returned to Chongju, one day as we visited Grandmother in Toktal, a messenger came running, crying our that a guerrilla band was headed our way. He didn't know for sure which kind of band. ...


page 145 housewife/South hamgyong Province
After liberation, the Koreans said my father was pro-Japanese, a running dog because he was so high up. They almost lynched him. Then Russian army came ....


page146 housewife/Kyonggi Province
When the Japanese left, my father-in-law barely escaped with his life. He knew the Korean would beat him, so he fled to the the south, Korean didn't punish the pro-Japanese. It seems, down south, they wanted law and order above all else, and they kep pro-Japanese Koreans in positions of power. The Japanese there ever kept their weapons. It wasn't like that at all in the far north. .....to keep the farms going , they needed skilled people, and I had worked a long time in agricultural technology. They needed someone who knew what he was doing with the water and they said, "We'll forgive you come back, " They kept sending messages and finally I went back.


page 146 housewife/Kyonggi Province
After liberation, I saw a Japanese mother in tattered clothes with a baby on her back, walking along the road. I really felt sorry for her. I also remember the Japanese primary-school principal in Yangju country. he was killed by Korean right after the war


electrical engineer/South Chungchong Province living in Shanghai
There were about five hundred young Korean men in Shanghai at that time. ...When we sang the Korean anthem tears streamed down our faces. We made korean flags out of any paper we could find, and waved them furiously


...................................................................
In regards to communists in Korea, I would add this historical tidbit -

모두 하루아침에 달변가가 되었으며 아울러 잔잔하기만 하던 마을에 사상적인 균열이 일기 시작했다. 좌(左)가 좋으냐 우(右)가 좋으냐 하는 시비와 논쟁이 날이 갈수록 심화되어 가는 것이었다. ….바로 얼마 전까지만 해도 일본을 절대적으로 믿고 충성스럽게 뛰어다니던 사람이 하루아침에 열렬한 사회주의자가 되어 떠벌리고 다니는가 하면, 심지어 만주에서 아편 장사를 한 것으로 알려진사람도 사상가인 것처럼 행세를 했다.(pp. 108~109)

One morning everyone had suddenly become an eloquent speaker. In a village that was once quiet, ideological cracks start to appear. As the days go by the debate on whether the left is better or the right is better intensifies. …. People who had just previously run around showing absolute trust in and allegience to Japan had suddenly become passionate socialists running around wagging their tongues. Even a man who was known to have been an opium dealer in Manchuria started acting as if he were some profound thinker.

So straight after liberation there were people spontaneously describing themselves as socialists or communists. I makes sense that some of them would have formed militias
Matt/occidentalism

Hata noted that on August 16 the Americans had bombed several places in Korea.
page 254 Racing the enemy hasegawa

Hata Hikosaburo, a staff of kwantung Army, Chief of Staff Lieutenant General
at the Headquarters in Changchun
page 253 Racing the Enemy Hasegawa

Short history of comfort women in Korean tradition


from
Soh, Chung-Hee
Women's Sexual Labor and State in Korean History


See also Vientamine kids left by Korean after Vietnam War

More than 700 hundred years ago, when the Koryo Dynasty on the Korean peninsula came under the Mongol's domination ...the Korean state was forced forced to round up young females and send them as kongnyo(literally, "tribute women") to the Mongols of the Yan dynasty for over eighty years tribute women were the Mongol's version of the comfort women.....

....When some of the captured women returned home, they were regarded as defiled women and rejected by their families.

....the state institution of kisaeng or kinyo(literally , skilled women) originated more than a millennium ago in Koryo dynasty and continued to the end of Chosun.....Generally...kinyo were despised due to their outcast status. With time, they increasing became sex workers for the government officials dispatched to provincial towns and for the troops stationed in borderline district. They private kinyo were those old retired ones who bought young girls and trained them as kinyo as a means of making a living for themselves. These kinyo apparently served mainly commoners and lower-class men.

By the mid-fifteen century...The role and function of kinyo as skilled women gradually changed into courtesans and "comfort women"(wianbu) during the latter period of Chosun dynasty. By the late nineteenth century...,kisaeng became synonymous with courtesans and whores.

The modern capitalist system of licensed prostitution emerged in Korea in the late nineteenth century....In 1916, the colonial government proclaimed an ordinance that provided nationwide regulation concerning licenced prostitution in Korea. By 1920, Korean women were working at restaurants in Japan, serving as "industrial comfort women" for Korean male laborers. When the adult entertainment business in Korea suffered as a result of the Great Depression of the 1920's, some women sex workers and business owners migrated to China,. These women were Korean versions of the Japanese karayukisan(overseas prostitutes) working as comfort women for the industrial laborers abroad.....


(
The majority of the young females recruited as comfort women came from lower classes. Many were deceived by "human traders" who lured them with promises of well-paying jobs only to deliver them to brothels and military comfort stations. Some, however, chose to leave home, not out of economic necessity but in search of independence and freedom from domestic violence against and gendered mistreatment of daughters
---this was originally in the first paragraph of the essay---zero)

....the South Korean army also operated its own "military comfort system" during and until immediately after the Korean War, from 1951 to 1954. ...the South Korean army's military comfort women system may be indeed the "unfortunate offspring" of the Japanese


However, I would suggest that its historical roots are much deeper than the colonial period....We should not ignore the historical depth of the Korean masculinity sexual culture that instituted the kisaen system more than one thousand years ago. Moreover, the specific way the Korean military operated the comfort system, utilizing the tickets for accessing comfort women as special rewards for bravery exhibited in battlefield, is noteworthy for its instrumentalist approach to the comfort system, not simply as commercial sex service but as as in means of conferring semi-official tribute as well as promoting future bravery..


....it has been women of the lower social classes that have engaged in sexual labor due to their social status, out of economic necessity, and sometimes forced by state power that treated them as pawns of national security in the symmetrical international relations. Since 1945, when the U.S. military occupied Korean, more than two hundred and fifty thousand women have worked as prostitutes for American troops . By the early 1970's prostitution catering to foreign men received semi-official support.

Today, the prosperous industry in South Korea generates more money than state annual budget....South Korea still find themselves trapped in "slave prositutution" enforced by unscrupulous entrepreneurs in the thriving local adult entertainment market.....


Most Sex Slaves Found in U.S. Were Korean vialink,link

The Journal of Hamel
The monasteries are build with gifts which have been collected by the people. Anybody from highly placed persons to commoners contributes to this. On itself this, however, is not enough to live on. Many monks believe that all people used to speak the same language. But the big amount of languages originates when the people wanted to build a tower to climb to heaven.

via Garlicbreath/Occidentalism

Sunday, April 15, 2007

South Korea ignores refugees

UPDATE

a succinct analysis of the incident.
foreign dispatches

The South Korean Embassy in Laos allegedly ignored pleas for help from three young North Koreans held by Lao authorities who could be deported to their Stalinist home country. Hiroshi Kato, the head of Japanese activist group Life Funds for North Korean Refugees, on Thursday revealed the identity of the young defectors and is working for their release. According to Kato, Choi Hyang, Choi Hyuk and Choi Hyang-mi are being held in a detention center near the capital Vientiane.link

Good job, Kato, Shame on SK embassy.
Japanese government should work harder to help the refugees.

via lost nomad

Saturday, April 14, 2007

Japan: colony of Korea in 2040



























임현승 : 일본에 핵폭탄을~! [8]
イムヒョンスング : 日本に核爆弾を~! Nuke Japan!!

魚拓

Nuke? Oh please no, colony of Corea in 2040? ----how generous of Coreans!!

via 日本の評判

Lying Korean witness

Tribalism and lying witnesses

Beyond language difficulties is the prospect that South Koreans who give testimony might feel it culturally acceptable to lie, especially if it will increase their chances of winning bigger damages, Carr said.

“This culture,” Carr said, “does not place the same value on truth or view the truth through the same prism that Americans do. There is very little social disapproval of making false official statements in order to achieve an objective for your friend or relative or for a tribemate.

“Once it breaks down to ‘those Americans’ versus ‘us Koreans,’ many, many Koreans will perceive it as their duty to make sure that the Korean is the winner of the dispute. So there’s a lot of lying when witnesses come forward,” Carr said.

“Some people,” said Seoul attorney Jin Hyo-guen, “think that it’s their duty or their job to testify in a way the GI should be punished, severely” and beyond what’s warranted by what “actually happened.”

“Of course, there are some persons who think … favorably and amicably” toward U.S. servicemembers, Jin said. “But sometimes not.” Jin has represented numerous U.S. servicemembers in South Korean courts.Stars and Stripes/Pacific edition, Sunday, April 15, 2007

I didn't say it , an American did.

See also links on this post. The former Korean president called Korea a country of liar.
I didn't say it, Korean nobel prize winner did.

via lost nomad
I repeat, one of the most common things my Korean adult students would say in answer to a general question about, “What common problems does South Korean society have” was the simple - “Koreans lie too much…”

Thursday, April 12, 2007

U.S. Congressional Research Service on the issue of comfort women

U.S. Report Refutes Japanese Denial on Sex Slaves

The U.S. Congressional Research Service said in a recently published report that there is clear evidence that the Japanese government and military participated in the forceful sexual enslavement of women from neighboring Asian countries during World War II, including recruitment and the operation of brothels for Japanese soldiers. The CRS report is based on testimony from 20 former Korean sex slaves who were found by U.S. soldiers in Burma, and on a report by U.S. missionary Horace Underwood to the U.S. government. Dr. Underwood sent his report on “comfort women” to Washington after being expelled from Korea by the Japanese government in 1942.

In a revised, longer version than a similar 2006 report, the CRS documented wrongdoings by the Japanese government and soldiers. In an apparent refutation to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s denial of the Japanese government’s participation in the sexual enslavement, the report makes it clear that there is no doubt that most of the comfort women were lured into sex slavery and were detained in brothels. The Japanese prime minister said last month that there is no credible evidence that the Japanese government or military forced women into sexual slavery. The CRS report was recently distributed to U.S. lawmakers.
link


Here is the original text
Japanese translation of the text





................................................................................

And the following is the 2006 version of the report
via macska dot org
April 10, 2006
Congressional Report Services Memorandum

Japanese Military’s “Comfort Women”

Larry Niksch
Specialist in Asian Affairs
Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Trade Division

Responding to a number of inquiries, this memorandum provides background concerning the system of “comfort women” organized by the Japanese military during the 1930s and 1940s. For further questions about this issue, the author can be contacted at extension 77680.

Introduction

As Japan began its policy of military expansion into China in the 1930s, the Japanese military and government began to establish a system of facilities for women who provided sex to Japanese soldiers. The system was expanded when Japan attacked the United States in December 1941 and the Japanese military entered Southeast Asia and the Southwest Pacific. These women were given the name “comfort women.” Most estimates of the number of these “comfort women” range from 50,000 to 200,000. A sizeable plurality or a majority of them were Korean. Chinese, Taiwanese, Filipino, Dutch, and Indonesian women made up most of the rest.

While information about the comfort women system appeared periodically after World War II, it was not until the 1980s and early 1990s that major publications appeared in Japan describing details of the system and governments and citizens of countries occupied by Japan began to discuss it more openly. This information increasingly described a system in which women were brought into through conscription and/or deception and that kept the women in comfort women facilities through coercion for long periods of time, usually until the women died or until World War II ended.

In the 1990s, the issue of comfort women became part of the dispute between Japan and several of its neighbors over whether Japan had accounted fully for its aggression against its neighbors and the abuses of its occupation policies. Several contentious issues arose over the comfort women: whether Japan had acknowledged fully the responsibility of the Japanese military and government for the abuses of the system; whether Japanese apologies to former comfort women constituted a sufficient official apology; whether Japan should pay official monetary compensation to comfort women; and whether Japanese school history textbooks should describe the comfort women system in their chapters on World War II. Another issue that arose was whether governments of the countries of origin of comfort women allowed surviving comfort women adequate freedom in deciding whether or not to accept Japanese offers of material assistance.

The U.S. Congress has been interested in the comfort women issue since the mid-1990s, and several bills have been introduced on the subject. In the current 109th Congress, H.CON.RES68 has been introduced in the House of Representatives. It expresses the sense of Congress “that the Government of Japan should formally issue a clear and unambiguous apology for the sexual enslavement of young women during colonial occupation of Asia and World War II, known to the world as ‘comfort women’.”

Accounts of the Comfort Women System

An early detailed revelation came from Yoshida Seiji, a former Japanese military policeman, who wrote a book in 1983 entitled My War Crimes: The Forced Draft of Koreans in which he described his participation in the roundup of over 1,000 women in Korea for service as “comfort women” to the Japanese military. In 1982, eight Japanese intellectuals issued a statement calling on the Japanese government to acknowledge and apologize for Japanese abuses in colonial and occupied countries; the statement specifically mentioned comfort women. After 1988, a number of South Korean women publicly identified themselves as former comfort women and gave accounts of their experiences. In December 1991, 35 Korean women, claiming to be former comfort women, filed a lawsuit against the Japanese government in a Japanese court. In 1992, the South Korean Foreign Ministry issued a report on Korean comfort women. It cited Japanese military documents describing the establishment of comfort women facilities in 1937 in China after the Japanese invasion. The documents contained orders from the Japanese army to local police and Japanese colonial government officials in Korea to set up comfort women facilities. The report asserted that thousands of women were rounded up and/or were threatened if they did not “volunteer” for service. Japanese colonial officials also used deception in recruiting women, often telling them that they would serve as nurses to the Japanese military. The South Korean report estimated that there were about 70,000 to 80,000 Korean comfort women. [1]

Another batch of documents was discovered in the late 1990s by Chu Te-lan, a history professor with the Academia Sinica in Taiwan. These documents described contracts between the Japanese army and a “Taiwan Development Company” for the company to build comfort women facilities in China. Other documents also contained instructions to the company by the Japanese colonial government of Taiwan to recruit and send comfort women to these facilities. [2]

The account that had the greatest impact came from Japanese historian Yoshimi Yoshiaki in 1992. Dr. Yoshimi conducted research in the library of the Japanese Self-Defense Forces in Tokyo. He found and disclosed a number of documents containing orders from the Japanese army to set up comfort women facilities in Japanese occupied territories from 1937 to 1945. Dr. Yoshimi handed the documents to the Asahi Shimbun, one of Japan’s biggest newspapers, which ran a feature story on them. [3]

Japanese Government Admissions

Japanese government reactions to these revelations in 1992 and 1993 encompassed a range of responses beginning with official Japanese denials of government involvement in the comfort women system but shifting to official admissions of government and military responsibility. Initially, government officials acknowledged the existence of the comfort women system but claimed that the system was organized and operated by private parties and that there was no evidence of coercion of women into sexual service of the Japanese military. In response to Dr. Yoshimi’s findings and the Korean womens’ lawsuit, Prime Minister Miyazawa Kiichi ordered a government study of the issue. An initial study, issued in July 1992, disclosed 127 documents which showed Japanese military involvement in the building of comfort women facilities and the recruitment of women. Chief Cabinet Secretary Kato Koichi issued a statement on July 6, 1992, that the study “confirmed that there was government involvement” in the comfort women system and that comfort women had suffered “indescribable pain and suffering.” A second study, announced on August 4, 1993, went further in acknowledging that recruiters of comfort women resorted to “coaxing and intimidating these women to be recruited against their will and there were even cases where administrative personnel directly took part in the recruitment.” The report concluded that many comfort women lived as captives of the military for long periods. [5]

Following the issuance of the second study, Chief Cabinet Secretary Kono Yohei issued a statement that the study showed that the comfort women system “was an act with the involvement of the military authorities of the day that severely injured the honor and dignity of many women,” including “immeasurable pain and incurable physical and psychological wounds as so-called wartime comfort women.” [6] Subsequent Japanese Foreign Ministry statements have referred to the Kono statement as one of “apologies and remorse.” [7]

The Asian Women’s Fund

In the admissions of 1992 and 1993, Japanese government officials stated that the government would try to assist surviving comfort women. The government’s response was the Asian Women’s Fund, which the government of Socialist Prime Minister Murayama Tomiichi set up and which came into being on July 19, 1995. The Asian Women’s Fund announced three programs for former comfort women who applied for assistance: (1) an atonement fund that paid two million yen (approximately $20,000) to each former comfort woman; (2) medical and welfare support programs for former comfort women, paying 2.5-3 million yen ($25,000-$30,000) for each former comfort woman; and (3) a letter of apology from the Japanese Prime Minister to each recipient woman. [8]

The atonement fund issued payments directly to former comfort women from 1996 through 2002, when it ceased operations. During that time, it paid 565 million yen (approximately $5.7 million) to 285 former comfort women. The medical and support programs continued beyond 2002 in some countries. As of March 2006, the Asian Women’s Fund provided 700 million yen (approximately $7 million) for these programs in South Korea, Taiwan, and the Philippines; 380 million yen (approximately $3.8 million) in Indonesia; and 242 million yen (approximately $2.4 million) in the Netherlands. [9] The Asian Women’s Fund is scheduled to end its operations in March 2007.

A controversial issue in the Asian Women’s Fund programs was the money provided directly by the Japanese government. The government paid the operational expenses of the Asian Women’s Fund?a total of 35 billion yen (approximately $35 million) from 1995 through March 2000. [10] The government also paid the costs of the medical and support programs. However, the government refused to finance the atonement fund payments. These were financed through private Japanese contributions. According to a Japanese Foreign Ministry statement of May 2004, the Asian Women’s Fund had obtained 590 million yen from private contributors, including “individuals, enterprises, labor unions, political parties, Diet members and Cabinet Ministers.” The government did finance the Asian Women’s Fund’s campaigns to raise money. The government’s position on direct compensation payments has been that the Peace Treaty between Japan and the Allied Powers of 1951 required Japan to pay reparations directly to occupied countries and allied countries and that these reparations covered any potential claims from individuals in these countries. Japan had entered into several such agreements with occupied countries. The government also reportedly has feared that direct compensation payments to former comfort women would result in other groups claiming abuse by Japan during World War II demanding similar compensation. [11] Critics, however, charged that the unwillingness of the government to make direct compensation payments signified an unwillingness to accept full responsibility for the comfort women system.

Controversy over An Official Apology to Asian Women’s Fund Recipients

At the founding of the Asian Women’s Fund in July 1995, Prime Minister Murayama promised to send a letter of apology to each recipient of assistance from the Asian Women’s Fund. He described the comfort women system as a “national mistake” and “entirely inexcusable.” [12] However, his successor, Hashimoto Ryutaro, leader of the conservative Liberal Democratic Party, stated that he would not issue such letters when he took office in 1996 and the Asian Women’s Fund prepared to implement the first atonement payments. This brought forth criticism of the Prime Minister from board members of the Asian Women’s Fund. Miki Mutsuko, the wife of former Prime Minister Miki Takeo, resigned from her position on the board in protest. Prime Minister Hashimoto shifted his position in July 1996, and he issued the first apology letters in August 1996. [13] The letter from the Japanese Prime Minister to recipients of the Asian Women’s Fund atonement payments has stated that “the Asian Women’s Fund, in cooperation with the Government and people of Japan, offers atonement from the Japanese people to the former wartime comfort women,” and that “the issue of comfort women, with an involvement of the Japanese military authorities at the time, was a grave affront to the honor and dignity of large numbers of women.” The Prime Minister has stated in the letter “my most sincere apologies and remorse to the women who underwent immeasurable and painful experiences and suffered incurable physical and psychological wounds as comfort women.” Thus, he addresses all comfort women rather than just the individual recipient of the letter. He asserts that “our country, painfully aware of its moral responsibilities, with feelings of apology and remorse, should face up squarely to its past history and accurately convey it to future generations.” The Japanese word for “apology” in the letter, shazai (sajoe in Korean) is a particularly strong term that implies the admission of a crime. [14]

Foreign Reactions to the Asian Women’s Fund

The 285 women who received atonement payments from the Asian Women’s Fund between 1996 and 2002 undoubtedly represented a very small percentage of former comfort women still living. Moreover, it appears that nearly 200 of these were Filipino and Dutch women (79 from the Netherlands and over 100 estimated from the Philippines), although with the exception of the Dutch women, the Asian Women’s Fund has been circumspect in publicizing information about individual recipients. There have been far fewer recipients in Taiwan (about 40) and especially in South Korea. There appear to be three reasons for this situation. One is the social stigma a women could suffer, especially in Asian societies, if she openly revealed that she was a comfort woman by applying for compensation. A second is that some former comfort women, especially members of organized groups in several countries, openly rejected the atonement payments because they are not official Japanese government compensation. A third reason seems to be pressure and possible intimidation applied by governments and non-government groups (NGOs) on women not to accept payments and other assistance from the Asian Women’s Fund. This factor appears to have been especially prevalent in South Korea.

The South Korean government announced a compensation plan for surviving former comfort women on March 29, 1993, that would pay the equivalent of $6,400 and a monthly payment of $250 to each woman. [15] However, after the Asian Women’s Fund was established, the government and South Korean NGOs used the government’s fund as a tool to pressure and dissuade former Korean comfort women from accepting payments and other assistance from the Asian Women’s Fund. The South Korean government took an immediate position against the Asian Women’s Fund when the Fund made atonement payments to seven South Korean women in January 1997. The government officially expressed displeasure to the Japanese government over the Asian Women’s Fund and demanded that the Japanese government pay direct compensation. The South Korean government also supported the similar stance taken by the leading Korean NGOs claiming to represent former Korean comfort women: the Korea Council for Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan. and the Citizens’ Coalition for the Resolution of the Forced Recruitment of Comfort Women by the Japanese Military. [16] These groups sharply criticized the seven women who had accepted payments from the Asian Women’s Fund. At the recommendation of these groups, in March 1998, the South Korean government announced an upgrading of its fund for former Korean comfort women, offering larger payments. South Korean officials stated that the South Korean fund was intended to eliminate the possibility that Korean women would accept assistance from the Asian Women’s Fund, and this became a required condition for any woman who applied to the South Korean government’s fund. The Korea Council and the Citizens’ Coalition also campaigned against women accepting assistance from the Asian Women’s Fund. They raised money for former comfort women but conditioned payments on pledges by the women not to accept any assistance from the Asian Women’s Fund. The result was that no other Korean women applied for assistance from the Asian Women’s Fund after the original seven had received atonement payments in January 1997. [17] The Asian Women’s Fund reportedly sought to continue offering assistance in South Korea beyond the original five year deadline which ended in 2002; but it ultimately decided to end its program partly because of South Korean government and NGO opposition. [18]

After March 1998, the South Korean fund made a lump sum payment of 43 million won (approximately $43,000) to each eligible former comfort woman for living expenses plus an additional monthly allotment of 740,000 won (approximately $740) per person. The fund also made payments for the medical expenses of individual comfort women. Thus, the South Korean fund after March 1998 was considerably more generous in direct payments than the Asian Women’s Fund. However, as of March 2006, only 208 South Korean women had applied to the South Korean fund; and the government managers of the fund had accepted 152 of these as legitimate former comfort women. Currently 124 women are receiving aid from the fund. [19] The small number of responders to the South Korean government’s highly publicized fund raises the question of whether a larger number of comfort women would respond to either Japanese government or their own governments’ compensation plan, or whether the social stigma of revealing one’s identify as a former comfort woman is too much of a deterrent.

Taiwan established its own compensation fund in 1996. The government and the Taipei Women’s Rescue Foundation (TWRF), a private organization, provided money for the fund. It paid each former comfort woman 500,000 New Taiwan Dollars, roughly the equivalent of the Asian Women’s Fund atonement payments. The government and the TWRF have maintained that Japan should pay official compensation. An estimated 40 Taiwanese women have received assistance from the Asian Women’s Fund. [20] However, opposition to the Asian Women’s Fund apparently was not as overt as in South Korea; the Fund advertised its programs in Taiwan newspapers during this period. [21]

The Asian Women’s Fund carried out programs in the Philippines, Indonesia, and the Netherlands; and in these countries much of the Fund’s money came from the Japanese government for broader social welfare programs for the women. Philippine President Fidel Ramos stated that the Fund, though legally private, could help former Filipino comfort women. [22] On January 15, 1997, the Asian Women’s Fund and the Philippine government signed a Memorandum of Understanding for medical and welfare support programs for former comfort women. Over the next five years, these were implemented by the Philippine government’s Department of Social Welfare and Development. However, two NGO groups split over whether Filipino women should accept atonement payments from the Asian Women’s Fund. LILA Pilipina officially demanded Japanese government payments but assisted women to apply to the Asian Women’s Fund. Malaya Lolas, on the other hand, rejected the Asian Women’s Fund. It is estimated that over 100 Filipino women accepted atonement payments from the Fund. [23]

In March 1997, the Asian Women’s Fund signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Indonesian government’s Department of Social Affairs providing for the Fund to support an Indonesian project, “Promotion of Social Welfare Services for Elderly People in Indonesia.” Asian Women’s Fund financial support was to total 380 million yen (approximately $38 million) over ten years to support facilities for the elderly with priority to be given to former comfort women. The Indonesian government favored this plan over receiving and authenticating applications from individual women. [24] According to the Japanese Foreign Ministry’s statement of May 2004, 200 people were accommodated in those facilities.

The Asian Women’s Fund negotiated initially with the Dutch Foundation for Japanese Honorary Debts (FJHD), an NGO of Dutch war victims, including comfort women, but the FJHD rejected compensation from the Fund. With the support of the Dutch government, the Asian Women’s Fund concluded a Memorandum of Understanding with another private Dutch group, the Project Implementation Committee in the Netherlands (PICN), to assist the livelihood of former comfort women. The project provided medical and other social services to the women. Over a period of three years, the Asian Women’s Fund spent 241.5 million yen (approximately $24 million) for the project, which assisted 79 women. [25]

The United Nations Human Rights Commission investigated the comfort women issue several times in the 1990s. Two reports to the Commission by U.N. Special Rapporteurs in1996 and 1998 criticized Japan and called for Japan to pay official compensation to former comfort women and prosecute Japanese who were responsible for the system. However, while the Human Rights Commission acknowledged the reports, it did not fully endorse their recommendations in its resolutions. In September 2001, the Commission recommended to Japan that “victims [of Japan during World War II] must be compensated.” [26] The international human rights organization, Amnesty International, has criticized the Asian Women’s Fund and has called on Japan to pay official compensation to former comfort women. [27]

The Comfort Women Issue in Japanese Textbooks

Since Japan’s admission of responsibility for the comfort women system, there have been frequent disputes over whether Japanese history textbooks should discuss comfort women. The real battle today in Japan over the comfort women issue is whether Japanese history textbooks will discuss it. In 1997, the Japanese Ministry of Education allowed some new middle-school textbooks to discuss comfort women as a form of sexual slavery based on the “forcible recruitment” of women. This decision and the issuance of the textbooks produced considerable criticism from some Japanese politicians and interest groups who contend that Japan’s historical record in the first half of the 20th century is not as negative as it usually is portrayed. [28] A Japanese Society for History Textbook Reform was formed to work for the publication of history textbooks that presented a positive view of Japanese history. Undoubtedly as a consequence of this criticism and the campaign of the Japanese Society for History Textbook Reform, eight new textbooks approved in 2001 did not mention comfort women. The South Korean government protested by canceling a number of planned exchanges with Japan. [29] In 2005, a new group of eight approved textbooks omitted references to comfort women; only one textbook contained a reference to comfort women. [30] Nakayama Nariaki, the Minister of Education, supported the omissions, stating that references to comfort women in textbooks was an “incorrect description.” [31] At the same time, however, a commission of scholars from Japan, South Korea, and China published a history textbook that contained a 60 page section on Japan’s occupation of Korea (1910-1945) and Japan’s invasion of Manchuria and China (1931-1945), which contained a detailed discussion of the comfort women issue. The September 2001 U.N. Human Rights Commission recommendation to Japan, cited above, also called on Japan to ensure that school textbooks and other teaching materials present history in “a fair balanced manner.”

Comfort Women Suits in Japanese and U.S. Courts

Since the three Korean women filed suit in a Japanese court in 1991, women claiming to be former comfort women have filed suit several times in Japanese courts. With the exception of one victory in a lower court in 1998, Japanese courts have rejected claims for Japanese government financial compensation, citing Japanese reparations agreements with several Asian governments, concluded in accord with the Treaty of Peace with Japan of 1951, and the South Korea-Japan Basic Treaty of 1965. The Treaty of Peace mandated that Japan enter into reparations agreements with Allied countries, whose territories were occupied by Japan, and it stated that “except as otherwise provided in the present Treaty, the Allied Powers waive all reparations claims of the Allied Powers, other claims of the Allied Powers and their nationals arising out of any actions taken by Japan and its nationals in the course of the prosecution of the war.” The South Korea-Japan Basic Treaty of 1965 stated that “rights and interests of the people of both contracting countries and other claims of both countries are solved completely and finally.” [32] However, reports by the United Nations and by Amnesty International in 2005 have called for the Japanese government to provide direct compensation to former comfort women. Moreover, some advocates for individual claimants from Allied countries have cited an exchange of letters between the Japanese and Dutch governments in 1951 in which Japan asserted that the Peace Treaty did not negate private claims against Japan by Dutch nationals. [33]

In September 2000, 15 former comfort women from China, Taiwan, South Korea, and the Philippines filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., seeking claims (including claims for financial compensation) against the Japanese government under the U.S. Alien Tort Statute. The case was titled Joo vs. Japan. The District Court and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled against the women. The courts accepted the argument of the U.S. Executive Branch, filed in a third party brief, that the Executive Branch rather than the U.S. courts had jurisdiction over the “political question” of whether individual claims against Japan were valid in view of the provisions of the Japanese Peace Treaty of 1951. In July 2004, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Court of Appeals must reconsider the case. In June 2005, the Court of Appeals affirmed the original District Court judgment. The case went back to the Supreme Court, which ruled on February 21, 2006, that the claims of the women constituted non-judicial “political questions” and that the Supreme Court deferred to the judgment of the U.S. Executive Branch that the acceptance of such claims by U.S. courts would impinge upon the President’s ability to conduct foreign relations. [34]

Conclusions

There is little question that the Government of Japan has acknowledged fully the role of the Japanese military and government in establishing and operating the comfort women system before and during World War II. However, the persuasiveness of the acknowledgments has been weakened in the eyes of many by related controversies over Japan’s historic record such as the Prime Minister Koizumi’s visits to the Yasakuni shrine (where Japan’s war dead are enshrined but also where 14 major convicted war criminals also are enshrined), the content of history textbooks, and statements by individual Japanese political leaders such as the statement of the Minister of Education quoted above. The battle over acknowledgment continues in Japan today with the content of history textbooks as the main battleground; and some maintain that the trend toward textbooks omitting discussion of the comfort women system raises doubts about the commitment of Japan’s Prime Ministers in their letters to comfort women that Japan “should face up squarely to its past history and accurately convey it to future generations.”

The Asian Women’s Fund appears to have been a genuine effort by the Japanese government and the Fund’s sponsors and leaders to compensate and assist former comfort women. As discussed, several governments appeared to have accepted this by cooperating with the Asian Women’s Fund.

The controversial issue of Asian Women’s Fund atonement payments vs. demands for official Japanese government monetary compensation is predominately an issue of legal arguments vs. moral arguments. The Japanese government appears to have a credible legal position based on the Japanese Peace Treaty, Japan’s reparations agreements with several countries, and the language of the South Korea-Japan normalization treaty of 1965. The February 2006 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Joo vs. Japan seems to add strength to the Japanese government’s position. However, demands for official compensation have a strong moral component; even some defenders of the Asian Women’s Fund argue that Japan could have followed Germany’s example and set up additional private-government combined funds to compensate other abused groups like forced laborers and prisoners of war. Japan’s concern that official compensation to comfort women could open up a pandora’s box of claims from other abused groups is a possibility that opens up a number of uncertainties, including the possibility that individual Japanese might counter by demanding official U.S. compensation for the U.S. napalm bombings of Japanese cities in 1945 and the atomic bombings of August 1945.

The Japanese government cites two statements as official apologies to comfort women: Cabinet Secretary Kono’s statement of August 1993 and the Prime Ministers’ letters to former comfort women who accepted assistance from the Asian Women’s Fund. The Prime Ministers’ letter does use the words “apology” and “apologies” and addresses these to all comfort women rather than just the recipients of the letters. Critics state that these are inadequate. The critics, however, have not proposed specific alternative modes of apology whether it be the format of the apology, the institution or individual within the Japanese government who should make the apology, or the language of the apology.

An overlooked issue in much of the discussion of comfort women is whether former comfort women in allied and occupied countries had adequate freedom to decide whether to accept compensation and/or assistance from the Asian Women’s Fund. It appears that they did have sufficient freedom in the Philippines and the Netherlands but that they were not free to choose in Taiwan and especially in South Korea. Despite the financial generosity of the South Korean government’s own fund for former comfort women, the South Korean government and NGOs used it and other means as instruments of pressure and intimidation against Korean women who otherwise would have sought assistance from the Asian Women’s Fund.

Finally, the records of the Asian Women’s Fund and the government funds in South Korea and Taiwan suggest that no program of compensation/assistance likely would have drawn responses from former comfort women much beyond the approximately 500 that came forward in response to these funds. It appears that the social stigma of revealing one’s past as a former comfort woman remained a deterrent to many women who could have stepped forward.

Bibliography

1. Hicks, George. Ghosts gathering. Far Eastern Economic Review, February 18, 1993. P. 32-36. Yonhap News Agency (Seoul) reports, July 31, 1992.

2. Academia Sinica issues report on ‘comfort women.’ Taiwan Central News Agency (internet version), July 8, 1999. Ganz, Susanne. Documents may prove Japan’s role in wartime sex slavery. Kyodo News Agency (Tokyo), July 13, 1999.

3. Sanger, David E. History scholar in Japan exposes a brutal chapter. New York Times, January 27, 1992. Page unknown. Do Rosario, Louise. A quest for truth. Far Eastern Economic Review, February 18, 1993. P. 37.

4. Hicks, Ghosts gathering, Far Eastern Economic Review, February 18, 1993, p. 16.

5. Sanger, David E. Japan admits it ran army brothels during war. New York Times, July 7, 1992, p. 1. Sterngold, James. Japan admits army forced women into war brothels. New York Times, August 5, 1993, p. 2.

6. Asian Women’s Fund Website, March 15, 2006.

7. Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan. Recent Policy of the Government of Japan on the Issue Known as “Wartime Comfort Women.” May 2004.

8. From the Asian Women’s Fund website, March 16, 2006.

9. The inclusion of the Netherlands was due to Dutch women who were taken captive by the Japanese after Japan invaded the Dutch East Indies and forced to become comfort women.

10. Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Recent Policy of the Government of Japan on the Issue known as “Wartime Comfort Women.” November 1, 2001.

11. Pollack, Andrew. Japan plans payment for forcing women into brothels during war. New York Times, August 31, 1994, p. A1.

12. Reid, T.R. Japanese leader apologizes to ‘comfort women,’ backs plan for recompense. Washington Post, July 19, 1995. P. A22.

13. Pollack, Andrew. Japan pays some women from war brothels, but many refuse. New York Times, August 15, 1996. P. A11.

14. Soh, C. Sarah. Japan’s Responsibility Toward Comfort Women Survivors. JPRI Working Paper No. 77. Japan Policy, May 2001.

15. Boling, David. Mass Rape, Enforced Prostitution, and the Japanese Imperial Army: Japan Eschews International Legal Responsibility? Columbia Journal of Transnational Law. No. 3, 1995. P. 545.

16. Korean women compensated for sex slavery. Washington Times, January 12, 1997. P. A6.

17. Strom, Stephanie. Seoul won’t seek Japan funds for war’s brothel women. New York Times, April 22, 1998. P. A3. ROK to provide compensation to compensate comfort women. Yonhap News Agency (Seoul), March 11, 1998. Soh, Japan’s Responsibility Toward Comfort Women Survivors, Japan Policy. May 2001. Soh, Chunghee Sarah. Human Rights and Humanity: The Case of the “Comfort Women.” The ICAS Lectures, December 4, 1998.

18. Asian Women’s Fund to end sex slave payments in South Korea. Kyodo New Agency (Tokyo) report, February 19, 2002.

19. Information supplied by the Embassy of Korea in Washington, March 17 and March 21, 2006.

20. Soh, Human Rights and Humanity: the Case of the “Comfort Women,” The ICAS Lectures, December 4, 1998. Mao Huan-wen. Former comfort women lodge protest. Taipei Times, August 16, 2005. P. 1. Soh, Japan’s Responsibility Toward Comfort Women Survivors, Japan Policy, May 2001.

21. Ibid. Asian Women’s Fund website, March 15, 2006.

22. Kristof, Nicholas D. Japan to pay women forced into brothels. New York Times, June 15, 1995. P. A10.

23. Soh, Japan’s Responsibility Toward Comfort Women Survivors, Japan Policy, May 2001.

24. Soh, Human Rights and Humanity: The Case of the “Comfort Women,” The ICAS Lectures, December 4, 1998.

25. Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. On the Completion of the Atonement Project of the Asian Women’s Fund (AWF) in the Netherlands. July 13, 2001. Soh, Human Rights and Humanity: The Case of the “Comfort Women,” The ICAS Lectures, December 4, 1998.

26. Washington Committee on Comfort Women. Chronology of Dates and Events. April 5, 2006. UN rapporteur tells Japan to face sex slave history. Agency France Presse (Hong Kong), June 2, 1999.

27. Amnesty International urges Japan to compensate for sex slavery. Korea Times (internet version), October 28, 2006.

28. Washio Ako. Textbook sex slave entries face growing opposition. Japan Times Weekly International Edition, March 3-9, 1997. P. 3.

29. Yoo, Jae-suk. History-book row estranges allies. Washington Times, July 13, 2001. P. A1.

30. Faiola, Anthony. Japanese schoolbooks anger S. Korea, China. Washington Post, April 6, 2995. P. A15.

31. McCurry, Justin. Discomfit women. British Guardian., June 14, 2005.

32. Japanese court dismisses compensation demand by South Korean women. Kyodo New Agency, March 26, 2001. Settle past carefully with Japan. Joongang Ilbo (Seoul), March 4, 2005. P. 7.

33. Clemons, Steven C. U.S. role in Japan’s amnesia. Far Eastern Economic Review, October 25, 2001. P. 32.

34. Summary of the case from U.S. Law Week, provided by The American Law Division, Congressional Research Service, April 5, 2006. Washington Coalition for Comfort Women Issues. Chronology of Date and Events. ( At www.comfort-women.org/v2/history.html).

Some facts about comfort station in Indonesia

Comfort stations in Indonesia need a special attention because it shows, or at least it is alleged to show women were forced into the brothel and some Japanese were tried and and prosecuted at the war tribunal. There are some people who argue that the only summary of trial record is available, we can not evaluate it appropriately, but I think we can grasp relatively fair account of it.
There is a document that investigated comfort stations in Indonesia.
According to this document on page 115, the incident in Semarang happened in Feb, women were forced to sign the paper written in Japanese, and were taken to comfort stations.
There was a guideline to the effect that women work of their own will, women sign the paper to prove it , women get medical check.
However, the doctor didn't give them medial check, and there was even a case where the doctor raped a woman.
The comfort station was closed about two months later, when a military officer from Tokyo came to investigate the comfort stations, realizing that the women had been forced to work against their will.

This story is consistent with the statement
Jan Ruff O’Herne .
She testified at the war tribunal*1 as a result, one officer was sentenced death penalty and other were sentenced in prison.
Aochi Washio, a private person who run the brothel. was one of Japanese who was tried.
Washio Awochi was tried by the Netherlands Temporary Court-Martial at Batavia for forcing Dutch women into prostitution during the Japanese occupation of Batavia. (253) After the Japanese occupied the Dutch East Indies, Awochi began operating the Sakura Club, which consisted of a restaurant, bar and brothel, all of which was exclusively reserved for Japanese civilians. (254) Awochi initially recruited women to be staff at the restaurant or bar without revealing his brothel operation. Then, once they were hired, he gave them a choice: work as a prostitute in his brothel or be turned over to the Japanese police for imprisonment, deportation or beatings. (255)

Awochi argued that his mistress, Lies Beerhorst, actually ran the brothel and issued the threats that forced these women into prostitution. (256) The court-martial found that Awochi's financial interest and profits were too great, and his relationship with Beerhorst too close, for him to be unaware of the compelled nature of the prostitution. *** Despite Awochi's additional argument that he was compelled to conduct this business at the order of the Japanese government, the court-martial found Awochi guilty of the war crime of "enforced prostitution" and sentenced him to ten years' imprisonment. (258) Awochi is another example of a business person, like many of the industrialists in Germany, who took illegal advantage of military occupation to make a greater profit and thus committed a crime.link*2


In 1994, Dutch government concluded that out of 200 to 300 Dutch women at least 65 women were victim of forced prostitution.wiki(Note that it means it is possible the other women were working of their own will.)

So what this story shows is that there was no policy to recruit women forcibly, rather there was a policy to make sure that women work of their own will, with the understanding on what they will work for.
But there were individual cases where some brokers and some officers acted against this policy.

....................................................................................

*1
オランダ女性の事例 末端将兵の行為 すでに厳刑

 8日付のニューヨーク・タイムズは日本の慰安婦問題を安倍晋三首相がそのすべてを否定したかのような表現でまた報じたが、そのなかでオランダ人の元慰安婦だったというジャン・ラフ・オハーンさん(84)の「インドネシアの抑留所にいた1944年、日本軍の将校に連行され、慰安所で性行為を強要された」という証言をとくに強調した。同紙はオハーンさんの2月15日の米下院外交委員会公聴会での証言を引用しており、「日本政府からの公式の謝罪が最重要」と述べたとして、日本軍が組織的に総数20万人もの女性を強制徴用したという糾弾の最大の根拠としている。

 ところが慰安婦問題に詳しい日米関係筋などによると、オハーンさんは戦後すぐにオランダ当局がインドネシアで開いた軍法会議で裁いた「スマラン慰安所事件」の有力証人で、その証言などにより、上層部の方針に違反してオランダ女性を連行して、慰安所に入れた日本軍の将校と軍属計11人が48年3月に有罪を宣告され、死刑や懲役20年という厳罰を受けた。オハーンさんは同公聴会で日本側が責任をとることを求めたが、責任者は60年近く前にすでに罰せられたわけだ。

 日本政府には批判的な立場から慰安婦問題を研究した吉見義明氏も著書「従軍慰安婦」のなかでオランダ政府の報告書などを根拠にスマラン慰安所事件の詳細を記述している。同記述では、オハーンさんらオランダ女性を連行したのはジャワの日本軍の南方軍幹部候補生隊の一部将校で、(1)軍司令部は慰安所では自由意思の者だけ雇うようはっきり指示していたが、同将校たちはその指示を無視した(2)連行された女性の父のオランダ人が日本軍上層部に強制的な連行と売春の事実を報告したところ、すぐにその訴えが認められ、現地の第16軍司令部はスマラン慰安所を即時、閉鎖させた(3)同慰安所が存在したのは2カ月だった(4)主犯格とされた将校は戦後、日本に帰っていたが、オランダ側の追及を知り、軍法会議の終了前に自殺した-などという点が明記されている。

(2007/03/10 06:09)

*2
慰安所設置は軍の指示 オランダ戦犯裁判判決文に明記 '07/4/11


 【ベルリン11日共同】太平洋戦争中にインドネシアのバタビア(現ジャカルタ)で慰安所を運営、売春を強制したとしてオランダによる戦犯裁判で有罪判決を受けた日本人が判決の中で、占領地の軍政当局である軍政監部からの指示で民間人用の慰安所を設置したと事実認定されていたことが十一日までに明らかになった。当時の判決文に記されていた。

 安倍晋三首相が否定する強制連行など「狭義の強制性」を裏付けるものではないが、軍が慰安所設置に直接関与したことを示す新たな史料として注目される。

 国立国会図書館が三月に公開した靖国神社の資料によると、この日本人は民間人で服役中に死亡。靖国神社と厚生省(当時)は一九六七年、慰安所名や「婦女子強制売淫」の罪名を挙げた上で、戦死者と同様に合祀(ごうし)を決定していた。

 判決文を入手し、オランダや日本の専門家と分析したベルリン在住ジャーナリストの梶村太一郎氏らの調べによると、慰安所の経営者は長崎県出身の青地鷲雄氏。判決は「彼(青地)は一九四三年六月二日、軍政監部からホーニング通りに売春宿を開設せよとの指示を受けた。異議を申し立てたが、指示が二度出された後、それに従った」と認定している。

 青地氏は、日本が占領中の四三年に慰安所「桜〓楽部」を開いた。

 判決文などによると、愛人のオランダ人女性が「憲兵を呼ぶ」と脅し少女を含むオランダ人女性らに売春を強制。辞めようとすると官憲に逮捕、拘留された。

 青地氏は四六年十月にオランダ軍がBC級戦犯を裁いたバタビア臨時軍法会議で、強制売春の罪で禁固十年の判決を受けた。梶村氏は十三日発売の週刊誌「週刊金曜日」で詳細を公表する。

 ※お断り 「〓」は、「倶」の旧字体ですが、JISコードにないため表示できません。中国新聞ニュース

Sunday, April 08, 2007

Comfort women at Sin Cities for GIs during Vietnam War.

Friday, May 15, 2015 Gang Rapes and Beatings, Brothels Filled with Teenage Prostitutes -- The Depths of American Brutality in Vietnam Against our willpage 92-97
And so we come to the Americans - where first we must look at institutionalized prostitution, for as the American presence in Vietnam multiplied, the unspoken military theory of women's bodies as not only a reward of war but as a necessary provision like soda pop and ice cream,to keep our boys healthy and happy, turned into routine practice. .And if
monetary access to women's bodies did not promote an ideology of rape in
Vietnam, neither did it thwart it.
.....
By the time the Americans had fully replaced the French in Indochina
the war had sufficiently disrupted South Vietnamese society to a point where
it was no longer necessary to import foreign women for the purpose of military
prostitution. I do not mean to imply that prostitution was unknown in Vietnam
before the long war. As Peter Arnett told me, "Prostitution was a time-honored
tradition. Certain heads of families would not think twice before routinely
selling their daughters if they needed the money."
But as the long war
progressed, prostitution increasingly became the only viable economic solution
for thousands of South Vietnamese women. By 1966 the problem had reached such
proportions that a Committee for the Defense of the Vietnamese Woman's Human
Dignity and Rights was organized in Saigon by several hundred women educators,
writers and social workers, according to an AP dispatch. The wire service
reported that bitter words" were expressed at the first meeting. "The
miserable conditions of war have forced our people to sell everything - their
wives, children, relatives and friends - for the American dollar," a woman
educator was quoted.
The Committee for the Defense of the Vietnamese Woman,
overwhelmed by the reality of the Vietnam war, was never heard from again.
The American military got into the prostitution business by degrees,
an escalation process linked to the escalation of the war. Underlying the
escalation was the assumption that men at war required the sexual use of women's
bodies. Reporter Arnett saw the gradual acceptance of U.S. military-controlled and -regulated brothels as a natural outgrowth of what he called "the McNamara theory": "In 1965 the main idea was to keep the troops contented and satisfied.Ice cream, movies, swimming pools, pizza, hot dogs, laundry service and hootch maids. The hootch maid were brought in as maids, not as prostitutes. Sex witha hootch maid was a private arrangement, a relationship of convenience. A lotof hootch maids did become prostitutes, however, but in the early days if they were discovered at it, they were fired."
The hootch maids were the first step toward accommodation; bar girls
and massage parlors soon followed. According to Arnett, the rear-area troops
caused the most "problems": "There was a lot of discontent and boredom. The
men were aware that they were soldiers who weren't fighting, who weren't
getting any medals. They might drive into town to the illegal brothels, but
for reasons of VD and security the brothels were off limits."
(Massage
parlors, that vague gray area of sexual action from Saigon to New York City,
were always considered legal.)

In 1965 the Marine Corps base at Danang began experimenting with
organized battalion trips to town on a once-a-month basis, but according to
Arnett it was a disaster: "The men would hit town like animals, they couldn't
cope, it was pure chaos." After this early experience the Marine command
decided to confine their men to the base camp, but the inviolate law of supply
and demand went into operation. A shantytown of brothels, massage parlors and
dope dealers, known as Dogpatch, soon ringed the base. "The marines would bust
through the wire at night - the Marine command could live with that," the
reporter told me.

It was Arnett's opinion (not shared by me) that the U.S. Army was
"more enlightened" than the Marine Corps when it came to sexual accommodation.
By 1966 the 1st Cavalry Division at An Khe, in the Central Highlands, the 1st
Infantry Division at Lai Khe, twenty-five miles north of Saigon, and the 4th
Infantry Division at Pleiku had established official military brothels within
the perimeter of their base camps.

The Lai Khe "recreation area" belonging to the base camp of the 3rd
Brigade, 1st Infantry Division was a one-acre compound surrounded by barbed
wire with American MP's standing guard at the gate. It was opened only during
daylight hours for security reasons. Inside the compound there were shops that
sold hot dogs, hamburgers and souvenirs, but the main attraction was two
concrete barracks, each about one hundred feet long - the military whorehouses
that serviced the four-thousand-man brigade. Each building was outfitted with
two bars, a bandstand, and sixty curtained cubicles in which the Vietnamese
women lived and worked.
............
Refugees who had lost their homes and families during the war and
veterans of the earlier Saigon bar trade formed the stock of the brothel. They were recruited by the province chief, who took his payoff, and were channeled into town by the mayor of Lai Khe, who also got his cut. The American military, which kept its hands partially clean by leaving the procurement and price
arrangement to Vietnamese civilians, controlled and regulated the health and
security features of the trade. "The girls were checked and swabbed every week
for VD by Army medics," my informed source told me approvingly.
.....
Military brothels on Army base camps ("Sin Cities", "Disney-lands" or "boom-boom parlors") were built by decision of a division commander, a two-star general, and were under the direct operational control of a brigade commander with the rank of colonel. Clearly, Army brothels in Vietnam existed
by the grace of Army Chief of Staff William C. Westmoreland, the United States
Embassy in Saigon, and the Pentagon.


Venereal disease, mostly gonorrhea, was a major preoccupation of the
military in Vietnam. One official brothel outside Saigon had a sign on the
wall of the bar that read "GIRLS WITH TAGS ARE CLEAN."
..............


link魚拓

What is the difference between comfort station and "sin cities"?

Will the The US congress set up the fund and apologize?

See also American Military-Base Prostitution
Jennifer Latstetter
魚拓
A. The end of WWII (1945) to the eve of Korean War – Rampant and indiscriminate crimes against women1. Impacts on Women and Children by the US Military Bases in the Community魚拓
Women and the U.S. Military in East Asia魚拓
Filipinas in Prostitution around U.S. Military Bases in Korea: A Recurring Nightmare
Author(s): Jean Enriquez



魚拓

Three Rapes: The Status of Forces Agreement and Okinawa
by Chalmers Johnson



In case of Germany


Sexual enslavement by Nazi Germany in World War II(wiki)

 戦後、こうした強制的、あるいは、強制的な雰囲気での売春は問題にされてきませんでしたが、ご承知ように日本では、慰安婦問題として大きく取り上げられました。

01/15/2007
NAZI SEX SLAVES
魚拓
New Exhibition Documents Forced Prostitution in Concentration Camps
Hardly any of the women, who suffered severe physical and mental damage as a result of their experiences, applied after 1945 for compensation for their suffering because they felt talking about their experiences was too degrading, Eschebach said. "Sex slavery was not identified as such in the judicial cases dealing with the SS crimes," she added.