Thursday, May 31, 2007

Trainee Visa abuses

It’s becoming a hot issue at last

says Debito :
I am not so optimistic:I am not sure if it is a hot issue as it is supposed to be. but I am sure it will become a hot issue.
As far as the abuse of the trainee is concerned, I think it is a matter of cracking down on the companies and the brokers and setting up the institution to which the trainee can file a complain.
But the real issue is that Japan needs workers from abroad.
If you worked in a job for three years, then for no explicit reason whatsoever you were fired and another person was hired to take your place (probably at a lower wage), wouldn’t you have rights? Of course you would. To a large extent labor laws in Japan protect citizens from such problems. So then why is it okay to do this to foreign laborers? It isn’t. It’s not fair.liberal Japan

That's logical. (Of course if you are hired on a part-time basis, and you might be fired when the contract expires, though).
When you have right to be kept employed, you also need to be granted the right to stay in Japan. So this is a part of the larger issue;immigration.
And I am not sure Japanese are well familiar with the problems of immigrations. At least I am not.
French seems to be taking a harder measures on immigrations and other countries seems to be having a bunch of problems. What are real issues when accepting immigrations?
Economic problems? Clashes of civilizations? or what?

The Problem With Immigration Is Not The Immigrants
The Pseudo Economic Problems of Immigration
Immigration in the European Union: problem or solution?
Analysis: The immigration message
How France Has Fallen
Muslim immigration has overwhelmed permissive French institutions

France mirrors worldwide immigration problems
Violence and fire - France has a huge problem with its immigrants
移民受け入れ問題について

Japanese newspaper mistook Miss Korea for Miss Universe

UPDATE A commenter says it is not Miss Korea, but Miss Thailand. If that is the case, then AP mistook Miss Thai for Miss Korea and Daily Sports mistook it for Mori. That makes the news funnier. I don't know which is the truth and I don't care. As I said, I don't give a damn who Miss Universe is , much less which national became Miss Universe.






















The left is Miss Korea on Daily Sports captioned as "Miss Japan Mori in swimsuite"
The right is Miss Universe, Mori.

Japanese Daily sports posted the photo of Miss Korea as large as a quarter of the page as Miss Universe on May 30.
The editor of Daily Sports says;
The same swimsuit and the similar hairstyle----the staff mistook it. It shouldn't have happen. We apologize to the people concerned.

Sankei

I don't give a damn about Miss Universe, or whatever. But it is a funny news.

Taiwan's former president might visit Yasukuni

05/31/2007
THE ASAHI SHIMBUN



Taiwan's former president, Lee Tenghui, looked set to incur the wrath of China by saying he hopes to visit Yasukuni Shrine during a visit to Japan that started Wednesday.

Lee said he wanted to visit the war-related shrine because his elder brother is memorialized there. The brother was killed in World War II while fighting for Japan. Taiwan at the time was a Japanese colony.

"I don't know if I have time to pay a visit," Lee told Japanese reporters aboard the flight from Taipei to Tokyo. "But because my brother is enshrined there, I would be sorry if I cannot make it as a brother."

Lee visited Japan in 2001 and 2004, but Wednesday's visit to Tokyo is his first to the capital in 22 years. "I was surprised to find that Tokyo Bay has become so clear," Lee said at the capital's Odaiba waterfront district.

Lee, 84, said his visit to Japan was "not for political activities," which would antagonize Beijing. He has no plans to meet with politicians here during his stay through June 9.(IHT/Asahi: May 31,2007)asahi


His right to visit Yasukuni should be protected.
Not that I support Yasukuni nor am a I believer in shinto; I am just a believer in liberal democracy.
It is quite easy; any people have the right to faith. the state must not interfere with it, rather it should protect the people's right to faith.

Some people complain:
Is this the way Abe satisfies the mad dogs of the Japanese right, by having the former president of Taiwan do a Yasukuni sanpai in his stead?
Shisaku


I also hate the mad dog of Japanese rightist and leftist;for that matter, I hate the mad dog of American rightist and leftist.

The human basic right like the right to faith overrides the policy. The utility must give way to the human fundamental right. Whether the rightist or the leftist support it have little to do with the issue. You don't like Shinto, Yasukuni, Islam, that's okay. But you can not interfere it.

When it comes to the issue of Yasukuni, some liberals suddenly stop thinking on the principle. I don't understand why.

It is good to be No. 2

Update Japan;world's 5th most peaceful nation
Anderson Analytics released a survey on brand recognition and country of origin among American college studentsviaMarmot



World Publics Think China Will Catch Up With the US—and That’s Okay


China and the US: Equally Distrusted


But this does not mean that people simply do not trust major powers. There is substantially more confidence in Japan, which is trusted to act responsibly in 10 out of 16 countries. On average the margin is slightly in favor of trusting Japan by 46 percent to 43 percent (11 percent do not answer).World Public Opinion/May 31st, 2007

It is good to be No.2

In contrast, the other great Asian economy—Japan—gets a considerably more positive reaction from world publics. Majorities or pluralities in 10 of the countries polled say that it can be trusted to act responsibly, led by Indonesia (76%), Australia (72%), the United States (71%) and the Philippines (67%). A majority of the French (59%) also trust Japan.

On the other hand, the United States is the only country out of eight asked where a majority believes that Japan takes its interests into account when making foreign policy decisions.

Majorities in six countries say Japan cannot be trusted, led by two countries invaded by Japan during World War II: South Korea (81%) and China (79%). The Peruvians (60%) are also leery of Japan as are Thais (60%), Argentines (52%) and Russians (51%).


Hey during World War II. South Korea was not invaded by Japan. Japan and South Korea invaded China, ....stupid!!.....
.....I thought Thais would be more in favor of Japan..... Why?


via Le't blow

see also link

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Wake up call to kasumigaseki

China has criticized human rights activists who call the 2008 Olympics the "Genocide Olympics," saying it is improper to "politicize the Olympic Games." But the Chinese government has been politicizing this event all along.washinton post

President Bush announces new sanctions for Sudan; China proposes more foreign investmentwashinton post

The attitude of these articles are largely in line with the policy of 2007 China military report

But a China expert has a different opinion.

Washington needs to move beyond its Japan-first policy and its orientation towards alliances. Both are outdated and need to be adjusted. Asia's future lies with China and India, not with Japan. Moreover, Japan is afflicted by a mortal wound in its regional identity and influence - the "history" issue. This situation is not good for Japan, for Asia, or for the United States.David Shambaugh
Published: May 29, 2007



The blogger citing this article warns:
Is Japan ready to shift too, or will the government's lack of foresight result once again in a "shock" that leads to a crisis of confidence in Japanese foreign policy and a sudden, unexpected policy shift, rather than one considered in advance?Japan Observer

I should take his professional position into account.
I'm on the staff of a senior member of the opposition DPJlink


DPJ has been warning not to rely on the U.S. too much and engage more with China.
Sure enough it is a matter of balance, and Japan needs to take every possible scenario into account.

It is interesting that some American liberals want Japan to be more side with China because that will probably mean the U.S. will lose the hegemony in this region accordingly.

Japan's new diplomacy

Battle-scarred Tallinn smiles on Japan's imperial gue.......Faced with diplomatic pressure from a country almost exactly 100 times the size of their own, many Estonians have seized on the Japanese emperor's visit as a confirmation of the fact that they have not lost their international friends.

'To give it the (Estonian) foreign ministry's spin, the visit is a nice example of the fact that the spat with Russia hasn't diminished Estonia's image,' Andres Kasekamp, head of the Estonian Foreign Policy Institute, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.By Ben Nimmo May 24, 2007,

via Meine Sache
A Japanese blogger says visiting a geopoliticalyl essential country like Estonia amid her conflict with Russia is a clear sign of Japan's new diplomacy;it is not just friendly diplomacy as it used to be but it is also aggressive diplomacy to show Japan's commitment to the new strategy.

Monday, May 28, 2007

Kamikaze pilots






When appointed as a Kamikaze pilot...

I felt as if my existence is no more worth than an ant on the ground.

I felt like shouting out to the superiors, "why don't you go, wimps"

I felt like holding on to something, feeling the feet not standing on the ground, paralyzed with the sense of powerless, I knelt down on the ground.


The days waiting for carring out raids

While having a spree, drinking and drinking, and yet, the center of the head is as sober as ever.

Mr.H told me, "I don't want to die yet, Kuwahara, Replace me. " Next day he returned calm and and went flying with a smile. Having nothing to relieve his sorrow , he might have desaperately trying to find a savior in the the sky that he has adored. 考察NIPPON

Notes before the suicide attack

To little sister
I miss you,Sizu-chan,
It is time to say good bye. I , your brother, am going a raid. I will have fallen into the sea by the time this letter reaches you. Mother and Father died an unexpected death, and now I have to leave you, Sizu-chan, my little sister, alone---it is very sad----forgive me.
I'll leave the banknote and our seal, which you should use when you enter the female school. I'll send my watch and saber, so ask the uncle Kinoshita to sell them for money. Your future life is more important than a memento of me.
The whirling propeller has been waiting for me. I have to go now--go attacking. Don't cry, Sizu-chan. I wish you best.大石清伍長

To Mother
I won't be able to see mother's face--- Let me look at you closely, mother. I don't want to leave a memento of me, because it will make you cry 10 or 20 years later when you look at it.
Mother, I'll fly over my house after I leave Kouriyama city----That will be my last greeting to you.茂木三郎少尉


To my family
I am grateful for mother and father for bringing me up and caring for me 22 years.
Forgive me that I could not have lived up to your expectations.
My body belongs to my parents, at the same time it does not; I have served it to the Emperor. Please accept the fact that my body means little after I joined the army.
I am able to fly into the air battle without worries because I have a great father, mother and two little sisters.
Father, please care for two little sisters Yoshiko and Kazuko, as you had cared for me.
Mother, care for Father for long.
I wish Father, Mother, two sister great health.
Father, dear Father.
Mother, dear Mother.
Thank you for everything for such a long time.
And please keep taking care of Yoshiko, and Kazuko.
Let's meet at Yasukuni.
Well I have to go now. Take care.


Japanese leaders were mad, insane. We can not blame them enough. We also should think of victims of atrocities Japanese troops committed.
But who can say the pilots were just stupid? Who can ignore their agony, sorrow, love, affection?
Who saves their souls? Who listens to their voice disappeared in the sky?
Offering a prayer is not glorification of the cruel war ,but a human condition,

Sunday, May 27, 2007

A self-critical liberal advice on Japan's revising the article 9

3. Now, the most important lesson to draw here is just how problematic changing article 9 of Japan’s constitution will be. Indeed a little bit of fear is not a bad thing. However, the fear should not based on some kind of irrational notion that Japanese are culturally militant. Instead it should be based on the fact that any country can have trouble controlling its military. A clear majority of Americans oppose the war in Iraq. A clear message was sent to congress last election to bring the soldiers home, yet there they are still in Iraq. Not only this, but everyday the rhetoric regarding Iran gets hotter and hotter. Will the president even bother to inform congress if it becomes necessary to bomb Iran? To what extent do people in America have control over the actions of their own military? Japanese people who fear overseas involvement and lack of control of their military should take note of this as they debate exactly how article 9 should be modified.liberal Japan


A good point.
There are some pseudo-liberals who believe the U.S. is more democratic and the victor country and talk as if , therefore, she were exempt from criticisms. I admit the U.S. is more democratic, but because she is more democratically advanced, an advice based on the criticisms on the U.S. is more persuading and convincing.

According to Donald E. Shidt,
At mid twentieth century, after one hundred fifty years of abiding by the Constitutional requirement that Congress, not the president, decided when the nation goes to war. President Truman established a new practice of "presidential war making" Indeed there have been no congressional declarations of war since then----not in the Vietnam War, not in the Gulf War, not in the Iraq War.
(page 247 The folly of War/Donald E. Shidt/Algora Publishing )


I am not sure if people agree with him that "a clear majority of Americans oppose the war in Iraq.", but his point of democratic control of the military absolutely deserves attention when considering revising the article 9.

2007 China MIlitary Report

China’s ability to sustain military power at a distance, at present, remains limited but, as noted in the 2006 Quadrennial Defense Review Report, it “has the greatest potential to compete militarily with the United States and fi eld disruptive military technologies that could over time offset traditional U.S. military advantages.”


At the core of China’s overall strategy rests the desire to maintain the continuous rule of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). A deep-rooted
fear of losing political power shapes the leadership’s strategic outlook and drives many of its choices. As a substitute for the failure of communist ideology,
the CCP has based its legitimacy on the twin pillars of economic performance and nationalism. As a consequence, domestic economic and social diffi culties may lead China to attempt to bolster support by stimulating nationalist sentiment which
could result in more aggressive behavior in foreign and security affairs than we might otherwise expect.



Beijing’s defi nition of an attack against its sovereignty or territory is vague, however. The history of modern Chinese warfare is replete with cases in which China’s leaders have claimed military preemption as a strategically defensive
act. For example, China refers to its intervention in the Korean War (1950-1953) as the War to Resist the United States and Aid Korea. Similarly, authoritative texts refer to border conflicts against India (1962), the Soviet Union (1969), and Vietnam
(1979) as “Self-Defense Counter Attacks.” This logic suggests the potential for China to engage in military preemption, perhaps far from its borders, if
the use of force protects or advances core interests, including territorial claims (e.g., Taiwan and unresolved border or maritime claims).


Once hostilities have begun, according to the PLA text, Science of Campaigns (Zhanyixue) (2000), “the essence of [active defense] is to take the initiative and to annihilate the enemy . . . .



pdf


HAGATNA, Guam (Pacific Daily News, April 13) – The U.S. government "should give serious consideration" to shifting the balance of its naval forces from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and beef up its military muscle on Guam as part of the shift, according to a think-tank's report, released Tuesday in Washington, D.C.


"Improvements to U.S. military facilities on Guam should continue, not only to relieve some of the burden on Okinawa, but also to upgrade the overall capabilities of U.S. Pacific forces," according to the report.

And to be ready in the event China becomes militarily aggressive, the report states the U.S. naval forces' focus should shift from the Atlantic.PACIFIC ISLANDS REPORT


So after all is John Mearsheimer correct?

Chinese students rejected in UK

PRIVATE schools are imposing unofficial limits on the numbers of Chinese pupils they admit because of fears that British parents will be deterred from sending their children thereTimes online

A sign of change in Japanese interrogations?

Prosecutors asked the court to admit the recording as evidence when the accused changed aspects of his story during testimony.

But even though the prosecutors' move was aimed at bolstering their case, it may also serve as a precedent for those who claim they confessed under coercion to demand that recordings of their interrogations be played in court as well.


The committee demanded the 23-day holding period be shortened to match standards in other countries. And it said interrogations should be monitored by independent observers as well as recorded, so courts can later judge whether confessions may have been obtained through coercion.


Why not?

"We will examine it in a prudent manner and, depending on the content, will respond to it appropriately," said Hiroshi Kikuchi of the ministry's Criminal Affairs Bureau.

This is a typical response of Japanese bureaucracy.

The government has shown little inclination to radically overhaul a system that is defended by police and that attracts little criticism from the Japanese public or media. The U.N. review of the justice system was largely ignored by media here, despite its charge that the Japanese system fails to meet minimal international standards in many areas.latimes.com

I wonder why the Japanese media do not pick it up.

Comfort women ; How has it been that women are sold in China?

A Sankei female journalist, Fukushima, picked up the story of Chinese woman who has been sold by her brother.
A Chinese woman called Ou were persuaded to go Beijing with his brother for the job offer, arriving, she realised that she was sold to the man 10 years older than her.
According to Fukushima , this kid of practice still continues in China, so I check it up and confirmed it.

Trafficking in women was one of the ‘oldest evil
trades’to flourish in pre-communist China. At that time, parents and husbands
were permitted by the law to sell their children or wives in the open marketplace


The practice in the early twentieth century of selling daughters to support a
family or purchasing a woman to carry on a family line is still vivid in the
memory of many people, particularly in underdeveloped rural areas.pdf

Tens of thousands of women are bought and sold in China each year. The most popular areas for abducting women are the poor areas of Yunnan, Sichuan and Guizhou. (Human Rights in China organization report, Sophia Woodman, Stephanie Ho, "Trafficking of Women in China," Voice of America, 27 September 1995)

China is a destination of trafficked women from Ukraine and Russia. (Global Survival Network, Vladmir Isachenkov, "Soviet Women Slavery Flourishes," Associated Press, 6 November 1997) Traffickers are increasingly transporting Burmese and Chinese girls for prostitution, partially due to a decrease in the availability of northern Thai girls. "Their pleasant character, white skin and beauty were similar to northern girls." (Prof Kusol Sunthorntada, Researcher, Institute for Population and Social Research, Mahidol University, ("More foreign workers join sex industry as fewer Thai girls enter flesh trade," Poona Antaseeda. Bangkok Post, 24 November 1997) Girls from China, aged 12-18, are in more demand for the sex industry in Thailand since fewer girls from Northern Thailand are being lured by traffickers. (Wanchai Boonphacra, Centre for the Protection of Children's Rights, "More foreign workers join sex industry as fewer Thai girls enter flesh trade," Poona Antaseeda. Bangkok Post, 24 November 1997)

Women are also being trafficked for sale as wives to husbands who often resell them. (CATW - Asia Pacific, Trafficking in Women and Prostitution in the Asia Pacific)

Chinese girls from provinces in Yunan state are trafficked via Chiang Tung in Burma and then into Thailand at Mae Sai in Chiang Rai. ("More foreign workers join sex industry as fewer Thai girls enter flesh trade," Poona Antaseeda. Bangkok Post, 24 November 1997)

Traffickers force Chinese immigrants into indentured servitude, women into prostitution and men into the restaurant business. In September 1998, 153 men and 21 women, including 35 juveniles, arrived in San Diego, California from China via Mexico, after paying smugglers $30,000. In 1997, 69 and in 1993, 650 Chinese immigrants were intercepted in the same area. If caught by immigration (INS) officials, most will be sent back to China, unless they receive political asylum. The smugglers may face jail time in the United States. (Paula Story, "Chinese Immigrant Boat Reaches US," Associated Press Online, 19 September 1998)

Thousands of girls from China's southern are trafficked into Thailand's sex industry; some go on to Malaysia or Singapore. The economic crisis has no impact on this segment of the sex industry. More affluent Chinese businessmen from mainland China or Taiwan who do business in Thailand purchase sex from these Chinese girls. (Supalak Ganjanakhundee, "Migrant workers booming as Asian economy declines," Kyodo News, 23 September 1998Factbook on Global Sexual Exploitation

China and Hong Kong


In a way the situation seems to be worse than the situation under Japanese troop.

I don't mean to justfiy comfort stations under Japanese rule ;the police didn't regulated illegal brokers sufficiently, and the troop didn't pay due attention to the well-being of women. Japan has acknowledged it was wrong.
I am just stating facts. Also I am raising a question why it is that more pressing issue is ignored in the international media while making fuss about the matter Japan has apologized for several times, saying that it was not sincere.





....................................................................................
http://www.iza.ne.jp/news/newsarticle/world/china/53879/

【中国を読む】農村女性残酷物語 福島香織

10:51 この記事についてのブログ(29)





 2年前、北京郊外の平谷区の民族村と呼ばれる村落を訪れた。桃の花の名所だが、実は農作物のほとんど実らぬ寒村で、嫁の来手(きて)がない。だからベトナム国境あたりの少数民族の村から嫁を買う。北京なのにミャオ族やナシ族の女たちが暮らすので民族村。

 そこで出会ったミャオ族の王美芬さん(当時37歳)は19のとき、8つ年上の実兄に5000元(約8万円)で売られてきた。「好きな人がいたのに、北京で働き口があるとだまされて連れてこられた」。村に着いてだまされたと知り泣いて抵抗すると、兄は棍棒(こんぼう)で折檻(せっかん)した。兄は受け取った金で故郷に家を構え、意中の女性と結婚した。

 「10歳年上の夫とは方言の違いで、当初は言葉も通じなかった。結婚2年後、子供が生まれてもう逃げられないとあきらめた」。昔の恋人は、王さんを待ってまだ独身という。語る王さんの涙は止まらず、ぽたぽたとズボンの上にぬれたシミをつくり続けた。

 ■今も続く女性売買

 中国の女に生まれるということはなんとむごいことかと、そのときつくづくと思ったが、やがてこんなのは序の口と知る。

 昨年暮れの事件だ。陝西省延安県の村で結婚仲介者が知的障害の女性(20)を家族から2000元(約3万2000円)で買った。仲介者は別の村の男性に若く健康な嫁として売ったのだが、後で障害がばれて返された。もてあました仲介者は女性を殺害、遺体を「陰婚」仲介組織に転売した。

 陰婚とは、未婚男性が亡くなったとき、あの世の伴侶(はんりょ)として墓に未婚女性の遺体を一緒に埋葬する農村の俗習だ。陰婚用の遺体は遺族が売ることも、病院の遺体安置室や墓から横流しされたり、盗まれたりすることもあるらしいが、陝西省や山西省などで炭坑事故による若い男性の死が急増し陰婚用遺体が値上がりしているため、最近では若い女性を狙った連続殺人事件も起きている。

 この事件も「陰婚」仲介地下組織の摘発によって明らかになった。地方紙にひっそり載った記事によれば、事件解決後も家族は彼女の遺体を引き取ろうとしなかった。中国の女は生きて売られ、死んでもなお売られ続ける。

 ■一人政策に暴動

 先週末、広西チワン族自治区博白県の6カ村で300~3000人規模の暴動が相次いで発生、役場などが焼き討ちされた。新華社によれば人口抑制政策・一人っ子政策徹底への反発が原因で28人が逮捕された。香港消息筋によれば、博白県では今年の旧正月以降、政策違反の夫婦には数万元の罰金徴収が徹底されたうえ、1万7000人以上の女性たちが次々と強制堕胎、強制避妊手術を受けさせられたという。

 こんなふうに中国女性の境遇に思いをはせてしまったのは、最近、中国政府が全国幹部の40%が女性だといった統計を発表したからだ。確かに昨年の長者番付1位は女性社長で、呉儀副首相はじめ女性の社会進出は日本以上に目立つ。だが、貧富の差同様、女性の境遇の格差も開く一方だ。男尊女卑思想が深く染みついたこの国で、人口抑制政策の犠牲は農村女性にしわ寄せがきている。

 その結果、最新の統計では中国の男女出生比率は119対100にまで拡大、2020年には4000万人の男性が結婚にあぶれるそうだ。政府は慌てているが、それを聞いて私は少しほっとする。不幸な女が多少は生まれずにすんだのかと。男たちが多少女性の大切さを思い知るきっかけになるかももしれないと。(北京総局)





Violenceagainst
Women under
China’s Economic
Modernisation:
Resurgence of Women
Trafficking in China
XIN REN


Page 1

Trafficking in women was one of the ‘oldest evil
trades’to flourish in pre-communist China. At that time, parents and husbands
were permitted by the law to sell their children or wives in the open marketplace.
The early practice of women and children trafficking represented women and
children’s inferior social status before the law and generally reflected the
society’s values and attitudes toward victims of this evil trade in the traditional
Chinese society. When political power changed hands in China in 1949, the new
government quickly abolished such inhuman practices against women and
children. They launched a public campaign that vigorously and swiftly eradicated
the trade in slaves, prostitution and opium in the late 1950s. The government’s
triumph over these evil forces not only provided badly needed social stability for
the revival of the national economy but also boosted public confidence in the
newly established political entity, and eventually helped the communist party to
consolidate power throughout China.
As China has undergone drastic political and economic changes in the past
fifteen years, human trafficking has resurfaced. It has been reported in more than
twenty of China’s thirty provinces and autonomous regions since the early 1980s.
Women and children have been the primary targets of abduction, illegal
imprisonment, physical and sexual assault, and sale. Although no official
statistics have been released on how many women and children were abducted
and sold in the black market, the media and unofficial sources put their estimates
at at least 10 000. The slave trade in women is particularly prevalent, and has not
only affected hundreds and thousands of families in rural areas but also the
population in cities. This paper is a preliminary report on the issues of violent
crimes against women in this evil trade practice under China’s economic and
social modernisation program. To understand the enormous social impact of this
crime on Chinese families and people, I begin with an assessment of the
Violenceagainst
Women under
China’s Economic
Modernisation:
Resurgence of Women
Trafficking in China
X
IN
R
ENPage 2

X
IN
R
EN
70
prevalence of the abduction and sale of women and a description of trafficking
network operating in China. Secondly, I shall discuss various violent acts against
the slaves and their families. The third issue of this paper traces the historical
roots of the trade and considers the social breeding ground that has allowed such
crime to flourish under the economic reform. The final section is devoted to the
official crackdown on trafficking.
Prevalence and Trafficking Network
The trade in women is particularly rife in villages in mountainous and remote
rural areas of provinces such as Sichuan, Shandong, Hebei and Henan. For
instance, between 1986 and 1988, there were 48 100 women sold in six counties
of Xiuzhou region in Jiangshu Province. In one village, two-thirds of newly
wedded brides were purchased through the black market peddlers. In a county of
100 000 population, peasants spent a total of US$85 000 for purchasing nearly
700 women as wives from 1982 to 1988. 7424 cases of human trafficking were
reported to police in Guizhou Province between January and September of 1988.
Consequently, the police arrested 2535 offenders for alleged human trafficking
and abduction. Law enforcement agencies in Shangdong Province rounded up
2761 offenders and 267 gangs for operating trafficking rings and liberated 2035
abducted women and 158 children.
The slave trade affected the lives of thousands and generated lucrative
profits for the abductors and dealers at various points of the process. For each
deal that goes through, traffickers can make between US$300 and US$500. A
trafficking ring with 40 members in the city of Xiuzhou abducted and sold more
than 100 women and generated more than US$100 000 profit within a two-year
period in the later 1980s. Trafficking often involves a chain of abductors, with
each one passing women on to the next link in their intricate network throughout
the country. Most traffickers are young men between 22 and 37-years-old,
peasants, unemployed, taxi, bus and truck drivers and railway workers.
Traffickers usually organise their network along the railways. Once women are
abducted, they are often stripped and lined up for sale in the rural free markets.
The trade is often made under the eyes of the law and local cadres. The abducted
victims in Xiuzhou, mainly aged between 14 and late thirties, were sold for
between US$400 and US$800 depending on looks, age, virginity, physical
condition, and previous marital status.
A preliminary investigation conducted by local and provincial law
enforcement agencies found that, besides abduction, a significant proportion of
victims of the slave trade was lured away by dealers through deception such as a
job offer, an admission to college, or a promising marriage in big cities. Since
many young women are eager to leave their isolated, impoverished small towns
or villages for better opportunities and life elsewhere, they often fall into the trap
of traffickers who pretend to help them with promises of college, jobs in big
cities, and ideal marriages. Some of the women were sold voluntarily, hoping to
escape poverty or an abusive husband for a better life elsewhere. Most of them
do not understand the perils they are facing in this brutal and illicit trade.
Tragically, some of the victims were sold to men who are mentally retarded,Page 3

Resurgence of Women Trafficking in China
71
physically disabled, elderly or were to be shared by several brothers within a
family.
Criminal Violence against Women
In the slave trade, the commission of violence is a daily event. Many women
were victims of kidnapping, rape, sexual slavery, psychological humiliation,
physical torture or even mutilation and murder. According to victims’ own
accounts and those of witnesses, victims were held in inhuman conditions, with
long-term solitary confinement, physical restraining, starvation and humiliation
being used. Their eyes were blindfolded, hands tied, mouths taped, and they were
kept in the dark for several days without clothing, adequate food or water.
Forced virginity examination was also a common practice. When victims tried to
escape from men who bought them, they were often recaptured, brutally beaten,
imprisoned, mutilated or even murdered. In 1989, a women’s magazine reported
an incident in which a woman’s eyes were gouged out by her husband, who
bought her in a black market, so that she won’t be able to escape again. What is
even more devastating is that many escaping victims were recaptured and
returned to the men who bought them by local law enforcement officers or public
security staff in the village. Instead of viewing the slave trade as illicit and
violent, many officials considered the men who bought women to be the
legitimate owners. For instance, when a bride was known to be a victim of
human trafficking and forced marriage, local officials would still issue a
marriage licence. Many women committed suicide as the only way out of this
tragedy.
Theoretical Analysis on the Causes of Slavery Trade in China
The selling women as wives or prostitutes has its historical roots in traditional
values about men and women, but there are a number of reasons for the
contemporary rise in the slave trade.
The practice in the early twentieth century of selling daughters to support a
family or purchasing a woman to carry on a family line is still vivid in the
memory of many people, particularly in underdeveloped rural areas. This old
custom of carrying on the paternal line has come under siege as a result of
China’s one-child-family policy. In many cases, a husband sold his wife to a
dealer simply because she gave a birth to a baby girl and his family has shunned
the wife for being unable to bear a son. As a result of the clash between
traditional values and the official one-child-family policy, female infanticide has
also become prevalent in rural China. Again, government officials rarely take
any action against offenders.
The rising cost of the traditional rural wedding, which frequently exceeds
US$2500 nowadays, makes marriage very expensive and often unaffordable,
while purchasing a wife generally costs only US$500 to US$800. For the rural
population, marriage is not a personal matter that involves emotional
commitment and romantic affection but a family responsibility of prolonging
their paternal line. Therefore, in many families, the marriage of their son is aPage 4

X
IN
R
EN
72
family affair and every member will have to work hard and save every penny for
the dowry. If it is necessary, a family may sell its daughters to raise money to
purchase a wife or to exchange with another family for a daughter-in-law.
Arranged baby marriage also exists in many rural areas. Women are still
regarded as the reproductive property of men, which can be purchased and sold
at a market price.
The growth of prostitution as a by-product of the rapid expansion of tourism
has provided another market for traffickers. Pimps control the prostitution
industry while the traffickers supply sex slaves for high profits. Along with
economic development, more and more young women left their poor villages to
go to the big cities for opportunities of jobs, education and a better life. The sex
industry has provided them with an alternative living in cities. According to the
Public Health officials, the widespread prostitution problem has brought a
rocketing rate of venereal diseases.
In addition, woman trafficking is believed to have increased as economic
controls in the rural areas are eased and more people, both men and women,
search for ways to be prosperous or escape poverty for a better life elsewhere
while China moves towards a market-oriented economy. People now have more
freedom to decide where they want to live or work. They can be self-employed
and are subjected to less governmental scrutiny and official control. The partial
emergence of a market economy has reinvigorated the slave trade, as travel and
residence change become easier and peasants accumulate enough cash to
purchase a bride. Although woman trafficking is strictly illegal under sections
140 and 141 of the penal law, the rapid decline in social and legal control has
had a devastating impact on protecting women/children from these crimes. In
addition, many participants of the slave trade, including some of the victims,
view such activities primarily as a means of making business and achieving
economic prosperity. Lastly, the high illiteracy rate among the female rural
population has severely hampered victims’ chances of seeking effective help
from official agencies and private organisations.
1
Official Crackdown
The Government has recently launched a campaign against abduction and slavery
trade by declaring it as one of ‘six evils’.
2
On 4 September 1991, the National
People’s Congress passed two bills to prohibit solicitation of prostitution and to
increase penalties for the crimes of women and children abduction and
trafficking. The new laws criminalise such conducts as engaging in prostitution
with sexually transmitted diseases, purchasing abducted women or children, and
kidnapping for ransom. They create a group of serious felony crimes such as
1
China still has more than 220 million people who are illiterate or literate at a socially
dysfunctional level. Of this population, more than a half of them are women in rural areas.
Chinese officials reported that in 1989, among seven million children who dropped out of
school, 80 per cent were girls in rural areas.
2
These were prostitution and women trafficking, pornographic publications and sales,
manufacturing and trafficking in narcotics, illegal gambling and swindling through
superstition.Page 5

Resurgence of Women Trafficking in China
73
operating a human trafficking ring and kidnapping women and children for the
purpose of sale. The new laws have also increased the penalties for prostitution,
for forcing women into prostitution, and for human trafficking.
3
The bills require
mandatory educational programs and medical tests of sexually transmitted
diseases for those arrested for prostitution and solicitation. The new laws
delegate the responsibility of inspection, suspension and full closure of hotels,
taverns, bars and night clubs (where the owners may be involved in prostitution
and the trafficking of women) to the local business licensing agencies. The new
laws also affirm the legal responsibility of local, district, county and provincial
governments to cooperate with law enforcement agencies’investigative efforts
and help those victims of abduction and slavery to reunite with their families.
The official crackdown on human slavery trade began in the early 1990s. On
28 September 1990, a 27-year-old man was found guilty of selling his mother,
wife, his three-year-old daughter and 18 other women and children. He was
executed on 3 November 1990. In January 1991, six men were executed and
seven others were imprisoned for abducting and selling women in the province
of Henan. The execution was a result of crackdown on a gang of human slave
trade. This group of men had abducted 70 women and sold 61 for a total of more
than 138 000 yuan (US$26 500). A similar case was also reported in Shanxi
Province. In June 1991, the provincial court sentenced ten men to death for
kidnapping and selling 91 women; the youngest one was only 13-years-old.
These offenders had also raped at least 22 women before selling them to peasants
who needed wives. The ten men, as a part of gang, had earned 210 000 yuan
(US$40 000) over several years. Recently, the traders have expanded their
market and territory beyond the borders of China. For instance, Burma’s
authority has contacted Chinese official about young Chinese women rescued by
the police from massage parlours. The reports suggest that these women were
sold by Chinese smugglers to Burma. Chinese police have also repatriated at
least 2716 Vietnamese women who were believed to be abducted, smuggled and
sold to Chinese peasants. According to government reports, between 1990-91,
65 236 people were arrested for involvement in the sale of women and children.
From 1993-94, another 50 000 traffickers were arrested in a further 33 100 cases.
The authorities reported that 27 000 people, including 2700 children, were
rescued. However, even the government admits that this was just the tip of the
iceberg concerning the problem of women trafficking.
As China’s economic development continues, the trade in women will
continue to make its way back into rural and poverty-striking areas. The battle
against women trafficking is far from over.
3
The new laws increase the penalty from the original 5 to 10 years of imprisonment to minimal
10 years to life or death penalty.

The study, in the Journal of the American Medical Association, concerns girls from Nepal trafficked into bordellos in India, but the problem is also emerging elsewhere, said the lead author, Jay G. Silverman, a professor of human development at Harvard’s School of Public Health.

Girls from China’s Yunnan Province sold to Southeast Asian brothels, Iraqi girls from refugee camps in Syria and Jordan, and Afghan girls driven into Iran or Pakistan all appear to be victims of the same pattern, he said, and are presumably contributing to the H.I.V. outbreaks in southern China, Afghanistan and elsewhere.

Worldwide, about 500,000 young women are trafficked each year, according to the State Department. Most of the 150,000 trafficked in southern Asia end up working as prostitutes in Indian cities, according to the United States Congressional Research Service. Rights agencies said a decade ago that up to 7,000 women from Nepal were trafficked to India each year; civil strife has presumably increased that numberSex Slaves Returning Home Raise AIDS Risks, Study Says


By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.
Published: August 1, 2007


“some estimates put the prostitute population as high as 13 percent of all Chinese women”

http://www.china-aids.org/english/News/News036.htm

“In China, the estimates of child sex workers range from 200,000 to 500,000″

.
www.globalmarch.org/resourcecentre/world/china.pdf -

The “sex industry” is certainly a significant part of the Chinese economy. When we consider that the Chinese GDP in 1998 and 1999 was 7.8 trillion RMB and 8.3 trillion RMB, the contribution of the “sex industry” to the GDP comes in at about 12.1 - 12.8 percent

http://www.usembassy-china.org.cn/sandt/sex-industry.htmlponta/occidentalism


売春婦経済は年8兆円規模!2000万人の「女性」が経済を支える!?―中国

1月2日8時40分配信 Record China

売春婦経済は年8兆円規模!2000万人の「女性」が経済を支える!?―中国

拡大写真

2007年12月30日、中国に2000万人いるとされる売春婦の経済状況が明らかに。北京などの大都市では彼女たちの平均年収は20万元(約320万円)。国内全員の年収総額は5000億元(約8兆円)にのぼる。写真は山西省太原市のマッサージ店。
2007年12月30日、中国のニュースサイト「中国ネット」は国内に2000万人いるとされる売春婦の経済状況について報道。

資料によると、彼女ら全員の年収総額は5000億元(約8兆円)に上るとされ、中国の国内総生産(GDP)のなんと6%を占めることに。北京などでの大都市で稼ぐ彼女たちの平均年収は20万元(約320万円)にもなる。【 その他の写真 】

過去の報道によると、ある地方都市で市政府が売春婦一掃作戦を遂行したところ、これに怒った彼女たちがいっせいに銀行から預金を引き出し、取り付け騒ぎを起こした。結局、市政府側が折れて、彼女たちは「商売」に復帰できたという。このように、いまや“主幹産業”の一部となり地方経済を支える彼女たちの「商売」だが、1回400元(約6400円)が大都市での相場で、そのうちの30%を「場所提供者」のホテルやクラブに納める仕組みになっている。

ちなみに「お客さん」として彼女たちに最も人気があるのが韓国人男性で、その理由は「やさしく、対等に扱ってくれるから」だそうだ。(翻訳・編集/本郷智子)


売春婦経済は年8兆円規模!2000万人の「女性」が経済を支える!?―中国

1月2日8時40分配信2008
魚拓

Saturday, May 26, 2007

Is Lee's speeches a cause for concern?

Lee's speeches here a cause for concern

05/26/2007
BY TSUYOSHI NOJIMA, THE ASAHI SHIMBUN

There is nothing wrong with the old guy, Former Taiwan President Lee Tenghui, speaking in public in Japan on whatever he wants to speak.
The freedom of speech is guaranteed to the foreigners.
It is China who cares, and it is also Asahi who cares and maybe some so called China-school government officials are also concerned.
But, Asahi should have made it clear, as it has been doing concerning human rights, that Lee has every right to speak whatever he wants, and China should refrain from interfering the freedom of speech.
That is why many people point out Asahi is politically biased--- biased in favor of China.

Friday, May 25, 2007

A new Japan

Manila, as chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, has assured Tokyo that ASEAN is supporting Japan’s efforts to amend its pacifist constitution. The amendment will allow Japan to create a regular military and take on a greater role in regional and global security.
abc
Keep in mind there are countries in Asia that consider China a threat. It is a matter of power balance.
via Japan probe

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Chinese Zoo feeds live cow to tigers during public show"

link
(contains some disturbing scenes )
(Why do I know it ? because Japanese TV news picked it it up.)

Revising the article 9

Just a quick look at the point of disputes on revising the article 9.
Of course this is not a complete list.

Necessity

pros
(1) UN activities
Yomiuri
In areas where it's too dangerous for civilians to be involved in international cooperation activities, the Self-Defense Forces are inevitably expected to be dispatched.Yomiuri


(2)Alliance
(a) The deeper commitment to the allies will ensure more security

Yanai
it is essential to shore up this country's alliance with the United States and play an active role in international peace cooperation activities. Doing so will help to ensure our own peace and security.Yomiuri


(b)Exercise of collective defence is necessary for it.
Nukaga
Should the situation be allowed to persist in which even if our radar detects a missile that may hit the United States, can't we intercept it?Yomiuri



cons
Protecting foreign troops working near Japanese forces during U.N. peacekeeping operations can also be understood in the context of using weapons to ensure security. In addition, the United States would likely be the only country that could trigger a Japanese right to collective self-defense, but the SDF also works with troops from other countries on peacekeeping operations.

Transporting weapons as logistic support for multinational and other forces often comes with use of force, and the Japanese Constitution does not allow this anyway.

Another case proposes using SDF missile defense systems to intercept ballistic missiles fired at the United States. However, current SDF systems are not capable of intercepting missiles to the United States. This may become possible in the future due to technological advances, but it is questionable if such detailed discussion is necessary when the future of missile defense systems is uncertain.Asahi


Supposing there are necessities, is the revision necessary?

pros
You can not stretch the interpretation endlessly.
cons

"The Constitution must be interpreted in a manner that reflects the fundamental changes taking place in our security environment.


Risks
Omae
Depending on the interpretation, it may open the way for Japan to preemptive attack---for, instance, since there is a sign that NK will attack the U.S, we're going to attack N.K.
Nikkei
Ebata/Nikkei

Tawara
There would be more risks for Japan to get involved in the battle fields if we revised the article 9 .:Japan avoided
landing on the battle fields ,for instance, in Afganistan, because of the article 9.

Tawara
Granted the reform is necessessary, we need to impose several strict restrictions.
Tawara
Nikkei

Bragging

The best tourists in the world are the Japanese, followed by Americans and the Swiss, a survey based on views from hoteliers across Europe said.

Japanese tourists stood out for being polite and tidy, securing 35% more votes than the Americans who came second.

Swiss tourists were commended for being quiet and considerate, unlike the Britons who were judged to be the fifth worst tourists because of rude behaviour, noise and a miserly attitude to tipping......Based on responses from 15,000 European hoteliers, the survey carried out on behalf of travel website Expedia showed that the worst tourist nation was France, followed by India, China and Russia. the worst tourist nation was France, followed by India, China and Russia..May 23,Source: Reuters

(^_-)

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

The moon and comfort women

See also comfort women depicted in the film


The following is the essay by an Asahi journalist in which comfort women were described. The book in which the essay was included was published in 1953 , long before the comfort women drew attention to the public as an international issue. The setting was April 1945 shortly before the war ended..

It was unusual that a rain cloud cleared and the moon appeared---the Burma moon that I saw through the leaves in a jungle----our emotion was too dried up to be sentimental about the moon, but the moon reminded me the day before we pulled out from Rangoon.
That day too, a rain cloud cleared and the moon shined over the golden Shwe Dagon pagoda. The moon was thoroughly blue. A captain and I were sitting on the street, with the legs throwing over on the asphalt road.
Across the street were sitting 4 or 5 comfort women. At first they lured us persistently to stay up , saying "the money does not matter, just stay up, we are lonely."
They didn't know that the military headquarters were pulling out the next day, but it seemed to be certain that they sensed something unusual was going on; there was no customer. And here we were, two military officers turned up at night. They said they didn't care about the money because they felt lonely. It might have been rather me who felt more lonely.

The next to the comfort station stood the branches of Japanese movies company and Japanese movies distribution company. There were a lot of films in the distributive company, so the head of information service had ordered the chief of branch to get rid of them so that British troop might not abuse them; We were there at night to confirm the job was done. The films were thrown into a waterlogged trench, the two branches were tidied up---the job had been well done. And it was on the way home we had this conversation with the women as a reward.

" For free, enjoy till the morning"----The Korea woman almost twenty years old went so far as to say that.
She was in a slip, with thighs showing, slapping a mosquito sometimes.

Why didn't I tell them to get out of Rangoon because the situation was threatening? I asked the question to myself, looking up at the moon---until that time I had been a military officer and I had been too afraid of military regulation--- from this time on I would be be finally a decent man again .

via ステージ風発
..................................................................................

「月と慰安婦たち」

(沢山勇三著の「白旗をかかげて」から)

 珍らしく雨雲が途切れて、月が顔を見せた。ジャングルの葉ごしに見るビルマの月――月に感傷を托すには、われわれの感情線は固渇しすぎていたがそれでも、その月は私に四月前のラングーン撤退前夜を偲ばせた。

 その晩も珍らしく晴れて月がシュエダゴン・パゴダの黄金色の尖端を照らしていた。青い青い月だった。私とも一人大尉は、コンクリートの人道に腰を下して、アスファルトの車道に長々と足を投げ出していた。

向かいあって、四、五人の朝鮮出身の慰安婦がしゃがみ込んでいた。はじめ慰安婦たちは、我々に泊まってゆけとしつこくすすめたのである。「お金なんかどうでもいいんだよ。淋しいから泊っていきなさい」と彼女らは言った。

明日、軍司令部が撤退するというのに、彼女らは何も知らないのである。ただ何か異様な雰囲気だけは感じていたことに間違いはない。客がさっぱりなかった。そこへ夜ふけて将校がふたり現れたのである。金は要らないから泊っていけ。淋しいというのだ。

 私の方がどれだけ淋しかったか知れない。慰安所に隣り合って、日本映画社と日本映画配給社の両支局があった。映配の方には、沢山の映画のフィルムがあった。英軍に見付けられて利用されるといけないという報道部長の考えで、これを処分することを支局長に命令してあったが、これを確認するために、われわれ二人が夜中近くになって行ったのだった。フィルムは壕の中へ投げこんで水浸しにしてあった。そして両支局ともさっぱりと片付けてあった。まずこれでよし――そして帰りがけの駄賃の彼女らとの雑談であった。

「タダでもいいよ、朝まで遊んでいきなさい」

 私の前にいた二十歳にもなるまいと思われる娘はとうとうそんなにまで言った。太股までむき出しにしたシュミーズ一枚の恰好で、時々蚊をぴしゃぴしゃと叩きつけていたっけ――

 あの時、危いから早くラングーンを逃出すようになぜ話してやらなかったか――私はジャングルの月に向って自問自答して見た。そうだ。あのころまでは、私はまだ軍人だった。軍紀がこわかった。――これから俺は人間に返る。――

Monday, May 21, 2007

Where is the" East Sea"?

Ask Chinese people where the East Sea is, probably they will answer it is the East China Sea.
The East China Sea is a marginal sea east of China. It is a part of the Pacific Ocean and covers an area of 1,249,000 km². In China, the sea is called the East Seawiki


Ask Vietnam people where the East Sea is, probably they will answer, it is the South China Sea.
Southern Vietnam has the Mekong River, which originates in China, and flows through Laos and Cambodia before entering Vietnam. In Vietnam, the river splits into nine tributaries before flowing into the East SeaVN Embassy

In Vietnam, it is called the Eastern Sea (Biển Đông)wiki


Ask Korean people where the East Sea is, probably they will answer it is the sea of Japan......No? Or was it the sea of peace, or Corean Sea?

HT日本の評判

The United Nation Charter article 51

UPDATE
Anpontan
posted a insightful comment on Japan's constitution.

Article 51

Nothing in the present Charter shall impair the inherent right of individual or collective self-defence if an armed attack occurs against a Member of the United Nations, until the Security Council has taken measures necessary to maintain international peace and security. Measures taken by Members in the exercise of this right of self-defence shall be immediately reported to the Security Council and shall not in any way affect the authority and responsibility of the Security Council under the present Charter to take at any time such action as it deems necessary in order to maintain or restore international peace and security.



第51条

 この憲章のいかなる規定も、国際連合加盟国に対して武力攻撃が発生した場合には、安全保障理事会が国際の平和及び安全の維持に必要な措置をとるまでの間、個別的又は集団的自衛の固有の権利を害するものではない。この自衛権の行使に当って加盟国がとった措置は、直ちに安全保障理事会に報告しなければならない。また、この措置は、安全保障理事会が国際の平和及び安全の維持または回復のために必要と認める行動をいつでもとるこの憲章に基く権能及び責任に対しては、いかなる影響も及ぼすものではない。


Japanese government admits that Japan has the right of individual self-defence despite the article 9 of the constitution*, because it is inherent right that can not be deprived of , but she has denied the right to collective self-defence.
This is inconsistent.
If the right of both individual and collective right are inherent right, Japanese constitution as it is can be interpreted as allowing Japan to exercise the right of
collective defence.

Anyway, people are talking about reforming the constitution, in particular the article 9. I think what should be taken into account is which view would contribute to the peace and prosperity of Japan and the world more. Admitting the right to collective self-defence does not necessarily means Japan can not remain peace.


I need to study more.



*
Article 9:
1)
Aspiring sincerely to an international peace based on justice and order, the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes.
2)
In order to accomplish the aim of the preceding paragraph, land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained. The right of belligerency of the state will not be recognized.

Sunday, May 20, 2007

Sankei interview with Gerry







There is nothing especially new in the interview. The article reads:
He was fired when he insisted that Dokdo historically belonged to Japan.
He insists that Japan should tell the fact to the world
He was employed by another university in Korea.
The interviewer was warned by Gerry, told that Gerry got investigated by a intelligent service immediately after the interview.
To the question why Gerry has come to the same conclusion without knowledge of Japanese argument, he answered, "The truth is one and can not be bent."

infimum

Anyway it was good Sankei run the article on Gerry. He deserves more attention.

What is more interesting is the article about Dokdo academy in Korea. According to the academy, Japan has 6 step scenario to steal Dokdo.

1 continuous activity for the claim to the territory.
2 preparation to make the issue authentic
3 promote activities to put the issue on the UN meeting
4 create the military crisis to invite the UN intervention
5 file a suit to the ICJ
6 the party who lost the case will initiate military action


http://kukkuri.blog58.fc2.com/blog-entry-156.html#more

I really envy the way they imagine things.

Yuki Tanaka on sexual violence by military(3)

Recreation and Amusement Association


Japanese prepared the comfort stations for GIs for sure, and it is also true that Japanese police was involved. Thus in the official history of police forces is written the following.

The recruitment was carried out mainly through labor brokers, but ....officers checked the names and addresses of former licensed prostitutes from the list held in the police station, visited the villages in the mountains and seacoast areas when these women lived , gave them blankets , socks and sugar and asked their cooperation by persuading the to work again for the sake of the nation and for the safety of the Japanese people. page 135

And
Despite having given the RAA initial verbal permission for "open recruitment," two month later the police issued an instruction warning the RAA and its labor broker not to "unfairly recruit women by using exaggerated or false expressions, or by suppressing the names of employers.(page 147)


but as I blogged before, a Japanese testified that he was requested to set up the stations. Well the governor of Kanagawa has a different story-----he was blackmailed.
The US officer had said,
It is expected that women in our home country would blame us , if we asked you to set up pleasure facilities. Therefore we can not request you to do so.. However if you don not provide us with such facilities voluntarily, many troubles tend to occur. As far as these kinds of facilities are concerned , our MP is prepared to co-operate with you if necessary. I presume that the occupation of japan by our troops will be about three years at maximum if no trouble occurs but if there are many troubles, I am afraid that it might be 10 to 15 years. page 151


How was the situation of comfort women ?

According to a survey conducted in 1949 by Isuhima Tsutomu on 500 prostitutes specializing in services for GIs, 26.8 percent said that they had become prostitutes in order to earn a living ...The second most common reason(22. 8 percent) was the despair that women experienced as a result of rape by GIs page 149



Comfort women were subjected to numerous instances of sexual violence. Foe example, on the evening of September 4, three Australian soldiers visited a comfort station at Higashiyama in Kyoto. ..they insisted on being accompanied by three comfort women to their hotel, where their fellow Australian soldiers were staying. The manager of the station refused the request. However, they forcibly took the women away , shouting at the manager that "Japan lost the war and your police have no power at all !"' page 149


The US is supposed to act on morally high ground, at least that is what we often hear.

Unless VD rates were reduced, the problem would become publicly known and taken up by the media, to the great embarrassment of occupation authorities. This dilemma can be clearly seen in the letter that James Gordon wrote to General MacArthur on January 22, 1946, ... In it, he wrote;
It is reasonable to assume that back-home news accounts of increasing VD rates, licensed prostitution (or perhaps, its abolition), "temporary wives", fraternization and related subjects will create considerable demand from official and domestic sources for special consideration and action on the problem. The probable result will be an increase of critical visitors unless their demands for information are anticipated and forestalled.

As a last resort, on March 25, 1946, GHQ adopted a drastic, nationwide measure. It placed "off-limits" all brothels, comfort station, houses of private prostitution, and "restaurants and bars" that operated prostitution. page 162


Shortly before the introduction of the the nationwide "off limits" the number of reported cases of sexual crimes committed by GIs in Japan was down to about 40 per day. It is said that the number suddenly jumped to about 330 cases per day from late March 1946. The most well known case was an incident that occurred on April 4, 1946, at Nakamura Hospital in Omori district.....three military trucks stopped in front of the hospital, throwing their headlight upon the hospital building. Then , at the signal of a whistle, about 50 US soldiers dashed out of the trucks and invaded the hospital ....They raped all 17 nurses on night duty , about 20 nursing assistants, and more than 40 female patients, including a woman who had just delivered a baby. A two-day-old baby was thrown out of the mother's bed onto the floor and killed .
....Another large scale organized rape occurred in Nagoya...they had come in jeep and truck, they cut off the telephone lines of the entire block and intruded into a number of houses simultaneously, raping many girls and women between the ages of 10 and 55 years.



If Japan had been ruled by CCP, she would have shamelessly had someone write "the rape of Japan" , she would have set up the museum for it, and shot the film as political weapons while ignoring its own wrongs.
If Japan had the leaders like Korean politicians and the media, she would not let this story go and she would shamelessly use it forever to bash whatever countries concerned, how many times she apologized while completely apathetic to the victims of the same kind by their own government and society.
Keep in mind the U.S. congressional research institute used the book to support its article. Surely Mike Honda and Onishi, righteous men, will start campaigning against the former allies, and other human right activists like Debito will work hardest to make the US and Korean government apologize for the first time----No?

Saturday, May 19, 2007

Yuki Tanaka on sexual violence by military(2)

[T]he Japanese man asked the soldier to write a letter guaranteeing that he would return the car. The following is what he wrote:

One car(Buick)
Model "1930". To be used by the U.S. Gov. for purpose of transporting high ranking officers on official business. After all who won the war, you or me? This certifies that this car is to be used to pick up any girls who fuck, and further ore who cares what the hell is it to you.
G.I. Johpha(signed)
17-fort[sic} soldiers of the winning army, U.S.A.
on this date 19. Sept. 1945.

Indeed, some of these vehicle were used for kidnapping and raping young women....

Page118
About 6 o'clock, in the afternno of Septemer 1st, two American soldiers, in a truck forced two Japanese to guide them around the Yokohama city. When they came to Shojikiro, at Eirakucho, nakaku, they forced Miss K.Y., aged 24, a maidservant, to boad the truck against her will and absconded to the US Barracks in nogeyama Park. There altogether 27 of the American soldiers violated he in turn and rendered her unconcious page 121

Clifton was a young Australian junior officers of the BCOF(British Commonwealth Occupation Forces) who acted as an interpreter and criminal investigation. The following passages are some extracts from his memoirs.:

I stood besides a bed in a hospital. On it lay a girl, unconscious, her long black hair in wild tumult on the pillow. A doctor and two nurses were working to revive her. An hour before she had been raped by twenty soldiers. ..The girl was Japanese. The soldiers were Australians.
.....
Staying indoors was not sufficient to give women protection. One evening a young married woman was reading a book in bed in a hotel. Her husband was absent for the night on business......She awoke a little later to find a huge Australian soldier kneeling beside her, and another swaying in the doorway, his drunken leer telling more clearly than any speech or gesture what was to follow....The police , having no power , could do no more than inform us, when it was too late.
.......In accordance with army law the court's decision was forwarded to Australian for confirmation. Some time later the documents were returned marked "Conviction quashed because of insufficient evidence."

page 126


Well, Tanaka's documentation goes on.



Competing to have sex with Japanese female employee
....Mieoko decided to go home. An officer named Major Wilson offered to take her home, She accepted this offer and got into his car, Wilson took her to a barely field far from town and raped her in the car. Eventually he left her at a nearby railway station.
Mieko did not go to the office for the following four days, However, she eventually decided to return to work, blaming herself over her carelessness that invited Wilson's misbehaviour. Just a few days after returning to work, GI raped her in the office. It took place when she was working overtime and everyone had gone home. While she was being raped a member of the military police watched through an office window. . Far from trying to stop the rape, he said, "Hey, hey, nice. and disappeared. page 130

....lists of names of officers and junior officer's name appeared lip marks signifying now how many Japanese women that officers had "conquered."page 130

One may question why a woman would return to the office......it must be remembered that economic conditions in immediate postwar Japan was appalling and most Japanese civilians were desperately struggling to survive from day to day. page 131


Japanese police was powerless against GI's crime

Many of the extortion cases involve attempts y GIs to steal sabres and pistols from Japanese policemen. In some cases a small group of GIs surrounded a few police men on patrol in the street or on duty in a police box and forced them to hand over their weapons. It seems that many GIs wanted to take these arms back home as "spoils of war". Some of these extorted pistols were also used later in burglaries of Japanese homes and shops. page 118

... In another abduction case , at about 3, 30 pm on September 2, a policeman and some civilians walking down a street in Isogo ward, Yokohama city , saw a woman in her thirties who was madly crying for help in a car driven by a GI. Another GI was in the car too. Neither the policeman nor the civilians could do anything to rescue her. page 121

There are many other similar cases in Yokosuka and Yokohama, Cases arose in Tokyo, too, as the US troop moved into the metropolitan area from September 8.....
It was not just healthy young woman who fell victim to GIs sexual violence. ....at around 4;00 pm on the same day, these soldiers, then heavily intoxicated , returned and gang-raped K.T.'s sister, a 47-year-old woman, who was in bed suffering from spinal caries. page 121

....according to the testimony of Sugiura Tomoe... one night two drunken GI's barged into her house on the outskirts of Tokyo at around 10;00 pm. They threaten her father with a knife and demanded money. Once they got the money , they bound her father to a pillar and raped her mother. While mother was being attacked. , Tomoe and her 15-year-old sister , Naoko, were too terrified to move or call for help. After soldiers had raped the mother they bound her the same pillar and proceeded to rape Tomoe and Naoko in front of their parents. Naoko died from blood loss. Her father reported Naoko's death to the police station....Two police men and a doctor came to the house and took evidence. but that was the only time that police contacted them about the matter. page 122.



If Japanese police had been powerless, then there would have been no other way but to ask and plead GHQ to stop the crimes.

Almost every day from early September, the Japanese government officially complained to GHQ, thought CLO. about the numerous crimes that the US occupation troops were committing against Japanese civilians and public servants, in particular policemen....GHQ asked the Japanese authorities to provide more detailed information on offenders.....On September 27, GHQ asked the Japanese government to ensure that any report of criminals offences committed by soldiers be accompanied by some clue to identify the criminal. However, it was quite difficult fro ordinary Japanese people to describe the particular features of the US soldiers(who wore the same uniforms), let alone to quickly identify and memorize a should mark while being subjected to physical threat. ....
One GHQ report on crimes committed by US troops in Tokyo....says "of 100 reported cases of rape of Japanese women by US servicemen, only six have been substantiated . As evidence could be provided for only six cases , the author of this report proudly claimed that these figures reflected "the absence of serious crime waves" in Tokyo for this period .page 124


If neither MP nor GHQ had been of no help, the Japanese journalism must have been at work for justice.

yet there is no doubt that the newspaper reports on the increasing number of crimes committed by the occupation forces upset GHQ staff considerably.....On September 19, SCAP issued an memorandum on the "press code for Japan....

(article).4 There shall be no destructive criticism of the Allied Forces of Occupation and nothing which might invite mistrust or resentment of the troop.

....This censorship was introduced not only to suppress any information on crimes committed by the occupation troops, but also for many other purposes , such as information about the effects of the A-bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Comfort women; Yuki Tanaka on sexual violence of military(1)

"At 17;00 I was called to General MacArthur's quarters for a conference concerning some reported rapes cases on the part of Marines, There are also reports of some "acting up" on the part of 11th Airborne troop..."

It is interesting to note that the subject of the very first meeting between the top two military men of the US occupation forces immediately after the surrender ceremony was neither "the democratization of Japan " nor "the future status of Emperor Hirohito" but "rape by Marines"
Page123 Japan's Comfort Women/Yuki Tanaka


Mike Honda of the US representative and Onish of NYT are really righteous men, they want to make Japan to issue further apologies, because the several apologies by Japanese government are not "sincere" enough. He referred to the Congressional research, and the research referred to the book "Japan's comfort women" by Yuki Tanaka. But I think it was ironical the US congressional research cited Tanaka's book.
As far as I read the book, there is nothing new about the part describing Japanese system of comfort station. Sure it emphasizes the coercive aspects of the system,
and the brutal cases of rape, citing testimonies of the former comfort women, and accuse Japan vehemently . (though,for some reason, it does not mention the fact Japanese police regulated illegal brokers.)
However, note the author wrote
From the available testimonies of former comfort women, it is strongly believed that kidnapping and abduction were not widely used methods of procurement. page 44

It is apparent that many young Korean turned to prostitution to provide the essential income for their poverty-stricken families to survive. A series of the articles entitled "Poverty makes prostitutes", that appeared in September 1927 in the Korean newspaper Dongah Ilbo, clearly indicates this situation. It seems many young women were sold to brothels in returned for an advance payment to their families. Many married women also became prostitutes due to financial difficulties that arose while their husband were working away from home page 35


What is new is rather the part accusing the sexual violence's on the part of the US.
Let me cite the part Honda and the research ignored.

5 Sexual violence committed by the Allied occupation forces against Japanese women 1945-1946
Page 111
Soon after the US marine landed, all the women of a village on Motobu Peninsula fell into the hands of these American soldiers. At the time , there were only women, children and old people in the village, as ll the young men had been mobilized for the war, ....Taking advantage of this situation , they started "hunting for women" in broad daylight....It was no different from the "brutal acts on conquerors," committed by the Japanese forces in China.

page 112
US troops landed on Zamami Island , ...and began raping women there in March 1945, shortly after they had landed. They abducted the women, carried them one by one to deserted coastal areas and gang-raped them.......There is also a testimonies that some Okinawan nurses and local women patients who had been admitted to the US Field Hospital were raped by US soldiers. One of the victims, a young girl patient was raped by a GI in front of her father....The rape of Okinawan women by American soldiers continued even after the war officially ended and there are many incidents in which American soldiers took young girls from civilians houses at gunpoint.


"The rape of Okinawa'?

There is a lot more, I'll come back to it later.

Yuki Tanaka (2)
Yuki Tanaka (3)

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

page 54
The managers f comfort stations were instructed by the military authorities about the "salary" arrangements for their employees." For example,....half of the fee had to be paid to the comfort women and the other half to the manager. Expenses fro meals and bedding for the comfort women were supposed to be the manager's responsibility, while those for closing, hairdressing and cosmetics had to be met by each comfort woman. In case of illness, it was stipulated that 70 percent of medial expenses be paid by the manager. ....in the case of a women for whom more than 1.500 yen had been paid in advance at the time of her recruitment, she would receive at least 40 percent of her taking....

page 55
Obviously the managers took advantage of the lack of education and the naivety of their "employees," and gave them as little information as possible regarding their due payments and expenses that the manager were expected to meet.
Available testimonies from Korean comfort women verify this point. For example, in her testimony, Yi Tungnam, a former comfort woman from Korea, described the "financial arrangement" she had with her manager, Kaneyama, whose Korean name was Kim, while working at a comfort station in Hankou:

Kaneyama said that he would keep 70 percent of our income and we would get 30 percent. He claimed to be keeping a record so that he could give us our money in one lump sum when we left the station. Sometimes, if we asked for money to buy clothes that we needed , he would give us about 20 yen each and say he had deducted it from our respective record. However, he barely gave enough money for new clothes , offering us a little perhaps once every few months. The money I had was given to me by soldiers one in a while. And even if i wanted to buy something, it was never easy to go our. Kaneyaa disapproved of us leaving the station to buy anything for the merchants up the road. He argued that we might miss the customers.

Most former comfort women testify that they received little payment from their managers and the money they did get was mainly pocket money form occasional tips from their "clients". One Korean former comfort women, Mun Okocha claims that she managed to save money given to her as tips by officer....However it seems that her case was exceptional...



infimum Says:
May 9th, 2007 at

Basically, the image of American GIs in Japan is giving out Hershey’s chocolates to children, at least that is what I thought.

Japan Center of Asian Historical Records have relevant reports on such rapes. You can search the archive with the key word “進駐軍ノ不法行為” in their homepage.
http://www.jacar.go.jp/index.html

Also, the grand-daughter of the founder of Mitsubishi built an orphanage called Elizabeth Sanders Home for mixed children. They eventually built a school called St. Stephen’s School for them. The school still exists today.
http://www.stephen-oiso.ed.jp/index.html
Topcat Says:
May 9th, 2007 at

Bender,

You are right, I should have given something credible.

I have to make a correction first:
2,536 murders (not 9,000 sorry!)
29,768 rapes
for 7 years from 1945 to 1952
(both numbers are officially reported and recorded ones as crimes, actual numbers are estimated much larger)

I should have written –

Japanese lawmakers and many Japanese journalists/ historians/ non-fiction writers say that about 2,500 murders and about 30,000 rapes were done by US soldiers during the occupation period.

衆議院議事録
http://www.shugiin.go.jp/itdb_kaigiroku.nsf/html/kaigiroku/000216620070221002.htm
”実は、その調査をしていて、早急に、ペロシ米下院議長、マイク・ホンダ議員に翻訳して差し上げてもらいたいような資料が出てきました。

 資料二を見ていただきたいと思うんですけれども、これは官報号外、昭和二十八年二月二十七日に載った第十五回国会の社会党の藤原道子議員の質問の議事録です。

 二ページ目の上段に線が引いてありますけれども、そこにはこのように書かれてあります。「米軍の暴行事件は、昨年十二月まで独立後」独立後ですよ、「八カ月間におきまして千八百七十八件を数え、なお泣き寝入りになつておりまする件数は厖大な数であろうと想像されております。」

 次に、三段目の線のところを見ていただきたいと思いますけれども、またこうも述べておられます。

 私は、米軍の日本進駐に対し、この尊い母に代つて青年の純潔と健康と堕落から青年を守つた米軍をこそ、信頼し、期待していたのであります。併しこの期待はみごとに裏切られました。基地附近の百鬼夜行の有様は、学童の勉学する所まで荒らされ、幼児さえ米兵の行為の真似をして遊ぶ状態は、ひとり日本の母を悲しませるのみならず、遠く我が子の上を思うアメリカの妻が、母たちが、若しこの実情を知りましたならば、その歎きと、当局に対する不信と憤りは、どのような結果を招くでありましようか。それとも、アメリカの婦人尊重、正義人道とは、アメリカ国内だけであつて、ヨーロッパではそれは紳士道を守るが、アジアの国々においては、その国内法を無視し、何をしてもよい、軍紀も何も通用しないことになつているのでございましようか。

 アメリカの若き兵士の妻、母の立場をもおもんぱかった格調高い日本女性議員の訴えは、読んでいて心を打つものがあると思うんですね。私は、戦後失われたものの一つに、正当な抗議をしなくてはならないときにしてこなかったことがあると思うんです。”

産経新聞阿比留記者のブログ
http://abirur.iza.ne.jp/blog/entry/130519
”(2)アメリカ
 アメリカ軍が日本に進駐したとき、最初の1か月、それも神奈川県下だけで2900件の強姦事件が発生した。7年の占領期間中には2536件の殺人と3万件の強姦事件を起こした。事態を憂慮したGHQは、ついに東京都に慰安所の設置を要求した。これはうわさや誇張ではなくれっきとした事実である。”

SAPIO 2007年4月11日号 
封印されていた占領下の米兵「日本人婦女子凌辱事件」ファイル/水間政憲
http://skygarden.shogakukan.co.jp/skygarden/owa/solrenew_magcode?
sha=1&neoc=2300204107&keitai=0
ジャーナリストの水間政憲氏が国立公文書館から探し出したというファイル。ファイルは377ページに及ぶ「進駐軍ノ不法行為」(内務省警保局外事課)という手書きの原本。没収され米国に持ち去られていたものを、1973年に日本に返還された資料。
*国立公文書館
http://www.archives.go.jp/

52-53/Top cat/anpontan/eyes wide shut
米兵による戦後沖縄の女性に対する犯罪cash

Friday, May 18, 2007

Marx's perspective which is still influential

Some of Marx'sperspective is influentical and still useful in analyzing driving factors behind internatioal relations.
In his classics works such as The Communist Manifesto, Grundrisse, and Capital, Marx predicted that the bourgeoisie would continue to create a global market and undermine any local or national barriers to its own expansion. Expansion is a necessary product of the core dynamic of capitalism: overproduction. Competition among producers drives them to cut wages, which in turn leads to a crisis of under-consumption. The only way to prevent economic collapse is to find new markets to absorb excess consumer goods. For a Marxist perspective, some form of imperialism is inevitable. By exporting population to resource rich foreign territories, a nation creates a market for industrial goods and a reliable source of natural resources. Alternately, weaker countries can face the choice of either voluntarily admitting foreign products that will undermine domestic industry or submitting to political domination, which will accomplish the same end.SEP

Thursday, May 17, 2007

Comfort women : Atonement as compared with Germany

Atonement for the former comfort women:

(1)apology
Kato hief Cabinet Secretary 1992
The Government again would like to express its sincere apology and remorse to all those who have suffered indescribable hardship as so-called "wartime comfort women", irrespective of their nationality or place of birth.
http://www.mofa.go.jp/policy/postwar/state9207.html

Kono the Chief Cabinet Secretary 1993
The Government of Japan would like to take this opportunity once again to extend its sincere apologies and remorse to all those, irrespective of place of origin, who suffered immeasurable pain and incurable physical and psychological wounds as comfort women.
http://www.mofa.go.jp/policy/women/fund/state9308.html

Murayama Prime Minister 1995
The problem of the so-called wartime comfort women is one such scar, which, with the involvement of the Japanese military forces of the time, seriously stained the honor and dignity of many women. This is entirely inexcusable. I offer my profound apology to all those who, as wartime comfort women, suffered emotional and physical wounds that can never be closed.
http://www.mofa.go.jp/policy/women/fund/state9507.html

Hashimoto Prime Minister 1998
Recognizing that the issue of comfort women, with an involvement of the Japanese military authorities at that time, was a grave affront to the honor and dignity of large numbers of women, I would like to convey to Your Excellency my most sincere apologies and remorse to all the women who underwent immeasurable and painful experiences and suffered incurable physical and psychological wounds as comfort women.
http://www.mofa.go.jp/policy/women/fund/project0107-3.html

Koizumi Prime Minister 2001
As Prime Minister of Japan, I thus extend anew my most sincere apologies and remorse to all the women who underwent immeasurable and painful experiences and suffered incurable physical and psychological wounds as comfort women.
http://www.mofa.go.jp/policy/women/fund/pmletter.html

Abe Prime Minister 2007
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.
http://megalodon.jp/?url=http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/04/20070427-6.html&date=20070428120506

(2) the fund
Asian woman fund
The problems with the fund pointed out.

In case of Germany

Federal compensation act (連邦補償法)
Over 90% people who were compensated were Germans or residents in the former colonized place.
The strict proof of the authenticity for the victims was demanded.
The bureaucratic procedure turned out to be complicated,

So German human right activists recommended to set up the fund to deal with the issue flexibly when Japanese human activists visited German to ask for suggestion..

After the unification, the fund was set up for the victims in Russia and Poland.
And the compensation was handed to the victims with the letter similar to Japanese counterpart.

via Yorozubampovia Let's Blow! 毒吐き@てっく


Note this is not for the former prostitutes exploited by German troop. . According to Hata, a historian, few German even realise that there were such brothels despite the fact there were 500 brothels just like Japanese counterparts(Franz Seidler).
Let me know if somebody know German apologized to the former prostitutes in the way Japan did.

.............................................................
SYDNEY, March 27 Kyodo

An Australian grandmother who was forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese military during World War II has welcomed Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s apology to so-called ‘’comfort women.'’

Speaking on local television, 84-year-old Jan Ruff O’Herne said Monday night the apology had given all such sexually exploited women their dignity back.

‘’It’s just fantastic news, I could hardly believe it,'’ Ruff O’Herne said.

‘’It means the comfort women, they’ve got their dignity back. We’ve been waiting for this for 60 years,'’ she said.

Abe reiterated Monday afternoon that his administration stands by a 1993 statement admitting that the Imperial Japanese Army was ‘’directly or indirectly'’ involved in setting up and running the brothels and transferring women to them.

Asked if the government has no intention of issuing an official apology, Abe told the parliamentary committee meeting, ‘’As the prime minister, I am apologizing here.'’

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0WDQ/is_2007_April_2/ai_n18771347

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

“The Korean Wave in Sex Trafficking,

See, as Korean people often say, if you don't face history, you repeat it.
Cho Jin-kyeong has witnessed some of the worst cases of sex trafficking in Korea. As a veteran activist for Dasi Hamkke (Together Again), a support group that offers aid to victims of forced prostitution, she has tried to help former sex slaves repair their lives.
At her office in the quiet working-class neighborhood of Daebang-dong, not far from what used to be the red light district of Yeongdeungpo, she’s counselled a woman who escaped from an island after suffering years of debt bondage in an unlicensed club, earning 300,000 won ($330) a month in return for selling her body to sailors and tourists.
She has also offered aid to a young woman who was forced into a brothel to pay for her abortion, and a woman whose hands were paralyzed after being forced to work endless hours in a massage parlor. Drug addiction, death threats and the endless cycle of servitude are just a few of the themes that fill Cho’s mind on her way to work every morning.
With most of her cases, Cho is very willing to talk. But when the conversation turns to female victims who have returned to Korea after being trafficked to countries like Japan or United States, her words become more restrained.
“These are some of the worst cases I’ve seen,” she says. “Their experience involves the mental distress of migration, guilt and fear.”
Then there is the fear of revenge. The victims constantly suffer from threats during and after their enslavement overseas. They are told that any woman who escapes will be caught by international gangsters; rumors abound that women’s hands have been cut off and their bodies dumped into the sea.”
Then there is the fear of an unknown world ― one that’s poisoned by confusion and oppression.
Once the women are trafficked abroad, the local pimps block social channels that might give the women a chance to reach out for help. As a result, victims rarely know much about the countries where they are trafficked until they are out of a pimp’s hands. And, even if they are freed, the fear of trusting others remains.
“Really, who would you trust, besides yourself, if you had been in a situation like that?” asks Lee Jeong-hye, the director of the International Organization of Migration in Seoul, which monitors human trafficking.
When Korean women are trafficked to countries like Japan or United States, they are often lured into captivity by a desperate desire to pay off accumulated debts.
In a society that maintains a conservative attitude toward sex, young Korean women sometimes see working abroad in another country’s sex industry as a way to earn fast money without shame or prejudice.
The Korean government introduced the Anti Sex-Trafficking Law in 2004. It banned all forms of prostitution in Korea and, in its wake, overseas prostitution has become a promising business alternative for those Koreans who used to control the local the sex trade.
In 2005, the U.S. State Department launched Operation Gilded Cage, a federal investigation of illegal aliens involved in sex trafficking. Almost 150 Koreans were detained as a result. Last year, TVB, the Taiwanese news channel, ran a special report about Korean women who had been trafficked.
The report was called “The Korean Wave in Sex Trafficking,” a term derived from the success of Korean pop entertainers in Southeast Asia, which, in this case, was used to demonstrate a huge increase in the numbers of Korean women forced into prostitution in Taiwan.
Canada, Australia, Guam and even Brazil have also seen new waves of sex trade workers from Korea after the anti-prostitution law was put into effect and it became harder for the industry to survive here.
Women are lured into prostitution through discreet channels like Internet cafes and classified ads in free newspapers. On the Internet, ads for work in the sex industry are easily accessible by typing in phrases like “overseas employment for women,” “work in Guam” or “kurabu,” the Japanese version of a hostess bar. Some kurabu agencies guarantee up to 4 million won ($4,330) a month for pouring drinks for men.


he real issue is that there is a solid network of politicians, government officials and corporate powerhouses in this country who view the sex trade as a territory that cannot be controlled by the state, because the development of Korean industry was virtually built around the sex trade.”May 17, 2007/By Park Soo-mee Staff Writer/JoongAng Daily