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China debuts film on its last surviving 'comfort women' at Busan festival

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The Japanese government claims to have no evidence of "comfort women" sex slaves and therefore states they did not exist. This curious position is maintained even if those who were actually sex slaves speak out. Perhaps they close their eyes and stuff their fingers in their ears to avoid being presented with evidence.

9 ( +12 / -3 )

Brave...

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Japanese newspapers have reported authorities complained to UNESCO following China’s application that the “comfort women” story be entered into the organisation’s Memories of the World register, which was set up in 1992 to preserve “documentary heritage.”

To me, this complaint is an interesting story also. I ask: is there, anywhere, more information on the complaint? Who in the government authorizes this complaining? On what basis and for what purpose? Very strange behavior for a democratic country to oppose this unless they have some kind of evidence that the "stories" are fabrications. And, what is the nature of the "stories"? Are they documents of some kind? I would like to know what the Japanese government is complaining about exactly.

3 ( +6 / -3 )

fully funded by teh Chinese stste

-10 ( +4 / -14 )

@madcows , could be, but the facts of contents are not disputed by normal impartial international historians including Japanese and American and European.

This is of course the opposite of Japan, who never produced any film to show the truth but only glorifying its and whitewashing its war crimes etc. If you rather prefer that, then that's your right.

@shallots, yes, it's pathetic Japan contacted the Unesco committee (Asahi shimbun reported the membets of the committee were "clearly displeased" by this) as it shows the stopping of China's application points to Japan's lack of atonement and respect for the countless victims and their lives and future and everything else that were wiped out by the invading/occupying Japanese army. Japan doesn't build even one monument for the tens of millions of Chinese and Korean and Asian victims, and now bullies the Unesco committee to stop showing the truth/give some deserved recognition to the victims (that suffered the same or worse than the Jewish victims at the hands of the Nazis).

4 ( +6 / -2 )

This issue of the comfort women will never go away. On one side, there are the Japanese downplaying and denying the events, and on the other hand you have China enflaming and exaggerating the events. However, Japan does have a responsibility to accept their wrong doings and to stop denying and downplaying these events. All they have to do is to solemnly state that it is true and sincerely apologize. Yes, there has been apologies issued in the past and compensation paid, but just last year there was some Japanese politician openly stating that these women volunteered for this servitude. WTF!!!!

0 ( +3 / -3 )

Shame on those who deny the facts and blame these poor women on the atrocities and horror visited upon them and THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS of others who were raped and many murdered after being forced into sexual slavery by Japan. Even bigger shame on those posters who deny it despite incontrovertible evidence proving it. They KNOW they are wrong, and should be ashamed, and hence they have to come on here and angrily deny and accuse others, often the victims, of being wrong. Shame on them, and good on these women for having the courage to allow the movie to be made, and for still standing up and insisting the issue be recognized, and not just dying out like some posters wish so that people who were actually there and suffered can't contest the lies said posters create or support.

2 ( +7 / -5 )

It is easy for Japan to whitewash the issue as it is also know that the IJA destroyed records prior to signing the surrender on the Missouri. Even the Japanese had admitted as much.

No paper, no record, never happened......bullshit from the rest of the world, but again this is Japan.

2 ( +6 / -4 )

@ yubaru, exactly!!!!, the pathetic reaction of the Japanese (of course you are global enough to accept the truth already) when they hear the truth for the first time...

...as you succinctly put it, "... but again this is Japan"..!!!!

Well put. Nuff said.

1 ( +4 / -3 )

first we should all stop using that obnoxious euphemism "comfort women". just stop.

2 ( +4 / -3 )

@Polar Cities - "first we should all stop using that obnoxious euphemism..."

Exactly! The word is 慰安婦 (ianfu) and it is a Japanese word... for a Japanese idea... that the rest of the world can barely begin to understand!! :-(

0 ( +2 / -2 )

Japanese newspapers have reported authorities complained to UNESCO following China’s application that the “comfort women” story be entered into the organisation’s Memories of the World register, which was set up in 1992 to preserve “documentary heritage.”

But of course the papers and other momorabilia associated with kamikaze pilots should be recognized, right? Because, afterall, they were heroes trying to defend Japan from aggression. What hypocrites.

2 ( +5 / -3 )

What a shame that Japan has totally blown wrt to the nasty bits of WWII history, the sex slave issue one of many, Japan could be light years ahead of where she is now in all this, such a waste & for WHAT!

3 ( +5 / -2 )

one of the worst things in this world is the china-gov, and it surely funded the film. but this is independent of the actual historical truth: the japanese-gov pre-1945 committed atrocities. and it will forever haunt today's japan-gov deniers. there is no difference between today's japan-gov deniers of past war atrocities and holocaust deniers.

on the other hand, the actual japan-gov has apologized often enough, i think. so china-gov, please stop.

-4 ( +1 / -5 )

It's a shame that Japan tries to avoid legal responsibility and changes its statement due to the influence of the Japanese right-wing groups and also justifies the imperial history of Japan with claims that the recognition of war crimes is a dishonor to their ancestors. In the end it is sad because former victims continue to fight for an apology including compensation demand because this issue hasn't been resolved after all these years since relations normalized between Japan and South Korea.

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This weakens Japan. It shows that current Japanese government officials are not to be taken seriously. This is not to say that China doesn't foment hatred and distort some aspects of history. They do. But Japan was an occupier that visited misery on many places during that time. There is no reason for current leaders not to own up to the government's responsibilities or to deny the public the right to know. If Japan would champion some aspects of remembrance, and this might have been a perfect occasion, then they would have a better chance of being taken seriously on matters of history that could be in dispute. Apologies have limited meaning. It's actions and learning that touch people's hearts. Just look at the Germany does history for an example. Is anyone on them for apologies? It's their continual straightforward recognition of the past that makes the difference.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

I didnt know they want a Oscar trophy for that.

-6 ( +1 / -7 )

Abe and LDP will never acknowledge the horror these women experienced ever existed that's why the World will never acknowledge Mr Abe & LDP as true leaders of Japan.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

Ms.Zhang is a victim of wartime abduction, captivity and rape. While I sympathize and feel she should seek justice, her case is not a so called comfort women issue. Comfort women issues are about women who were forced into working as prostitutes against their wills in comfort stations which were brothels established for Japanese soldiers. Most of the world sees the comfort station system as one which allowed human trafficking and prostitution, hence it attracts many who bash it from a moral point of view, although human trafficking for brothels were happening in most of the country back at the time. I have read the testimonies of some other women who were also victimized in similar ways as Ms.Zhang in the same village or villages in the same province as hers, but there is no mention of soldiers paying somebody in charge to have sex with them. I have never seen any quotes from Ms.Zhang in which she says that was they way it was done either. So she was not forced into prostitution, but she was gang raped. I cannot understand why her case is being treated as a comfort women issue case, aside from the assumption that human rights activists who have openly admitted they had great difficulty in finding surviving 'ex-comfort women' in China in another article written on Ms.Zhang, have managed to make it seem as if Ms.Zhang was forced to work in a comfort station, while the actual case was quite different. Ms.Zhang could not have understood she was being kept in a comfort station as a comfort woman, as she could not have understood the Japanese language in the first place. If she said so afterwards, those words were put in her mouth by the activists who were exploiting her for what they needed. Not what Ms.Zhang rightfully deserves. There are countless women of all races who had been sexually violated by enemy forces during the war, but only very few can be defined as 'comfort women'. There was no comfort station in Ms.Zhang's case which took payment from soldiers who wanted to have sex with her; it was not prostitution, there was no human trafficking, and it was not a business. There was just a shack of some kind which the ruthless soldiers took over to keep women like Ms.Zhang captive. There are many cases like hers which have been treated as a comfort women issue case, which in result spread misunderstandings on the comfort station system. These crimes should not be confused with comfort women issues as it would be unfair to both women like Ms.Zhang and those who were actually forced into working in real comfort stations more than anyone; and by saying 'forced into' I do not necessarily mean forced into by the Japanese army, as most ex-comfort women have testified they were sold off by family or tricked into the business by bad brokers.

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

China’s application that the “comfort women” story

"Story". Or great. Recent and tertiary source to be applied for documentary heritage.

-7 ( +2 / -9 )

https://thenanfang.com/care-comfort-women-begins-home/

“I did not want these women lost to history,”

0 ( +2 / -2 )

Japan's revisionists are such dopes.

-1 ( +6 / -7 )

The euphemism that needs to be stopped is "sex slaves". They weren't slaves they were in the employ of the military and received a salary. The correct term is "military prostitutes". Until we can be honest about the facts there will never be any resolution. But then that's not the objective. Military prostitution, called the Comfort Women system was a fact. That 200,000 women were kidnapped by soldiers is a lie.That they were all enslaved is also a lie. Pointing out a lie is not revisionism. The United States from the time of WWII to date has zero evidence of mass kidnapping and sexual slavery. This is a fact,

-3 ( +1 / -4 )

Nigelboy: ""Story". Or great. Recent and tertiary source to be applied for documentary heritage."

Shame on those who refuse to accept the facts, and blame the victims! For this reason YOU will always have to apologize and make amends.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

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