S Korean president urges Japan to resolve sex slave issue

"...saying time was running out to resolve the issue."

That's precisely what the so-called 'historians' and what politicians WANT to happen. Until then, they'll say the issue has already been resolved or that it never happened at all. The day Japan seriously acknowledges and makes a GENUINE apology over the sex slave issue, or any atrocities its troops committed, in the Koreas and China, will be the day that... wait, it just won't ever happen.

Again?

It's time for Japan to condemn the Park regime for not using the compo where it counts.

This was settled in 1965. Japan did its part.It is over!

President Lee is now just trying to gain domestic political popularity.

For all the countries around Japan...(Koreas,China,Russia) when got in troubles just slam japan , an easy lamped duck!

in the Koreas and China, will be the day that... wait, it just won't ever happen.

Why just Korea and China? why not the Philippines, British Malaya, the Dutch East Indies, Singapore, French Indochina, British India? it's only the countries that complain in the media that is relevant to you isn't it?

japan is bad.

j4p4nFTW: "This was settled in 1965. Japan did its part.It is over!"

If this issue was resolved then so was the abduction issue based on the agreement between Koizumi and Kim Jong Il. Why is it Japanese always think ONE thing is resolved or belongs to them but then disagrees about something being resolved when they are the 'victim'?

The issue will not be resolved until properly addressed. I don't think they should be getting any sort of compensation, per se, but a heartfelt apology -- and not a denial or attempt to take BACK an apology made in the past (ie. Abe tried to rescind the apology made by a PM in the 90s). But I suspect this will be like Japan admitting to Nanking (and likewise politicians denying it happened).

The worst part is that the people of the nation are never actually educated as to what Japan did way back when, so they cannot form their own opinions on the matter and only believe the propaganda fed to them by the politicians in question.

Oh man, this thing is really annoying. So many real problems around the world and these Asiatic countries are still arguing about sex slavery dated more than 50y ago. Why is so hard to Japan to make a ceremony, call the Sex Slaves and say SORRY,

China and Koreas: Why charge these things from a whole nation? I am sure that the people responsible for that are already dead. Why should the new Generations say sorry for something that is not their fault?

Same as If a Japanese meet a American girl in the street and say: Hey, you American, my family died because your nuclear bombs, say sorry now or I am going to be very upset with you.

War usually involves all kind of atrocities that bring out the worst in people...Japanese should recognize and formally apologize, regarding the compensation no money can wash away the sins, only mutual understanding and respect can give hope of a lasting peace. Trying to protect that national pride using ignorance will only tense the relations between the countries, bowing your head and apologizing isn't a sign of weakness but a sign of strength, determination and respect; cause it takes strength to admit what you've done wrong- However the apology must be made only if they're truly sorry otherwise is just deceit.

@smith

If this issue was resolved then so was the abduction issue based on the agreement between Koizumi and Kim Jong Il.

That is what you call "false equivalency." The two issues are unrelated.

Again?

Uh, yeah. You see, J-gov keeps changing and Japanese history books get "revised" so often that it is quite reasonable to assume at the present J-gov didn't know about WW2.

What EXACTLY do they want?

"Comfort women, a euphemism used to describe women forced into sexual slavery by Japanese troops before and during World War II,"

There is no doubt in my mind that women were forced, especially in Post Pearl harbour invaded territories when the war was going strong.

But "comfort women" was the euphamism used by recruiters in Korea when advertising in Korean national newspapers for women to work at salaries stated to be approximately 20 times that of soldiers and nurses, in war zones. (Many of the women did recieve the stated salary, and many did not when Japan went bancrupt at the end of the war).

The wikipedia article on Comfort Women suggest that this use of the word "comfort women" proves that the women thus recruited were sexual slaves because the adverts were dishonest, and did not advertise with the catch copy "Prostitutes Wanted."

No, they advertised for "Comfort Women." So, it is argued, the women were duped into thinking that they would get twenty times nurses wages for holding soldiers hands and comforting them, when in fact they had to have sex with them. So they were duped, conned, and hence sex slaves.

Some of the "comfort women" were very young. One of the Korean ladies (about 70 then, and unable to hold back her tears) said on video, "The Japanese say we went their voluntarily. I was 14. I had to have sex with Japanese soldiers, in appallinlg conditions, at least 10 a day, on a good day. Tell me, what 14 year old would choose to do that?"

The adverts were for women above 17 or 18 (depending on the advert) but, no doubt, some were accepted below that age. And no doubt a proportion of the women were forced. In Japan at least, family members have been known to send their daughters into that kind of work when the rest of the family faces severe financial hardship, or the possibility of starvation.

In any event however, "Comfort Women," was not originally a euphamism to describe women forced into sexual slavery, but a euphamism used when advertising for sex workers. The adverts themselves are there for all to see on wikipedia. People who were duped by that "euphamism," (used imho for the sake of the applicants and their families more than anything else) were in my humble opinion, in the vast, vast, minority.

In the sex industry in Japan today workers can ear about 10 to 20 times the salary of a Japanese nurse. And, sadly, today -- though conditions are so much better than they were in the early 1940s -- there are many people from other Asian countries that come to work in the Japanese sex industry - even though such work is prohibited by law. Some of them are duped, some of them think that they are going to be "dancers," and "entertainers," I have no doubt.

it was solved, there was a treaty. it must be election year in korea.

yasu

they want nothing actually. they knew that jgov doesnt apologieze for this issue. its a only performance for the next election.

@timtak

"There is no doubt in my mind that women were forced, "

No doubt at all?Then surely you must have a proof of what you believe.Could you please show this proof to all of us so we can resolve the matter once and for all?

@timtak

"There is no doubt in my mind that women were forced, "

You have no doubts and no proof. You have nothing.

which mounted a brutal occupation of the Korean peninsula between 1910 and 1945.

Sensationalist rhetoric with no basis in fact. Building schools, hospitals, roads etc is not brutal.

Sensationalist rhetoric with no basis in fact. Building schools, hospitals, roads etc is not brutal.

Neither is raising the national literacy rate by 70% and establishment of education through junior high school for all subjects.

What need is there for Japan to apologize? The group of people who committed those "atrocities" were leaders of a different government and individuals, unrelated to the current democratic government instituted after the war.

Please check the Korean post, the issue is that Koreas court made a ruling last year that the Korean government has to actively try to settle the problem. But the court left open how to achieve this. So now instead for the Korean government to pay by state owned money the politicians try to milk japan first. Actually this demand seems to come from the government and not from the comfort women organizations.

Sad that WAR leaves "scars" of all kinds....

However, mankind has endured many more than what is "known".

For every "invasion" in Europe, Asia and even the Americas... "rape" was the word.

To have a "recruited" or otherwise having an organized and regulated and humane place for "preventing" such unwanted "rape" of the general population may have been more "humane" (at least for the general population) than what could have been otherwise, especially in a war.

Then when a country "demands" compensation for one aspect of the war, then it opens up a whole lot more. The modern transportation systems and the industrial base in Korea was designed and created by the Japanese forces although partially forced. Without that base created by Japan, their recovery would have been much slower. One reason why many other Koreans support Japan.

Each country must ask... when is it over?

Korea takes in Trillions from Japan in legal as well as illegal activities today. Some 20years ago under Korean nationalism, Korean government forced Japanese industries to turn over whole factories to Korea. Today much for their successful technology buildup came from Japan.

So... is there a need to pursue this subject?

Obviously the "motive" must be looked at "before" opinions on 20/20 hindsight.

Incredibly, we have posters here denying the brutal occupation of Korea by the Japanese. Murder, rape and subjugation is not brutal, eh?

Lee said. “In order for the two countries to work closely together as partners, genuine courage and wisdom to face the truth are required.”

Oh, you can just hear the sincerity in that, can't you? Lee knows how to play to a domestic crowd. As documented in history, the issue of compensation was settled between Japan and South Korea in 1965, and it was agreed by South Korea that its government would disburse the compensation internally.

Lee needs to stop passing the buck and show some honest responsibility towards his own people. HE is the one who needs to act, or he "will lose the chance to settle this issue for good."

South Korea had its chance to let Japan apologize to the sex slaves back in the 60's but refused Japan's offer to recompense them directly. Instead, South Korea took a lump sum payment from Japan ostensibly for the over 1 million conscripts Japan used. South Korea said it would distribute the money and no further claims on the issue would be made. Now almost 40 years later, apparently the sex slaves never received recompensation and South Korea is trying to shame Japan into further concessions on the issue. So the South Korean government stole these victim's compensation and lied when they signed the Normalization Treaty. The shame belongs on the South Korean government in regards to this issue, not Japan.

Perhaps it is Lee who should stop denying history, and publicly acknowledge that his country's government used the compensation to build an expressway and a dam, and this after REFUSING to allow Japan to pay compensation to the Korean victims directly:

"In January 2005, the South Korean government disclosed 1,200 pages of diplomatic documents that recorded the proceeding of the treaty. The documents, kept secret for 40 years, recorded that South Korea agreed to demand no compensations, either at the government or individual level, after receiving $800 million in grants and soft loans from Japan as compensation for its 1910-45 colonial rule in the treaty.

"The documents also recorded that the Korean government demanded a total of 364 million dollars in compensation for the 1.03 million Koreans conscripted into the workforce and the military during the colonial period, at a rate of 200 dollars per survivor, 1,650 dollars per death and 2,000 dollars per injured person. However, the South Korean government used most of the grants for economic development, failing to provide adequate compensation to victims by paying only 300,000 won per death in compensating victims of forced labor between 1975 and 1977. Instead, the government spent most of the money establishing social infrastructures, founding POSCO, building Gyeongbu Expressway and the Soyang Dam with the technology transfer from Japanese companies.

The documents also reveals that the South Korean government claimed that it would handle individual compensation to its citizens who suffered during Japan's colonial rule while rejecting Japan's proposal to directly compensate individual victims and receiving the whole amount of grants on the behalf of victims."

(source: Wikipedia, my emphasis)

Folks this AINT hard to understand, its like this:

How on earth can people on this thread claim Japan has or wanted to PAY in regards to the SEX SLAVES, when get this, JAPAN WILL NOT ADMIT IT............

So if Japan wont admit to sex slavery, HOW ON EARTH CUD THEY HAVE PAID COMPENSATION for sex slaves, wud love to hear the answers for this!

Bottom line is Japan has no one to blame but itself, reap whay you sow comes to mind.

What need is there for Japan to apologize? The group of people who committed those "atrocities" were leaders of a different government and individuals, unrelated to the current democratic government instituted after the war.

Try telling that to the government that confiscates assets from people they perceive are Japanese collaborators.

Solve what? Undo what they did decades ago?

@GW - it's quite simple. It was not necessary for Japan to indicate exactly WHO the victims were, because South Korea insisted on taking control of the distribution of compensation.

By doing so, the responsibility fell on South Korea to pay that compensation to those it deemed victims. If anything, then, it was South Korea which failed to recognize or acknowledge the comfort women as victims - not that they would have been given full compensation anyway (see my Wikipedia quote above).

It is undeniable that South Korea directly took the issue out of Japan's hands. Did South Korea REALLY not know its own citizens had been used as 'comfort women', or did it just choose to conveniently ignore them because it was busy spending the money on other things?

Albert Lazzaris, I totally agree with you. I have met Japanese people that say they don't like America for all the people they killed with the A-bombs and and then they try to be the victims (denying everything their government did to the rest of the world). Then I have some Chinese friends (on their 20's) who have been to Japan, we have Japanese friends in common and yet dared to participate in the manifestations against Japanese people in China because what they did. Seriously, stop this crap already!

SerranoMar. 01, 2012 - 09:53PM JST Incredibly, we have posters here denying the brutal occupation of Korea by the Japanese. Murder, rape and >subjugation is not brutal, eh?

Incredibly we have posters here who buy all the anti-Japan side of the argument but are in denial about the total reality of the issue. This reflects the current Korean one-sided and rather convenient view of their relationship with Japan from 1910 to 1945. Murder, Rape and Subjugation were carried out by Koreans in he Japanese military against other Asians, like in China as there were some 240,000 Koreans serving, far in excess of Japanese recruitment quotas. Some of their brutality towards allied POWS is well known and a few were charged as Class B war criminals. Thse same Koreans in the Japanese Imperial Army made use of the Comfort Women System, and even benefited from a reduced "ticket price". So was there bruality by the Japanese colonial masters and forced efforts to absord Korean culture and identity into the Japanese Empire? Yes. But was that all there was? No. Japan did in fact modernize a totally backwards Korea from infrastructure, industry to education, the remnants of which are visible in the succesful modern societry that South Korea is today. As for the Comfort Women, the notion that every one of them was kidnapped into service is ridiculous. You simply cannot kidnap that many people and expect to run and govern a colony without total chaos. Some perhjaps were kidnapped. But others were "sold into it by the parentrs and families, a practice common among the poor in East Asia at the time. Some were undoubtedly tricked and mislead, and local Korean middlemen played a major role in securing these recruits, along with those who willingly applied to the ads. A fisrt hand report can be found here: http://www.exordio.com/1939-1945/codex/Documentos/report-49-USA-orig.html As for the Souh Korean governments current efforts to revive the issue, which the Japanese consider was settled in 1965, I don't see how Japan can not acede to any portion of this without a willingness of the South Korean government to make public to it's own people in depth exactly what happened to the money it received that was to cover such claims. South Korea must also realize what it does to it's diplomatic credibility if it were to ignore the 1965 treaty entirely as it now seems to be doing.

j4pjnFTW: "That is what you call "false equivalency." The two issues are unrelated."

No, they are related in that Japan wants things one way in one situation but cannot accept the same thing in another. Id est, it's an example of the hypocrisy of the Japanese government. What's more, you can absolutely feel the desperation from parents like the Yokotas to learn something more about their lost children, and empathize with their frustration when no progress is made, but instead of trying to put your feet in the sex slaves shoes you simply dismiss it.

As for 'proof', which you demanded of another poster, there is a lot of it -- both in SK, China, the US, and even in Japan. In the former two you guys call this 'propaganda' instead of addressing it. In the case of the proof provided by the US when Abe was trying to rescind the apology on the sex slave issue, it led to him having to admit what he had just finished denying -- that Imperial troops were engaged in sex with the slaves. He soon after quit his job. In Japan the proof comes in testimony by former troops but is quickly called 'foggy memory' by politicians that were never there. It WAS funny watching Abe squirm and backtrack on his claims and rescind attempts, though. :)

kazetsukai: "Today much for their successful technology buildup came from Japan."

I hear this 'argument' by right-wingers all the time if the conversation switches to history. "War is bad, b-b-b-but thanks to Japan's colonization many people were employed!" or, "Thanks to Japan's colonization Taiwan has a modern education system -- they know it and are thankful to the Japanese people", or posts like yours, where you dismiss the atrocities by suggesting there's no motivation to look into them, or by saying flat out the nations which were conquered, brutalized, and saw many raped and murdered BENEFITTED from the actions! If you honestly believe such ludicrous notions then you have to also admit that North Korea exists due to Japanese colonization. They were one people before Japan went in, raping and killing and suppressing, then when WWII ended they were split into two along with a number of other nations -- that would not have been the case if not thanks to Japan, right?

Isn't there more to gain than to lose here, regardless of how you look at it; Japan will be the big brother anyway. It all sounds like an enticing "Please, do this for us and gain a friend?" deal to me. Their respective economic markets would respond favorably and both economies need it!

@smithinjapan

Agree...

I don't even post anymore because you always say it all.

How on earth can people on this thread claim Japan has or wanted to PAY in regards to the SEX SLAVES, when get this, JAPAN WILL NOT ADMIT IT............

Japan says the issue of compensation for ALL conscripts - including the "comfort women" - was resolved in the details of the 1965 Normalization Treaty between Japan and South Korea. Sounds to me like the Japanese government admits they exist if they're saying that the comfort women's situation was resolved in 1965. Can't very well say you've resolved someone's issue if you're also denying they exist, right?

Hatsoff already quoted the applicable sections, but if you want to peruse the full entry, it can be found here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_on_Basic_Relations_between_Japan_and_the_Republic_of_Korea

The issue was settled, the legal government at the time was compensated. There is a election in Korea and nothing helps generate more votes than Japan bashing. Putin is doing the same thing and you should hear the political ads in America. Anyhow Japan should not pay attention to the South or help that candidate get elected by responding.

More Japanese people died in POW camps AFTER the war than Koreans died during the war. As brutal as WW2 was it pales in comparison to the brutality of the Korean war which resulted in more Korean deaths than all of the Japanese deaths during WW2.

Korea was divided by pen and bloody cleansing between the industrial north, anti-Japanese forces and the rural south collaborators. The grandparents of all South Koreans were pro-Japan during the Japanese occupation and are at least as guilty as Japan for any and all war crimes during WW2 across Asia.

And by the way more than 660 Japanese war criminals were executed after WW2.

You know what the really sad thing is about sex slavery? It's still going on today. Probably not so much in Japan or SK but Thailand, Cambodia and other places, including the US, there is "human trafficing" going on.

I have to agree that it's pure politics for this issue to be dredged up yet again after 50 years. But Japan could stop all this by providing accurate textbooks and shutting up fools like Ishihara. In Germany it's a crime to deny that the holocaust happened and Germany gets along much better with the neighbors than Japan does. There's a lesson there that Japan hasn't learned and is thus subjected to this kind of behaviour by Korea and China. The motives are a pretext but Japan refuses to defuse the issue and so it goes on and on.

I agree with many on this board, that this is just one of those issues Korean politicians like to pull out to get votes. They know their constituents will get frothy at the mouth because of the unresolved rage the have towards Japan, even though the vast majority weren't even born, and many of the rest collaborated with war time Japan to say the least. Truth is, the Koreans are a nation of whingers. I've seen it time and time again in students I have taught. The Japanese are just obtuse. Unfortunately, they continue to shoot themselves in the foot and look like fools for denying this, that and the other thing (JapanGal is a perfect example). They quietly remove all references to their past aggressions in favour of promoting the victim status they so enjoy. Both act like a bunch of 12-year-olds, trying desperately to be treated like adults, but are unable to leave behind their childish antics. Grow up Japan and Korea. Leave this petty BS behind and get on with life. Find a happy medium, learn to respect one another (like you both know you can) stop living in the past.

gelendestrasse, Japan is NOT Germany and we have free speech. All sorts of speech is illegal in Germany. Soon you can add criticizing the government and their leaders. If is is not already illegal. Again Japan settled and the Korean comfort women need to ask their own government for compensation. What I find odd is that in Korea all bad things were done by "Japanese" while all of the good things were done by "Koreans". They were a part of the Imperial government. Korea has to take responsibility for the actions of their ancestors.

thats why i hate politicians

I fail to see how Japan comes out looking like the victim in this scenario. I've been around long enough to know, when it comes to WW2, Japan is ALWAYS the victim. I don't see this getting much traction.

smith

No, they are related in that Japan wants things one way in one situation but cannot accept the same thing in another. Id est, it's an example of the hypocrisy of the Japanese government. What's more, you can absolutely feel the desperation from parents like the Yokotas to learn something more about their lost children, and empathize with their frustration when no progress is made, but instead of trying to put your feet in the sex slaves shoes you simply dismiss it.

Lets compare this shall we? The issue with sex slaves was settled more then 40 years ago, via a treaty. Japan paid Korea a tidy sum to settle all such claims. That they are turning around and asking for more, is what is actually occurring here. Contrast this with the issue of kidnappings. The families of the victims are still around, and there are still those being held by NK even today. There has been no treaty to settle the issue, and indeed, not all the victims have been returned. So, I don't see how there is any comparison. One issue has been settled, the other has not. This is indeed a false equivalency.

MolenirMar. 02, 2012 - 04:59AM JST. The issue with sex slaves was settled more then 40 years ago, via a treaty. Japan paid Korea a tidy sum to settle all such claims. That they are turning around and asking for more, is what is actually occurring here. Contrast this with the issue of kidnappings.

In 1965, Japan asked Korea to show the concrete number of conscripted workers and soldiers, dead and injured and how much unpaid wages were. They asked to "show the evidences and they would pay". Korea agreed and investigated them. What I want to clarify here is that KOREA DIDN'T CLAIM the compensation for the war time prostitutes. Why didn't they? It's because there was no abducted prostitute. Nobody said at the time in Korea, those prostitutes were abducted. Everyone knew there were many women who were so poor that they sold themselves to live and the Japan army didn't have to abduct Chosun women. There were many Chosun volunteers for Japan army at the time. Therefore Koreans didn't claim it at that time.

My blood boils every time I read an absurd news as this.

Is unbelievable !!!! Really unbelievable.

The lack of shame these korean people.

Japan should've done more to help these women. Japan didn't care since most comfort women were Koreans. Most were left with nothing; literally nothing. Beyond being impoverished, many were unable to bear children after their enslavement due to the amount of unprotected and aggressive sex they were forced to endure. Between venereal disease, interrupted pregnancies without proper medical supervision and rape, they were unable to bear children, and therefore many were never able to integrate into post war society. The average comfort women wound up on welfare, leading a life of poverty and alienation. Of course, not all of the women ended up in such an extreme and saddening plight. Some were married, and were able to find financial security. Most, though, were left behind in the lower classes, especially as they aged.

Oh shut up Korea! Japan paid you a settlement back in 1965, don't blame them because your previous government failed to distribute the compensation.

KariHarukaMar. 02, 2012 - 06:38AM JST Oh shut up Korea! Japan paid you a settlement back in 1965,

If you know it, send me a evidence with a link that saids "Japan paid settlement for comfort women" in 1965 agreement.

@sfjp330

In fact, the majority of comfort woman were Japanese.

sij

there is a lot of it

And yet not one shred of evidence that this was government policy has been provided.

that would not have been the case if not thanks to Japan, right?

Wrong as usual.

Korea would almost certainly be part of China like Tibet is now or part of Russia.

There are 2 Koreas because NK attacked SK, China invaded Korea in support of NK and Truman would not use the A-bomb against China to save American lives.

You have no doubts and no proof. You have nothing. No doubt at all?Then surely you must have a proof of what you believe.Could you please show this proof to all of us so we can resolve the matter once and for all?

What would you accept as proof? Why would you want or expect proof? Do you believe that not one woman was forced, by not one soldier?

In view of the number of women involved, the severity of the circumstances, the fact that the women were from conquered nationals, the large sums of money involved, the evidence for rape carried out by Japanese soldiers prior ot the formation of the comfort woman system (which was a motivation for the system's creation), the testimony of some women, and that of at least one Japanese soldier (not Yasuji Kaneko who seems very unreliable, but the Leutenant that testified to having forced the daughters of insurgents to become comfort women "Q: Why were those women forcibly sent there? A: They were daughters of people who attacked military police office.") , that not one woman was forced does not sound like a very realistic scenario to me.

If there were between twenty and two hundred thousand comfort women (I believe the lower figure) and if 1% (200 to 2000) were coerced, then that would might explain the number of women coming forward to testify to their coercion. There have not been large numbers of women testifying to having been coerced. I think that the total number of testifiers are in the tens. Some claim that the vast majority are too ashamed to testify. In order to believe that not one woman was coerced one would have to believe that every single one is a liar. I have seen them on video and two of them I found to be very convincing. I met a Japanese woman from a group in Okinawa that travelled to indonesia with a video camera. The Indonesian woman, interviewed in her field was very convincing. What was it? I think it was the way in which she appeared reticent to talk about the comfort women issue. But she did want to testify that her father was beaten almost to death (or was it to death?) in front of her, in an attempt to prevent her from being taken away. Gosh she was convincing. And the Korean lady, who claimed to have been 14 at the time...it was just her tone of voice and body language when she asked "Tell me, what 14 year old chooses to do that?" that I found convincing. But, of course....What is proof? We can no longer see the events with our own eyes. Documentation? "Do not consider it proof just because it is written in books, for a liar who will deceive with his tongue will not hesitate to do the same with his pen"

On the other hand I do not believe that there was a millitary policy to rape women. On the contrary the system was created, I believe, in its inception to reduce rape. And I do not believe the phrase "comfort women" was used to coerce, since for the reasons mentioned above, I believe its meaning to have been sufficiently clear.

I am sorry the number of testifiers is more than I thought.

Apparently 939 women testified in Korea (I am not sure what proportion of these testified to coercion. They testified to being comfort women but if they were not testifying to coercion then it seems unlikely that they would testify). http://www.jstor.org/pss/3594678

And apparently 56 women testified in Taiwan. http://newcongress.yam.org.tw/women/comfw.html

The Korean government got paid unlike the tens of thousands of Japanese women that were raped by the Americans. The Republic of Korea needs to pay them.

timtak

http://newcongress.yam.org.tw/english/index.html

Institute of New Congress

This site is no longer updated, since 1997/7/1

classic propaganda by a Chinese political party is your idea of evidence.

http://www.jstor.org/pss/3594678 by Pyong Gap Min

Please quote and reference what you believe is evidence in this paper.

Why would you want or expect proof? Now that says it all. You don't need any stinking proof. You know Japanese are monsters.

@Serrano,

Incredibly, we have posters here denying the brutal occupation of Korea by the Japanese. Murder, rape and subjugation is not brutal, eh?

Can you show proof from a court of law case docket that those things happened?

It always slays me when people try to say many Koreans volunteered for all this CRAP!!

Lets see, Japan comes in ravages the place, kills, rapes, lots of nasty stuff, then they have choices:

sell yr daughters

daughters volunteer themselves without even being sold to be sex slaves

join our side or.........yeah like Jpn wud let Korean men just sit on the sidelines if they so wished.....

etc etc In case you cant see the obvious, Koreans at that time were faced with the worst of the worst, many just hoping to survive somehow, the """ choices""" many posting here say they had is a cruel joke, what they had IF!! they were lucky was which POISON they wud have to take.

To say these people could control their own destiny is absurd!!

And yes proxy is right Japan even ENSLAVED it OWN WOMEN AS SEX SLAVES, now how messed up is that, simple very messed up.

So yeah sure Japan paid some $$ in the 60's & the Korean govt messed it up some, bottom line is Japan still has a ton of nasty nasty history to admit & atone for, I mean Japan hands the mallet to Korea on a never ending line up of silver platters to hammer them with & then they are surprised .........................

Please quote and reference what you believe is evidence in this paper. Please google 939 korean comfort women

You are not answering my question regardign what you would deem to be "proof."

classic propaganda by a Chinese political party is your idea of evidence. I mentioned the "evidence" in my 09:08AM JST post. In that post I said that there had been "tens" of women testifying. It seems perhaps (propaganda or not) there may have been more women testifying. I am not sure. But perhaps more than 100 in which case "tens" would not be appropriate. How many women do you believe testified/lied? As mentioned above I believed the testimony of two women.

But rather than the two women that I saw on video, generaly if there is war on any large scale war, anywhere, by any nation, then I think that rape will take place, withough any evidence other than my (mis?) understanding of human nature. I extend that dim view of human nature to the Japanese too and indeed myself. I do not think I am a monster either.

Now that says it all. You don't need any stinking proof. You know Japanese are monsters What is proof please? All testifiers may be liars, all documents may be propaganda.

And there was I thinking that I had been quite right wing and Japano-nationalistic, in my claim that "comfort women" were not in the vast majority duped. But you wish to claim that there was not one woman that was raped? And if I don't believe that zero women were coerced into being comfort women then I think that Japanese are monsters? I am not aware of holding any such view.

gelendestrasse, Japan is NOT Germany and we have free speech. All sorts of speech is illegal in Germany. Soon you can add criticizing the government and their leaders. If is is not already illegal. Again Japan settled and the Korean comfort women need to ask their own government for compensation. What I find odd is that in Korea all bad things were done by "Japanese" while all of the good things were done by "Koreans". They were a part of the Imperial government. Korea has to take responsibility for the actions of their ancestors.

Unlike Germany, Japan has NOT faced up to its past. Actually Germany IS a democratic country, yes Holocause denial being illegal is in my opinion a draconian law, but it simply shows the Germans are completely vigilant about their past and are determined to never repeat the same mistakes again. Whereas Japan seems to determined to 'unremember' the millions it murdered in Asia in the 1930s and 40s, which is an insult to the victims and dangerous to the future because lessons can't be learned from the mistakes of the past. And these laws aside Germany actually ranks higher than Japan in the Democracy Index.

Japan INVADED and COLONISED Korea. Even if Koreans were part of the colonial government, this was due to the power structure that Japan has set up in DEFIANCE of the will of Koreans. And even if some women willingly became comfort women, many were also tricked by your country's racist murder empire of that era.

When will your country face up to its past?

Must be close to election time for Akihiro-chan. Why have a calendar when you have Korean presidency?

"Among various pending issues, the issue of military comfort women is a humanitarian matter that must be resolved with the greatest urgency"

99.999999% were prostitutes. End of story.

The greatest urgency is the number of Korean prostitutes all over the world exploited by pimps. You need to do something about them, FIRST!!!

Apologies and compensation has already been issued from 1965. Blame the S. Korean government.

The South Korean government in 2005 disclosed 1,200 pages of diplomatic documents that recorded the proceeding of the 1965 treaty.

The documents states that South Korea agreed to demand no compensations, either at the government or individual level, after receiving $800 million in grants and soft loans from Japan as compensation for its 1910–45 colonial rule in the treaty. The documents also recorded that the South Korean government demanded a total of 364 million dollars in compensation for the 1.03 million Koreans conscripted into the workforce and the military during the colonial period, at a rate of 200 dollars per survivor, 1,650 dollars per death and 2,000 dollars per injured person.

The South Korean government used most of the grants for economic development, failing to provide adequate compensation to victims by paying only 300,000 won per death in compensating victims of forced labor between 1975 and 1977.

The documents also reveals that the South Korean government claimed that it would handle individual compensation to its citizens who suffered during Japan's colonial rule while rejecting Japan's proposal to directly compensate individual victims and receiving the whole amount of grants on the behalf of victims.[

I have just been wondering what the South Korean government position is regarding the tens of thousands of forced soldiers they sent to fight in Vietnam. Does the South Korean government plan to pay the forced conscripts the back wages the US government paid to the South Korean government? The South Korean government took all of the money and only paid the forced soldiers a fraction of it.

peanut666Mar. 03, 2012 - 04:54AM JST Apologies and compensation has already been issued from 1965. Blame the S. Korean government. The South Korean government in 2005 disclosed 1,200 pages of diplomatic documents that recorded the proceeding of the 1965 treaty.

If you know it, send me a evidence with a link that saids "Japan paid settlement for comfort women" in 1965 agreement. Tell me what page is this on?

@sfjp330

Here is a link to one of the massacres committed by South Korean Troops during the Vietnam war. I can't recall many news stories about South Korea apologizing or paying any cash.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ha_My_massacre

I also wonder how many textbooks in South Korea mention the innocent woman their army killed.

@sfjp330

Show me some evidence that South Korea has paid anything to the thousands of Vietnamese woman their soldiers raped during the Vietnam war.

It is very relevant as it goes to the heart of exactly what Koreans claim.

GWMar. 02, 2012 - 11:41AM JST It always slays me when people try to say many Koreans volunteered for all this CRAP!! Lets see, Japan comes in ravages the place, kills, rapes, lots of nasty stuff, then they have choices

Speakling of crap lt's start from there. Japan annexed Korea in 1910 (with the nodding approval of the US, UK and leading western powers). The purpose? To keep Russia from taking it. The Russo-Japanese War had only ended in 1905. They took an utterly backwards country bound by confucianism and tried to bring it up to "then" Japanese standards; infrastructure, buildings. roads, hospitals, schools, industry, etc etc, In fact they did something no western nation has ever done to a "colony". They gave all Koreans Japanese ciitizenship. The Koreans themselves were split in opinpon, some suppporting Japan, other against, A great many Koreans willfully emigrated to Japan where they could make a better living. There were those who were against Japanes rule and there were demonstrations and protests, But 240,000 Koreans served in the Japanese military, most of heir own free wil becauseb numbers far exceed any recruitment quotas. None of this correspomnds with your "ravages the place, kills, rapes, lots of nasty stuff" since no country wants to ravage their own colony. It slays you to hear that some Korean women willfully answered the ads and joined because you want to believe the absurd notion that every one of them was abducted, a physical impossibility considering the numbers. Why would Korean men join the Japanese military if their wives, sisters and daughters were being abducted all over the place?

ossan,

I agree Korea wasnt as modern as other countries then but my reasoning still stands I am afraid, the ""lucky"" ones were able to pick their poison, nobody anywhere on the planet wants to face the ""choices"" Koreans had in those days.

Hell by that line of reasoning Japan will fairly soon be ripe & ready for the same dont ya think!! So do you think some force shud come to Japan, take the place over, cause some mayhem, fix the place up, get rid of the dead wood, hell by yr reasoning surely this is a possible solution to Japans current & oncoming woes!

I wud pass

How about we face reality. In a perfect world, Japan would show more contrition regardless of the numbers of those who volunteered as opposed to the ones who were abducted, kept prisoners etc.

(Yes, the right-wingers are correct - some of the comfort women were volunteers).

But Japanese people don't care, and politicians argue that they paid compensation way back. So, what is the real solution?

Realize that the Koreans aren't going to get the kind of apology that will satisfy them. And even if they did they could argue that Japan is only apologizing because they were made to. And, next year or the year after, some politician somewhere will make an Ishihara type comment and get everyone mad again.

So ... forget about bashing the Japanese govt. It's fruitless. Instead, now that Koreans are more prosperous they could raise money to distribute to the women themselves with pride and dignity.

I haven't seen anything good or any progress made by getting angry about this issue all the time. Same with Nanking. Doesn't seem like anyone wins.

My mother and thousands of women and children, from which I and my cousins were one of them, where prisoners of War of the Japanese in 1942, For three and halve years my mother and my aunt were tortured, used by the Japanese, and were used for slave labor. Young girls had to line up and were picked out put by the Japanese and forced into sex. Mothers were pleading with the Japanese to please take me. Some of these young girls committed suicide. It was barbaric what these so called soldiers have done in World War II. They were worse than animals. Japan never paid for their crimes and looting. Like Germany did and still does. It was Japan who wanted to conquer the world, and let their own people suffer. They got enough warning for the first A-bomb and enough warning for the second one. They sneaky attacked Pearl Harbor without warning. The blame is entirely Japan. Time for them to acknowledge that their fathers and for fathers did wrong.Every second Tuesday of the month we in The Netherlands are still demonstrating. So it was not only the Koreans they used.My mother and aunt both have passed away, but had to live their life with these horrible nightmares.This is not what you teach young boys to do in the army. You teach them to defend their country, not to rape innocent girls and women. So Japan stand up for your wrong doings, grow up!!!

@Ruud Thea Bisenberger,

Thank you for writing here. Sadly, not many Japanese people have any idea of stories like yours.

I have no words to convey my thoughts to you. Except that your mother can be proud of your strength and courage, and that I wish you the very best in life.

@ Rud Thea

History will vindicate your mother and all those who suffered. Japan won't be able to keep avoiding this issue forever and it's commendable that you and others still fight for recognition. Ishihara and his ilk are an absolute disgrace, as well as all the government officials who keep a policy in place of not educating its youth about the past.

GWMar. 03, 2012 - 12:19PM JST ossan, I agree Korea wasnt as modern as other countries then but my reasoning still stands I am afraid, the ""lucky"" ones >were able to pick their poison, nobody anywhere on the planet wants to face the ""choices"" Koreans had in those >days.

The Koreans were not in a prettyy position, and geographically they were a target of every neighbor. If Japan had not annexed Korea in 1910 the whole pennisula would have been Russian. Or Chinese. But he fact remains that Korea was not "ravaged" as you portrayed.

Hell by that line of reasoning Japan will fairly soon be ripe & ready for the same dont ya think!! So do you think some >force shud come to Japan, take the place over, cause some mayhem, fix the place up, get rid of the dead wood, hell >by yr reasoning surely this is a possible solution to Japans current & oncoming woes!

Why should Japan be ready? Are you saying that the most technoligacally advanced country in East Asia and an economy today only second to a country with over 10 times it;s population is somehow backwards and needs to be "taken over" to be protected? Sounds silly does't it?

Japan has already settled this financially in 1965 with the South Korean government. According to the treaty, the South Korean government was given money to compensate all the victims who suffered during the occupation. Don't blame Japan for being irresponsible, blame S.Korea's government for squandering the money that was supposed to go to the victims.

Ruud Thea Bisenberger Mar. 05, 2012 - 01:09AM JST. Every second Tuesday of the month we in The Netherlands are still demonstrating. So it was not only the Koreans they used.My mother and aunt both have passed away, but had to live their life with these horrible nightmares.

Will the Dutch Government Ever Apologize for Wartime Behavior? Now that Dutch Railways has apologized, the Dutch government's refusal to apologize to the Jewish community stands out even more. It should do so for both the collaboration with the Germans in the Netherlands and the failure of the London government-in-exile to undertake whatever little it could do for the persecuted Dutch Jews.

Those who apologize are not the ones who are guilty. Although that is true, they do, however, represent the same institutions. Many of the apologies are made during the restitution negotiations-were not morally motivated, but rather reflected political pressure or fear of economic boycotts. The apologies of some J-government reps are insignificant symbolic acts, Those in power today are not the ones who murdered millions in their neighboring coutries. They can not request forgiveness for a generation to which they do not belong and which did not authorize them to seek forgiveness. Who is guilty? Not they, but those who murdered the Chinese at the time. What price does PM Noda have to pay when he finally apologizes on behalf of Japan? He is not the spokesman of the Japan mass murderers.

I hear the sounds of crickets chirping while I await for Ruud Thea Bisenberger to say something about the brutal Dutch attempt, that shocked the world, to recolonize Indonesia after the war.

Westerling was a wanted for war crimes in Indonesia but he was able to hide in Holland until his death in 1987. Shame on the Dutch.