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S Korea marks 30 years since 1st public testimony by ex-comfort women

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Not again, this debate.

I vote for Japan on this with the reason 1965 and 2015.

7 ( +20 / -13 )

South Korea claims that Japan hasn't apologized for its crimes when Japan has apologized and paid multiple times, while the Moon administration dissolved the fund that Japan started, and an activist was arrested for embezzling money.

South Korea is using the comfort women to fuel nationalism and anti-Japan indoctrination. This is the country where people set themselves on fire at protests and try to break into the Japanese embassy, children drew pictures of Japan being nuked, schools tried to put stickers in classrooms saying “This device was made by a war criminal”, and gas stations refused to refuel Japanese cars. In high school, my classmates spit on me for wanting to study in Japan. As a child, I grew up with my own parents constantly reminding me of what Japan did seventy years ago as if it happened yesterday.

The self-victimization and self-righteousness make me ashamed to be Korean.

8 ( +20 / -12 )

Another day, same old story.

Covid is raging out of control in South Korea, just as it is in Japan. Things are going to get worse. Focus on this, not a non-issue.

11 ( +20 / -9 )

No country uses grudges over past wars to fuel nationalism more than the Koreas and China.

8 ( +19 / -11 )

Yawn. Who cares? Why is this still considered newsworthy by the media? It isn't!

6 ( +14 / -8 )

Professor An Byeong-Jik of Seoul National University questioned 50 former Comfort Women and he concluded that their testimony was "not credible".

He was prosecuted by South Korea.

https://japantoday.com/category/politics/s.-korean-academic-convicted-of-defaming-%27comfort-women%27

12 ( +20 / -8 )

Fighto!: "Covid is raging out of control in South Korea, just as it is in Japan. Things are going to get worse. Focus on this, not a non-issue."

Says the guy who no doubt just watched all the news specials focussing on Nagasaki/Hiroshimi (which Japan wanted to mark a moment of silence for at the closing ceremonies), and other situations in which Japan was the "victim", not to mention the distraction of the Olympics itself. The hypocrisy is not surprising, but still speaks volumes.

OssanAmerica: "Professor An Byeong-Jik of Seoul National University questioned 50 former Comfort Women and he concluded that their testimony was "not credible"."

Someone you truly sympathize with, then, as your posts calling them glorified prostitutes and saying they were all sold by their own people, and Japan did nothing wrong. But I suppose you think even the Japanese people the IJA forced into sexual slavery were also sold by Koreans? You get so defensive about the sex-slaves, which is odd. You aren't guilty of it, except by promoting disinformation about the whole issue, same as no young or middle-aged an most elderly in Japan are not. Just acknowledge it and stop trying to constantly say it's false, which it is not. Nor are the forced deaths in Okinawa, etc.

-12 ( +11 / -23 )

Professor An Byeong-Jik of Seoul National University questioned 50 former Comfort Women and he concluded that their testimony was "not credible".

He was prosecuted by South Korea.

https://japantoday.com/category/politics/s.-korean-academic-convicted-of-defaming-%27comfort-women%27

There’s also Park Yu-Ha, who was indicted after publishing her book which had evidence that some Koreans became comfort women willingly or helped recruit other comfort women.

7 ( +17 / -10 )

get over it already

5 ( +14 / -9 )

Some comfort women and their bereaved families have pursued a legal avenue to seek compensation from the Japanese government. The Seoul Central District Court in January ordered the Japanese government to pay damages to 12 plaintiffs.

With the ruling finalized but the Japanese government remaining uninvolved in the case on the grounds of sovereign immunity, the plaintiffs are exploring the seizure of Japanese government assets in South Korea.

Moon said after the ruling that he felt "a bit perplexed" by it and expressed readiness to explore solutions that are acceptable to the plaintiffs based on the 2015 bilateral agreement and hold talks with the Japanese government to that end.

You cannot make this stuff up.

After refusing compensation and apology just to spite Japan, which lead to the dissolution of said compensation and apology, go back to court and demand compensation and apology from Japan? If that does not prove that these lunatics want to forever antagonize Japan, nothing else will.

10 ( +18 / -8 )

South Korea can do whatever they want , it is their country, just like Japan , Hiroshima atomic bomb anniversary.

-13 ( +4 / -17 )

Japan occupied Korean peninsula for 35 years that ended in 1945. However, Japan continued to occupy Korean heads ever since. Japan is not responsible for the latter. It's their own making.

4 ( +13 / -9 )

In the world press freedom index 

https://rsf.org/en/ranking

Japan is ranked 67 which is about on the same level as Mongolia and Tunisia. So the Japanese people are not getting real facts about their history

-10 ( +7 / -17 )

Ah...sigh...perhaps those who claim to 'know' the history of this issue, or ANY history, would be pleased to also learn that Korean women were not the ONLY women so severely abused by the Generals and Imperial Japan's mindless inhumanity.

Sandakan Brothel No.8: Journey into the History of Lower-class Japanese Women by Tomoko Yamazaki and Karen F. Colligan-Taylor | Sep 30, 1998

And one will be challenged to find a more horrible account of what psychopathic Humans do to those they dominate, even their own people, than Yamazaki-san's extensive research and interviews with poor souls so brutally taken and used like dish rags. But, reader beware, you may HATE yourself and everything else Human when you finish this history...and it may be even worse if you love a Japanese woman.

And, for America, the mindless 'Generals' are Corporate...

-10 ( +3 / -13 )

Japan is ranked 67 which is about on the same level as Mongolia and Tunisia. So the Japanese people are not getting real facts about their history

-4 ( +7 / -11 )

The simplest way to solve this problem once and for all would be for Japan to apologise. Apologise means "sorry" and not statements of "regret".

-11 ( +6 / -17 )

The South Korean government has since set up a consultative body involving representatives of the plaintiffs and a support group for former comfort women.

... which ended up corruptions involving the activist leader Yoon Mee-hyang and her close aides who got charged of fraud.

South Korea charges former 'comfort women' activist with fraud, embezzlement

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-southkorea-comfortwomen-idUSKBN2651GB

10 ( +14 / -4 )

Covid is raging out of control in South Korea, just as it is in Japan. Things are going to get worse. Focus on this, not a non-issue.

I get tired of this attitude that some ignorant people exhibit towards South Korea remembering victims while Japan has no problems remembering and mentioning its victims. One rule for Japan and one for everyone else? Japan remembers atomic bombs but South Korea is not allowed to mention comfort women? Hypocrisy at it's finest. Everyone can remember past victims of any tragedy. If remembering comfort women is a "non issue" then so is remembering the atomic bombs.

I believe all victims deserve to be remembered and mentioned and spoken about so that people do not forget. That covers all victims of all tragedies, not just some.

-7 ( +6 / -13 )

One rule for Japan and one for everyone else? Japan remembers atomic bombs but South Korea is not allowed to mention comfort women? 

I’m just going to copy-paste what I said in a previous article: Japan has a reminder for WWII once a year. South Korea has a reminder for the comfort women literally every week. The Japanese don’t demand the U.S. for compensation every year, post children’s drawings of the U.S. being nuked, break into the U.S. embassy, refuse to refuel American cars, or whatever else from coffee’s long list of grievances by the Koreans.

You can’t apply the same logic to the Koreans and Japanese. The Koreans’ obsession with the past is nowhere near Japan’s level.

5 ( +13 / -8 )

"Victim centered" approach is a nice name for "unlimited liability."

3 ( +9 / -6 )

ableko45Aug. 14 09:57 pm JST

Japan is ranked 67 which is about on the same level as Mongolia and Tunisia. So the Japanese people are not getting real facts about their history

A reporter is not a historian, but frankly that Japan (where at least reporters have not been criminally charged and convicted in recent history) is lower than South Korea (where it happened) says much about the objective limitations of that ranking. The main problem is how much weight that system puts on local opinion, so if the locals have low standards or are willing to "overlook" certain oppressions that fit their personal tastes, their country's score gets inflated.

A better scheme would have certain objective criteria that would guarantee a drop - for example, if you convicted a journalist that year for speech, you are automatically ranked behind everybody that did not.

1 ( +7 / -6 )

that Japan (where at least reporters have not been criminally charged and convicted in recent history) is lower than South Korea (where it happened) says much about the objective limitations of that ranking.

Their methodology is posted on the site. Some random nuanced 'they're wrong' comment only shows your argument as weak. Maybe if you gave some specific points where their methodology falls apart it would give you an argument, but right now it just sounds like you've got sour grapes that Japan's media has been pointed out for being not very free. The Kisha Clubs have ensured that.

1 ( +4 / -3 )

StrangerlandToday 01:19 am JST

Believe it or not, RSF becomes a problem for me regularly so I remember its methodology (approximately), but I'll go refresh my memory:

To compile the Index, RSF has developed an online questionnaire with 87 questions focused on these criteria. Translated into 20 languages including English, Arabic, Chinese, Russian, Indonesian and Korean, the questionnaire is targeted at the media professionals, lawyers and sociologists who are asked to complete it. Scores are calculated on the basis of the responses of the experts selected by RSF combined with the data on abuses and violence against journalists during the period evaluated.

Yeah, that's more or less how I remembered it. Meanwhile, in the questionnaire proper, there are a good number of questions that are rated 1-10 and more that have fewer steps but nevertheless do have them. You kind of see the problem here. How much a restriction is weighed depends on the sympathies of the locals.

For example, while there might be no way of getting around counting convicting a Sankei reporter as an "abuse", if everyone in South Korea thinks he had it coming, they may answer question E161 "In practice, are people convicted of [defamation]?" with "Never". Even though that's manifestly not completely true, he may reason that Sankei's reporter just had it coming and in practice a Korean will not write something that has that risk, so the risk is not "real" and thus the middle answer exaggerates the situation. This will significantly damp the disadvantage that conviction should have inflicted on the scoring stakes.

Meanwhile, if many Japanese reporters feel the kisha club system should be abandoned, then they'll give disproportionately bad scores in areas like C8 "Can journalists cover events in person?". Obviously, presence of such things means 10 is unselectable (at least to a conscientious answerer), but where it is between 2-9 depends on how disgusted the person is with that restriction.

Or take the secrets law. As far as I know, no one actually became an actual victim of that law since it came out. And certainly secrets laws are dime a dozen. Nevertheless, Japanese seem unduly sensitive to that law and its mere presence results in a disproportionate decrease in Japan's marking.

3 ( +8 / -5 )

Freedom of press is not meant for the press to spread fake stories as they like, which has never had sense of modesty and took twenty years to finally correct it but still hesitates to inform the world of the error in it's English edition

8 ( +12 / -4 )

This is not nearly the issue in Korea that many people think it is. I went to the top-5 Korean newspapers (using Google translate) and there was not a single mention of this issue.

While I know that there's a great deal of enmity between Koreans and Japanese, I am not sure that this particular statement is generating that much discussion in Korea.

9 ( +10 / -1 )

The main problem is how much weight that system puts on local opinion, 

the fact that Japan hasn’t had a change of government in practically 70 years is prima facie evidence that there is deep collusion between the ruling party and the media.

So it doesn’t surprise me at all that Japan’s press freedom ranking is so low.

-9 ( +4 / -13 )

@kennyG

But the Japanese media do lie and spread fake stories all the time. When searching up any Japanese news articles regarding war crimes and comfort women on the web you are bombarded with anti-Korean news. So this is what Japanese people are fed on a daily basis. This is in contrast to what you will find with an English google search.

@socrateos

What about the billions of Chinese who also hate Japan? Massacre and Rape of Nanking?

https://www.dw.com/en/japan-furious-at-unesco-listing-nanjing-massacre-documents/a-18790477

Now that Japan is becoming a declining economic power, unable to retaliate meaningfuly, expressing anger with diplomatic protest is the only thing they can do when held into account for their past.

-8 ( +6 / -14 )

What is really ironic is that Koizumi, Abe and now Suga have ruled during the epic decline of Japan. Using Korea as a scapegoat to get votes was easier than actually reforming Japan.

-5 ( +7 / -12 )

@mobius217

I was pointing at one of major Japanese press and if you can put the link to that google search result,

I may be able to help you if those are fake stories or not.

4 ( +8 / -4 )

@Alan Harrison, I will never apologize to Korea and my family will never apologize as well. We have done nothing wrong. If China and Korea wants to hate the peoples of Japan, there is nothing to be done about it.

1 ( +7 / -6 )

@YuriOtani

 there is nothing to be done about it.

You can start by protesting against the government that worships class-A war criminals.

The LDP oligarchy in power today and for the past 70 years are the descendants of the same people who were in charge of the Japanese Imperialist war machine.

-7 ( +2 / -9 )

The simplest way to solve this problem once and for all would be for Japan to apologise. Apologise means "sorry" and not statements of "regret".

It doesn't matter how many times Japan apologizes as long as South Korea continues its anti-Japan practices and silences any professor who tries to argue. Thinking everything will be solved if Japan apologizes is just naive.

5 ( +7 / -2 )

get over it already

Hmm, just mentioned this the other day about hiroshima/nagasaki and hypocritically and ironically it garnered more thumbs down vs thumbs up. The good news though is that it got A LOT of realistic thumbs up.

-4 ( +1 / -5 )

Professor An Byeong-Jik of Seoul National University questioned 50 former Comfort Women and he concluded that their testimony was "not credible".

He was prosecuted by South Korea.

https://japantoday.com/category/politics/s.-korean-academic-convicted-of-defaming-%27comfort-women%27

There’s also Park Yu-Ha, who was indicted after publishing her book which had evidence that some Koreans became comfort women willingly or helped recruit other comfort women.

 

There‘s much more. Kim Wan-sob, the author of “ Excuse for pro-Japanese” was prosecuted. Lee Yong-hoon and three other authors of “ Anti-Japan tribalism” were all filed criminal charged against. Trials are going on about a defamation case of Lew Seok-Choon who opined in his class at Yonsei University that “comfort women were half-willingly and half-heartedly” subjected to prostitution under Japan’s colonial rule.

 

Set aside freedom of the press, there’s no academic freedom whatsoever in current South Korea. 64 academics from the US, Japan, South Korea have recently press-released joint statements against South Korea’s justice.

 

For those interested in this

http://harc.tokyo/wp/wp- content/uploads/2021/08/b34b40e787a930e411cae38b84bf868f.pdf

The link is English statement signed by US professors. If anyone interested further, I can link Japanese and Korean version ( signed by Japanese and Korean professors)

 

There’s nothing better than actual reports from actual courts for you to realize the reality of this anti-Japan movement agitated by so-called human rights group named Chong Dae Hyup. You can google translate into English which works not so bad.

 

https://www.pennmike.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=41831

 

And this.

 

https://www.pennmike.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=46745

 

After all, the only objective grounds of argument presented by the plaintiffs who have been fabricating and coaching for the testimonies for 30years and prosecutors turned out to be Coomaraswamy report and O’herne case at Semarang (Indonesia) referred in Kono-Danwa(statement)….and so-called victims' testimonies the plaintiffs had coached to twist.

 

Prof. Lew Seok-Choon asked the plaintiffs  at the trial “ Did you know Coomaraswamy report heavily relied on fake testimonies made by Seiji Yoshida who had later admitted those were all fake?” He further pointed out that "the testimonies made by the group's ad-tower, Lee yong-soo had been 180 degree flipped over and still changing every times, and that her testimonies cannot stand basically against the legal concept of consistency to be picked to make an verdict “

 

Of course the cult group could not reply, they rejected answering to his question in the 1st place. All the plaintiffs could respond was “ Your opinion was opposed to what are generally and socially perceived.”  See? This has been the core of 30 years-lasting South Korean comedy, on which we have been all dancing.

 

These Korean professors are taking the risk of their lives both professionally and physically ( if you know some of them were actually assaulted in open public by blind patriots heavily brainwashed by Korean anti-Japan cult.

Salute to the braves who are trying to fix their country.

4 ( +6 / -2 )

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