Hashimoto says S Korean troops guilty of wartime sex abuse

There's a big difference between using prostitutes during a war, and an organized system of sex slavery.

Hashimoto is a nationalistic idiot who should be removed from power straight away. Comments such as he has been making only cause problems. His constant whining about his comments being misunderstood are obviously BS because he just keeps on making them.

In any other first world country, he would have been removed from office or made to resign.

He is making Japan look bad, and feeding the rabid nationalists in China and South Korea.

Get rid of him.

Lots of nations are guilty of having done terrible things during wartime; Hashimoto's endless display of public stupidity, during this time of peace, should be considered a crime against humanity.

Hashimoto just doesn't know when to quit.

Looks like someone doesn't know how to use his brakes.

he may want to consider increasing the security around himself because it would not surprise me one bit if someone gets pissed off enough at him to make an attempt on him.

I noticed that this morning he had guys less than an arm's length away from him while on the news. They certainly weren't that close before.

There is a massive difference between prostitues and sex slaves. Indeed, I have no doubts that Amercians, Koreans, Germans... raped women. However, the difference was they were individuals, not military backed and sanctioned. Hashi seems not to understand this - and doesn't seem to get that everytime he opens his mouth he makes it worse.

The guy needs to be removed from office and never heard from again. Too much to ask? I really do hope this does his political career in. Japan has enough problems as it is, they don't need him making more.

He needs to quit ASAP

Hashimoto is literally a dream come true for people against the ideas that Hashimoto espouses. Keep talking, Hashimoto so that as many people as possible can finally see the futility of extremism such as yours. Keep talking and please do not let this blow over and become forgotten as others have done before when they have done or said something stupid.

@NipponNation - "first world nations initiated prostitution". Funniest joke I've read all day! Please keep the gags rolling, buddy!

T_rexmaxytime - These comfort woman was paid lump some of money every month and they did not need to serve men they did not like. The issue is that Korea is claiming that the girl were enforced by the J-government. But the facts that they presents are not strong enough to change any results. If it were, there would be conclusion by now.

Are you serious? Did this misinformation come from a Japanese high school textbook? If this is truly so, why were three-quarters of the 200,000 women beaten, starved and raped to death? Yeah, they were paid (a pittance), but there choice was, do it or die!

Media why reporting this guy's blah blah every day ?

Hashimoto says S Korean troops...

Has he any competence in the matter ? Is he a historian, a sociologist, or a scholar about Korea, an international relation expert, a war veteran, an ex-comfort woman ? Nothing of that. He has nothing to bring to the topic. You could as well publish his weather forecast, his recipe of kimchi or his advice for gardening in high mountain.

Mr. Hashimoto doesn't seem to know the First Rule of Holes.

"When in a hole, stop digging."

Is he trying to provoke a reaction or something? What is wrong with him?

Western media says "slavery" which is not supported by any proof.

I guess all those missing women, all those dead and STD ridden women and those women who came forward to state that they taken against their will and raped isn't proof??

Tokiyo, while I agree that indeed he IS fanning the flames intentionally and using this topic to stay in the spotlight, the issue is and always will be the denial that the Japanese government and pubic continue to bleat on about how this didn't happen. If this wasn't an issue, it wouldn't be getting the attention it is - more so by the international media. If any idiot mayor in Japan made such sickening comments attention would be given. The fact that it is a right wing but job who has a habit of bullying people, making dumb comments and refusing to admit he's wrong just fuels the fire.

Frankly, part of me is rather glad he's brought this topic up. It's about damn time the public here has discussed this topic. However, many aren't actually focusing on what Japan did. I had a student today who brought it up who made comments about all the American GI rapists in Okinawa. He clearly failed to understand what the issue is - though was educated on it needless to say. In the end when I told him Hashi invited the GIs to "use" Japanese prostitutes to deal with their sexual frustrations it seemed a light bulb went on. When I then mentioned that he originally okay'd rape women in war and suggested that it would be okay to rape Japanese women if a war broke ou, he then got what the issue was. That was ONE person. How many other folks are walking around now thinking that it is a huge issue in Okinawa right now? More than I care to think about.

@tmarie

the issue is and always will be the denial that the Japanese government and pubic continue to bleat on about how this didn't happen.

this is simply not true. you're confusing fringe right-wing groups with the real j-govt. the j-govt has for years admitted to this. from wiki:

In 1965, the Japanese government awarded $364 million to the Korean government for all war damages, including the injury done to comfort women.[64] In 1994, the Japanese government set up the Asian Women's Fund to distribute additional compensation to South Korea, the Philippines, Taiwan, the Netherlands, and Indonesia.[65] Each survivor was provided with a signed apology from the then prime minister Tomiichi Murayama, stating "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."[66] The fund was dissolved on March 31, 2007.[67]

you're confusing fringe right-wing groups with the real j-govt.

" They did it too ! "

A ploy most kids use all the time.

THE BLAME GAME....

I thought he will not be talking like this until 5/27. Is he obsessed on sex or some knd of sex-maniac? Lucky he is in Japan. not in USA. He is still alive.

And you, Kanerich are able to speak on behalf of the integrity of the millions of Japanese in question? There is a line between honesty and idiocy and unfortunately, this is of the latter.

Just so we're in the clear, its okay if other ppl are doing it too.

Translation: Our rapes weren't as bad as other nation's rapes....What is wrong with this argument.

So, show us your proof and present it to the J-government. I am sure if the case is strong you will be right!

I guess Hashi saying he would chat to former comfort women isn't enough proof for you? Hell, even Hashi admitted they were raped. You can't do the same?

What do you consider a first world country?

Google "first world country"

You mean Anglo Saxon countries?

No. I mean first world countries.

Sex slavery and prostitution were both initiated by first world countries,

Really? I'd love to see your proof of that.

this is why they also have laws condemning them.

And tell me why Japan doesn't seem to have.

A Japanese politician who is outspoken, as long as his comments are not racist and sexist, and that they don't incite violence should be heard, listened to, and accepted as good discourse and healthy debate

Can someone translate that into English for me?

Trexmaxytime:

" When did comfort women issue become a sex slavery issue? Last time I checked, the J-government did not enforce girls into comfort woman. "

Then obviously you have not been paying attention. I guess the same can be said about many of Hashimoto`s supporters.

Damn this is one of those times its embarassing to be living in Japan, the utter ignorance of hashimoto is beyond staggering.......

And to think over 20% said they have no problem with what he is saying wtf, my gut tells me that likely between 30-40% of the population actually fully back this lunatic, thats some seriously scary stuff.

If Japan were a normal country(clearly its not) this guy would be GONE already, the fact he is still spewing & looks set to keep going makes Japan look incredibly bad, maybe the fake veneer is just being pealed back & we are now seeing the real Japan, like I said scary

A man with complete 'ZERO' sensitivity ...... "comfort women" was a necessity? If God granted me one wish, I wish you were a yesteryears woman of those WW era...... typical idiot who has lost his SOUL and moral..... also to those idiots who voted this @^$$.hole to be a mayor....totally shameless speech from his butt

nigelboy: "In regards to those testimonials especially from the surviving Korean comfort women, Ossan had already countered the validity of those testimonials."

Yup, using 2-channel and edititable Wikis. Best yet, he's countering the testimonials of people who were actually there when he was not. Can't beat that.

there isn't a single piece of physical evidence in existence that collaborates the testimony of surviving comfort women. Not one slip of paper.

Geez there isn't a slip of paper remaining that showed I went to the library yesterday to read a book, but I was there!

This is the reason why it's futile getting into a discussion with people who just keep their eyes glued shut about anything to do with the atrocities committed by the IJA including the sex-slave/comfort women issue.

They will argue there is no evidence, they will argue that eye-witness testimony is flawed and over time they imply or infer and obfuscate the issue to make it sound like these women are liars and just want money.

It's impossible to change their minds because there is no "proof".

Then they argue about one nit-picky tiny point that pulls the discussion off track and away from the main point and truth; The IJA were guilty as charged!

CH3CHO: "There is no such order. Who do you think would believe you if you keep telling fiction?"

Nothing like fiction from one who was never there.

Ossan: " A judgment based only on heresay with no supporting evidence is not a court at all, it is a witch burning."

As opposed to your comments against people who have suffered rape.

The noose is getting tighter on this idiot but me thinks he is thriving on sexual thoughts! God knows what is on his computer at home! Creep!

Mayor Hashimoto's claim that the comfort women system which was institutionalized by the invading Japanese military was a necessary part of maintaining the well-being of Japanese soldiers is not only preposterous, but undeniably the heights of both arrogance and inhumanity. For the record, said brutal practice was also sanctioned by the leadership of the Japanese Imperial Army. How can you justify rape, molestation, sexual abuse and murder as a necessary act? Rape and sexual slavery are heinous crimes. Undoubtedly, what Japan did during World War II is a crime against humanity.

If Hashimoto keeps up like this, particularly with comments directed towards South Korea, and he having a huge block of folks of Korean ancestry living in and around Osaka, he may want to consider increasing the security around himself because it would not surprise me one bit if someone gets pissed off enough at him to make an attempt on him.

The press bears a portion of the burden of making this into something bigger than it needs to be. The press doesnt listen to fringe group nuts and that is exactly what Hashimoto has become. The press should stop giving him air time. Plain and simple. If he had so soapbox there would be no audience.

You're right of course, but the difference is that fringe group nuts don't usually become the political leader of both a major metropolis and a major political party. His position, especially as mayor, makes him impossible to ignore, no matter how much we want to. He politically represents millions of people, which is why his controversial remarks will continue to be publicized, reported on, assailed, and occasionally lauded, too.

Can't decide if this is a "If I'm going down, I'm taking someone down with me" or a "lets deflect attention from my media faux-pas" move...hmm...

It just never ends with him.

T_rexmaxytime - Hashimoto is admitting the use of comfort women. Are you saying that he is wrong too?

He is trying to justify the use of the organized and forced recruitment of comfort women (which he acknowledges) by saying that women get raped in war. Two completely different things. What don't you understand here.

Hashimoto at least is honest about the sort of man he is

Except he isn't, really, is he? He's had more flip flops than a beach sandal shop, always explaining how he didn't mean this and didn't mean that, and didn't explain himself properly the first time round. He was a damned lawyer, wasn't he? I thought those people were meant to be clear-headed and effective orators.

Are you serious? Did this misinformation come from a Japanese high school textbook? If this is truly so, why were three-quarters of the 200,000 women beaten, starved and raped to death? Yeah, they were paid (a pittance), but there choice was, do it or die!

This kind of misinformation is rapidly spreading on Japanese webs like pandemic. It's not from high school textbooks. But it's rampant on Japanese webs. You have to eliminate Internet itself if you want to eliminate misinformation.

Superpimp strikes again!

Didn't a Japanese scandal magazine once say that Hashimoto had a mistress on the side? If so, he should pry himself away from his insane remarks and do what he seems to be saying: use his own extra woman for sex to keep his own frustrations in check.

Hashimoto kun should check where did the S Koreans or Militaries in Asia got the idea...............of course from Japanese Soldiers. Hashimoto kun, is bringing up the past which will become the of future end of Japan.

I used to look high up to Hashimoto because of his ideals, now he is just "kun" for me who cleans my buttom every time I go to Toilet.

Mikimouse - Hashimoto apologist. You are going to need some solid proof to back up those preposterous claims.

Upgrayedd May. 22, 2013 - 06:33AM JST What is the name of this textbook and how many schools use it?

Controversial Japanese Textbooks in the 2000s

A textbook, New History Textbook, approved in 2001 by the Ministry of Education contained no references to comfort women and forced laborers, glossed over atrocities like Unit 731 and the Nanking massacre, and asserted that World War II helped Asian countries achieve independence.

The textbooks were largely written by the Japanese Society for History Textbook Reform, a controversial right wing group of revisionist historians, who said the were interested in engendering national pride. Local school districts overwhelmingly refused to use the controversial textbook. Bookstores, however, had trouble keeping the books in stock.

In August 2005, the Tokyo Education Ministry approved a new edition of a history textbook written by nationalist scholars that critics said whitewashes Japan’s militaristic past, downplaying or ignoring the Rape of Nanking and the system of sex slaves. South Korea and China both lodged complaints about the texts. Controversial textbooks have only been adopted by 0.4 percent of Japanese schools.

New high school history textbooks issued in 2007 modified previous passages about the Battle of Okinawa, saying that Okinawan residents were “driven to mass suicide: without saying anything about the army’s role.” To play down the role of the Imperial Army in the mass suicides on the island the textbooks eliminated statements like the residents of Okinawa were “forced by the Japanese military” into committing mass suicide. There were descriptions of comfort women mo mention that there were coerced b the Japanese military. Screeners with the Education, Science and technology Ministry all want to make adjustments on the numbers listed in the Rape of Nanking.

The new Japanese history textbooks were blasted for inflaming jingoism among students and glossing over Japan's occupation of Korea and China. In the 1990s, North Korea condemned the book and Li Peng, the No. 2 leader in China, presented a list of changes. Despite objections the government refused to do anything. South Koreans were particularly outraged by the textbook. Dozens of exchanges between South Korea and Japan—ranging from visits by Korean sumo wrestlers to official visits by top-level politicians—were canceled. South Korean hackers disrupted the websites of the Japanese Education Ministry and Japan's ruling political party. A South Korean rock group shredded a Japanese flag during a performance in Japan. There were worries the protest might endanger the World Cup soccer tournament, cohosted in 2002 by South Korea and Japan.

Source: http://factsanddetails.com/Asian.php?itemid=2512&

Nigelboy...if you read carefully to the source such as the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Daily Yomiuri (a Japanese newspaper), Times of London, International Herald Tribune, National Geographic, Smithsonian magazine, The New Yorker, Time, Newsweek, U.S. News and World Report, Sports Illustrated, Atlantic Monthly, Natural History, Archeology magazine, Reuters, AP, Kyodo News, AFP, information from national tourist offices, brochures, Lonely Planet Guides, other travel guides, Compton’s Encyclopedia and various books and other publications. I guess Nigelboy can say all the above source is not expert on subject.

http://factsanddetails.com/index.php?itemid=1002

Prior to 1970, there was no open denial by the Japanese regarding the atrocities. In fact, there were a number of Japanese books, many were confessions or diaries by Japanese soldiers, which confirmed and gave detailed accounts of the atrocities. The denial of the atrocities started around 1972, when the right-wing political force in Japan began to rise. The Japanese denial of the atrocities in Asia can be divided into three broad categories: 1. Complete denial of the massacre. 2. Disputes on the number of people killed in the massacre. 3. Distortion and rewriting of history. The Ministry of Education has never admitted that the distortion of history is a mistake.

More evidence from Japanese lieutenants:

The following are questions and answers given by a Japanese lieutenant in January 1946 at an Allied Forces Netherlands tribunal in which he confessed the Japanese army "forcibly recruited comfort women from occupied territories."

Q: Some witnesses said you raped women and sent them to military barracks for more sexual assault from Japanese soldiers.

A: I built a brothel for my soldiers and I used it too.

Q: Did the women accept being sent to the brothel?

A: Some accepted it and others did not.

Q: How many women lived there?

A: Six.

Q: How many women were sent against their will?

A: Five.

Q: Why were those women forcibly sent there?

A: They were daughters of people who attacked military police office.

Q: Were they sent to the brothel because of their fathers' activities?

A: Yes.

http://www.etan.org/et2007/april/21/18evdenc.htm

Could it be possible that sexual slavery was not sanctioned Japanese policy in WWII?

Does it matter? The fact is that they've done it and there's evidence. Next you'll be saying that you need to build a time machine and go back there yourself in order to be convinced that it actually occurred.

In summary, the only physical evidence about comfort women in existence is Japanese government orders to not recruit anyone against their will and to arrest those that do. Meanwhile, there is testimony that Japanese soldiers frequently violated orders.

Upgrayedd, what's written on piece of paper and what actually occurred are two different things. I guess in your mind, something written on a piece of paper makes it true.

' ... may have lacked international sensitivity.' In other words, he thought only Japanese were listening and understanding his comments. Imagine a German mayor saying that maybe it was for the best that Jews, gypsies, etc were gassed. It would have led to his immediate resignation. The fact that this guy in Japan doesn't plan to resign just shows how Japanese public opinion thinks about the country's war crimes.

It would kind of be gratifying to see him blow up and meltdown on T.V... Again, Hashimoto doesnt know when to put a sock in it.

T_rexamaxytime - every hear of an euphemism? "oh, there is no proof that mizu-shobai is prostitution!" Variations on the same theme.

Has he developed some art of tic?

The verbal diarrhea just keeps coming. It's encouraging that the majority of Japanese don't accept his views, but the very fact that he will remain in office after he's piled this toxic rubbish sky-high will speak louder than any opinion poll.

Can't anyone shut this guy up???!!!

" “Having said that, America, Britain, Germany and France, and even the South Korean military in Vietnam after WWII, they all used women to address the issue. "

He just does not get it, does he. I hope that they stick his nose in it on Monday when he talks to the Foreign Correspondents Club.

But somehow I feel he will put his foot even deeper in his mouth and then blame it all on another mistranslation...

In History, Philippines was been under Spanish rule for 300 years and less than 5 or 6 years under American´s, there was sexual abuse happened occassionally..............BUT not back up by Militaries or Spanish Goverment nor American Government as compare to Japan Government supported demonic act did to Philippine women. Japan was the worse, most cruel etc etc etc etc.

Zichi: you made it saving my time. You said it all.

If there exist a disgrace this nation should concern itself with #1 in line is Hashimoto. Does he revel in the reactions his foul mouth spouting brings about and continues to get away with it? This man is supposed to be a leader and represent millions of people. What do we learn about these people who voted him into public office and stand by his insults?

Second, solely using oral testimony is not good enough to establish guilt in most court of laws

Eye witness testimony sends people to the electric chair. But no matter, this isnt a court of law! It is now the court of public opinion based upon facts that only the Japanese seem to have amnesia about. Strange isn't it? Must be something in the water.

Japanese historians have long pointed out inconsistencies in former comfort women testimonies including the frequent changing stories.

So we are to accept that only Japanese historians research is to be the basis for all discussion?

Now, recalling events that happened more than 70 years ago is difficult for most people but changing your story to "I became a comfort woman because of money" to "I was kidnapped by the Japanese military who murdered my parents" is quite the stretch.

I guess you never have been around too many elderly folks. There are countless elderly people that can vividly remember incidents from their youth, but can not remember what they had for breakfast one hour ago.

This is not an uncommon thing with the elderly.

The history that the entire world with the exception of Japan wants to present is that all 200,000 comfort women were forced by the Japanese Army. This is simply not true and not supported by any physical evidence.

I fixed your quote here for you first.

Next: Ok maybe it wasn't 200,000 that were forced, and this is crass and shameful, but what "number" are you willing to accept? 190,000? 150,000?

There were Japanese comfort women too, and they were totally forced into the work as well, do we add them into the numbers too?

McFly...wake up McFly......

Upgrayedd: and since when do we take government/military documents to be true to their word?

Upgrayyed: "Yasuji Kaneko lied about when he joined the Japanese army, about murdering Chinese people in the Nanjing massacre, and about being in Unit 731 yet you believe his testimony about comfort women?"

According to whom? Let me guess, you'll believe any admittance, after extreme pressure from the Japanese government, that the man lied, but until the very moment he said as much your fingers were in your ears, eyes closed, and you would hum so you couldn't heat the facts? How about the other Imperial troops that have admitted to rape and murder?

No, it wasn't a sex slavery issue. It was an issue of intentionally fanning flames by bringing up this subject. He knows it will stir the pot - there was no other reason for him to bring this issue up other than to stay relevant.

Has he any competence in the matter ? Is he a historian, a sociologist, or a scholar about Korea, an international relation expert, a war veteran, an ex-comfort woman ? Nothing of that. He has nothing to bring to the topic. You could as well publish his weather forecast, his recipe of kimchi or his advice for gardening in high mountain.

@Cos : Exactly right? Hashimoto is a moron because he is commenting on things he's not an expert on. He should definitely read the comments in JT to get the correct picture on history, he'll be surprised by the number of experts there are on the subject.

He's basically just publicly epousing the rightwing old lines.

And lots of Japanese will come to like him, because they WANT to believe that Japan was only as bad as other countries during WW2.

There is a incredible lack of knowledge about WW2 in Japan. The majority of Japanese I have met over 20 years (admittedly they aren't the English speaking types but the average Taro) think that there was a war, that war is bad, that Japanese did bad things like other countries, but that because they lost they had to put up with the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal which was unfair.

Hashimoto holds the same opinion as the uyokusha and lots of LDP people, and then lots of other people who just don't know anything, but know all about Hiroshima, Nagasaki.

The only good thing about this is that western people will finally find out Japanese attitudes to WW2. Most of them have no idea. Until they visit yasukuni and read the stuff in the museum.

And hashimoto is picking the right time because the public is fed up with China and the two Koreas.

What people should really be asking is - what exactly is this guy's job description? Is he the foreign affairs minister, or the PM or a history professor?

He seems to have a lot of time for giving impromptu history lessons.

Given that he is bashing the US and other countries, I suggest the US withdraw all troops and let Japan to themselves. Hashimoto and Ishihara probably won't be so tough without being able to shout insults behind their big brothers backs.

But I would never allow my kids to be drafted here as Japanese soldiers to be sent to die because of a loudmouth like him. If this guy becomes PM, I'll be buying some plane tickets.

Will somebody who can reach this guy's ear please tell him to perform the duties to which he was elected, as mayor of Osaka, and just shut up otherwise?

And this year's award for most daft political leader goes to "Hashimoto!!!"

God can you even imagine the acceptance speech this right wing fool would give for such an award.

I still think, and I believe many foreigners living here long term may agree, that so long as Japan fails to properly educate her people about the good and bad of her history, the longer the country will breed idiot leaders like Hashimoto, old blinky and a few others.

While I am happy to see Hashimoto gut himself publicly every day, I still believe that he can rise again in the future. The right wing here has few leaders and they are unlikely to toss him out entirely. More like put him back in the closet until later. Then he may be an even more dangerous threat to us all.

the worse part of this is that there will be many, many young, impressionable, similarly ignorant japanese who will fall for all his drivel

And he is sinking deeper, and deeper, and deeper ...!

Hashimoto's Best Hits Tour just keeps on giving.

What a guy!

Who'd have thought a short, chubby bloke with bad skin could cause so much drama?! On ya bike, Hashimoto - please confine your bile for the Osakans. Heck - another reason not to go down to that joint!

I wish my mayor would get back to work on something he is responsible for, like cleaning up the filthy polluted Neyagawa River or making more green space. Useless putz.

Comfort Women (I-aufu) A majority of them were abducted or coerced by Hitokai (human merchants), then. They were not paid by military or Jaoanese govt in Tokyo that was using the budget to weapons and war materials. Japan was only the country that created comfort Wpmen system. Don;t forget that it was still the time when females were not human but about the rank less than a dog. (Onna wa Ningen de wa nai. Inu wa shujin n CHUJITSU de aruga , Onna-wa so de wa nai)

illsayit: "What is with the problem by all the foreigners with how he says it?"

I think you answer your own question with the wording. And sorry, but "It's necessary" when it's Japan, and "It's abuse" when it's other nations.... I mean, I know a lot of Hashimoto supporters want to claim he was misinterpreted in his own language and mistranslated in others, but drop the excuses. Of COURSE there's a problem with what and how he said what he said, because it's downright wrong.

Like for most of Japan's government officials, the same question arises two-fold for this complete idiot: "HOW AND WHY ARE YOU STILL IN OFFICE?!?"

slumdog:

" Hashimoto suggested the comfort women were important for helping soldiers relax. I haven't heard anyone suggesting that sexually assaulted Japanese women are important for American soldiers to relax. "

Well, according to Hashimoto`s logic, that would indeed be the case. Maybe the Foreign Correspondents Club can clarify that for us on Monday...

Well, he's made himself world famous as some kind of freak misogynistic Japanese fascist politician at which all self-respecting people can tut-tut. And considering the many people around the world afflicted with the inclination to tar everyone with the same brush, if I were a Japanese person who likes to travel, I'd be seriously angry at this guy.

in the 1990s Prof. Ahn Byong-jick ,Seoul University did an investigation

OssanAmerica,

did you know that Toyota funded his investigation?

Toyota makes a lot of money in US and i wonder how Toyota spends it. somebody needs to do some digging.

He is not very diplomatic

His constant need to justify horrors of the past shows how insecure he is as a leader

During this period, Korea was primarily a Japanese colony and as such, used as fodder for women and construction, great efforts were made to completely stamp out Korean culture by the Japanese during this period. Many girls were volunteers, as they initially did it to show their willingness in the war effort and because it was initially portrayed as something innocent: working in the ammunitions factories. In 1933, Emperor Hirohito issued an order for the recruitment of Korean women as comfort women, a "'royal gift' from the Emperor to the Imperial Army". Strictly under watch, these women, or young girls really had very little chance of escape, and those who tried were either beaten or more likely killed in gruesome ways to deter other women from trying. As they were considered nothing more than equipment, the comfort women were often left to die when the Japanese forces retreated.

No evidence, that funny. Related material start with the Dutch administered war crimes tribunal. They there are sources as: http://www.loc.gov/rr/frd/Military_Law/pdf/NaziWarCrimes_Japanese-Records.pdf

http://scholarship.law.berkeley.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1242&context=bjil&sei-redir=1&referer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Furl%3Fsa%3Dt%26rct%3Dj%26q%3Dtokyo%2520tribunal%2520comfort%2520women%26source%3Dweb%26cd%3D30%26ved%3D0CFcQFjAJOBQ%26url%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fscholarship.law.berkeley.edu%252Fcgi%252Fviewcontent.cgi%253Farticle%253D1242%2526context%253Dbjil%26ei%3DntCbUZbPFYnXygGxoCQDw%26usg%3DAFQjCNHAjMSsBeGrQ8r8VuBxQzSEDuPJNA#search=%22tokyo%20tribunal%20comfort%20women%22

http://faculty.virginia.edu/setear/students/japanwc/LinkPage3.htm

UpgrayeddMay. 22, 2013 - 08:21AM JST Source?

Keep reading your Japanese textbook. It never happened.

Europeans are laughing. Guys. This is embarassing. Wars come with rapes, systematic or not. Millions of women were raped by troops of all sides during WWII in Europe. Lucky ones lived to tell about it. It's time to put the pains of the past behind us.

The main difference between the comfort woman issue and Nazi war crimes is that unlike the Nazis, there isn't a single piece of physical evidence in existence that collaborates the testimony of surviving comfort women. Not one slip of paper.

That's not a "difference", the consistent testimonies by thousands of "comfort women" (and even the ex-Japanese military men) are the clear evidence. There's such thing as oral history, it doesn't need to be written on a piece of paper to become "evidence".

Is there any evidence that North Korea systematically kidnapped Japanese from Japan, or did those Japanese simply happened to decide to go to North Korea on their own? I don't believe there's anything officially written on a piece of paper by the North Korean government about systematic kidnapping. The Japanese nationalists are shooting themselves in the foot.

So, you admit that despite now 2 decades of activists looking for it, there is no hard evidence to prove that forcing women into sexual slavery was an official Army policy, while there is hard evidence that proves that the Japanese Army requested volunteers only and offenders who kidnapped women were frequently punished?

Depends on what you mean by "hard evidence". You mean the consistent testimonies by the "comfort women", ex-Japanese and allied soldiers, etc, etc? The fact that the "comfort women" were left with innumerable physical and psychological trauma? (Approximately three quarters of comfort women died, and most survivors were left infertile due to sexual trauma or sexually transmitted disease.) Yep, there is no evidence...

Some of them were even punished by Japanese authorities:

The Japanese officers involved received some punishment by Japanese authorities at the end of the war. After the end of the war, 11 Japanese officers were found guilty with one soldier being sentenced to death by the Batavia War Criminal Court.

Are these enough for "hard evidence"?:

On April 17, 2007 Yoshiaki Yoshimi and Hirofumi Hayashi announced the discovery, in the archives of the Tokyo Trials, of seven official documents suggesting that Imperial military forces, such as the Tokkeitai (Naval military police), forced women whose fathers attacked the Kenpeitai (Army military police), to work in front line brothels in China, Indochina and Indonesia. These documents were initially made public at the war crimes trial. In one of these, a lieutenant is quoted as confessing to having organized a brothel and having used it himself. Another source refers to Tokkeitai members having arrested women on the streets, and after enforced medical examinations, putting them in brothels.

On 12 May 2007 journalist Taichiro Kajimura announced the discovery of 30 Dutch government documents submitted to the Tokyo tribunal as evidence of a forced mass prostitution incident in 1944 in Magelang.

The South Korean government designated Bae Jeong-ja as a pro-Japan collaborator (chinilpa) in September 2007 for recruiting comfort women.

There is a difference between testimony and physical evidence.

Huh? I posted DOCUMENTS, not testimonies! lol! This is just getting sad...

"Show me 'hard evidence' that those women were forced! Only then, I will gladly accept that they were forced!"

Shows "hard, written evidence from official documents

"Oh..."

Shooting yourself in the foot again?

Mr. Yoshimi went to the Defense Agency’s library and combed through official documents from the 1930s. In just two days, he found a rare trove that uncovered the military's direct role in managing the brothels, including documents that carried the personal seals of high-ranking Imperial Army officers.

Faced with this smoking gun, a red-faced Japanese government immediately dropped its long-standing claim that only private businessmen had operated the brothels. A year later, in 1993, it acknowledged in a statement that the Japanese state itself had been responsible. In time, all government-approved junior high school textbooks carried passages on the history of Japan’s military sex slaves, known euphemistically as comfort women.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/31/world/asia/31yoshimi.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

This may be off topic, but since you have strong prejudice against Japan, I put this. It was Kim Jeong Il who officially admitted abduction. http://www.rachi.go.jp/en/ratimondai/syousai.html#rm02

Ok, but when you do the same, you don't have any prejudice against Korea, China, Philippine, Netherlands, etc?

Shooting yourself in the foot... again.

Upgrayyed: "The Japanese document that Mr. Yoshimi discovered in the 1990s makes it clear that the Japanese military had orders to not kidnap women"

And yet former Imperial soldiers have admitted to kidnapping and raping women "despite their cries". This proof as opposed to your non-proof about something not happenening.

CH3CHO: "smithinjapan, so you say there is an Japanese Imperial Order in 1933 for the recruitment of Korean women as comfort women. All Imerial Orders and Edicts are published. Go ahead and find one."

So, I want you to say this flat out: you're asking me to look for something the Japanese government burned records of and completely denies? So if it's not on 2-channel it's not real?

illsayit: "too bad smith just keeps quoting everybody and pointing out where he thinks theyre wrong; as if that isnt being a bit of a control artist"

Pointing out what's wrong is not being a control artist, as you say. It's simply pointing out what's wrong.

"notice to commentators, either you comply by smiths language standards or he will tell you you are wrong. Evidence of him being right is not necessary, so long as he doesnt read."

Interesting, coming from a guy who talks about Hashimoto's 'language' and how it was 'misinterpreted'. Whom was it misinterpreted by, pres tel? The Japanese in Okinawa? Was it 'mistranslated' into... Japanese? You can go ahead and say 'I told you so' about me stating the obvious wrong-doings, but that would be like if you stating if you commit a crime the police will say you are wrong in doing so, then commit the crime, get arrested, and say, "See? I told you!" As for reading, I do plenty. You should try it yourself, starting with Hashimoto's comments (try not to misinterpret them to your liking).

Upgrayyed: "There's no evidence so the Japanese must have burned it excuse? There's plenty of evidence of other Japanese war crimes but nothing on comfort women. Very strange."

Again? really? You have been given evidence for DAYS and you simply refuse to acknowledge it, instead giving links to nettoyu blogs and Wiki sites as 'proof' it never happened. Once again, former Imperial troops have flat out admitted to kidnapping and raping women before forcing them into the brothels, but I suppose you know better, right?

CH3CHO: " Japanese Army lieutenant in Moa received order from Japanese HQ in Java to kill all the 40 captives, except 2 or 3 leaders who should be sent to Java. But the lieutenant did not kill the 6 women and used them to satisfy himself and his men."

Ah, so then HE's the victim?

"During the interrogation conducted in the Japanese language in 1946, the lieutenant did not use the word "ianfu" (comfort woman). This is a case of POW abuse, which is of course a serious war crime, rather than a comfort woman issue."

Doesn't matter what words he used, same as trying to use the euphemism 'comfort women' to describe sex slaves -- that's what they were; instead of being executed they were forced to commit sexual acts with Japanese troops, bottom line. Sorry, but calling flat out rape 'POW abuse' is twisting things to a new level. At least you finally admit to forced sexual slavery.

CH3CHO: "This may be off topic, but since you have strong prejudice against Japan, I put this. It was Kim Jeong Il who officially admitted abduction."

Yes, despite it being off-topic, and despite you yet again quoting nettoyu blogs, it was Kim who admitted it. WHEN did he admit it and under what circumstances are the more important questions, though. It was when relations between the two nations, under Koizumi and with the Sunshine Policy, were at their peak. Kim delivered what he promised, more or less, and when Koizumi returned after the relatively fruitful meeting the right-wingers went nuts over the admittance of kidnapping, which they had zero proof of before (and have zero proof that others still were kidnapped and are alive there), and Koizumi was forced to put sanctions on NK or face a loss at the next election. Things then spiraled downward and have never recover. So yes, NK admitted it, and Japan reneged on its end of the bargain.

None of that has anything to do with Hashimoto's moronic remarks, though, and I for one am glad to see this moron digging his own grave.

Zichi,

Nice of you to bring up Prof. Berger for his quotes were featured on this very site as well in the past.

"But Japan has been far more repentant than is often credited. Prime ministers have repeatedly offered apologies for their country’s misdeeds. Japan has sponsored joint historical research with both South Korea and China. Most Japanese school textbooks deal with issues like the Nanjing massacre and the colonial oppression of Koreans in a fairly open manner. Opinion polls suggests that most Japanese feel their country did things in Asia for which the country should apologize."

So it’s all Japan’s fault?

"No, the Koreans and the Chinese bear a large share of the blame. With the Koreans, there has been an unwillingness to help the Japanese find ways of reconciling when the Japanese have tried to do so. This was most apparent with the Asian Women’s Fund, which the Korean government did not support and in fact subverted by establishing a separate, rival support system for the former comfort women. This has been made worse by the tendency of Korean politicians to score cheap points by very publicly taking out their frustrations with Japan — as when President Lee Myung-bak went to Dokdo/Takeshima recently...."

As to the other paper you linked, the lame attempt of "Nazi was bad, then IJA must have been equally bad" had been attempted as early as 1945 by the Allied's International military tribunal where they themselves became the judge, jury, and the executioner. But it was quite obvious that the criminality based on international law was lacking and more so an attempt to demean the losers and to make an impression that the Allieds were the "good guys".

"of course, in Japan we were all aware of the bombings and the burnings of Tokyo and Yokohama and other big cities. It was horrible that we went there for the purpose of vindicating the laws of war, and yet saw every day how the Allies had violated them dreadfully".

Hence, when such paper states there are "few" Japanese that were prosecuted for the war crimes, how about a little balance by indicating how many Allied members were prosecuted for the war crimes?

nigelboy, CH3CHO, Upgrayedd, denying, defending and excusing this terrible, horrible war crime, as Hashimoto is doing, is clearly misguided and indefensible. It has nothing to do with patriotism or love for your country or having loyalty to your country. Nobody else in the rest of the world would excuse, defend or deny the existence of comfort women, ever. It was clearly an unjustifiable war crime.

His real name must be "Hashish-moto"?

The man is an idiot - War was war and a lot of people suffered at the hands of the Japanese does he really want to bring all that up again accusing another nation of doing exactly what the Japanese did. Maybe he should be sections under the Mental Health Act.

the boy is suffering from a nasty case of diarrhea of the mouth. is there a quack in the house?

That and the massacres they committed

Is he Ishihara's puppet or is he coming up with this on his own?

ou're right of course, but the difference is that fringe group nuts don't usually become the political leader of both a major metropolis and a major political party.

Quite so and we put mentally ill patients into institutions as well, and it seems to me that Hashimoto has crossed the line between reality and fantasy and needs a long period of rest, preferably behind locked doors away from all the lights and with plenty of medication.

He's quickly surpassing Michelle Bachmann as the world's most cognitively challenged elected official .......

Burt just like her, 20% of the population that are far right wing nuts just eat this stuff up.......

His position, especially as mayor, makes him impossible to ignore, no matter how much we want to.

OK for reporting his story the first time to inform on what kind of mayor we have, but if he has to say one every morning, he's no longer news material...

@Cos : Exactly right? Hashimoto is a moron because he is commenting on things he's not an expert on.... the comments in JT

Precisely. We don't make headline news, we are chatting at the virtual izakaya. Hashi should join us. His declaration are just forum comments.

.

What a fool, so his defense now is it was o k for us to do it because other people may have done it. Get out Hashimoto.

HI,

The problem is not Muchimoto (Hashimoto=無知元）, the problem are those old far right wing ignorant idiots and their extreme ultranationalistic mindset, that are in power, and has been in power since the end of WW2. I can't speak about the DPJ people, but i have researched the LDP party and its leaders since the WW2. When the WW2 ended, the exact same criminals and lunatics that ruled the Empire of Japan, formed the new ''democratic'' government and has been in power since then. These are the people that intentionally modify the textbooks to teach people of their same idiotic and nationalist mindset. One of the heroes of post-war Japan is Saburo Ienaga, who spend 30 years fighting these lunatics. Eventually he lost, but because of him and his efforts, small changes were made.

The current prime minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe, is the same ultranationalistic lunatic with the same ideologist and mindset. It doesn't matter whether Hashimoto is fired or not, because, he is only saying what everybody is believing. In fact, he is doing the rest of the world a favor, by bringing into light their nationalistic and ignorant mindset and ideology.

As long as these old ultra right wing fanatics stay in power in Japan, nothing will ever change. I highly doubt the Japanese people will ever come together and kick them out of office. There aren't so many Japanese people who are well informed of what is happening, to begin with. The most highly probable scenario, could be if a group of well educated (educated abroad) professors from Japan, form some kind of a group and start pushing for a change and exposing the lunatics in office. Saburo Ienaga did the same thing, but he was alone.

Anyway, many many things must change in Japan. Hashimoto is saying what everybody has been taught and believes. The entire education system in Japan must changed to fit the reality.

Jeez, when is this clown going to get it? Yeah, we get it Hashimoto, it's everyone's fault but Japan's. Why on Earth should these nationalists be allowed their own version of history? History belongs to everyone and while the facts are open to interpretation, they are not negotiable. Denying what happened won't make it go away?

Refusal to face up to the past is Japan's national shame.

Again in Sasebo, American soldiers sexual assaulted Japanese woman. This is why Hashimoto is opening his mouth. And many people here commenting shut up Hashimoto.

Hashimoto suggested the comfort women were important for helping soldiers relax. I haven't heard anyone suggesting that sexually assaulted Japanese women are important for American soldiers to relax. If they did, they would be rightly chastised for it. That is why I find Hashimoto's comments demeaning and highly inappropriate to say the least and that is why he is being chastised.

On the off chance that Hashimoto is forced to retire early, I guess he won't be taking any shopping trips to Korea.

Honestly I believe any politicians, regardless of citizenship, should be smart enough not to touch this kind of topic.

After 70 years this is now in the historians' domain. Create and give the means to a credible international team to gather any available facts available, could it be testimonies, documents, photographs and accept their conclusions, even though it might be shocking for some people.

Teach the agreed facts across the borders.

Then anyone - and especially politicians - trying to revise it without proven facts should be prosecuted.

I wish my mayor would get back to work on something he is responsible for, like cleaning up the filthy polluted Neyagawa River or making more green space. Useless putz.

Well, start a recall election, or get the city council to agree with you and censure him. If the people of Osaka don't do anything about it, there is little if anything the rest of the country can do to stop him beyond changing the channel.

It looks like someone enjoys reopening the historical wounds which should be already cured and dumped into the ash heap of history.

Why is Hashimoto still in office? lol...

Well, as many were calling it, he would keep digging himself in further. And he has.

To those, at least near the top as I haven't read the whole thread, who are saying it is the media's fault, and they should just ignore idiot extremists-- what are you thinking??

Ya, if he was some kinda mail-order right wing newsletter guy, ok, but he has been both governor of an important prefecture and mayor of the 2nd or 3rd biggest city in the land, is being touted as a future pm, and was just about to complete a major alliance with another "opposition" party to consolidate serious power.

No, this needs all the reporting it is getting, and more, imo.

This is what happens when moronic, revisionist, "Lost Cause" moral equivalency bloviating that you normally find on 2channel or Japan Today comes out of the mouth of the mayor of Japan's third most populous city. It's an ugly spectacle that will not gain any traction. Osakans, how's that celebrity lawyer as mayor working out for you? Hashimoto should go back to chatting with Dave Spector on Sunday morning TV.

@T_rexmaxytime

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yHHfYOGumI

Please watch -- A recent documentary of grandmothers in Korea, Philippians, China, and Australia who were comfort women sharing their stories. Truly compelling.

I just cannot grasp what Hashimoto is drivng at. Is he against Japan, SKorea, USA to name a few/ This guy is an activist and trying to de-estabilized peace in Japan and among nations. With his antics and media inputs, he sound like making inciting rebellion convincing that every country bad during the war. Anyway Hashimoto San, as your announcement of doing the apologies for comfort women per se in all countries, during the war, DO IT ASAP. NO MORE TALKS. And by all means give support and compensation to those women who are still alive from your own pocket.

ShankunMay. 22, 2013 - 04:29AM JST looking this way Japanese are doing much better work right now in the region than Korea ever did...

Are you sure? Then why does Japan have problems with all of their neighbors. Japan has nothing much to show for its soft power. Its economic is in constant decline for the last few decades. Without China market, it could be many times more worse. Its people are basically introvert without a sense of belonging to Asia community for they don't mix with the locals in any other foreign countries they are based. The society has prejudice against immigrants from any country especially from the Asia countries.

nigelboy May. 22, 2013 - 05:29AM JST Can't say that about Korea and China though with their sole goverment issued textbooks.

Are you still on the J-goverment payroll? Japan is continuing to press ahead in revising its history of WWII, and high school textbooks no longer acknowledge that the Imperial Army was responsible for a major atrocity in neighboring countries. A textbook approved by the Ministry of Education contained no references to comfort women and forced laborers, glossed over atrocities like Unit 731 and the Nanking massacre, and asserted that WWII helped Asian countries achieve independence. The textbooks were largely written by the Japanese Society for History Textbook Reform, a right wing group of revisionist historians, who said the were interested in engendering national pride.

Japanese historians

lol. Revisionist Japanese historians.

Oh look, testimonies by Korean, Philippine and Taiwanese victims:

http://www.awf.or.jp/e3/oralhistory-00.html

Thomas let me beat the naysayers to the punch here, they will focus on one word; "suggesting" not "fact" or "proving"

Thomas AndersonMay. 22, 2013 - 10:08AM JST On April 17, 2007 Yoshiaki Yoshimi and Hirofumi Hayashi announced the discovery, in the archives of the Tokyo Trials, of seven official documents suggesting that Imperial military forces, such as the Tokkeitai (Naval military police), forced women whose fathers attacked the Kenpeitai (Army military police), to work in front line brothels in China, Indochina and Indonesia.

here some QUALIFICATIONS about professor Hirofumi Hayashi (from wikipedia)

Hirofumi Hayashi (林 博史 Hayashi Hirofumi?, born April 6, 1955) is a historian, an authority on modern Japanese history, and is currently a professor of politics at the Kanto Gakuin University.

He has been conducting RESEARCH on the Japanese occupation of Southeast Asia, Japanese war crimes, and war crimes trials including the subject of comfort women.

so my question is simple: does professor Ahn Byong-jick of Seoul University who investigated comfort women issue have qualification like the above? As far as i know professor Ahn Byong-jick is not even a historian. do i have this correct?

Readers, please stop bickering.

CH3CHO: " A judgment based only on heresay with no supporting evidence is not a court at all, it is a witch burning."

I'm sorry you cannot properly understand English. 'Tis a shame. But to dummy it down for you, no, I was not talking at all about spfj's comment, but yours -- you talk about 'fiction' when you discuss something you were not present for, but get all your info from blogs and 2-Channel. In other words, to dummy it down further, YOU push the fiction, not vice-versa.

Now, is that English easy enough for you? Granted, it's not as tough as distinguishing 'rape' and 'necessity' but still.

Upgrayedd: "According to Japanese historians."

That's all you need to say. Thank you.

CH3CHO: "You may think him victim, but I do not think a rapist victim. Anyone with minimum sense would not, either. How dear you think him a victim."

I don't 'dare' (I think you meant, though it could have been 'dear') think him the victim at all, I simply point out how you portray him as a kind of hero for not executing the women as ordered.

" Moa case is done against the army order to kill the women. So, the operation is against the Japanese policy. It is a personal crime of the said lieutenant."

A lieutenant who represented the Imperial Army of Japan. Bottom line. You can't finally admit to every case of sexual slavery as 'an exception and not representing the government'. Especially since if this guy were/is enshrined at Yasukuni you'd say he was a 'soldier who fought for his nation'.

Upgrayedd: "Yasuji Kaneko lied about when he joined the Japanese army, about murdering Chinese people in the Nanjing massacre, and about being in Unit 731 yet you believe his testimony about comfort women?"

I answered your question more than once: that you choose not to see it is not my fault. And why should I answer (again) when you refuse to answer the questions posted to you, such as what about the rest of the former Imperial soldiers who have admitted to and apologized for atrocities such as that of Nanjing but which the government claims they have 'foggy memories' and 'do not represent the offical stance of the Japanese government"?

nigelboy May. 22, 2013 - 11:22PM JST

"as Prof. Ahn's investigation revealed"

your logic is flawed.

do some critical thinking.

prof. ahn is not a qualified expert on comfort women issuse.

dcog9065, hope you die painfully. cu nt..

I fail to see the comparison. Yes all of them were bad. But none of the other countries he mentionned deny it. Japan is the one denying it. And nowhere did the allies ever mobilize masses of women for sexual slavery.

Seriously, he reminds of those japanese uyoku on Youtube. Taking pride in their atrocities but when criticized they always bring up some irrelevant incidents like the dictators Park Chung Hee, Mao, and Kim Jong Il. They also start arguing and justifying that it's somehow ok since the British and Americans have done it in the past.

What kind of corrupted mindset is this? I will laugh when a rapist uses this excuse in court.

I thought I haven't seen how low the world could go after Japan started criticizing countries for donating too little to their earthquake. But this and how sex slaves were "necessary" just takes the cake.

Red herring, red herring and even more red herring.

Like I said before, Hashimoto is NOT stupid. He is using his comments to highlight the sex crimes and abuse that took place by both the Japanese and Americans during the war and after. He is bringing it all out in the open and slowly, his agenda is building momentum. He is not for what he is saying -- quit the opposite. Shock the world as he did to bring out the true savage nature of man; especially Americans. Watch, it's already unfolding.

Researchers will prove Hashimoto incorrect thus highlighting the truth of the abuses that took place. This was his plan all along.

You think too highly of your precious little toru-chan twinans... I will agree that he is saying this to shock, but I cant agree that it isn't out of stupidity...

hashimoto...STAHP!! LOL

This person is like an evil Energizer bunny. He keeps going and going and going!

Bluescript:

You are right. That is is starting point. All his other stupidities flow from there.

RESIGN!! Just a shout in the Dark!!!

You have to wonder...why do politicians make such horribly offensive remarks. Why not just stick by the earlier apology and work to make the world a safer and saner place through honest and sincere debate and friendly agreement where ever it can be found? Horrific things have been done by all nations that have engaged in war and still we do not learn to be kind. War...God god ya'll,What is it good for? Absolutely nothing.

HAHAHAHAHAHAH!!! Looney Tunes couldn't have done it better than this guy! What a complete buffoon!!! Blaming everybody else, "Well they did it too!"

Reminds me of that scene from Leave It To Beaver: Ward: Would you expect Wally to jump off a roof just because Chip did? Beaver: Well, how HIGH a roof, Dad?

Prove it!!! Don't make accusations without proof!!!

Well, people fail to see that this guy is only saying aloud what the government also believes in, that which is taught in schools...given that there are no officially sanctioned text books that actually elaborate or condemn Japan's actions before and during the war. Besides, the emphasis is not on contemporary history wherein the defeat of Japan in the war is seen as an unacceptable humiliation. So the few sentences that talk about the war are never covered, after all, it "represents nothing" compared to the thousands of years of the nations glorious past that the kids must know...

Unfortunately, what he said about the comfort women being necessary in WW2 is likely true, it's just something that is completely unacceptable to hear today. He really isn't helping himself..

His constituents are equally responsible for his antagonizing behavior ...they voted the idiot into his current position.

Hashimoto says American troops guilty of wartime sex abuse. Hashimoto says S Korean troops guilty of wartime sex abuse. Hashimoto says Chinese troops guilty of wartime sex abuse. Hashimoto says world troops guilty of wartime sex abuse. Hashimoto says insect, plant, animal, and alien troops guilty of wartime sex abuse.

Okay Hashimoto, we got your point. Enough already.

Well Said Mr.......NOT

Comfort Women articles in WikiPedia English edition has way less amount than Japanese edition, He will raise more fules before 5/27. Is he trying to get onto a headliner in the world? Even NK 6 missile shooting did not get attention in USA. It has tornade news all day. Never Hashimoto's news at all. Expect him to insult every the other country on earth.

Vietnam people know abot the Lai Dan Han, that was the result of the rapes commited by Korean troops in Vietnam Tens of thousand kids were born cause that. Still Korean troops goat away with it. and its not reportad that often since vietnamize women are poor and since United States was involved, nobody really cared.

kiyoshiMukai: "that was the result of the rapes commited by Korean troops in Vietnam Tens of thousand kids were born cause that."

'Tens of thousands', eh? Where's your proof? And please, don't quote nettoyu blogs and/or editable Wikis. In any case, how does this take away from the wrong doing of the Japanese Imperial Army? It's amazing to watch people like you demand we forget history or suggest it's been resolved because of half-hearted, almost rescinded apologies, and then point the finger at other nations for the same thing to deflect. Now, you do realize, don't you, that the Japanese Imperial Army also invaded, tortured, raped, and killed tens of thousands in Viet Nam, since you bring it up, don't you? Go to the Hanoi Prison Camp museum and read about it (called the 'Hanoi Hilton' by former US troops), that is... if you're willing to let your bias hang at the door.

Can't wait to hear what he says tomorrow. I love the way he's always standing in front of that white screen when he's making his pronouncements. Ideal setting for a firng squad. Completely barking!

"Hashimoto says S Korean troops guilty of wartime sex abuse"

so i guess he knows wartime sex abuse is wrong.

Hashimoto, tweeting approx. 200,000 times a day on Twitter, "It is unfair that only Japan should get unfairly bashed by the hostile world who hates Japan! They did it too! Waah waah waah we're eternal victims!" Oh brother.

zichi: "Is Hashimoto thinking that in future, if there's another Japanese military, that once again, they might need the military run brothels and comfort women?"

I guess if there's a plus side in the minds of the Japanese they would not be victims but would be like OLs. It's only when they are foreigners that the aggressors are the victims once they are done with them, and the 'necessity' abides.

Ossan: "Are you aware that there exists no evidence that the "Comfort Women" were coerced either?"

Except the confessions by former soldiers, of course. So what do you call that? I mean, given that you were never there, have no idea of what happened, listen to the words of those who follow white-washed textbooks and demand further white-washing, who are you to say the people that actually committed the atrocities or suffered them are wrong? Are you going to follow the 'foggy memory' soundbite Japanese leaders like to take when they don't want to admit to anything? Are you going to blame Korean prostitutes for the wrong doing of Imperial Japan?

Dude, only someone like you would defend Hashimoto on this. I have to admit, I'm a little surprised at how low you sink.

I don't see where the hypocrisy is. Where's the proof that thousands of children were born due to rapes?

This is exactly the "hypocricy" I'm talking about.

To summarize the 40 surviving Korean comfort women's testimonies conducted by Professor An Byeong-jik, he interviewed them one by one, half of them were "lying". Of the remaining 19, those who claimed they were "forced" were reduced to 4. Two of them stated that they were lead to Toyama-ken and Pusan but both of them were not battlefields and hence, most likely private brothels. Of the remaining two, one of them revealed that she earned 26K Yen which at that time would be equivalent to 70 million yen. The other initially claimed that she went to China under "Kaesang" (another term for prostitution in Korea) but later changed her testimony to state that she was taken by IJA officer while eating at a diner in Beijing.

LOL.. yes, invalid for Japanese nationalists, but valid for most of the world. But how convenient...

I am not a nationalist. Its kind of convinient for you to just lable someone who opposes your view as a nationalist dont you think? Why cant you answer why these testimonies changes in every interview...

Please watch -- A recent documentary of grandmothers in Korea, Philippians, China, and Australia who were comfort women sharing their stories. Truly compelling.

It might be a touching story but how can you verify the stories when it changes overtime?

Why everyday this site brings up another Hashimoto's statement? Because of $$$ and clicks?

I haven't seen Hashimoto riding Yahoo's Japan main topics being his remarks. Much bigger issue are current talks between Norks and Japanese government.,,

What's wrong with this site?

South Korea provides billions in economic aid to Vietnam, becoming the second biggest donor for Vietnam.

You forgot to mention who's the biggest and those invested money aren't any for of recompensation... looking this way Japanese are doing much better work right now in the region than Korea ever did...

Some interesting comment from Prof. Ahn from Fadamor's link.

"I was asked to participate in a project that involved exhaustive research, including interviews. To the best of my knowledge, no sources exist stating that the Japanese military abducted women and forced them to serve as comfort women. This was an era in which many girls from poor families were sold, so why would there have been a need for coercion? Such a claim makes no sense at all." (...)

"One of the women said that she was approached by a man who appeared to be a soldier. There were plenty of people wearing clothing resembling uniforms then." (...)

"Last year I was castigated for expressing these same views on television, but I have no intention of retracting them. There are no resources that prove official coercion. That is a fact, and I will not attempt to change the facts." (...)

"Prime Minister Abe must not apologize, even if apologies seem to be the easiest way to resolve the problem. Apologies will confuse the debate in South Korea"

nigelboy May. 22, 2013 - 05:11AM JST "No amount of investigation by the Japanese government has yielded evidence pertaining to some aspects of the problem.

Japanese soldiers began rounding up women and forcing them to serve as sex slaves in so-called comfort stations.This is what most historians believe. But not in Japan, where a large faction of conservatives, led by Abe, denies that the Japanese military forced women into sexual slavery. They maintain that any suggestion to the contrary is simply anti-Japanese propaganda and probably spread by China and Korea. At the furthest end of the spectrum, the minimizing turns to flat-out denial; one professor at a top Japanese university adamantly insisted there were no killings or rapes in Nanking. Not surprisingly, all this minimizing and denial enrages the Chinese, Koreans, and others in Asia. But this is a familiar pattern.

Go HASHIMOTO GO!! When you screw up don't it just blame everyone else for their mistake! Tomorrow's headline will probably say ...Hashimoto says Chinese troops guilty of wartime sex abuse or

kyou1

Hashimoto NEVER said sexual assault was necessary. Although many foreigners who can not read Japanese think that Hashimoto said so.

Perhaps you should consider reading my English again. Hashimoto did in fact say he thought the role of comfort women was important for helping stressed soldiers relax. Your bringing up sexually assaulted Japanese women that no one is suggesting have a role in helping American soldiers relax has nothing to do with Hashimoto and his comments about the supposed important role of the comfort women in helping stressed Japanese soldiers relax. Again, that is why Hashimoto is being rightly chastised.

OssanAmericaMay. 22, 2013 - 04:39AM JST

That the investigation was carried out by qualified South Koreans

OssanAmerica,

qualified? and what makes him a qualified expert on comfort women issue? just being a professor at a university gives him the qualification?

OssanAmericaMay. 22, 2013 - 04:39AM JST

"That the investigation was carried out by qualified South Koreans"

OssanAmerica,

qualified? and what makes him a qualified expert on comfort women issue? just being a professor at a university gives him the qualification?

dcog9065 - your comment is absurd and completely sexist. How are comfort women necessary in war? What is necessary are things that will keep you alive so that you can continue to fight...things like food, water, and weapons. Those are necessary items. If comfort women were necessary in war, how come the Germans didn't use French women as comfort women? Why not? Cause they are not necessary.

Women should not be swept for forced sex with soldiers so that the soldiers' sexual requirements be met. Sex is a pleasure not a necessity, especially if that is against the will of the female.

@ smoothd : The Nazis definitely had military brothels on campus throughout Europe; they had Polish girls coming daily to the concentration camps for the guards because they paid them and in those days that was probably the only source of reliable income.

My comment is not sexist as I'm expressing what the likely view of women and the army was back in those days; there was no such thing as sexism in the early 1940's.. I agree with you, the idea is abhorrent, but I can see how the idea wouldn't have really been an issue back in those days. Hashimoto is making stupid comments and living in the past, is my point.

2

smithinjapanMay. 21, 2013 - 09:42PM JST

illsayit: "What is with the problem by all the foreigners with how he says it?"

I think you answer your own question with the wording. And sorry, but "It's necessary" when it's Japan, and "It's abuse" when it's other nations.... I mean, I know a lot of Hashimoto supporters want to claim he was misinterpreted in his own language and mistranslated in others, but drop the excuses. Of COURSE there's a problem with what and how he said what he said, because it's downright wrong.

too bad smith just keeps quoting everybody and pointing out where he thinks theyre wrong; as if that isnt being a bit of a control artist: notice to commentators, either you comply by smiths language standards or he will tell you you are wrong. Evidence of him being right is not necessary, so long as he doesnt read.

Upgrayedd: "He said he was a member of Unit 731 but he was stationed in Qingdao, thousands of miles away from Unit 731."

So you admit Unit 731 existed?

Upgrayedd: "CH3CHO gave a good rundown about the difference between 慰安婦 and POW abuse"

No, what he did was try to use a euphemism to describe systematic rape, same as calling sex slaves by the name 'comfort women'.

Hirofumi Hayashi (林 博史 Hayashi Hirofumi?, born April 6, 1955) is a historian, an authority on modern Japanese history, and is currently a professor of politics at the Kanto Gakuin University.

He's a economic professor. http://univ.kanto-gakuin.ac.jp/basic/faculty/economics.html

so my question is simple: does professor Ahn Byong-jick of Seoul University who investigated comfort women issue have qualification like the above? As far as i know professor Ahn Byong-jick is not even a historian. do i have this correct?

He's a Professor Emeritus of Economic History for Seoul National University.

Researching Nazi Germany is easier than researching Imperialist Japan. This is probably why Japanese war crimes are not as well known as Nazi war crimes.

It's a shame that the right-wingers and nationalists even on this site knowingly or unknowingly defend war crimes out of supposed "loyalty" for their country. Or is it just about covering up their national embarrassment, like Hashimoto? These people have no concept of justice...

Only in Japan will you find people actually denying, defending and excusing the existence of "comfort women", as if they were neo-Nazis denying, defending and excusing the Holocaust, Auschwitz, etc. Unbelievable.

And I smell a Godwin's law taking place here.

Godwin's law is when somebody alludes something to Nazism or Hitler which nobody did.

He just gets better and better. Next he will be pointing out that even Jesus and Mary Magdelen's relationship was a bit iffy.

Most people who complains to Hashimoto about his remarks fulfill following points.

1) Confusing "Comfort Women" and "Sex Slaves". 2) Having little knowledge on the asian history, e.g., "China was invaded only by Japan" or "Korea was colonized by Japan by force". 3) Not knowing the differences in "Legal sexual services in Japan" and "prostitution". 4) Believing him to try justifying Japan's past by saying "Korean did..." or "The U.S. military did...". 5) Turing himself/herself away from the curious points in the testimonies made by women claiming themselves as "Sex Slaves".

dcog9065 - your comment is absurd and completely sexist. How are comfort women necessary in war? What is necessary are things that will keep you alive so that you can continue to fight...things like food, water, and weapons. Those are necessary items. If comfort women were necessary in war, how come the Germans didn't use French women as comfort women? Why not? Cause they are not necessary.

Women should not be swept for forced sex with soldiers so that the soldiers' sexual requirements be met. Sex is a pleasure not a necessity, especially if that is against the will of the female.

【budgie】

Facts are not a subject of interpretation. Words are subject of interpretation. ''Facts'' are the things that can be physically found and observed. ''Reality'' is anything that can be physically found and observed. The reality is not a subject of interpretation. A bridge is either 5 km long or not. You cannot interpret the physically measured and estimated numbers. If an engineer tells another engineers - ''This metal can support 5.02 tons'', the other engineer cannot interpret this as - ''oh, i think he means 10.2 kg''. Physical experiment, observation and findings are not a subject of interpretation. Science is not concern with interpretations or feelings. The planet is round and spinning, whether you agree with it or not. Anything that cannot be physically observed, test and confirmed does not exist, whether you agree with it or not.

South Korean will hit him back and relationship between japan and korea will go further down. Im a south korean hope my country man slam this idiot.

He is smart. I don't think that he believe on what he says but maybe he has some goals.

slumdog

??

Hashimoto NEVER said sexual assault was necessary.

Although many foreigners who can not read Japanese think that Hashimoto said so.

OssanAmerica, with one big difference, from the article itself:

the women have made no claims that they were coerced into prostitution by South Korean or American >officials during those years

Why can't you understand the difference?

So, according to this admitted adulterer, when Japan forced women into sexual slavery it was a 'necessity', but when other nations rape women it's suddenly 'abuse'? I'd be baffled by the poor logic if it were not representative of a good portion of the Japanese population.

toshiko, read this US Army report in 1944. http://www.exordio.com/1939-1945/codex/Documentos/report-49-USA-orig.html

They lived in near-luxury in Burma in comparison to other places. This was especially true of their second year in Burma. They lived well because their food and material was not heavily rationed and they had plenty of money with which to purchase desired articles. They were able to buy cloth, shoes, cigarettes, and cosmetics to supplement the many gifts given to them by soldiers who had received "comfort bags" from home.

Hashimoto has a point here. Now that he has everyone's attention he will get more and more to the facts and I wouldn't be surprised if his percentages rise in the next polls.

Are you aware that there exists no evidence that the "Comfort Women" were coerced either?

Sure I'm aware. I'm aware that, that's what Japan claims, saying there's no evidence. The strongest evidence is the testimonials of the women from Korea, China, Philippines, Netherlands, and others.

And Nigelboy, that's just nonsense. Thousands of rapes that resulted in thousands of Korean-Vietnamese children? lol.. that's some terrific reproduction rate. Any chance that some of those children are the result of fraternization between Korean troops (as well as employees of Korean companies) and Vietnamese women? naw... that can't be.

chucky3176

The strongest evidence is the testimonials of the women from Korea, China, Philippines, Netherlands, and others.

None of the former comfort women says that they were drafted. Yet the supporting group for Korean comfort women uses the name "The Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan".

Look what AFP has to say.

Sex slavery is a particularly sensitive issue in Korea, whose people made up a large number of the around 200,000 “comfort women” forcibly drafted into brothels catering to the Japanese military during World War II.

Are there anything that suggests they were drafted for comfort women?

Well its true that Korean soldiers raped and killed mercilessly in Vietnam. I think what Hashimoto is saying is that Korea is being hypocritical by covering up its own action in Vietnam. I wonder what normal Korean people think about the action taken by the Korean soldiers in Vietnam.

there's plenty of evidence, the thousands of women themselves who were a living proof, starting 20 years ago.

As far as I have read, the testimony of those comfort woman changes so much that its not considered valid.

chucky3176, will you name the former comfort women who said they were drafted?

"The Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan" used to have a collection of testimonies on their website. When I saw there years ago, there was no one who testified she was drafted. Now, it seems the group deleted the testimonies all together.

Wow shocking truth revealed. Korea did sex slavery too!

CHUCKY You have to know that those testimonies can in ibvalid since most people always want profit. Just like MIchael Jackson. hes still being demanded. Those comfort women were simply prostitutes and in many cases they had no involvement with the sex issue but greedy women. there will never be REAL PROOF that any individual comfort women was raped by Japanese. somethng that happened in every war.

Chucky3176,

Same with the comfort women. It was brought up by Asahi so there is no "coverup" there. And yeah. The "evidence" cited as proof of coersion is the Semarang case in which it was done as an "individual" war crime which they were executed. The "system" in which the private brothel attached themselves to the military is not.

One glaring difference here is that for these so-called Korean women, their testimonies lack validity as addressed by others. As for Korean's role in Vietnam, there exists thousands of "half Korean" children.

As for problems facing Korea today, it is reported that the top usage of underaged prostitutes in SE Asia is that of Korean. From 2008 thru April of 2012, 556 Koreans were arrested in SE Asia according to Korean National Police Agency.

http://www.xinhua.jp/socioeconomy/photonews/332454/ http://news.searchina.ne.jp/disp.cgi?y=2013&d=0131&f=national_0131_032.shtml

Korea's Ministry of Gender Equality and Family reported last year that 50,000 Korean prostitutes operate in Japan and approximately 30,000 in U.S.

From the links above I provided, the Korean government had set up and recruited DIRECTLY, comfort women stations where some women were transported in large drum cans during the Korean war and afterwards. Subsequently, Korean soldiers massacres and raped villagers in Vietnam where there are thousands of half Korean children. Then we have the current prostitution problem where despite being more economically healthy, the government estimates that there are 100K Korean prostitutes (sex slaves) operating overseas.

But of course, that's not important to the Korean government.

O meant rare atoorney not rape attotney. He grew in povery so he used to help socially discriminated people with his law practice, However, he might lose popularity with his big mouth now.

Ah you posted before I saw it. Ignore the last half of my previous post.

According to whom?

According to Japanese historians.

He said he took part in the Rape of Nanjing and murdered Chinese civilians there. But he joined the army in 1940. 3 years after the Rape of Nanjing.

He said he was a member of Unit 731 but he was stationed in Qingdao, thousands of miles away from Unit 731.

No Japanese historian utilizes his testimony for good reason.

nigelboy May. 23, 2013 - 12:22AM JST

He's a Professor Emeritus of Economic History for Seoul National University.

nigelboy,

you can't be serious. I begin to doubt if you are able to do any logical thinking at all.

so prof. Ahn Byong-jick is a professor emeritus of economic history at seoul national university. why does this fact

qualify him as an expert on comfort women issue?

is he a historian?

is he an authority on modern Japanese history?

has he been conducting research on the Japanese occupation of Southeast Asia?

has he been conducting research on Japanese war crimes and war crimes trials?

has he been conducting research on the subject of comfort women?

has he been publishing his research on these matters so others can discuss his research methodologies?

you haven't provided anything like the above to support his qualifications. you and other Japanese guys are

citing only the fact that he is a professor at seoul national university.

it is very obvious that you only intend to manipulate public opinion using the fact that prof. Ahn Byong-jick

is a professor at seoul national university which is considered a top notch university in korea.

that is so 1940s.

that is so FAKE! lol

nigelboy May. 23, 2013 - 07:32AM JST

You're the one that brought up Prof. Hayashi's qualifications to compare it to Prof. Ahn.

yes I did and I believe you understand why.

and you say,

Prof. Ahn addressed were the validity of the testimonies of the surviving Korean comfort women.

Don't know what kind of qualifications are needed for that but the staff interviewed each of them 5-6 times,

taking notes, and giving summary of the notes in a staff meeting.

will you be able to establish the validity of a person's testimony by interviewing him 5-6 times, taking notes and

giving summary of the notes in a staff meeting?

I say that is not even close to what a RESEARCH looks like.

I say that is a FAKE!

I can tell you don't know the difference between RESEARCH and FAKE.

but you seem to believe a FAKE with no problem. lol

will you be able to establish the validity of a person's testimony by interviewing him 5-6 times, taking notes and giving summary of the notes in a staff meeting?

Even 5-6 questions is more than enough, IMO. In referring to the link I posted above @May. 23, 2013 - 12:05AM JST, roughly 1 out 10 were recognized as being a former comfort women (coercion or no coercion) even by the Korean government.

As Prof. Ahn briefly stated, establish a chronology by mentioning a major events in Korean peninsula at that time, ask these women if they became comfort women before or after that event(s), and supplement if necessary, ask the location they were mobilized to.

nigelboy May. 23, 2013 - 10:21PM JST

Even 5-6 questions is more than enough, IMO

you really don't know why you need certain qualifications to do certain job do you?

if somebody talks about things that are not in your field of expertise, you will have hard time

understanding what he is talking about. that is why you need help from an expert.

for example, there are different types of rape: rape by incest, rape by a spouse, gang rape and so on.

you need special training to develop skills to interview the victims of these different types of rape.

you then need hours of real fieldwork to become familiar with all the contexts of these victims.

that is not enough. you need some kind of very sensitive systematic approach to interview these victims.

if you live in a culture that is insensitive to these shameful traumatic experiences, you will very likely

fail to successfully interview the rape victims.

that is why a research takes years of work and a lot of money even to establish a proper systematic

approach to a certain type of investigation. 5-6 questions won't do unless you already have exceptional

expertise in the investigation. but sadly some researchers at established institutions

take only the money and produce fake results. this happens a lot not only in japan but everywhere.

but it is the power of politics that can turn FAKE into REAL and japanese politicians seem

to be very good at doing it. lol

calr751

We're not talking about police questioning here to determine whether the victim was raped or not. As for Prof. Ahn study, it was to determine that these former women were in fact comfort women. If they were, the next step was determine whether they were coerced into joining. As for the Korean government, their job was to determine whether or not these women were in fact comfort women so that they could be entitled to the benenfits.

nigelboy May. 24, 2013 - 01:28AM JST

As for Prof. Ahn study, it was to determine that these former women were in fact comfort women

nigelboy,

so what qualifications does Prof. Ahn have to do this job properly?

what makes Prof. Ahn a qualified expert on comfort women issue?

This Hashimoto really is a fool as a politician. However, unless one is biased to start with, much of what he is saying is not 100% innacurate.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/08/world/asia/08korea.html?pagewanted=all&_r=1&

zichi. then the problem is the money, but 70years later nobody REALLY knows how much we debt those women. But my grandfather died, maybe he owed money to those korean girls but I didn't touch a single hair of those prostitutes.

@Ch3Cho: Were you in Burma during WW II? Luxury in what comparison? Write what kind of luxry they lived. Just because they lived under dried straw roof but not under open sky does not mean luxury. One cup of uncook soup wit dirty river water with bare hand might be considered as luxury? People were getting water from dirty rivers there, then.

@Zicchi: In Japan, government created "Joshi Teishintai; for girls who could not go to girls middle schools. After 8th grade, these girls thought they would be working toward Japan's cause. Many girls in cold northern Japan were already sold to Southern Japanese prostitute houses Yukaku) when they were 3 to 5 year old. Poverty stricken parents were hoping they get better life in Southern Japan. Boys? They were sold to factories in south. Gen, MacArthur found because some big mouth school girls in south went to GHQ to stop that. He ordered Japanese Govt. to stop that.

A lot of the women were already prostitutes before Japan pressed them into service as comfort women. Korean families would sell their daughters to city brothels and that's where Japan got the majority of their "comfort women" from the Korean Peninsula. The implication that Japan turned over 100,000 women into prostitutes is simply unbelievable. I'm not saying Japan didn't turn SOME into prostitutes, just that the majority were already "in the profession" before Japan became involved. I suppose those former whores are now looking to clean up their reputation by riding on the coattails of those who were pressed into service against their will. Which is the better choice: Blame your parents for selling you into prostitution, or blame a foreign country for forcing you into prostitution?

Hashimoto needs to take a course (or two, or three) in diplomacy. While I have a pretty good idea what he is claiming isn't false, there's no need to be stating things like that for the public record. It serves no purpose other than to antagonize Japan's neighbors and a politician must, first and foremost, be an expert in diplomacy.

CH2CHO, there's plenty of evidence, the thousands of women themselves who were a living proof, starting 20 years ago.

In the the 20th century, more than 100 million were killed from wars. In all his recent statements, Hashimoto hasn't mentioned the word "peace" once, instead he tries to justify Japan's Imperialist past, instead of looking to the future and how wars could be avoided and peace maintained, and relationships with all nations improved.

Off the wall interpretation much like the media's propensity to spin his entire press conference. And again, you are criticizing a country in which their SDF has not killed a single foreign civilian over 60 years. Doesn't sound like a characteristic of a nation that "justify" her war past nor doesn't "look to the future and how wars could be avoided and peace maintained".

http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=2&sid=4e54c49e-0986-4de0-a7f7-9e256c6fde0e%40sessionmgr4&hid=27&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=f5h&AN=2972142

Apocalypse Then. Newsweek April , 2000

....Local officials who lived through the Korean massacres don't believe that the truth should be hidden to promote tourism and development. They would like to see some kind of public accounting from South Korea, perhaps an apology or an admission of guilt that could only serve to bring the two countries closer together. "The South Korean Army created the worst suffering this province has ever experienced," says one Phu Yen official. "The victims were old people, women and children who didn't have the ability to hold a gun. We are not asking for material compensation but rather for understanding and a friendly gesture that can help the victims put the past aside." Considering the amount of innocent Vietnamese blood spilled by the South Korean Army, that seems a small request.

Quote From JapanFocus:

Furthermore, the Korean Truth and Reconciliation Commission, established under a special law in 2005, has been engaged on a massive enterprise designed to explore precisely the sort of skeletons in the national cupboard that Tamogami in Japan refuses to acknowledge, documenting the claims of the countless victims of former regimes. It makes the claim "we will strive to be an international role model as a truth commission. Korea is the only country in Asia that reveals its shameful past to the public." Through it Koreans do indeed actively and seriously confront their history. The scope of the national project for truth and reconciliation has yet to be formally extended beyond Korea's borders, but Korea is also the only former member of the US-led coalition that fought in Vietnam to have made steps, however tentative, to apologize for the "pain" (Kim Dae Jung's word in 2001), caused to the Vietnamese people. It may be far from perfect, but Korea nevertheless constitutes a beacon of light in Asia calling all countries to do what they must do if democracy is to advance: honestly face their past.

Gavan McCormack is emeritus professor at Australian National University and a coordinator of Japan Focus. His most recent book is Client State: Japan In the American Embrace, London and New York, Verso, 2007, with Japanese, Chinese and Korean translations published in 2008.

This article appeared at the South Korean Newspaper Kyunghyang on December 8, 2008 and at Japan Focus on December 9, 2008.

Recommended citation: Gavan McCormack, “Facing the Past: War and Historical Memory in Japan and Korea,” The Asia-Pacific Journal, Vol. 50-4-08, December 9, 2008.

I think everyone should check out a document put out five or so years ago regarding the comfort women issue in regards to Korea and read it all the way through to get an idea of what the Japanese appear to be badly trying to say. Granted, it's a single source and you should always take data from a single source with a "boulder of salt", but it DOES present a plausible alternative to the "current wisdom" that states 100,000 women were forced into sexual slavery by Japan during WWII and the document DOES include references and citations that can be independently checked.

http://www.sdh-fact.com/CL02_1/39_S4.pdf

If, after reading it, you feel it's a load of bull****, then at least you've heard the other side of the argument in a manner that (as far as I can tell) is a lot more coherent than anything the Japanese politicians have put out so far.

calr751May. 21, 2013 - 11:34PM JST "in the 1990s Prof. Ahn Byong-jick ,Seoul University did an investigation OssanAmerica, did you know that Toyota funded his investigation? Toyota makes a lot of money in US and i wonder how Toyota spends it. somebody needs to do some digging.

That the investigation was carried out by qualified South Koreans in South Korea on South Korean subjects is enough to dismiss any whacky conspiracy theories. Soul University is not in the United States and automobile sales in South Korea has never been much of a concern for Toyota Motors.

The Korean Ambassador to Japan sums this up best and is even applicable today.

"No amount of investigation by the Japanese government has yielded evidence pertaining to some aspects of the problem. In an official investigation, it is impossible to make a determination solely on the basis of the testimony of persons who have a vested interest in its outcome. The same would apply to an investigation conducted in our own nation. I do not believe that the Japanese government is withholding documents attesting to official coercion."

What had transpired after this statement was issued is that Professor Yoshimi alike started to "expand" on the definition of "coercion" to include "economic hardship under Japan which prompted family members to sell their daughters to operators". Of course, one could argue that since the Japanese government at that time is to blame for the hardships, this sort of statement encompasses ALL nations who uses sex workers even today.

Japanese soldiers began rounding up women and forcing them to serve as sex slaves in so-called comfort stations.This is what most historians believe.

Then they are not historians but rather activists who repeat the same mantra over and over again. And as to your assersion that Japanese historians are some kind of robots that does the same, you really need to study the polar opposite views of Japanese historian on various historical issues (Nanking, comfort women).

Can't say that about Korea and China though with their sole goverment issued textbooks. Their role, for the most part is to not find out the truth but are there to support the respective government's distorted historical narrative. Threre is a reason why Professors such as Ahn is ostracized from the community.

I hope Japanese poliyicians begin to talk about their ideas to improve Japan than talking about military need of prostitute or past military practice, guess of other countries. What happened about Hashimoto's plan to move Okinawan bases to Osaka area? He is a rape attorney within Japanese politicians but he has to realize that USA politicians are attorneys )almost all) before he open big mouth about USA and Korea. He should look back his record as Osaka Governor and what he accomplished instead of talking about sex stories. Maybe he should get help by a team of psychiarists for a while.

Are you still on the J-goverment payroll? Japan is continuing to press ahead in revising its history of WWII, and high school textbooks no longer acknowledge that the Imperial Army was responsible for a major atrocity in neighboring countries. A textbook approved by the Ministry of Education contained no references to comfort women and forced laborers, glossed over atrocities like Unit 731 and the Nanking massacre, and asserted that WWII helped Asian countries achieve independence. The textbooks were largely written by the Japanese Society for History Textbook Reform, a right wing group of revisionist historians, who said the were interested in engendering national pride.

What is the name of this textbook and how many schools use it?

ka_chan,

The Dutch Semaring case was already mentioned. As stated in the related thread, the operation was done against the command of the top of the IJA for the Colonel who discovered this operation immediately shut it down. What Professor Ahn of Seoul University and the Korean Ambassador are referring to are IJA having an official policy to recruit women against their will. As both stated, there exists no evidence of such kind despite over 20 years of research by scholars.

As to sfjp330's source,

http://factsanddetails.com/index.php?itemid=1002

" LEGITIMACY AND EXPERTISE: I am not professor or an expert on the subjects I write about but I have done a fair amount of reading about them"

"ABOUT ME: I am a teacher and writer currently living in Saga, Japan"

Sfjp330,

I do not think a foreighn teacher in Saga who claims on his site that he got his info on various publications to be credible. What I do find credible is the actual passage from the alleged textbook themselves. And like Upgrayedd said, your initial statement doesn't even match with the Saga teacher.

So you admit Unit 731 existed?

Yes, stay on topic please.

Basing fact off testimony is widely known to be incredibly inaccurate and wouldn't even be considered as primary evidence or a primary source. The depiction of any event would be distorted by inherent bias of the narrator and any number of external factors could influence the testimony.

Considering Japan's reputation for false confession, I would not consider any ex-Japanese soldier's testimony as evidence, but would consider it as a secondary source, helpful in framing the context.

Just to add on the validity of the testimonials, there was a report back in 2007 in Korea where the government would compensate the surviving comfort women. Please note that the entitlement to the said compensation is to prove that they were comfort women irregardless of whether they were coerced or not.

http://news.naver.com/main/read.nhn?mode=LPOD&mid=sec&sid1=&oid=143&aid=0000070428

Only 16 out of the 155 were awarded compensation.

Calr751

You're the one that brought up Prof. Hayashi's qualifications to compare it to Prof. Ahn. I merely stated their respective fields. However, the issue that Prof. Ahn addressed were the validity of the testimonies of the surviving Korean comfort women. Don't know what kind of qualifications are needed for that but the staff interviewed each of them 5-6 times, taking notes, and giving summary of the notes in a staff meeting.

And I smell a Godwin's law taking place here.

lol... this just proves that most powerful Japanese politicians hang out at Japan's 2ch and Youtube sites. The Japanese users over there at those sites have been launching a flurry of internet propaganda wars on Korea for a number of years now, and one of the theme has been that South Korean troops in Vietnam were mass murderers and rapists of Vietnamese women. This theme has been going on in Japan's internet for a long time, and it just shows that some of the users of those sites are also power Japanese politicians.

ProbieMay. 21, 2013 - 03:02PM JST

There's a big difference between using prostitutes during a war, and an organized system of sex slavery.

I find it very interesting that you have the same view as Hashimoto. He says prostitution is necessary evil during WW2.

By the way, I do not in the least support Hashimoto or anyone who has the same view as Hashimoto.

the people who say some bad comment against Hashimoto's argument know the atmosphere that Japanese cannot argue those kind of issue, especially wartime sex abuse related to S Korea, and have endured the too much punishment done by S Korea that even Japan compensated the many thing in under the name of Treaty on Basic Relations between Japan and the Republic of Korea in 1965. moreover, whenever the Korean want to something related to Japan, they always use the wartime sex abuse.

this time, what I want to say is not whether the wartime sex abuse is bad thing or not, needless to say, that is bad thing clearly, but what I want to say is that most countries in the war did those kind of using woman for that purpose. and I add some info related to above Lai Đại Hàn - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lai_%C4%90%E1%BA%A1i_H%C3%A0n

so, why the Hashimoto say such as thing even now is, I think,that if Japan keep silent in that problem of wartime sex abuse, the world people especially S Korea assert that Japan is extreme right country because they want to have military( I think that the country which is accused by the foreign is only Japan even if Japan try to have military, and also wonder why the nation are condemned just because of military? even japan is democratic country. YOU HAVE TO NOTICE THAT YOU HAVE PREJUDICE RELATED TO JAPAN WHICH IS GIVEN BY THE COUNTRY THAT DON'T LIKE JAPAN, SUCH AS CHINA OR S KOREA.) or they assert that S Korea has right of Island or something like that, which mean that Japan would be sponged by the S Korea and robbed many thing, I think.

and You should know THE INFALLIBILITY ARGUMENT AND THE DEAD DOGMA ARGUMENT, which is made by Mill. http://www.middleclasswhiteguy.co.uk/philosophy/a211-tma02.php

chucky3176May. 21, 2013 - 08:56PM JST OssanAmerica, with one big difference, from the article itself: the women have made no claims that they were coerced into prostitution by South Korean or American >officials >during those years Why can't you understand the difference?

Are you aware that there exists no evidence that the "Comfort Women" were coerced either? Are you aware that in the 1990s Prof. Ahn Byong-jick ,Seoul University did an investigation interviewing some 40 "former Comfort Women" including two who had filed lawsuits against the government of Japan, and concluded that their testimony was not credible? And that most of them had been sold off into schools to become Kisaeng prior to being recruited into the Comfort Women program? Are you aware that the only proven coercion involved some Dutch women and was prosecuted at the War Crimes Trials? As I said from that start, only those who are not biased to start with would be able to recognize that what Hashimoto is saying is not 100% inaccurate.

zichi.

Maybe these women want nothing about Japan, most of these women should be in their 90s. Maybe some politicians use them for their own benefit. But I dont know, maybe those women don't want to die with the "prostitute" badge in their names.

Since that any person having sex not for love or force is a prostitute (still this days, people can see signs "we need women from 18-24 to work blablabla). These women know what they are going to do and think that they can get away with it.

There is no mainstream evidence that any modern military, other than Japan’s up to and during World War II, employed any system of sexual slavery.

Perhaps AFP needs to do some more checking because the system of "ianfu" was set up by the Korean government under their military during the Korean war as revealed in their post war documents.

http://suyunomo.net/?p=4603

And of course, Japan Anonymous above indicated that issue of Lai Đại Hàn where Korean soldiers raped the local women in Vietnam where as a result, thousands of half Korean kids with very little remorse or support by the Korean government.

That's what happens when you rape someone. As Hashimoto states, this is the hypocrisy and the double standard the Korean government and her people uses to downplay their own wrongdoings.

I don't see where the hypocrisy is. Where's the proof that thousands of children were born due to rapes?

As far as I have read, the testimony of those comfort woman changes so much that its not considered valid.

LOL.. yes, invalid for Japanese nationalists, but valid for most of the world. But how convenient...

South Korea officially apologized to Vietnam in 2001:

From the BBC News:

World: Asia-Pacific

Vietnam says no apologies needed

The Vietnamese Prime Minister, Phan Van Khai, has said his country didn't expect any apologies from the powers that once fought wars on its soil.

Mr Khai told a news conference at the end of the ASEAN summit that his country wanted to close the past and looked forward to the future.

His comments came a day after the South Korean President, Kim Dae-jung, officially apologized for his country's actions during the Vietnam war, when South Korean troops fought alongside the Americans.

South Korea provides billions in economic aid to Vietnam, becoming the second biggest donor for Vietnam.

http://www.stoxplus.com/News/100504/1/188/korea-provides-vietnam-$1-2bln-oda-in-2012-2015.stox

Are you sure? Then why does Japan have problems with all of their neighbors. Japan has nothing much to show for its soft power. Its economic is in constant decline for the last few decades.

Not true unfortunately. Taking aside Koreas and China there's at least neutral or positive. Japan's economic won't decline further than being third in Asia (after China and India) in the next century so that's the least thing to talk about now.

No evidence, that funny. Related material start with the Dutch administered war crimes tribunal.

Waiting for material from Chinese or Korean side... for 70 years...

That link doesn't match with your first statement.

Source?

So you don't have a source?

BTW the link you posted about Japansse textbooks doesn't match your original statement.

So, you admit that despite now 2 decades of activists looking for it, there is no hard evidence to prove that forcing women into sexual slavery was an official Army policy, while there is hard evidence that proves that the Japanese Army requested volunteers only and offenders who kidnapped women were frequently punished?

Ah great, now where were we? Ah yes, Korean government using comfort women and raping across Vietnam. When are they going to reach Japan's level of offering compensation and apologies for this?

Thomas, post the rest of the paragraph that says they were charged with violating Japanese orders to hire only volunteer women.

No one is denying that massive amounts of war crimes were committed. We are arguing if it was state policy to kidnap women into sexual slavery or not. The evidence supports that it wasn't policy but it frequently happened against orders unsanctioned by govt leadership in Tokyo.

Thomas Anderson

Is there any evidence that North Korea systematically kidnapped Japanese from Japan, or did those Japanese simply happened to decide to go to North Korea on their own? I don't believe there's anything officially written on a piece of paper by the North Korean government about systematic kidnapping.

This may be off topic, but since you have strong prejudice against Japan, I put this. It was Kim Jeong Il who officially admitted abduction. http://www.rachi.go.jp/en/ratimondai/syousai.html#rm02

@Thomas

Mr. Yoshimi went to the Defense Agency’s library and combed through official documents from the 1930s. In just two days, he found a rare trove that uncovered the military's direct role in managing the brothels, including documents that carried the personal seals of high-ranking Imperial Army officers.

Mr. Yoshimi discovered China Area Army Document No. 745

The document is an order for the Japanese military to only hire/recruit volunteer women to be comfort women. Have you ever read it?

Smith

And yet former Imperial soldiers have admitted to kidnapping and raping women "despite their cries". This proof as opposed to your non-proof about something not happenening.

Yasuji Kaneko lied about when he joined the Japanese army, about murdering Chinese people in the Nanjing massacre, and about being in Unit 731 yet you believe his testimony about comfort women?

you're asking me to look for something the Japanese government burned records of and completely denies?

There's no evidence so the Japanese must have burned it excuse? There's plenty of evidence of other Japanese war crimes but nothing on comfort women. Very strange.

Thomas Anderson, the testimony of the lieutenant is nothing new, though the link says "discovered".

It is already mentioned in this research paper written in 1999 by AWF. http://www.awf.or.jp/pdf/0062_p107_141.pdf

Page 134-135

Rijksinstituut voor Oorlogsdocumentatie (RIOD)

No 016382, page 2, Date of Doc. 1946.1.13, Date of Event 1944-5, Place Moa Island, Description: Explanation of a person who planned Moa Island Comfort Station and information about 5 coerced comfort women and 1 volunteered comfort woman.

The Moa case is further discussed in page 123. The 6 women were taken from Sermata Island to Moa Island in September 1944 and detained there. During the detention, 25 soldiers repeatedly raped the 6 women. But when you further read the interrogation report, the 6 women were among 40 rebellious natives of Sermata Islands who had been captured and sent to Moa. Japanese Army lieutenant in Moa received order from Japanese HQ in Java to kill all the 40 captives, except 2 or 3 leaders who should be sent to Java. But the lieutenant did not kill the 6 women and used them to satisfy himself and his men. During the interrogation conducted in the Japanese language in 1946, the lieutenant did not use the word "ianfu" (comfort woman). This is a case of POW abuse, which is of course a serious war crime, rather than a comfort woman issue.

smithinjapan

Ah, so then HE's the victim?

You may think him victim, but I do not think a rapist victim. Anyone with minimum sense would not, either. How dear you think him a victim.

Doesn't matter what words he used

OK. Japan had an official policy to establish comfort stations. Moa case is done against the army order to kill the women. So, the operation is against the Japanese policy. It is a personal crime of the said lieutenant.

Yup, using 2-channel and edititable Wikis. Best yet, he's countering the testimonials of people who were actually there when he was not. Can't beat that.

Smith,

I don't think I ever linked 2-chan thread as evidence. As to wiki, I linked them as many other have in the past except if I were to use the statements from wiki, I made sure that the said statements are backed with footnotes. And as to testimonials, as Prof. Ahn's investigation revealed, most of their testimonies were virtually dismissed for lack of credibility.

The central issue here, as these Comfort women organization claim, whether or not the Japanese government at that time had the central policy to recruit women against their will. The answer is no. In fact, as Thomas Anderson indicated on his Yoshimi's discovery, the government at that time ordered the prevention of such actions. Hence, the so-called evidence presented thus far are certain military units disobeying such orders.

Sure I'm aware. I'm aware that, that's what Japan claims, saying there's no evidence. The strongest evidence is the testimonials of the women from Korea, China, Philippines, Netherlands, and others.

In regards to those testimonials especially from the surviving Korean comfort women, Ossan had already countered the validity of those testimonials.

And Nigelboy, that's just nonsense. Thousands of rapes that resulted in thousands of Korean-Vietnamese children? lol.. that's some terrific reproduction rate. Any chance that some of those children are the result of fraternization between Korean troops (as well as employees of Korean companies) and Vietnamese women? naw... that can't be.

That's what happens when you rape someone. As Hashimoto states, this is the hypocrisy and the double standard the Korean government and her people uses to downplay their own wrongdoings.

nigelboy, nigelboy, taking an old news from year 2000, a news by the way, which was first reported by left wing semi-quasi-socialist leftwing Hankyoreh newspaper from South Korea, which is demanding an apology from their own government? Where is the coverup? It's the Korean newspapers which first brought the story, my boy. Once again, that still doesn't prove thousands of children were born out of rapes by South Korean troops. All we know is that there may have been massacres by out of control Korean troops, but they were individual war crimes, rather than widespread government policy that Japan had in its place when they committed war crimes. And if you're going to present something as fact, at least give one evidence that thousands of children were born due to rapes.

sfjp330 May. 22, 2013 - 04:07AM JST

In 1933, Emperor Hirohito issued an order for the recruitment of Korean women as comfort women, a "'royal gift' from the Emperor to the Imperial Army".

There is no such order. Who do you think would believe you if you keep telling fiction?

Strictly under watch, these women, or young girls really had very little chance of escape, and those who tried were either beaten or more likely killed in gruesome ways to deter other women from trying. As they were considered nothing more than equipment, the comfort women were often left to die when the Japanese forces retreated.

Compare your fiction with the US Army report in 1944. http://www.exordio.com/1939-1945/codex/Documentos/report-49-USA-orig.html

They lived in near-luxury in Burma in comparison to other places. This was especially true of their second year in Burma. They lived well because their food and material was not heavily rationed and they had plenty of money with which to purchase desired articles. They were able to buy cloth, shoes, cigarettes, and cosmetics to supplement the many gifts given to them by soldiers who had received "comfort bags" from home.

@Thomas

You just posted testimony again.

There is a difference between testimony and physical evidence.

@Thomas

You posted documents...of testimonies.

@Thomas

More testimony? Testimony of actions in violation of Japanese military orders?

smithinjapan, so you say there is an Japanese Imperial Order in 1933 for the recruitment of Korean women as comfort women. All Imerial Orders and Edicts are published. Go ahead and find one.

I don't know what you are talking about. I've never posted a link to a blog on this website.

CH3CHO gave a good rundown about the difference between 慰安婦 and POW abuse. You should check that out. Also you ignored my question...

Yasuji Kaneko lied about when he joined the Japanese army, about murdering Chinese people in the Nanjing massacre, and about being in Unit 731 yet you believe his testimony about comfort women?

Hashimoto is a nationalistic idiot who should be removed from power straight away.

Who is going to remove him?

He needs to quit ASAP

I 100% agree but even quitting is not going to shut him up.

The press bears a portion of the burden of making this into something bigger than it needs to be. The press doesnt listen to fringe group nuts and that is exactly what Hashimoto has become. The press should stop giving him air time. Plain and simple. If he had so soapbox there would be no audience.

This crap sells, and the more it sells the more angry people are going to get with him until something tragic happens.

Again in Sasebo, American soldiers sexual assaulted Japanese woman.

This is why Hashimoto is opening his mouth.

And many people here commenting shut up Hashimoto.

how many sex slaves are there today and why doesnt he talk about that? why doesnt everybody talk about that? what is it with everybody being hung up on language? The guy has said he knows it occured, and thinks that the abuse of women wrong, in one way or other. What is with the problem by all the foreigners with how he says it? hang ups with the language you're talking? Or maybe hang-ups with the language that others use? Trying to control everybody speech, as if there is ever only one way to say something? Even maths doesnt do that.

This is exactly the "hypocricy" I'm talking about.

No, you can't get away using that weak excuse to excuse away horrible Japanese war crimes that have been swept under carpet. There are no Vietnamese children who are coming out and saying they were the results of rapes of their mothers, so therefore they want justice. There are no Vietnamese women who are saying they were kidnapped by South Korean troops, or given promises of riches for helping and serving wounded Japanese soldiers, but then forcibly confined, and forced to have sex with dozens of Japanese soldiers per day. There's no denying that a few rotten apples, who were mad Korean soldiers who saw their buddies getting killed, go crazy and commit war crimes against the civilians, but how does that justify Japanese military government running sex slave rings during WWII?

sfjp330, there is an interesting report in 2006 by "Nazi War Crimes and Japanese Imperial Government Records Interagency Working Group" in Wahington DC which did extensive work on US documents during WW2. http://www.archives.gov/iwg/japanese-war-crimes/introductory-essays.pdf (Thank you, zichi.)

page 68.

The new IWG records will be least useful for researchers exploring the Japanese military's use of "comfort women" during the war. Other than a handful of documents that record individual accounts of Japanese troops kidnapping women and girls, none of the declassified materials contains any references to this issue.

page 77.

There is very little in the new OSS records relating to forced prostitution, with the exception of a few documents that report the kidnapping of women and girls.

However, one newly released document, a postwar interrogation report of a Japanese officer in Indochina, contains a brief mention that Japanese soldiers may have threatened local women if they did not agree to become prostitutes for Japanese staff officers.

YubaruMay. 22, 2013 - 09:43AM JST Eye witness testimony sends people to the electric chair. But no matter, this isnt a court of law! It is now the court of >public opinion based upon facts that only the Japanese seem to have amnesia about. Strange isn't it? Must be >something in the water.

Eye witness testimony in conjunction with evidence sends people to the electric chair But you're right that this isn't a court of law. A judgment based only on heresay with no supporting evidence is not a court at all, it is a witch burning.

The Japanese document that Mr. Yoshimi discovered in the 1990s makes it clear that the Japanese military had orders to not kidnap women.

From the original - 受領番号 陸軍省受領 陸支密受第二一九七号 起元庁（課名） 兵務課 件名 軍慰安所従業婦等募集ニ関スル件 兵甲第一八号 昭和十三年三月四日 陸支密 副官ヨリ北支方面軍及中支派遣軍参謀長宛通牒案 支那事変地ニ於ケル慰安所設置ノ為内地ニ於テ之カ従業婦等ヲ募集スルニ当リ故ラニ軍部諒解等ノ名儀ヲ利用シ為ニ軍ノ威信ヲ傷ツケ且ツ一般民ノ誤解ヲ招ク虞アルモノ或ハ従軍記者、慰問者等ヲ介シテ不統制ニ募集シ社会問題ヲ惹起スル虞アルモノ或ハ募集ニ任スル者ノ人選適切ヲ欠キ為ニ募集ノ方法誘拐ニ類シ警察当局ニ検挙取調ヲ受クルモノアル等注意ヲ要スルモノ少カラサルニ就テハ将来是等ノ募集等ニ当リテハ派遣軍ニ於テ統制シ之ニ任スル人物ノ選定ヲ周到適切ニシ其実施ニ

Why would the Japanese military order Army units in China to not deal with brokers who kidnapped women and to arrest those that did? Could it be possible that sexual slavery was not sanctioned Japanese policy in WWII?

AFP

Sex slavery is a particularly sensitive issue in Korea, whose people made up a large number of the around 200,000 “comfort women” forcibly drafted into brothels catering to the Japanese military during World War II.

Question 1. Are there any evidence or testimony that comfort women were "drafted"?

Question 2. Are there any reliable ground for the number 200,000? http://www.awf.or.jp/e1/facts-07.html

Question 3. What was the proportion of the Korean comfort women? (AWF suggests it is less than majority.)

Many comfort women may have been captured by the Allies as POWs. Did Korean government do research on the Korean female POWs during WW2?

Japan controlled its military by offering women as a form of service. South Korea, US, the allied forces did not but they did rape people with impunity. Look at vietnam where thousands of women has been raped by South Koreans and thousands of people massacred by both US and SK. There is no denying it, there are more half south koreans half vietnamese then half bred japanese as a result of rape.

First off, thousands of former comfort women have not testified.

Second, solely using oral testimony is not good enough to establish guilt in most court of laws. Including in war crimes trials. Japanese historians have long pointed out inconsistencies in former comfort women testimonies including the frequent changing stories. Now, recalling events that happened more than 70 years ago is difficult for most people but changing your story to "I became a comfort woman because of money" to "I was kidnapped by the Japanese military who murdered my parents" is quite the stretch.

The history that Korean nationalists want to present is that all 200,000 comfort women were forced by the Japanese Army. This is simply not true and not supported by any physical evidence.

smithinjapan, I do not understand the poorly written English, but you mean what sfjp330 wrote is a fiction because he was not there? It is good to find something we can agree.

In summary, the only physical evidence about comfort women in existence is Japanese government orders to not recruit anyone against their will and to arrest those that do. Meanwhile, there is testimony that Japanese soldiers frequently violated orders.

Agreed?

Testimonial from a 91 year old Japanese ex-soldier saying the comfort women were sex slaves. An interview with Reuters:

http://sathiyam.tv/english/world/japanese-army-veteran-describes-experiences-of-comfort-women

Japanese nationalist deniers should be getting busy just about now to find any small ways to discredit this man as well.

tmarie

I guess all those missing women, all those dead and STD ridden women and those women who came forward to state that they taken against their will and raped isn't proof??

So, show us your proof and present it to the J-government. I am sure if the case is strong you will be right!

11

ProbieMay. 21, 2013 - 03:02PM JST

There's a big difference between using prostitutes during a war, and an organized system of sex slavery.

Hashimoto is a nationalistic idiot who should be removed from power straight away. Comments such as he has been making only cause problems. His constant whining about his comments being misunderstood are obviously BS because he just keeps on making them.

In any other first world country, he would have been removed from office or made to resign.

He is making Japan look bad, and feeding the rabid nationalists in China and South Korea.

Get rid of him.

What do you consider a first world country? You mean Anglo Saxon countries? Sex slavery and prostitution were both initiated by first world countries, this is why they also have laws condemning them. A Japanese politician who is outspoken, as long as his comments are not racist and sexist, and that they don't incite violence should be heard, listened to, and accepted as good discourse and healthy debate.

Hashimoto has more integrity than the millions of Japanese who get off on his extreme comments then claim to their gaijin friends they don't agree with Hashimoto and they have "no idea" why he is popular or widely covered by the media. They know exactly why, and they like it. Hashimoto at least is honest about the sort of man he is, and he is correct that more Japanese need to take that honest approach, even if it means pissing people off and starting fights, if these historical disputes are ever to be settled.

It appears Hashimoto does not recognize the claim that it was sex slavery and that the women were forced. So when he is defending the actions of the Japanese military, he is not defending the alleged rapes. He seems to be under the impression that it was a legit prostitution system.

When did comfort women issue become a sex slavery issue? Last time I checked, the J-government did not enforce girls into comfort woman. These comfort woman was paid lump some of money every month and they did not need to serve men they did not like. The issue is that Korea is claiming that the girl were enforced by the J-government. But the facts that they presents are not strong enough to change any results. If it were, there would be conclusion by now.

Western media says "slavery" which is not supported by any proof.