Japan has expressed its regret at a South Korean exhibit at an international comic book festival in France featuring "comfort women" forced into wartime sex slavery in Japanese military brothels.
Japan's ambassador to France, Yoichi Suzuki, said he "deeply regrets that this exhibition is taking place", saying it promoted "a mistaken point of view that further complicates relations between South Korea and Japan".
Up to 200,000 women from Korea, China, the Philippines and elsewhere were forced into brothels catering to the Japanese military in territories occupied by Japan during World War II, according to many mainstream historians.
Franck Bondoux, director of the Angouleme International Comics Festival in western France, told AFP that Japan had not asked for the expo to be cancelled.
South Korea's Gender Equality and Family Minister Cho yoon-sun was present at the opening of the South Korean exhibit, entitled "The Flower That Doesn't Wilt", on Thursday.
"The subject was proposed by the South Korean government but the artists were completely free to evoke the subject independently," Bondoux said.
The politically-charged issue of comfort women has stoked regional tensions, with South Korea and China insisting that Japan must face up to its World War II-era sexual enslavement of women from across occupied Asia.
In a landmark 1993 statement, then-chief Japanese cabinet secretary Yohei Kono apologised to former comfort women and acknowledged Japan's role in causing their suffering.
But in remarks in 2007 that triggered a region-wide uproar, then-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said there was no evidence that Japan directly forced women to work as sex slaves.
Last week, the Japanese government distanced itself from remarks by the head of the NHK public broadcaster, who had said the Japanese Imperial Army's system of wartime sex slavery was commonplace "in all countries during war".
Katsuto Momii later apologised for "causing trouble" with the statement.
The French regional Sud Ouest daily newspaper received a petition, ahead of the festival's opening, from Japanese women indignant at the South Korean exhibit.
On top of the comfort women row, the festival's organizers shut down the booth of a Japanese association that displayed revisionist WWII content and swastika images among the comics on display.
© (c) 2014 AFP
221 Comments
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oldsanno
http://foxtalk.tistory.com/98
A Story of A Comfort Woman - Tattoo
"who can take 15 men". anyone who didn't volunteer was killed. "rolled on a board with hundreds of nails sticking out"
''The soldiers put the severed heads in a large kettle and boiled it.'' ''Then they swung wooden swords at us and made us drink the broth''
The only people who would believe this trash are ones who hate Japan as much as the author and sponsoring government.
Bluebris
What isn't Japan upset by these days?
toshiko
Go to entertainment board of JT. Find what kind of manga Japanese manga artists publish, Mangas are mangas. years ago, there were mangas Genji Monogatari. My American (no Japanese speaking) daughters got for me since it has English and Japanese. Lucky they did not read. Two books edition, Book 1 and book 2. Disgusting contents but not lies of Japanese old old culture. You can make mangas and if pictures are good, you can submit to publishers after you write (c) beside manga titles. (copy protection).
igloobuyer
@oldsanno
Far from out of the bounds of possibility when it comes to the Japanese military during WWII. Are you familiar with the way in which Japan conducted its reign of terror Asia? There is no need to hate to tell the truth, though there is plenty of reason to hate the Japanese military of 1930-1945, there is no need to hate them now.
timeon
this is getting more and more ridiculous. What the hell, it is a comic book festival! Let's put pictures with the Holocaust or with the slave trade to remind the whole world how bad some people were many years ago? The organisers are at fault here, they should have ban any such provocations
nath
You must not know much about Japan's military history during the war. Whether those claims you quoted are true or not, I don't know. But at the least they are plausible, as Japan did many such horrible things. Read more here about Unit 731, which even the government admits existed: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_731
CrazyJoe
It's about time that Japan realized what should be done to settle all the issues related to its wartime crimes not only by compensating the victims but in other aspects, like history education. Japanese history books downplay their wartime crimes. The issue of comfort women must be settled. There are things they (comfort women) will never forget.
Vincehwr
@Strangerland Damn right, Germany's Nazi was effective killing machine while Dr Mengele and a few others carried out the atrocious experiment that would have been long and grueling for test victims. Japan's imperial army, I read some nasty stuff like cannibalism on prisoners of war among all the atrocities.
It's funny that Suzuki says this shenanigan will complicate the relation between Korea and Japan even further. It doesn't involve ordinary citizens. It only involves bunch of nationalists dragging the reputations of the countries down for future generations misinformed by the propaganda. It's not only Korea and China that are biased.
therougou
Well, I think this kind of topic is out of place in a manga festival, though I admit to not having read a single manga in my life. I know Japan is having its own problems with incest stories in its manga, so I guess the topics are pretty lenient to begin with. And obviously SK are going to take every opportunity they get, much like Japanese oldies and politicians take every opportunity to make stupid comments.
LeChatBotte
How far will the Koreans go to export their pettiness?
As a French-American, I am really sorry to see a cultural festival like Angouleme's used for Seoul's political agenda when it's supposed to celebrate one aspect of Japanese popular culture that the French really appreciate?
Pandabelle
@CrazyJoe
It WAS settled, decades ago. Apologies were given, compensation was made.
I lost family in the Holocaust and I can't imagine dwelling on that time constantly and screaming at modern day Germans for something that they had nothing to do with.
nath
The difference is modern day Germans admit their past mistakes.
yosun
Japanese should consider foreigners' view instead of beliving in only what Japan textbooks say!
ssenipah
I read Commando war comics as a kid, they portrayed the Japanese soldiers as maniacal fanatics running blindly into machine gun posts in suicide runs. I asked my grandfather who was fighting the Japanese in the Pacific if that happened and he nodded. There is often truth in fiction, read the accounts of the dutch women who were also sexual slaves. Former Japanese troops themselves have given their own accounts that support the claims of the women. Why would the ambassador try and lie about history if he represents a free democracy? Shame perhaps.
plasticmonkey
Suzuki is out of order on two points here. First, there is clear historical evidence, including documentation by the Japanese government at the time, that women were forced into sexual slavery. There is a broad consensus among historians that this happened. Second, his boss, Abe, has repeated said (although disingenuously) that these issues should not be decided by politicians.
@Pandabelle
Apparently not. As long as Japanese revisionists continue to deny that these wrongdoings took place (or downplay them by drawing flimsy parallels with other nations at the time), expect to see more blowback.
Maria
This could (should) just as easily have been the focus of this article - why is there revisionism and support and admiration of the Nazis in Japan?
Pandabelle
@plasticmonkey
Please explain to me why the extreme fringe of the Japanese right wing - a tiny minority - is always under the microscope but the Neo-Nazis of Germany - also a tiny minority, and arguably more detestable - are given a free pass?
What is the difference here?
Mustang45
Someone commented above, “The difference is modern day Germans admit their past mistakes.” The fact is, few people alive today are in any way responsible for what happened 74 years ago, including the citizens of modern Germany who for some reason cannot seem to apologize enough. More than this, Japan has apologized; now it is time to learn something from the past, and get on with life.
plasticmonkey
@Pandabelle
Easy. In Germany these people do not hold prominent positions within the government. And they do not receive nearly as much popular support as the nationalistic revisionists in Japan do. The truth or extent of German atrocities is not a topic that is debated on TV or in government policy-making, as is the case here.
SecularBeast
@Crazy Joe; @plasticmonkey;
Twenty years after World War II, South Korea and Japan re-established diplomatic relations with the 1965 signing of the Treaty on Basic Relations. In 2005, South Korea disclosed diplomatic documents that detailed the proceedings of the treaty. Kept secret in South Korea for 40 years, the documents revealed that Japan provided 500 million dollars in soft loans and 300 million in grants to South Korea as compensation for the reign of Japan, and that South Korea agreed to demand no more compensation after the treaty, either at a government-to-government level or an individual-to-government level. It was also revealed that the South Korean government assumed the responsibility for compensating individuals on a lump sum basis while rejecting Japan's proposal for direct compensation.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan%E2%80%93Korea_disputes#Japanese_compensation_to_Korea_for_the_reign_of_Japan
This treaty was signed off on when the current ROK President's father (who served as an officer in the Imperial Japanese Army) was President of the ROK. Under the terms of the treaty it is up to the ROK government to compensate victims of Colonial Period Japanese rule.
ssenipah
SecularBeast what has your post got to do with this article? Paying money to a victim doesn't absolve you from facing up to your history. Well actually in the Japanese mind, maybe it does.
Any response to this?
MrBum
Exactly. The prime minister of your country saying these things makes a huge difference.
Scrote
Does Mr Suzuki also express regret about "the booth of a Japanese association that displayed revisionist WWII content and swastika images among the comics on display"? Or doesn't he have a problem with that?
smithinjapan
“a mistaken point of view..."
Mistake is yours, bud. Nice to see you guys struggle and shift and whine when it's other nations making Japan look bad and you can't wriggle out of it. But hey, stick to your WWII booth of revisionist history with swastikas and what not and just try and pretend the exhibition 'never happened'. Gotta be pretty embarrassing to claim something never happened while there is proof about it just around the corner.
I say good on these people for holding the exhibition and making the issue of sexual slavery and Japanese denial better known.
cl400
It's simple. Japan can simply not admit its mistakes nor handle shame. Any English teacher should know this well because so many students just pretend to understand when they don't.
tinawatanabe
I think Japan should give up on Korea, and let them do their anti-Japan propaganda to their hearts' content. Enough damage has been done on Japan anyway. What Japan wants to do is to work with other countries and contribute to world peace.
Cricky
Vile, the actions taken and the current response Vile, would be nice to have a Leader stand unaqivicly seriously apologize and stop the plausible denial that no one believes. It happened the whole world knows it happened, teaching children it was a misunderstanding is so far off the reservation. To have leaders, blood relatives of war criminals claim some kind of innocence is an affront to any educated person...what occupied country looks back with aware at Japanese occupation?
titaniumdioxide
Propaganda battles. China VS Korea VS Japan. The winner will receive a plaque of recogition, "The Best Brainwasher".
GW
To be sure China & SKorea have been pretty low class with their worldwide media blitz of late outlining a few of Japans atrocities, which by the way is mostly common knowledge outside Japan so most already are in the know.
But Japan as I have said many many times is simply reaping what it sows, and to come out saying China & SK are confusing the issue etc is making Japan look pretty stupid.
So here we are with all three looking stupid.............BUT Japan all along has had the ability to end all this & has consciously chosen NOT TO! Japan has made a conscious decision to white wash, to downplay its history relating to the 1930-40's so Japan doesn't have a leg to stand on really.
An Japan another thing, your economic glory days & political power tripping days are well in the past now so you NEED to either fix this or face more & more as time goes on.
My guess is Japan will continue as is & look more & more stupid in the worlds eyes, along with China & SKorea.
The outcome is LOSE LOSE & LOSE, lets just hope abe or similar doesn't start a conflict, but it could well happen!!
OssanAmerica
It has EVERYTHING to do with this article as it exposes the hypocrisy and untrustworthiness of the South Korean government and it's people. What treaty with South Korea is valid? Really goes to show the nature of the country.
ssenipah
Huh? Go back to the manga exhibition and make a relevant comment please.
And I guess by your logic the Japanese government and it's people are pro- Nazi facist apologists?
How about the Abe led propaganda machine, NHK revising historical fact?
CH3CHO
CrazyJoeFeb. 03, 2014 - 09:47AM JST
I really hope Koreans learn true history. This is about the only document written by allied forces on comfort women during WW2.http://www.exordio.com/1939-1945/codex/Documentos/report-49-USA-orig.html
I am quite certain who is rewriting the hisroty.
Sabrage
Comics are certainly a different communication channel for the South Korean (or any) government.
Do comics add legitimacy to the official claims?
For me, they don't, but I'm getting old.
hatsoff
What a cheap political point to make in a neutral country. Korea should show some dignity and confine this to between Japan and themselves without embarrassing itself by scrapping in other people's yards. This comes on the back of the farce about what the Sea of Japan should be called in an American textbook in the USA.
Korea, stop embarrassing yourself and show some dignity instead of mimicking China's propaganda methods.
Vast Right-Wing Conspirator
This issue is like Yasukuni. They would both go away if the Kims and China would simply stop talking about them. But no. They spend inordinate amounts of time looking for things to be offended by, and also by picking the scabs off old wounds. I mean, Japan can only apologize so many times before finally realizing that it's a waste of time. Always the same excuses, the apology wasnt "sincere" or "heartfelt", or wasn'T done by the right person.
Time to grow up. Everyone's ancestors have been crapped on by someone at some time. Move on.
jojotoday
They're one of the main aspects of 'cool Japan', so I'm guessing SK is just doing this to kick them in the balls.
ReformedBasher
@Pandabelle
One group is yellow, the other is not?
But we all know everything is fine in Europe because they are so much more civilized than here.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/germany-s-brown-babies-the-difficult-identities-of-post-war-black-children-of-gis-a-651989.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/4698968/French-children-of-Nazi-soldiers-to-be-offered-German-citizenship.html
http://www.newjerseynewsroom.com/international/german-high-school-students-largely-ignorant-of-hitlers-dictatorship
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/jun/06/britain-maumau-empire-waiting
Jaymann
imagine how upset those comfort women must be at the treatment they received at the hands of Japan's war machine.
Maria
@Pandabelle
Can you please explain to us what you mean by that? Where and when have they been allowed to have a stall to promote their views at an entertainment event?
kurisupisu
Where are the Japanese war memorials to the foreign war victims?
Germany is replete with tributes to Russians,Jews,Russian soldiers,etc
I have yet to find such a broad selection in Japan
Japan needs to erect a war tribute to comfort women in the center of Tokyo to remind the revisionist warmongers that these atrocities actually happened.....
hachikou
Fact!! F-A-C-T!
What's the point of showing a history with cartoon or animation, if they don't based on the truth?
There was no evidece that Japanese ex-miitary forced 200000 women for sex slaves. On the contrary, this video shows, after WW2, under Korean goverment , how AMERICANS exploited women for sex with money.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jlfAqR8uBc
This video shows source of newspaper, so pausible.. Should this be drawn with cartoon.
CH3CHO
zichiFeb. 03, 2014 - 01:32PM JST
I do not. Why should I?
So, there are more than 1 testimony. The passage does not comment on the credibility, either.
"Many" means more than 2. Do not get offended. More than 2 means anywhere from 3 to billions. These "play of words" is the characteristics of Japanese bureaucrats, and reading ability is required.
No, I have not. Will you stop the false accusation?
CH3CHO
zichiFeb. 03, 2014 - 02:20PM JST http://www.awf.or.jp/e1/facts-07.html
Keep reading.
Why did you omit this most imortant part to mislead the readers?
tyvtgo1US
I see all of what South Korea doing to day is some how related to its economy China ties! PERIOD! Maybe North Korea's time to hit South Korea should be now! Seems the US has taken a back seat to everything that China is doing anyways in Asia.
smithinjapan
Tinawatanabe: "giving up", and I can guess your meaning on that, on SK would be further suicide for the increasingly China-like Japan. But I'll bet you a million dollars that, not ironically, there were a bunch of manga there that had rape and incestuous sex that the Japanese authors were proud of. And that's outside of their Nazi-praise booth that had to be taken down (my guess is they were surprised).
smithinjapan
Zichi: CH3CHO does not believe in nor acknowledge documents that do not favor Japan; only revisionist documents mad by people who were never there and are relatives of war criminals. The women who speak at such events? 'money-grubbing liars'. The Japanese who admit to it? 'old men with foggy memories'. Facts that document what happened? 'regrettable, mistaken opinions. Please check 2-channel for truth'.
Again, good on these people for making this exhibition. May they do so at EVERY such event.
keroyon52
@plastic monkey
This is not true. There have never been found any documentation by the Japanese government at the time that women were forced into sexual slavery. THAT have been argued until now. If such clear evidence exists, how could dare Japan protest against all the blame?
What is known with evidence is "comfort women" system was planned and executed by the Japanese military. They even advertised on papers and hired professional prostitutes mostly from Japan. (people who blatantly criticized Japan, do you really know majority of "comfort women" are Japanese? If not, you better study thoroughly preferably in Japanese).
I know some are from Korea or other countries who were not "professionals," and possibly underage. They may have been cheated and brought in. but there is no definite evidence that the Japanese military or government were directly engaged in that kind of activity if any. Kono was considered to admit this matter in his talk before, but he actually told that he or others tried to find any proof related this, but could't find any; he had to express that way as he wanted to construct a good relationship with Korea.
Sensato
I don't understand why so many Japanese government officials try so hard to suppress dialog about the nation's past wrongdoings. Doing so is a disservice to Japan, and harms its reputation abroad.
When Japanese groups hold exhibitions/events abroad about Hiroshima and Nagasaki, U.S. ambassadors in those nations don't express "regrets" or concerns about "mistaken" points of view. Likewise with Germany and exhibitions on Nazi war crimes by the Jewish community, and likewise with most other developed nations.
smithinjapan
Keroyon: "If such clear evidence exists, how could dare Japan protest against all the blame?"
Because many politicians think the "shogunai" attitude in Japan is a universal trait, for some reason. Many politicians STILL deny Nanjing and unit 731! Abe denied any military were involved with sex-slaves until forced to admit they were (b-b-b-ut they were prostitutes!). The Japanese propensity for denial is astounding. That's why it's always important to shame the politicians on the world stage -- they can't get away with the obvious lies and denial.
hachikou
@marcelito
you are absolutely right. But again, there was no evidence that previous J-goverment forced 200000 women to be comfort woman in organied manner.
Japanese people are not stupid nor cold-blooded and have already been there, have done many researches. I am happy to show you trusted link URL, whatever.
The more Japanese researched, the more they found a lie by Korean women, in fact she conffesed she was sold by thier parents to brokers, nothing to do with Japanese, or ambiguous stories,or ex-Japanese goverment trying hard to ban abducting grils to brothel.
I am sorry your parents sold you to that kind of place, but is that something Japanese goverment should be held resposible ?
Evidece: Advertisement for Prostetutes in newspaper in Korea under Japn occupation. Salary is 300yen per month, while soiders only 7 yen. Loan is also avilable. https://www.google.co.jp/search?q=%E5%BA%83%E5%91%8A%E3%80%80%E6%85%B0%E5%AE%89%E5%A9%A6&hl=ja&rlz=1T4SNJB_ja___JP480&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=zDjvUvXVIY2kkQXRpIG4BA&ved=0CAoQ_AUoAg&biw=1366&bih=556
Evidence: Order from ex-J goverment to local troops not to hire untrusted prostetute brokers. It says it might hurt Japanese military fame. (prostetution is legal at that time) http://www010.upp.so-net.ne.jp/japancia/gazo/gyousya.jpg
Evidence: The evidece One of korean comfort women brought she thought was evidece that she was comfort women. Turned out this is receipt by ex-J goverment paying her showing indeed she was prostetue. http://makizushi33.ninja-web.net/chochiku.jpg
Evidece:
Fouged story about comfort women THere was a case wherre European beshop killed by Chinese bandit, and saved by ex-Japanese soliders, one of them is chirstian,and 60 of Japanese soliders were invited at cathedral. It tured out this story was forged by someone and was told as , "Japesne troops killed European priest trying to Chinese girls for comfort women". This story has nothing to do with cofortwoman..
LIE http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/japan/10555036/Bishop-who-protected-Chinese-girls-from-Japanese-soldiers-could-become-patron-saint-of-sex-abuse-victims.html
TRUETH by 1937 Nov 12, 26 "Catholic Herald" by 1937 Nov 23 "The new york times" < http://cooljapan1.blogspot.jp/2013/04/catholic-newspaper-to-forge-slaughter.html>
Wis beind this twisting fact? :(
CH3CHO
zichiFeb. 03, 2014 - 03:22PM JST
I have no idea how anyone could get such an impression.
Dismissed? Here is how it was written.
AWF is just saying that it is possible to "assume" exaggeration. There is nothing that dismisses the US Army document.
I did not comment so. I repeatedly said that Japanese Imperial Army issued license to each comfort woman and the brothel owners.
OK. Read this link from page 287 backwards to page 125. http://www.awf.or.jp/pdf/0051_5.pdf These are the collection of all the documents which the Japanese Government could find from US archives. There are 32 documents in total. But most have limited information about comfort women. The ones which have more information on comfort women are based on the report I quoted in my previous comment.
JoeBigs
When will the abused Comfort women of the Korean war/Korean conflict have their day?
Yes, my dear friends, after the JIA had been firmly defeated there were other Comfort Women. What?!? You never heard of them?!?
Well, maybe the reason you never heard of them was because these women were brought to the UN forces on a plater. They served up their, (dare I say) their deserts to the UN forces fighting against Communist China and it's allies.
But, these Comfort Women weren't forced by Japanese Forces or the Korean's working for the JIA. No, my dear fellow beings, these Comfort Women were brought to work by the South Korean government itself!
Oh, say it isn't so batman, say it isn't so!!! Korean government abusing Korean women and using them as sex-slaves?
Yes, my dear friends, that is what they were, Korean Government sex-slaves. Bought from their poor families to serve the UN force during that war.
So, where is the outrage against the Korean Government? Where is the demands being laid against that Government? Well, that answer is simpler that the question, under the rug my dear lads, under the rug.
Those comfort women were labeled Yanggalbo, UN madams, Yanggongju and other less favorable names. If one can go any lower. Now, their off springs had it even worse. But, where is/was the outrage for these women and their children?
Well, there isn't any right now, the propaganda value of going after the U.S. is too costly and the U.S. doesn't really have any territorial claims against Korea.
But, after South Korea is conquered by Communist China and it's Northern state, well then my fellow posters, those women will become the next poster victims for their propaganda outrage.
So, in the end, one must really look at the full story before one leaps head first into the meat grinder.
Now, we will hear from our Communist and reunification tools.......
CH3CHO
zichiFeb. 03, 2014 - 04:05PM JST
http://www.awf.or.jp/e1/facts-07.html
Why do you keep pasting the passage which is dismissed in just 4 paragraphs below.
smithinjapan
Wasabizuku: "The Japanese ought to have an exhibit of the Korean comics that teach outright racism to children."
Ah, you mean like the Japanese discriminatory comics they refuse to shelve? You are EXACTLY the same, save that rape comics aren't so readily available in SK, and of course save Koreans didn't force Japanese women into sexual slavery.
But hey, wasabi... How was the revisionist/Nazi-praise booth?
smithinjapan
Zilchi: like I said; no point giving ch3cho the facts. You could verify how the exhibition gave facts till the cows came home, it will never change some people's belief that they are right while the people there were wrong. Of ever single poster on here who denies sex-slaves and derides this exhibition, not a single one says an ill word towards the WWII revisionist booth with swastikas that had to be taken down. What does that tell you?
hachikou
http://www.awf.or.jp/e-preface.htm
This is a website of アジア女性基金. During Murayama Administration, Japanese people with very good heart, decided to found this. I personally like him very much. THese too good people thouhgt we shoud apology no matter we found official evidence with ex-J goverment policy or not, because "we might have done it". So they founded this civiian level organizationed and colleected money.
and guess what?
Korean govermenrt refused to accept money from this.
The number of comfort women was only what each hisorian believed to be. In fact 20000 not 200000 was close to true number, some say. But again. they are getting paid as prostetutes.
Point is, they couldn't find any evidence in official documents or even fro diary of comfort women 's doctor, that ex-Japanese goverment forced these women to be sex-slave in organized manner.
Only inidividuals tesymonies said so.
smithinjapan
Hachikou: "Only inidividuals tesymonies said so."
Including the testimony of former Imperial troops. But they can't be right, eh?
"they refused money"
So all of the deniers on here, who actually admit it by stating the Korean government was paid and it should be forgotten, are now balking at refusal of monetary compensation by some groups?
toshimasa
The first sue by comfort women against Japan was filed in 1991 (such a topic had never been broadcasted or brought up among Korean until 1983)...and they say tens or hundreds of thousand women were forcibly taken away by the Japanese army and forced to be sex slaves. If this were true, the fact would be that all the victims(50,000~200,000?) and their families, friends, neighbors(1,000,000? 2,000,000?) had been silent for over 40 years...though their daughters, mothers, sisters, wives and themselves were taken away...perhaps before their sights. If I were their son, brother, husband or father, I would have never be like them. But their claim says ALL THE PEOPLE INVOLVED were such ones at least until 1990...though they were always able to file lawsuit against Japan.
I don't believe there were no slaves, but S.Korean claim seems too much exaggerated.
CH3CHO
zichiFeb. 03, 2014 - 04:32PM JST
That report is criticised because the argument is based on "political correctness" and lacks any evidence in many controvercial areas.
I have never heard that Japanese government ever issued any statement that denies its involvement in comfort women issues. UN report lacks any evidence to show the alleged denial by Japanese government. This is enough to show the quality of the report.
It is obvious AWF has the argument and the UN report lacks credibility as proven by AWF.
hachikou
@smithinjapan
If 200000 women were indeed abducted and kidnapped by ex-Japanese goverment, there has to be a document or anything that even slightly suggests they did it. In fact what people found was the other way around. Ad of prostetutions and official military notice banning forcing women to be comfort women, Koreans kidnapping Korean girls selling to China , http://makizushi33.ninja-web.net/tyousenjin_1.jpg and conmort women's congession that they were sold by thier parents...
There is one couragous Korean professor at Seoul Univ ,安秉直(アン・ビョンジク)ソウル大学名誉教授 ,who said "there was no organized Japanese military forcing Korean women to be comfort women" .
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjQNeO_rxxM
But as you can see, later on, he was kicked. some violence
http://ameblo.jp/fuuko-protector/entry-11588158262.html
also other professor,李栄薫ソウル大教授, who said "comfort women were prostetues" was kicked and forced to bend on the knee. http://stat.ameba.jp/user_images/20140105/16/fuuko-protector/0b/58/j/o0562039112804616859.jpg
Please learn about Korea. Its crazy cultic group state mind.
As you say, If imperial army testified that ex-J military did it, please show URL or name of it. I can show you relevant articles. Most of things were already discussed in this country, because Japanese are the one first talked about Comfort woman not Koreans .
Korean govermenrt refused to accept money from アジア助成基金, Japanese non-goverment orgaization for woman, because KOREANS WANTED MORE, yes, from japanese officials not non-goverment.
Its founder, former primminister, Murayama aplogized for comfort woman, beucase he is type of the guy who believed one must apologize when he thinks he might have done it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_war_apology_statements_issued_by_Japan His way didn'T work, because now current Korean president, says there was no aology about comfort woman, and she is very aggresive against Japan.
Japan paid $800 million in 1965, and there shouldnt be no further http://www.oocities.org/eastasianissues/KoreaAnti-Japan/JapanKoreaTreaty.htm
JoeBigs
So you are saying that the UN has never been wrong? Yes or no.......
lighter
I can't come to terms with the ppl in this commentary, no matter how much is paid out, or what the apology was said in the past, you cannot say sorry or compensate and then be in denial. At least look up what a definition of an apology is .. What I don't understand is that why are ppl in this commentary always saying we paid the korean this much we apologized to the chinese so many time but then rub salt in the victims face and deny the atrocities committed. It makes me sick to see ppl trying to justify .. oh we didn't kill that many ppl or we didn't force comfort women they were willing to help ??, maybe we force a few but not that much?? Imperial Japan committed one of the worst atrocities in modern history it was the worst shame to humanity. Alot of countries around the world would share this view. If the German Government followed Shinzo Abe's actions there would be a global outcry. Don't get me wrong I love Japan and the people there, it saddens me to see that your Prime minister Shinzo Abe has cause so much problems for Japan, seriously this fool need to be booted out and shutup, he is causing much shame to the greater japanese who worked hard to create the perception of what Japan society is today.
CH3CHO
zichiFeb. 03, 2014 - 05:52PM JST
It is clear to anyone that the report lacks any evidence to support many of its claims.
What is great about democracy is that people do not need to believe blindly what the authority decides. Everything is open for criticism and, if a report issued by an authority lacks proof, I smell people should not believe it.
Peacetrain
It doesn't matter if a country has apologised once or twice for something, there is nothing wrong with talking about history.
The holocaust happened. Most people think it was a bad thing..... Germany has apologised etc. So what? It wouldn't be surprising if in 2024, someone made a movie, or a documentary or wrote a book about it. Nobody would see that as an attack on modern day Germans at all! And it would be insane if in 2024, Germans were upset and explained that some Prime Minister already apologized 50 years ago, and the movie Schindlers List should have ended it!!
Nothing needs to be forgotten - whether or not an apology has been bad.
Similarly, most people think blacks had a hard time during slavery ...right? There is a movie about it out now. And there might be a book written about it, in 40 years. Just like there might be a movie about the bombing of London.
Terrible things in history don't need to be forgotten. I'm all for a book, movie, exhibition or whatever about the comfort women, or Unit 731. And I love Japanese people.
The only thing that doesn't make any sense is Japanese trying to deny what happened. Or getting upset if anyone talks about it.
Get over it. Some Japanese people (not all) caused terrible suffering to people in Korea.
It's fact. If someone told me that slavery in America was terrible, I'd say, "Yeah it was".
Let's face it. Do many Japanese really know much about comfort women? As much as everyone says it's all over and Japan once apologised or gave money decades ago, how many Japanese do you know who have read even ten testimonies of what some of the comfort women went through. Many Japanese I know have read about Anne Frank, but aren't the slightest but interested in knowing what happened to Koreans and Chinese at the hands of the Japanese military.
But if you really honestly don't want anyone talking about the war, maybe Japan could stop making war movies, publishing books and DVDs about the great Japanese navy of yesteryear, and could stop saying how the young people need to learn about the suffering of Japanese during ww2.
Anyway, almost every week I see men in black trucks disturbing the peace in Tokyo blaring music from ww2. They seem to love thinking, and singing about it.
Okay I have to go. I need to watch Eien no Zero......
CH3CHO
PeacetrainFeb. 03, 2014 - 07:10PM JST
It does not try to deny what happened. It only denies what did not happen.
The game is like this. Korea intentionally brings up something that did not happen. Japan denies. The Korea then says, "Look, Japan is denying." Most people do not care what really happened, so just conclude, "Oh, Japan is denying facts." Peacetrain, did you give any though about what really happened?
What he actually said was that there is no written evidence that Japanese Army abducted comfort women from Korea, and that he wanted historians to study the facts about the procurement of comfort women. That was in response to "testimonies", though contradicting, by Korean former comfort women. This call for study was translated into "revisionism" and "denial" by Western media. I think it is rather silly.
gas07lisa
People,
"On top of the comfort women row, the festival’s organizers shut down the booth of a Japanese association that displayed revisionist WWII content and swastika images among the comics on display."
It just says swastika images. That doesnt mean the comic was praising Natiz.
Sensato
@Peacetrain Great comment. This has always puzzled me immensely about Japan since very early on in my years in this country. I can't tell you how many times people here have brought up Anne Frank, Martin Luther King or Hiroshima/Nagasaki in a conversation with me — but topics like the comfort women or Unit 731... Never. Completely taboo.
bicultural
God this is getting old.
Kabukilover
Suzuki is a liar and represents a lying government.
The truth hurts, doesn't it?
jojotoday
Uh, I think "revisionist WWII content" might have caused some problems too.
tinawatanabe
**The truth hurts, doesn't it?
No, truth does not hurts Japanese at all, but it is the lie that hurts Japanese. You don't seem to know Japanese.
hidingout
Sure you can. Lots of people pay compensation just to make problems go away. Its kind of the point of compensation. In this case ROK took the compensation, signed the treaties, accepted the apologies, and then turned around and said none of that ever happened. Truly. And they repeated those steps several times. We are now on our fourth round of compensation and our twentieth round of apologies. Yet as recently as a few months ago, the leader of ROK went on BBC and said that "unless Japan apologizes" there can be no hope for the future. This is the top person in the country, suggesting that Japan still needs to apologize. Its scary to imagine how brainwashed the real nutters in ROK must be when the supposed leader shows herself to be that determined to keep this issue at the front and center.
No doubt in my mind that these "festival goers", like the people trying to change maps and erect statues in America, are paid stooges for ROK nationalists.
Straw
The world Korean wants to believe : Japanese = absolute wrongdoers Korean = absolute victims
The reality 1 (Inside the territory of Japanese empire) : Some of Japanese and Korean pimps, Korean local governments, poor family who sold their daughters = wrongdoers Some of Japanese and Korean comfort women = victims
The reality 2 (in Southeast Asia and New Guinea after Japan lost supply routes) Some members of Japanese army = wrongdoers who were punished Local women = victims
The reality 3 (post WWII / Korean War / Vietnam War) Korean government = wrongdoers Korean comfort women = victims Japanese government = scapegoat
oldman_13
What does comfort women have to do with comic books. Sheesh.
As I said the international propaganda to vilify Japan in full force by the anti Japan crowd.
In no way am I minimizing what happened in regards to the comfort woman issue, but there's a time and place for that, not Korean nationalists using every opportunity to use this issue not for meaningful discourse, but an obvious attempt to slander and stir anti Japanese hatreds the world over.
gas07lisa
@jojotoday
Still, you cant tell if the comic was praising Natiz. Their ”revisionist WWII content” could be something like Japanese rationalization of colonialism and swastika images just appeared in a cotent. Im not complaining about the shut down Im talking to those people who speculated that the cotent was praising Natiz.
kurainny
Why Koreans can't comply with international treaty? Compensation and apology also have been done completely. Japan has already been paying about over 700,000,000,000 $ to Korea and China included with free technical offer. It's very useful tools for getting money still now, even after their government used all reparation from Japan to increase their GNP. Korea should get ''real independence'' from WW2, mentally. Moreover Korean should watch present Japan, they are only addicted to ''Specter of Japan 70 years ago''. Read international treaty between Japan and Korea. It shows ''All reparations were fully resolved'' by [Treaty on Basic Relations between Japan and the Republic of Korea ]
Peacetrain
"Peacetrain, did you give any though about what really happened?"
Yes. I've read testimonies written by witnesses to the barbarity of the Japanese military from America, Australia, Holland, England, Singapore, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Malaysia, India, Canada, Germany. I've spoken personally to Australians, Chinese, Koreans, Americans who were on the receiving end. There is just so much information out there.
If you just want to talk about comfort women, then no I haven't met any personally. But, I've read testimonies of so many of them - and not all Koreans either. It's beyond dispute.
If what you are trying to argue is that there is no WRITTEN EVIDENCE that the Japanese military authorities commanded those in charge of the comfort women to purposely mistreat them, then you are correct as far as I know.
But arguing that is absolutely ridiculous and you probably know that. But that is exactly what outrages people.
But like I have said before if what you are saying is that there were many comfort women who knowingly signed up and knew what they were getting into, then you are exactly right. And people show their ignorance by saying that 200,000 people were kidnapped by the Japanese military and kept as sex slaves.
There were professional women, and there were many varying conditions for different comfort women in different places. (Just like there are now for prostitites in different parts of the world).
But just because there are young educated Japanese women who indulge in prostitution for gucci bags, that doesn't negate the plight of many women who are terribly mistreated now.
And no, not every Japanese soldier who paid for the services of a comfort woman mistreated her, or necessarily knew who was a free will prostitute and who was being kept against their wishes and was tricked into it in the first place.
But unless you are completely ignorant, or just trying to hide the truth, there is so much evidence of the horrible fate that became many of these women.
Instead of attacking anyone who brings it up, simple humanity would surely illicit some sympathy for them.
IF you have none, then that's why the rest of the world has a hard time understanding the Japanese right-wing. Just like they don't understand neo-nazis or modern day Klansmen.
As for the comic books - everyone knows that comic books in Japan just aren't limited to Archie and Casper the friendly ghost. There have been revisionist war-themed manga.
Given that Japanese youth don't know anything about the war, manga might be the best way to educate them about the war. Except that the friendly men from the black trucks would probably demonstrate against bookstores who sold a manga about comfort women or Unit 731 or other atrocities committed by WARTIME Japanese.
The world has a lot of great feeling towards Japan. Don't ruin it. Most of the world still naively things Japan is sorry about ww2.
anbinh
Its not good to see so much hatred in Korean people's hearts. They simply can not let it go. After all the HELP they got from Japan , now they just want to revenge.
Shinya Kawasaki
Please refer to the URL below. http://www.exordio.com/1939-1945/codex/Documentos/report-49-USA-orig.html
This is the report of the United States Armed Forces.
chucky3176
This news report doesn't tell the entire story, for whatever reasons.
The French regional Sud Ouest daily newspaper received a petition, ahead of the festival’s opening, from Japanese women indignant at the South Korean exhibit, who said the Comfort Women were a hoax by South Korea. The organizers said Japan didn't ask them to close the exhibit, but what they did say was that Japanese government protested and threatened to prevent the comfort women exhibit being allowed.
The festival’s French organizers shut down the booth of a Japanese association that displayed revisionist WWII content, including their own version of Comfort Women history, and Nazi swastika images among the comics on display. The French organizers were disgusted and said they will not allow politically motivated comics in their exhibit. Saying Comfort Women were hoax and praising the Nazi's are not going to be looked upon favourably outside of Japan.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzXiCIfOPqQ
The Japanese organizers tried to hold a press conference inside the exhibit floor, getting into a shoving match with the French directors, then getting pushed and kicked out of the exhibit.
Now the Japan's nationalist citizens are facebook bombing the facebook page of the French embassy in Japan with angry posts.
https://www.facebook.com/ambafrancejp
avigator
If you get hot is because you ate hot peppers. You created your own paradigm so live with what is left of you.
Peacetrain
"The first sue by comfort women against Japan was filed in 1991 (such a topic had never been broadcasted or brought up among Korean until 1983)..."
That doesn't mean anything. Most people wanted to get on with their lives and forget and survive.
and they say tens or hundreds of thousand women were forcibly taken away by the Japanese army and forced to be sex slaves. If this were true, the fact would be that all the victims(50,000~200,000?) and their families, friends, neighbors(1,000,000? 2,000,000?) had been silent for over 40 years...though their daughters, mothers, sisters, wives and themselves were taken away...perhaps before their sights."
No, you are completely confused. People aren't saying that families saw 200,000 women stolen before their eyes. Some were kidnapped in front of other people. But you show that you have done no reading on the subject. Remember that many of the comfort women were Japanese. Not many of them go talking about it everyday either. But many women from different countries were tricked into signing up. Haven't you read anything? There were deceptive advertisements. Also remember that in those days, poor families sold their daughters. (It happened in Japan too). So many women in Korea AND Japan were basically sold to brothels without having any say in it themselves. then the brothels sent them overseas. Women in those situations had no control over where they were going. And once you are in a foreign country, you can't just hop on a plane. You are showing your ignorance. First, go and read up on the different experiences of these women.
"But their claim says ALL THE PEOPLE INVOLVED were such ones at least until 1990...though they were always able to file lawsuit against Japan."
sigh. No you are misrepresenting the truth here. Many women only started to speak out because there were denials by right wingers in Japan. The Australia woman kept her months of being raped repeatedly by Japanese soldiers a secret. She only came forward to support the comfort women when right-wingers in Japan accused them of lying. I actually think it's disgusting to argue over numbers. But uyokusha do that all the time.
"I don't believe there were no slaves,"
Great!!!! Now you are talking. So, isn't it terrible that there were slaves. do you feel bad? Any sympathy? For me, if there were 100 or 1000 sex slaves, that would be enough for me.
" but S.Korean claim seems too much exaggerated."
"seems" And so what? If the numbers are exaggerated then....so what?
Seems to me that if someone of raped and killed 10 women, and others said he raped 20, that it would be terrible for me to continually attack the victims families because the number was wrong.
He should first be agreeing that he did the wrong thing. And if the victims wanted to mention it once every 5 years, or every year, I would understand. But, if he denied that he did anything, or said, well our family said sorry once 15 years ago, and they were loose women anyway, - well the outrage would be understandable.
The problem is the inherent hate towards other Asians by the right wing and their inability to show remorse.
If German politicians started denying the atrocities of ww2 it would be the same.
Learn from you old pals.
miyoi
It is regrettable that such confusion arose. Japanese people think that they will continue offering counterevidence. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAb6DeNkGzE
chucky3176
Is it really just the right wing Japanese? I don't think so. The entire nation is in denial. The ones who do fully accept their country's role in WWII are the tiny minority. This is exactly the reason why these kinds of exhibits must go on, to educate Japan and the world.
toshiko
There is a JT Entertainment board article that stated who won awards in this festival. Cartoon is cartoon. If someone make a cartoon and sell good, that is about it. Wonder Woman has ficious anti-Nazi story lines but Germany Govt is not complaining against MeTV channels,
gas07lisa
Thanks to Chucky, I found the pictures of a comic book (of Japanese) that contained swastika image, from Facebook.
http://daisukinipponfrance.over-blog.com/2014/01/3-mangas-sauv%C3%A9s-de-voldemort%E3%80%80%E6%8B%A1%E6%95%A3%E3%81%A9%E3%81%86%E3%81%9E.html
This is in French and Japanese. I dont understand French so I just read Japanese version. What it says is that basically there are people who claim they were forced into sex slaves, but there is not any evidence. As for swastika image, comic says that Natiz told people "if you keep telling a lie 100 times, it will be the truth" and explained that this is what Koreans are doing today. It also says Korean anti-Japanese groups are connected to North Korea and Chinese anti-Japanese organization. For North Korea and China, it's better that South Korea and Japan are not closely tied. Japanese government is aware of that so they try to stay patient from Korean government's a provocative remark.
So this is what the comic says, if you are interested. (This does not reflect my view!!)
CoconutE3
Japan should move on with this issue. Korea & China are trying to instigate. Most of other major Southeast Asian countries, at least the ones that are important as India, Thailand & Vietnam don't give a hoot. Neither does the Middle Eastern ones. And frankly speaking, the French are in slow steady decline most likely becoming the next Greece. Who knew the Koreans & French have so much in common.
BurakuminDes
@ PeaceTrain - really good posts. Obviously you have done your reading and research. It appears, unfortunately, many in the current Japanese government are in denial about the 200,000 "comfort" children and "comfort" women - from so many nations - that were so brutally raped and abused by Imperial Japanese forces.
We owe it to the memories of these children and women that their stories are told - whether or not the truth hurts for many in Japan still.
I guess many of the current governments fathers and relatives
gas07lisa
Apparently, the comic mentioned above was the one that was permitted by the festival organizer? So I'm not sure what was the content of the comics that were shut down.
AyameKanda
I feel unhappy if someone believe South Korea's anti-Japan Propaganda, because of this event. It's hard to know far east stories, but please know .. (I majored those history when I were in Univ)
.1. In WWII, Japan hired professional army prostitute, You can see a sample of their payment slip in the middle of this site.
http://makizushi33.ninja-web.net/
It says the salary paid 26,145yen for 3 years work. (she could buy 20-30 houses at the time)
2, What they said "Comfort woman who were forced" was that in Korean War.(1950-1953 which North Korea vs South Korea with US, China. Nothing to do with Japan) This is why they're too young in WWII, and some of them told "Korean War". (Though some of they believe it's Japan and Korea war ... we didn't have the war) Please see a comfort station of Korean War (middle)... English is on the wall, because it was for US army.(WWII, it must not be because US is the enemy of Japan and Korea) There are also historical material which South Korean kidnapped North Korean women at the time.
http://blog.goo.ne.jp/yamanooyaji0220/e/96439eae8d545a1b5b408201eb52b216
Japan didn't conquered Korea. 李容九 (??? li rongjiu?) and others requested to merge Korea, and Japan merged. After that, many Korean noble who didn't work, but just rip off from commons are banned, the new government constructed hospital, schools and spent a lot of money for infrastructure and others for healthy life. Of course they stopped eating human waste as medicine at the time.Korea was under China's control for long years, but their textbook of history (I just read Korean junior high history book) hide this truth. So that it overwrite real history, and people are mind-controlled with it.
One of their fantasy is "Japan banned Korean characters" --- see Koran textbook at the time. It's mix of Korean and Japanese characters.
http://blog.livedoor.jp/newskorea/archives/1805879.html
As you know, most of Japanese are geeks. We have been kept a lot of historical materials, from trash to building. On the other hand, South Korea does not have them, because it's capital city was North Korea. I don't know why, but that made South Korean textbook as more fantasy novel, without historical material.
South Korea will not stop this Propaganda, because they're hiding a truth - they got a lot of money from Japan, after WWII, including North Korean and for their people, including Korean professional army prostitute. But they spent all to South Korean infrastructure, and didn't deliver their people. And still didn't pay it to North Korean. To hide this truth, they're planning to have another money from Japan.
I wish everyone know this, and can reach the truth. I hope we don't need to tell this kind of thing in anime/comic festival,but we can't keep silence if it will be Korean Propaganda event. I wish they'll stop both side of political groups in next time.
chucky3176
gas07lisa, my understanding is that those Japanese comics that you described above, are the ones that got shut down by the French organizers as containing political messages. The French organizers allowed the Korean comics because they deemed it based on "human rights and women's rights issues".
AlexNoaburg
any entity, whether it's a family, business, or in this case a country, that sweeps problems under the rug rather than face it head on, can't be healthy for the people involved
Christopher Blackwell
alan must deal with what really happened, just as Germany did. But why stop, there, what about the war crimes of all countries that have engaged in war Certainly we in the United States have never death with our own history of war crimes. The evil in history is every bit as important as the good in that it created the world as it is. Also true of the mediocre and the foolishness of history.
Do reading of your own, take a period that interests you, and that you think you know reasonably well and you will discover a great deal that was never taught to you in school. School history is mostly historical propaganda to make a country and its ancestors look a lot better than they were. If kids were given an idea of true history, you would never get them out of the continued study of history all their lives because the real history is far more fascinating than the dulled down form they were taught in school. History can warn us of the dangers of our actions as well as the long term benefits of our actions. It can guide us toward wisdom and thought before we rashly go out and do something.
In my case it was American railroad history where I learned how big business cozy up to each other and how promoters often got wealthy while the poor stock holders usually lost their investment over and over again. That would lead to understanding ore about the real world. By the way I am still fascinated by railroad history and sometimes the unexpected benefits that the same corruption might accidentally create. The town that I live in would have never existed had not a transcontinental railroad been built, as is true of a great many communities in America.
So we learn that both good and evil can come out of the same incident of history. Thus in bad times, under bad conditions, some will still find a way to do good and leave a lasting legacy for future generations.
chucky3176
This is the full version of the Korean comic that Japan doesn't want to be shown.
The caption at the beginning says it's based on the true testimony of comfort women.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnLqKSOOVYw
OssanAmerica
Does it show the 240,000 Korean men in the Imperial Japanese Army who made use of the Comfort Women system? They even got a discount.
Chenchan
Someone should those French that it's directly opposite - those things doesn't have anything to do with human and women rights. They're made to bash Japan. They should know as well that's it's brought up due to politcs in mind, surely not by some noble ideas.
gelendestrasse
The Japanese government should have just kept silence. Embarrassed silence, maybe. But it did happen and SK is going to keep pushing the issue as long as they think they can get sympathy from it.
chucky3176
ChenChan, obviously the French organizers didn't feel the same way as you. They said the Japanese version was the one inciting hatred, and kicked out the Japanese exhibit and their organizer. And the Korean exhibit goes on, attracting record number of French visitors, thanks to the free publicity given by the stupid reactionary move by Japanese organizers, the Japanese women who protested, and the Japanese government.
blackrock
Again the Koreans don't disappoint.
Man up Koreans, dont use women as tools to deal with others
Chenchan
It's truly a unthinkable that Korean society keeps their mouth shut and eyes closed when it comes to sexual slavery happening right now and in no other place than South Korea itself. You don't need Japanese Imperial Army soldiers to tell the stories which are happening today. You could make a fine history about stories from articles like this:
http://www.segye.com/content/html/2013/05/26/20130526001857.html
I also think that today's real slavery in South Korea which known as 섬노예 (how I should translate it - island slave would be right?) could make a nice story from those who survived and were real slaves of today?
toshiko
People: Be careful: Check JT Crime Board. You may get arrested in Japan if you upload videos. there is an article that says a Gunma man arrested ,,,,, etc,
nath
Why should Japan feel upset? If Japan has already severed itself from its imperialist past, why should it feel offended? Perhaps the truth is that Japan still feels proud of its imperialist history. If so, then this is where the real problem is.
Shanchan
I feel Ksentry and other nice forces doing their work here...
sfjp330
rsgz4gg7y2Feb. 04, 2014 - 06:00AM JST Why should Japan feel upset? If Japan has already severed itself from its imperialist past, why should it feel offended? Perhaps the truth is that Japan still feels proud of its imperialist history. If so, then this is where the real problem is.
If you remember few year ago, two Japanese goverment officials visited Palisades Park, New Jersey, and they wanted local administrators to remove a small monument from a public park. The monument, a brass plaque on a block of stone, was dedicated in 2010 to the memory of so-called comfort women, tens of thousands of women and girls, many Korean and Chinese, who were forced into sexual slavery by Japanese soldiers during WWII. The Japanese authorities wanted Korean memorial removed. The consul general said the Japanese government was willing to plant cherry trees, donate books to the public library and do some things to show that we’re united in this world and not divided. But the offer was contingent on the memorial’s removal. The town officials rejected the request, and the delegation left.
The second delegation arrived few weeks later with four J-goverment reps. Their approach was less diplomatic. These Japanese politicians, tried and asked that the monument be removed, to convince the Palisades Park authorities that comfort women had never been forcibly conscripted as sex slaves. They said the comfort women were a lie, that they were set up by an outside agency, that they were women who were paid to come and take care of the troops. Downplaying of history still continues.
chucky3176
sfjp330, exactly. It looks like Japan is under some kind of government mandated campaign to liquidate all traces of Comfort Women and forcibly plant their version of revision history onto the world. Now we're not even supposed to talk about it because Japanese government won't allow that anymore. This comic festival would have been gone on quietly and nobody noticed anything, other then remembering the victims, until the Japanese decided to make a huge fuss and turned it into a big political show of force. Shame on Japan.
OssanAmerica, you keep harping on your false assertions that Koreans were part of empire of Japan. But watch this video of the former Japanese soldier, recounting how the colonial Japanese really saw the Koreans at that time, and how they would have treated the Comfort women, as well as the Unit 731 - you cannot keep denying the fact that Japanese saw Koreans as non-humans, and the racism held by the Japanese toward Koreans were horrendous and deeply ingrained. So it's perfectly logical to believe the testimonials of these Comfort women and how they were treated by the Japanese soldiers. Scroll to around 1:00 where it begins.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bz8bdcN876I
jh808
It's true that ugly events happen during war and we always need to find someone to bash against. However didn't the Americans rape women during Vietnam or better yet didn't events that abuses women happen when a country took over another country.
sfjp330
BurakuminDes Feb. 03, 2014 - 11:35PM JST @ PeaceTrain - really good posts. Obviously you have done your reading and research. It appears, unfortunately, many in the current Japanese government are in denial about the 200,000 "comfort" children and "comfort" women - from so many nations - that were so brutally raped and abused by Imperial Japanese forces. We owe it to the memories of these children and women that their stories are told - whether or not the truth hurts for many in Japan still.
Denial? Facts are In 1965 the issue was settled for $500+ million that was paid out to Korea. If Korea and Jpaan settled the case in a binding contract, after forty or fifty years later, are you going to demand additional compensation and renegotiation? Do Koreans believe in binding contracts or do they know what the contract means? In 1965, the Japanese goverment asked Korean goverment to show the concrete number of conscripted workers and soldiers, dead and injured and how much unpaid wages were. They asked to "show the evidences and they would pay". Korea agreed and investigated them. What I want to clarify here is that Korea didn't claim the compensation for the war time prostitutes. Why didn't they? It's because there was no abducted prostitute. Nobody said at the time in Korea, those prostitutes were abducted. Everyone knew there were many women who were so poor that they sold themselves to live and the Japan army didn't have to abduct Korean women. There were many Korean volunteers for Japan army at the time. Therefore Koreans didn't claim it at that time. It's the Korean goverment's problem if they did not disclose the comfort women issue at the time. What did South Korean goverment do with the $500+ million that Japan paid already?
YuriOtani
There were "comfort women" everywhere there ware Imperial troops. The Imperial government treated Chinese, Koreans, Philippians, Thailand, Burmese and Japanese very badly. After all the Japanese leaders were nobility and the Imperial troops as samurai. They could and did anything they please including rape and murder. This is the lowlife that Abe and his cronies are defending the Imperials. Get a clue guys! It happened, Nanking happened, comfort women happened. It can not be denied and the more you deny it the worse it make you look. My advice is to "Fermez ta bouche" and move forward. Admit the guilt of your ancestors, pay compensation and rewrite the school books to reflect reality. Give up your fanciness of Imperial Japan and move forward.
sfjp330
YuriOtani,
Pay compensation? Ridiculous. Then tell me about the 1965 settlement. If you settle the case 50 years ago, are you going to ask the same people to pay more? Do you know what binding settlement contract is?
chucky3176
I don't see any Americans denying My Lai, nor any American government officials going around the world, trying to 'correct' history by telling the Vietnamese that they're lying about My Lai, and that it never happened. Do you see any Americans acting like that? And it wasn't American government policy to organize and run places where women were raped and killed. Besides, what does the Americans in Vietnam have to do with this topic, other then it's just another diversionary tactic?
Bob Sneider
good, the french deserve to know
hidingout
You will be arrested in America too. Did you know it? I realize its tricky living with senility, but try to stay on topic.
Chenchan
Bringing up such facts gives you a picture of hypocrisy of one side hiding deep it's dark side and harshly blaming others for doing the same thing.
YuriOtani
Sfip330, I agree these payments are not "legally" required but would be a gesture of goodwill. Admitting to the truth of Imperial Japan would be another move to ease tensions. There is nothing that prevents it from giving additional compensation to the victims of Imperial aggression. PM Abe, I understand it is your ancestors but is is their disgrace not yours. However embracing it is bring discredit on yourself and Japan.
chucky3176
I don't see any resemblance to the American case, nor the hypocrisy you refer to. Americans already know My Lai, or slavery was wrong, and they teach them in their history books. But Japan? If you think everyone will just stand by and say nothing, while Japanese government under Abe undo and rewrite all the history at the same time, then you got something else coming your way. Japan can glorify their WWII period all they want, but they better deal with the consequences dealt to them by their two neighbours.
sfjp330
YuriOtani Feb. 04, 2014 - 08:46AM JST There is nothing that prevents it from giving additional compensation to the victims of Imperial aggression.
Why? Japan asked the Korean goverment in 1965 and said they would handle the individual compensation. It's the responsibity of Korean Goverment since they kept the money for themselves. Why don't these comfort women ask their own goverment about the compensation and ask where the money went?
slumdog
Actually, since this story broke, there is movement on this front as well. There are groups trying to get the money from the South Korean government. That is where it should come from because that is who received it.
chucky3176
Are you absolutely sure money is what they want? They're well into their 90's, only few years left to live if even that. It seems to me, what they really want is recognition that they exist, contrition from Japan, and remembrance so that this never happens again. No, no amount of past apologies is enough when Japan keeps the denials going and pushing their revisionist history, saying they did nothing wrong.
sfjp330
chucky3176 Feb. 04, 2014 - 09:04AM JST No, no amount of past apologies is enough when Japan keeps the denials going and pushing their revisionist history, saying they did nothing wrong.
If you settle the case, it's finished. Signed, sealed, and delivered.
Chenchan
Maybe they don't want it but various leeches around them who make a living out of that surely want those money they are getting from donations and sponsors.
Just like Japanese do about Nanking. My Lai is a poor example as pointed out in Loewen's book 'Lies My Teacher Told Me' as in the early 90's 7 out of ten 10 high school history textbooks he gathered didn't even mention that (let alone writing about it's extent).
chucky3176
What?? So that gives Japan all the right to tell the women are all liars? The women can't have their memorials built for them? Nobody should remember them? So it gives Japan to call them all paid whores? Come now. The Japan-Korea treaty of 1965 was a "Japan-Korea Normalization Treaty". It was a treaty to normalize all ties between the two countries. The signing of the treaty does not give Japan a blank check to go on a history revisionist campaign and glorification of their WWII history.
sfjp330
Chucky3176,
You live in a dream world. It doesn't matter if Japan tries to improve relations with SK, there's is no end to SK demand.
chucky3176
Trying to "improve relations with SK" and stop pushing your right wing history revisionism are not the same thing. Even though Korea and Japan had their flared up moments at times when Japanese ministers opened their big mouths to pick on the scabs wounds, the two countries had good relations for years, despite Japan's chronic dishonest views on history. But things got much worse when Abe took over and started really going the other way with his attempts to turn Japan into Hirohito's Japan circa 1930.
CH3CHO
PeacetrainFeb. 03, 2014 - 09:03PM JST
Here is a link to testimonies of Korean comfort women before US Congress. The supporter group may have chosen the best witnesses from their pool. Which version did you believe "beyond dispute"? I do not deny comfort women. I just deny one side of 2 contradicting testimonies.
http://archives.republicans.foreignaffairs.house.gov/110/33317.pdf
On page 19, written testimony by Ms. YONG SOO LEE
On page 17, oral testimony by the same Ms. YONG SOO LEE
Masaki Miyamoto
Propaganda of the lie by South Korea. Comfort women are professional prostitutes. Record of evidence: http://texas-daddy.com/comfortwomen.htm Explanation movie : http://youtu.be/ggQaYD37Jm4
sfjp330
chucky3176 Feb. 04, 2014 - 10:06AM JST the two countries had good relations for years, despite Japan's chronic dishonest views on history.
Today, South Korea no longer sees significant importance to Japan. So for South Korea, good relations with Japan is not a priorty. The bilateral trade has reduced significantly. In the last ten years, Japan had fifty percent reduction in import from South Korea. Currently Japan exports $60 billion to SK, while SK exports $25 billion to Japan. It's a one way trade for Japan. Even Hyundai no longer sells cars in Japan. South Korea sees China as a future growth, and they will focus on increasing trade and improve their bilateral relations and cooperations.
chucky3176
Masaki Miyamoto, come on lol... using a Japan money paid American shill as your source to prove your the comfort women are professional prostitutes? Weak.
CH3CHO, other then her age contradictions, which is perfectly understandable considering it happened over 70 years ago, I don't see anything contradictory to her story at all. She was 14 or 16, around that age, she was watched from a far, then followed, and then they came at night to take her away. Obviously numerous people were involved in scouting her out then extracting her from home. What's so unbelievable?
Masaki Miyamoto
chucky3176
Yes, Prostitution is the smokestack industries in 1200 years of Korean.
sfjp330
You mistake.
If South Korea has no Japan, it cannot make a living. It depends for their oil refining on Japan 100%.
Japan does not need South Korea.The cold war is already ended.
nath
How about the 200,000 sex slaves from Korea and elsewhere you were considerably more "upset" by being forced to provide sexual services for Japan's military. Where is the sincere apology to them? Where is the long overdue compensation?
Shinjuku No Yaju
So what is the end game here? I mean what is it that South Korea wants? It's clear at this point that no apology from anyone is going to be considered "sincere", and it's not like Japan's going to offer up 200,000 17-year old girls for the Korean army to abuse so... what EXACTLY is the point here? The whole world knows what the imperial army did. It was unforgivable. But it was the past. The stories have been told, those who suffered won't be forgotten. But it doesn't honor them to use their pain as a cudgel for all time. My ancestors were kidnapped and sold into slavery, but it cheapens them AND me to define my relationship with the world through that lens. IMHO
mochimochi
OMG this article is distorted. Who is "many mainstream historians"? Do you know where the number 200,000 came from? In 1943, Japan founded Teishintai 挺身隊 (direct translation: (women's)volunteer corp), that was to get the women into the industrial work (mainly the factory worker, nurse and so on) to make up for the huge shortage of the male workers due to the draft. 1970, Seoul Newspaper mentioned that 200,000 Japanese & Korean women were mobilized as teishintai 挺身隊 from 1943 to 1945, of which 50,000~70,000 were Korean women. Teishintai 挺身隊 and comfort women慰安婦 were totally different issue, but Korean people totally mixed them up and picked out this 200,000 then came up with saying 200,000 Korean comfort women bra bra bra.. Even now, the Korean group of this comfort women issue still use the name of Teishintai 挺身隊. What a laugh! The exact number of the comfort women is still unclear, but they always try to ignore the fact that there was a number of Japanese comfort women, and the brokers who assemble the women from Korean peninsula were KOREAN. I feel sorry for the ladies who deceived by those brokers or sold by their own parents because of poverty, but putting blame on Japan instead of them is not right.
chucky3176
I don't quite see what your point is with the trade thing. Your numbers are outdated anyway, not that it matters. So those Comfort women have no right to tell their stories to others, without the organizers getting bullied by crazed angry Japanese nationalists and Japanese government? The problem here is squarely with Abe's plans to turn Japan into right wing, and the comfort women issue is part of all this. Koreans are not going to sit there and do nothing while Japan continues to try to turn back the clock.
Read Oliver Stone's comments on how Japan is turning into a fascist country under Abe.
Under Abe’s leadership, nation shifts from pacifism to militarism with Obama’s apparent blessing.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2014/02/02/oliver-stone-japan-abe-military-obama-column/5163243/
nath
An unequivocal apology to the sex slaves, and compensation. This link shows that the matter was not covered by the 1965 treaty http://www.japanfocus.org/-Totsuka-Etsuro/3885 The right-wingers and apologists like to claim that many apologies have been offered - that is true. But so have many denials, from the likes of Hashimoto, and Ishihara. Such denials only serve to weaken and belie any sense of remorse that Japan appears to feel. Do you see anyone coming out and defending slavery in the western world these days? No. But you see plenty of Japanese politicians justifying Japan's wartime record and even justifying the sex slaves
CH3CHO
zichiFeb. 04, 2014 - 12:16PM JST
I think you are a reasonable gentleman and I would like to solicit your opinion on the "testimony".
Do you think the testimonies by Ms. YONG SOO LEE contradictory? Which version do you think is true? Do you think she is making contradictory testimonies intentionally, or unintentionally? Why does she make contradictory testimonies?
chucky3176
All except Japan you mean.
You sound exactly like Rip Van Winkle waking up from his long slumber. Have you not read all the Japanese apology deniers here saying they were paid prostitutes? Have you not seen all the news of Japanese government saying they were prostitutes? And it doesn't help when Japan starts busting in on a legitimate comic exhibition in France, demanding the organizers to stop the Korean exhibit, while extolling their own Nazi style exhibit. How can anyone say that's the fault of the comfort women?
What if the US started denying slavery existed? They were all paid servants who were hired by US cotton plantations. The Africans willingly volunteered to become slaves. I'm sure if US government pushed this agenda, there would be hell of a fall out all over the United States, as well as the entire world.
mochimochi
Please don't mislead, dear. He never said "sex slavery", it was comfort women.
nath
Just a convenient euphemism that helps the over-paid, over-empowered Japanese politicians to sleep better at night. At no time was there any "comfort" in the position that over 200,000 women found themselves in. They were sex slaves
BARENZAME619
As Ms. Cho Yoon-sun (The South Korean Minister of Gender Equality and Family) said at the ceremony of the Manga Festival, "the comfort women issue is a universal one that concerns more than South Korea and a certain country" . I hope that she will start speaking about the Lai-Dai-Han or Yankon Jyu (Yanggongju) issues of her own country. (If you do not know these terms, please google.) If she does so, it will truly contribute to the issue of women's right under war.
4649Julian
You mean foreigners know more Japanese history?
nath
I think more people need to live in the now and for the ft future. You can't advance while looking backward nor can the past be changed or undone. At one point it has to be accepted that the past needs to remain in the past and is not part of the Now or After.
Counts for all Parties involved.
Mitch Cohen
So by your logic, if someone manages to track down an atomic bomb survivor who gives 2 conflicting testimonies, it never happened?
Wide-spread denial of war crimes in Japan is a disease.
CH3CHO
zichiFeb. 04, 2014 - 04:18PM JST
Why do not we make one thing clear? The girl, Niyem (age 10), in your link is not a comfort women. She is a rape victim.
Japanese Imperial Army issued license to comfort women, paid money for service and periodically checked medical conditions especially STD of them. It was the policy of the Japanese Imperial Army to use comfort women.
Apart from the comfort women, there were a number of random rapes by Japanese soldiers in the war zone. Japanese Imperial Army did not condone rapes and anyone who committed rapes was punished in Japanese martial court. You can see a lot of records of such court cases.
You cannot confuse comfort women with rape victims. You cannot use a situation of rape victims to generalize the situations of comfort women.
I am not familiar with all the names of the women you listed, but after taking out the rape victims, how many comfort women will be left in the list?
tinawatanabe
@YuriOtani "pay compensation"
It's already paid. You think demanding many times like that still work on Japan. You don't seem to realize the change of Japanese sentiments toward your people.
gas07lisa
@chucky
I am not sure, because I read that Japanese comic books were shut down too. But on the link it says that the comic described above was "saved on the Angoulême stand". (This festival's name is Angoulême International Comics Festival) It also says French news paper reported they saw swastika image at Japanese booth. So perhaps this one was exhibited.
CH3CHO
zichiFeb. 04, 2014 - 05:41PM JST
I stand with the truth. Which part of my comment makes me a "revisionist"? Did I tell you anything that is not true?
Let me point out that calling a rape victim a comfort woman (ianfu) is very uncompassionate.
tyvtgo1US
I believe if I was Japanese and at the French, south Korean exhibit, I would gather and take photos next to it. lol Maybe make the South Korean's really angry! Like throwing it in their face! I can be evil in that way! But China and South Korea are like children with this topic and it is all about nationalism and politics with their people. It is Japan that has changed since the war, seems South Korea and China have some crazy obsession with the past and for some reason refuses to move on. I actually believe it is South Korea appeasing China, based on the trade issue, wanting to cozy up to China so not to cause any trade issues going sour! To take a stance with China on an issue by South Korea, I cannot see any other reason especially with China's little child North Korea that is South Korea's only threat and put in place by no other than.... China!
MrBum
Whose acting like a child here? This is actually a good analogy of what Japan continues to do. Try to put yourself in China and Korea's situation. Your country gets invaded, your women and children are raped, tortured, and murdered. Japan apologizes but years later its leaders continue to deny doing anything wrong and visit a shrine that promotes an image of the "victim" Japan that was only trying to save Asia from the West.
No matter how many times Japan apologizes on the surface would your anger go away if leaders as high up as the prime minister continue to go out of their way to show a complete lack of remorse? Whose preventing everyone from moving on in this situation? The stupid politicians of Japan continue to pick the scabs of old wounds whenever some pain arises.
Masaki Miyamoto
MrBum
>Whose acting like a child here?
The answer is simple. "Does not exist".
Real intention of Korea and Communist China is one only. "Give me money".
> Japan apologizes but years later its leaders continue to deny doing anything wrong and visit a shrine that promotes an image of the "victim" Japan that was only trying to save Asia from the West.
First of all, you do not need Japan to apologize.
Japan will not allow "Korean Fantasy History".
Forever.
Chenchan
And you sound like a VANK activist (who you probably are).
Masaki Miyamoto
Sexslave system does not exist in the Imperial Japanese Army.
Management system in Japan, was "prostitution by an individual trader's business". Comfort women is a professional prostitute.
However, South Korea is different.
"Sexslave" was present in the Korean War.
Instruction manual Korean President signed there as evidence.
http://img03.ti-da.net/usr/r/y/o/ryotaroneko/l_2013110601000847800059791.jpg
It is evidence of repeated rape and imprisoned the women of north Korean troops taken prisoner in the Korean War.
Recording of evidence "instruction Sexslave" of Imperial Japanese Army is exist? Does not exist.
nath
Are you saying that surviving imperial army troops who testified in support of the sex slaves, who risked their lives for their country, (which you obviously have not) were liars?
Masaki Miyamoto
aussie-musashi
Nice Joke.
Sexslave does not exist in the IJA. Comfort women is a professional prostitute.
Record evidence of instructions by the IJA is exist?
Sexslave's were present, it is the Korean War. Not in WWII.
Chamkun
The bottom line is that except in Indonesia for Duatch women's case. the sex salve case does not exist.That what Kono speech meaent.
toshiko
Comfort women,, Sex slaves are not translation of Japanese. Ian-fu was Japanese word, Japanese during WW II did not use English.
JanesBlonde
You are on the money!
My grandfather on my father's side was taken from Samoa at the start of WWII (German Samoan) and "imprisoned" in Somes Island by the allies and died there leaving my grandmother with 11 children and no income and no citizenship. The English (NZ/AUS) took control of Samoa. Needless to say, being Brown, German and Jewish (The irony) was not a good combination back then. Effectively they were made stateless refugees. It was only many years after the war that the family finally found out what happened to my grandfather.
My grandfathers brother on my mothers (English) side was captured by the Japanese in Singapore and was worked to death. Most likely under the watch of Korean prison guards. My English grandfather fought the Japanese across the pacific and survived the war.
My wife's grandfather (Japanese) was captured by the Russians and moved to northern Russia at the end of the war. He was never released. He was worked to death and died many years after the war ended. He was really only a kid. We only found and visited his grave in Russia in the 1990's.
These were all young men with young families. Our families. We do not hold any ill will towards the Japanese, Germans, English, New Zealanders, Russians, Koreans or Australians for what happened. What good would it do? It was another time in history. We remember them and honour them.
@aussie-musashi @chucky3176
You are obviously both young and most likely Korean. After all these years it is very depressing to see such blind anger towards others based on race. Painting a whole nation or race as evil based on the actions of a select few is simply illogical in this day and age. Thats what the Nazi's did in the 1930's and that's why my grandfather left Germany and travelled to the furtherest German territory he could find.
Koreans are not the only ones who have suffered at the hands of others in the history of the whole world.
Move on. Look to the future.
Guy Fawkes
This applies to Japan as well. This whole tit-for-tat between China, Japan and South Korea is getting old. I have never seen this much disdain and anger before in my travels. When working as a translator in Fukuoka, I became close with a Korean coworker, the leader/manager of the translation department. At the company bonenkai, he was told by a Japanese coworker how much he hated Koreans and Chinese. Lovely, isn't it? I think that it's hard for Chinese and Koreans to "move on" as some Japanese leaders (Abe in 2007, for example) deny that certain atrocities took place, thus rendering past apologies as not sincere in the eyes of Koreans and Chinese.
OssanAmerica
Very well written. Blind hatred, racism are evil. Supporting such hatred is like supporting cannibalism. You don't realize how wrong it is until you find yourself on the menu.
chucky3176
gas07lisaFEB, I read the Korean Chosun Ilbo today and it mentioned that the same Japanese comic you linked to, was indeed banned by the French organizers.
This is the reasoning by the head of the French organizers for allowing the Korean exhibit, while banning the Japanese.
And this is what he gave as the reason why he ejected the Japanese counter-exhibit.
So there you have it, the Oranizer's reasons behind why Japanese were not allowed to exhibit their vile revisionist history with Nazi symbolisms. The 1965 Korea-Japan Normalization Treaty does not give Japanese the right to barge into exhibitions and basically act like thugs just because they don't like the message.
JanesBlonde
Agreed ... it applies to everyone.
I think one needs to put things into perspective. I would be genuinely interested to know what "incidents" or "actions" have the Japanese done INTERNATIONALLY in the last 70 years that makes people think that they are bunch of right wing warring fascists? Japan really has been a model world citizen over the last 70 years. If you talk to people around the world, the Japanese are pretty well liked everywhere.
The real issue here is that both Korea and China are attempting to interfere and draw comment from the internal politics of Japan. Basically, they are sticking their noses into internal Japanese politics and commenting on what is happening. Whatever comments some crazy Japanese politician makes does it really affect China or Korea ..... no. But do they feel the need to pass judgement .... yes of course.
That said though, this recent concerted effort by Korean "organisations" to "constantly remind the world" of Japans WWII past needs to be recognised for what it is. Spreading hatred. If Japan "sincerely apologised again and paid a billion dollars" would that make Korea happy .... I doubt it.
f you remove China and the Chinese Communist Party from this equation and what is do we have .... Korea complaining about what happened 70 years ago and going around the world staging "Anti Japanese Events" and establishing "Anti Japan monuments". They manage to get some idiotic right wing Japanese nut to respond and then it's "See Japanese are evil, this is why we are staging our ludicrous idiotic event to show you how evil the Japanese are".
They can find all the "excuses" they want - this politician said this, this person said that, this right wing nut responded .... but at the end of the day it is KOREA that has issues to deal with, not Japan.
chucky3176
Japan's peace article made them that way. But that was in the past, and now that's all changed under Abe. You will see more and more "incidents" or "actions" that you speak of. Their attempt at busting into this festival is one small example. Then next could be military actions. You're not doing Japan any favours by excusing their behaviours.
Shanchan
What changed under Abe? That he's trying to change constitution? That China keeps on regular military build up?
To t ell the truth nothing changed under Abe. The world is just moving on.
Mitch Cohen
@CH3CHO - You stand with the truth? For as long as I've been reading JT, you seem to pick the 'truth' that favours Japan, whether it be 'comfort women' issues, Asian politics, whaling, dolphin hunting, etc etc. Pick any divisive issue and you take Japan's side.
@JanesBlonde - But the 'crazy politicians' who make these comments aren't just some attention-seeking politicians on the fringes. They include the Japanese PM (denying coercion of comfort women in 2013), the defence chief (denying Japan invaded Asia in WW2), Osaka mayor (denying coercion of comfort women in 2013), Tokyo governor (where do I start with Ishihara?), and now also the NHK chief (denying coercion of comfort women in 2014). Surely if you take away your sakura-coloured glasses you can say there is a problem with denial in Japan, not limited to some fringe group, but powerful figures in Japan.
sfjp330
Mitch Cohen Feb. 05, 2014 - 05:28AM JST But the 'crazy politicians' who make these comments aren't just some attention-seeking politicians on the fringes.
South Korea-Japan relations are at a dangerously low point, much worse than a decades ago. PM Abe may talk about engaging South Korea, but all the signals by Abe and other top goverment officials suggest disengagement. The territorial and comfort women issue is deeply enmeshed in the overall negative state of South Korea-Japan relations. Once the two sides lower their hostile rhetoric and start to engage diplomatically, it might be possible to deal with issues of disputes. But your talking about Japan and Korea.
JoeBigs
Now, before I begin let me say, this is all about money.
Reality and facts take the back seat when money is the issue.
Phrase of the day is ,"Asian Women's Fund".
The Fund was funded by the Government of Japan and the people, it ran from 1995 until 2007.
Oh, before you guy say, "Hey Joe, this must be a lie, I never heard of it!" well, you best ask the government of Korea why you didn't.
Then when you're done looking that up try the next...
The 1965 "Treat on Basic Relations", you guys know it, it was the treaty where the then Korean government agreed to no further demands after they got this money.
In the treaty Japan agreed to pay the Korea government $400 million to compensate over 1 million conscripted laborers. The total compensation came out to $200,000 per person in cash and the rest in grants.
Japan further paid the Korean government $800 million dollars, which the Korean government gladly accepted.
But, here is the real funny party, I know most of you will love this one...
Japan wanted the compensation money to go directly to the workers, but the government of Korea declined and wanted to give it out themselves. Now, if that isn't a big fat red flag
Guess how much of that money went to the conscripted works? Nothing.
Yep, the Government of Korea used that money to build POSCO, a major highway and a dam. They also pocketed some cash for themselves.
Before you folks scream that it's not enough, guess how much that $200,000 worth today? With inflation the sum comes out to be $1,500,000 per. As to the value of the grant money, that is around $9.4 Billion.
So, in fact the Government that need to pay is the Government of Korea rather than Japan.
South Korea knows it owes it's people lot's of money, but wants Japan to pay.
Mitch Cohen
@JoeBigs - I disagree. The total sum of compensation that would be paid by Japan to surviving 'comfort women' would be in the order of a hundred million dollars or so, which is small change. Plus I believe Japan has already paid enough compensation in the past.
The issue is about recognition of these women, which has been fueled by a long list of prominent Japanese politicians and public figures coming out with statements that deny they were coerced into sexual slavery, which is to say they were voluntary prostitutes.
JoeBigs
So you agree that Japan doesn't need to pay any more money, glad to hear.
In 1993 the Japanese Government acknowledged the Comfort women of WWII and began the Asian Women's Fund to pay compensation.
So, you're saying that that apology and compensation wasn't good enough and that is why the Koreans are asking for another new apology and more Compensation?
If this was just about an apology the one in 1993 should have been enough. But, we both know that there is more to this than you or Korea is willing to admit. This is about rubbing the nose of Japan and keeping the facts that Japan has paid and apologized many times.
Also, if the Government of Korea admits that Japan already paid, Korea would have to admit that they kept the money and didn't dispersed it like they said they would.
Next, since we are on the subject, what is the difference between the Comfort women of WWII and the Comfort women of the Korean conflict?
Why are the Comfort women of the Korean comfort treated like leapers while the others are not?
The Comfort women of the Korean conflict have asked the same thing, but have been shut up and shot down by the very Government that enlisted them.
So why not comment on that one also?
I have asked you the same question in the past, but all I got from you and others have been crickets playing a tune.
Suin Kim
I‘m sick of Japanese right-wingers who maliciously use Korean internal matters to justify and downplay Imperial Japan’s aggression done to Korea.
Masaki MiyamotoFeb. 04, 2014 - 08:13PM JST
What is the relation Imperial Japan’s sex slaves and the picture you linked? You should explain how those prostitutes were sex slaves and show any evidence they were kidnapped and forced to be sex slaves and Korean government was involved.
JoeBigsFeb. 03, 2014 - 04:12PM JST
Those Korean women were not sex slaves. They were professional prostitutes for GIAs. They have nothing to do with the sex slaves who were kidnapped and forced by the Imperial Japanese Army. What do you think about “特殊慰安施設協会(Special Comfort Facility Association)? Do you call those Japanese prostitutes sex slaves? Go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recreation_and_Amusement_Association . You can read “These representatives then met with the police on the 21st where they were formally asked to establish "comfort facilities", but to conceal the government's role as much as possible.”
black_jack
There is no evidence that those women were kidnapped and forced into sexual slavery by the imperial army. Even the US military reported that those women were paid prostitutes serving soldiers. Many of those Korean comfort women/ war prostitutes were hired by local (Korean) brokers or sold even by their own parents. And lets not forget that there were many Korean men who joined the imperial army voluntarily, which means that some of them probably used sexual services offered by those prostitutes. So Korean side is not innocent in this issue either.
black_jack
I recommend this video of an interview of a Korean professor explaining about the truth of the so-called comfort women / war prostitutes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iU5G_e_rTx8
hidingout
And I'm sick of ROK nationalists and communist stooges coming on here and repeating the same lies over and over. See how that works?
fishy
toshiko
what's your point? of course they did not use English.. please tell me then, what the english translation of the word "ian-fu" is. isn't that "comfort women" ?? comfort women was just a "nice" or "politically correct" word to discribe what's really not politically nor morally correct.
black_jack
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iU5GerTx8
Sorry. The link above doesn't work. Try this one.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjQNeO_rxxM
Mitch Cohen
And I recommend this video of an interview of a Tokyo professor explaining about the truth of the so-called comfort women / sex slaves.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxKsf_VB5RU
tinawatanabe
Mitch Cohen
The professor did not say anything about kidnapping, and he hinted the possiblity of an outside organization.
tinawatanabe
@Suin Kim "I'm sick of Japanese right-wingers who maliciously use Korean internal matters..."
It is Koreans who maliciously use Korean internal matters to critisize Japan all over the world. Exhibit at French comic book festival?
And what is your point of spreading your internal matters to the world for decades?
nath
The French deserve to know the truth about the sex slaves
Masaki Miyamoto
aussie-musashiF
>The French deserve to know the truth about the sex slaves
The presence of "Sexslave" is the Korean War. Not WWII.
Instructions Korea President signed there in record evidence.
http://img03.ti-da.net/usr/r/y/o/ryotaroneko/l_2013110601000847800059791.jpg
"Sexslave system" to IJA does not exist. There is no record evidence of instruction.
Testudinoidea
@black_jack http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjQNeO_rxxM
His name is 安秉直. The South Korean government has requested the investigation to him. The result is the content of the video.
@ミッチ·コーエン http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxKsf_VB5RU
His name is Yoshiaki Yoshimi. Investigate personally, he has sold the information to the newspaper.
I will trust the Professor 安秉直.
toshiko
Abswer to fishy. what's your point? of course they did not use English.. please tell me then, what the english translation of the word "ian-fu" is. isn't that "comfort women" ?? comfort women was just a "nice" or "politically correct" word to discribe what's really not politically nor morally correct.
iHere is my translation: abducted women who were raped and sexually abused by Japanese Imperial Military men. This is in my broken English.
Suin Kim
black_jackFeb. 05, 2014 - 09:31AM JST
The following is from Kono Statement of 1993.
"As a result of the study which indicates that comfort stations were operated in extensive areas for long periods, it is apparent that there existed a great number of comfort women. Comfort stations were operated in response to the request of the military authorities of the day. The then Japanese military was, directly or indirectly, involved in the establishment and management of the comfort stations and the transfer of comfort women. The recruitment of the comfort women was conducted mainly by private recruiters who acted in response to the request of the military. The Government study has revealed that in many cases they were recruited against their own will, through coaxing coercion, etc., and that, at times, administrative/military personnel directly took part in the recruitments. They lived in misery at comfort stations under a coercive atmosphere."
http://www.mofa.go.jp/policy/women/fund/state9308.html
You intentionally ignored the main part of the report saying as follows:
" Early in May of 1942 Japanese agents arrived in Korea for the purpose of enlisting Korean girls for "comfort service" in newly conquered Japanese territories in Southeast Asia. The nature of this "service" was not specified but it was assumed to be work connected with visiting the wounded in hospitals, rolling bandages, and generally making the soldiers happy. The inducement used by these agents was plenty of money, an opportunity to pay off the family debts, easy work, and the prospect of a new life in a new land, Singapore. On the basis of these false representations many girls enlisted for overseas duty and were rewarded with an advance of a few hundred yen."
It's well reported how the Japanese induced the girls. That’s what the Japanese right wingers should keep in mind.
tinawatanabeFeb. 05, 2014 - 12:18PM JST
Comfort women issue is not Korean internal matter. I think more and more people would be enlightened about what the Imperial Japan did and how the Japanese right wingers try to justify and downplay it for their own sake.
fishy
toshiko -
no, that's not the translation of the word ian-fu. it is YOUR understanding of the word ian-fu. there are several different UNDERSTANDINGS of the ian-fu and that is why this has been controversial.
Frederick Stimson Harriman
I suggest that anyone who is earnestly concerned with this issue look at Human Trafficking as it exists Today. Women who are at risk can find themselves coerced into prostitution no matter what country they live in, and men from all countries pay for sex and for worse things. I would ask that anyone who spends time on this particular part of the history between the ROK and Japan take at least half the time they spend on it, and learn about what can be done now to prevent similar situations that persist in all countries. http://www.humantrafficking.org
Ludwig Deck
I wish to apologize for the wicked political action that was led in France against Japan. This is obviously political. Actually, the political climate, here in France is really disgusting. It looks like we are about to have a civil war.
The state has promoted with people's money a political play who mock christianity through the act of sending shit to the face of Christ... The mas-media applaud naked foreign prostitutes who profane churches, who insult everyone they desagree with and who physically hurt people. The huges strikes (1 million of angry french in Paris) were openly mocked by governement. People who say they are fed up with all this are immediately insulted by leftists. Our president has become a national shame.... There are american cops every single evening on french tv... And it goes on ans on. France isn't well at all Hope Japan is getting better
sidesmile
Just a thought but what if japan just said "yep..okay, guys..guilty as charged..sorry"?? Like I said, just a thought.
nath
Against Japan? Telling the truth about wartime sex slaves whom Japan`s government still refuses to acknowledge is not really against Japan, simply stating facts.
France has nothing to apologise for. The onus for making sincere apologies is all on Japan
Mitch Cohen
@LeChatBottle - how is comic books 'Japanese popular culture'? I'm pretty sure it did not originate in Japan, and while manga culture is big in Japan, the Angouleme festival is a 'comic book' festival, not a 'manga' festival.
Plus, what makes you say the 'comfort women' exhibit was petty? Do you also think that Maus comic book about the Holocaust (winner of a Pulitzer prize) was petty? Anne Frank comic books? No? So why the bias, unless you believe the Japanese government's line that the comfort women were all voluntary prostitutes and that Japanese government is innocent of all accusations.
globallc
Don't do the deed if one can't stand criticism.
Endless denials just make things worse.
Only the brainless and delusional Abe and his Right Wing would continue reminding the world of their past atrocities.
nath
Except they are not reminding, they are denying. However, their persistent denials do indeed serve to remind the world, I suppose
tinawatanabe
@aussie
You always critisize somebody is denying. You won't give up until the somebody accept all of your version of made up story. People can do nothing but only deny when you accuse the people with your lies.
Nanao Tasaka
During the war, the Korean people were Japanese citizens, and were willing and able participants in the Japanese Empire
South Korea at the time, position is exactly the same as Austria It is after the war that they decided that they were victims, and switched roles. were these women indeed slaves? First of all, as distasteful as it may seem, it was common in both Japan and Korea pre war to sell daughters into prostitution. For poor families with too many mouths to feed, this was the only option. As far as the comfort women were concerned, they were paid. The recruiters were all ethnic Koreans. The Korean government itself continued the Comfort Women system post war for US troops. In any case, Koreans continued the system after the world warII. And today, Koreans are the greatest human traffickers in the United States. If the Korean people in the United States are serious about combatting prostitution, why do they not cooperate with the FBI and stop the traffickers from their own community? In any case, Japan has paid extensive reparations to Korea. At the time of payment, these funds were to settle all claims, including the Comfort Women issue. And Japan has apologized, endlessly. The thing about most Koreans is, they did not resist the Japanese annexation of their country. Most Koreans embraced it And this is their shame today. And this is their shame today. And this is their shame today.
South Korea at the time, position is exactly the same as Austria
toshiko
Answer 2 to ffishy, Sex slave in Japan were girls whom hito-kai ( girl; purchase merchants who went northern poor crop area and sold to Yukaku-designated prostitution house area in the region - famous one is Yoshihara). To distinguish baishunfu and kidnapped females, Ianfu word is used during WW II. Ianfu is used for kidnapped females during WW II. The time was when living creatures were ranked. Male, then pets, then females above fish. Pets obey masters but females do not.
tinawatanabe
@Suin Kim "Comfort women issue is not Korean internal matter"
It's you who said that, I copy for you,
nath
When you sell a person, it means they are being treated as property. And if they were property, then yes, they were slaves. So even if you want to say that the Japanese didn't kidnap them, they still bought slaves, and made them have sex. AKA sex slaves.
toshiko
Nanano wore During the war, the Korean people were Japanese citizens, and were willing and able participants in the Japanese Empire
As I recall, Korean people were not made as Japanese Citizens. They were registered as Chosen-jin, Not Nippon-jin. Even after 1945. They did not have voting right, Well Japanese women did not have voting right until after WW II. Don't think Koreans were treated better than Japanese women who were not considered as good as pets.
Suin Kim
Nanao TasakaFeb. 09, 2014 - 01:00AM JST
It’s one of the Japanese right-wingers’ malicious attempt to justify and downplay Imperial Japan’s aggression done to Korea. Have you ever read the Statement by Prime Minister Naoto Kan ? Your right-wing logic contradicts your government’s official position made by the honest Japanese politicians. Prime Minister Naoto Kan stated in 2010 as follows:
“ This year marks a significant juncture for the Japan-Republic of Korea relationship.
In August precisely one hundred years ago, the Japan-Korea Annexation Treaty was concluded, making the beginning of the colonial rule of thirty six years. As demonstrated by strong resistance such as the Samil independence movement, the Korean people of that time was deprived of their country and culture, and their ethnic pride was deeply scarred by the colonial rule which was imposed against their will under the political and military circumstances.
I would like to face history with sincerity. I would like to have courage to squarely confront the facts of history and humility to accept them, as well as to be honest to reflect upon the errors of our own. Those who render pain tend to forget it while those who suffered cannot forget it easily. To the tremendous damage and sufferings that this colonial rule caused, I express here once again my feelings of deep remorse and my heartfelt apology.“
http://www.kantei.go.jp/foreign/kan/statement/201008/10danwa_e.html
tinawatanabeFeb. 09, 2014 - 11:23AM JST
You must haven’t read my comment carefully. Or you intentionally distorts what I said.
tinawatanabe
@Suin Kim What were the internal matters you were talking about then?
tyvtgo1US
While everyone on here is battling this out with one another, fact is China and South Korea are pressing for a free trade deal with one another and of course South Korea is playing the Chinese card.
While thee two countries want to exploit their ties to one another, the rest of the world has moved on and accept Japan today for what it is and not as it was. I am sure we know the reasons behind the ignorance within South Korea and especially CHina! These two someday may just join the ranks of the rest of the civil world. I mean how long will they live in the past???? Get over it!
toshiko
@Nanano: Since when, Japan stole Korea, they were not Japanese citizens, In school, we were directed to call their children as Chosen-jin. Maybe because their names are not easy for us to pronounce. They were ordered to change their name to Japanese katakana and hirakana letters instead of their Korean names, We had to call Chosen because old Japanese books refer Ko-Rai and this indicated to us highly cultured Country that Japanese top people hated us to think.
Back to topic, People read and enjoy batman, but they know people do not crawl up walls. They enjoy wonder woman but women know women do not roll and roll to change clothes to costumes. Just like nobles, they just read comic books. Leave comic books alone. Let us enjoy comic books. If they don't sell, or they sell, that is just their business.
Mitsuo Matsuyama
Regardless of what happened in the past, why should Koreans make such pathetic thing?
60 years have already passed, and important things has not improved in Korea and China.
They spend a lot time and money for nothing, when actually they could much better use this time and money to build a better nation.
Case on point, you still can see slums in Seoul and where is the SK government to take care of them?
nath
"Regardless of what happened" - it's this attitude that ensures the Koreans will never forget. How can they forget when the Japanese cannot be bothered to remember?
Kind of like the tent-cities in Japan where homeless people live because the government doesn't take care of them.
Mitsuo Matsuyama
strangerland
Why should Japanese bother about it? While K and C are simply using past issues as a way to distract common K citizens, the Japanese government is taking care of her own people. Off course, there is nothing perfect when it comes to politicians and government, but you should recognize that J government is doing a good job by providing her people jobs, good education, good infrastructure, etc...
And you are talking about homeless... yes there are this problem, however, I didn't say that J government is perfect. Homeless is a problem not only in Japan, but also in your country as well.
The point is, while one government is trying to find a solution for social problems, your government is using the money that could be spent to improve K citizen condition to make anti-Japanese propaganda. This is called corruption!!!
The Japanese government doesn't care about Korean government and her sympathizers; otherwise, she would talk about them always. Now, it seems to me that the K government and her sympathizers care so much about Japan. They even made attempt to boycott Japanese goods, things that common K citizens didn't really cared.
Things in your country will improve when you guys move on and start caring more about yourself. From this moment you guys have a lot of social problems to be solved and yet you guys want to spend money and time to show hate towards a country that helped you in 1964?
homleand
Wartime issues were settled by international treaty and Japan has apologised numerous times in the past. It is Korea that took the money and misappropriated it. Now that same country wants to keep the issue alive. It is deceitful and misleading, and amounts to little more than the scoring of domestic political points.
nath
At the very least, so the Chinese and Koreans will not have the excuse to use against Japan anymore. But on a more humanitarian level, because the evils perpetrated by the Japanese in the war should never be forgotten, so as to not repeat them. "He who forgets history is doomed to repeat it".
You were. Criticizing the Koreans for having a homeless problem that the government doesn't help with. I simply pointed out that your own country has the same problem.
As for my country, they provide shelters and in some cases, even housing, for the homeless, and volunteers go out and give blankets to the homeless who do not want to go to he shelters. That doesn't happen in Japan.
missbatten
Let's remember that it wasn't a "manga" festiva held in Japan, it was an international comic festival held in France. Political issues have long been part of comics, although that has become rare in manga. Japan has no reason to expect comics to turn into manga, and no reason to expect foreign media to follow Japanese writers and publishers in "self censoring" either.
nath
I don't think that Japan is upset. Only the far-right loons are upset that the comically bad "manga" that the netouyos submitted has been rightfully rejected.
Have you guys actually seen it? It looks like as if it were made with MS Paint. They didn't even draw the manga themselves, they used some manga creating tool to make it.
Suin Kim
tinawatanabeFeb. 09, 2014 - 02:43PM JST
Why do some Japanese bringing up the Korean brothels for American GIs which Japan also had or some misinformation about Korean War in the discussion of wartime sex slaves by the Imperial Japanese Army? Do they think they can excuse, minimize or justify the Imperial Japanese aggression and crimes if they highlight dark side of Korean internal matters?
toshiko
I wrote before but I am going to write again. Right now, Me TV televise Linda Carter acting Wonder Woman in the evening every Saturday after two Adam West;s Batman. Every story of Wonder Woman are Nazi spying USA and degrading German people's mentality. Then Wonder Woman comic books we purchase in comic book stores. Nothing German Govt protested. Comic Wonder Woman are not cute like Linda Carter but we buy as comic books. Just like that, Japanese should treat comic books as comic books. We watch old cowboy TV series on TV under Sony Pictures Entertainment channels (Rope Operas) but that does not mean we suddenly copy horse riding. comics are comics. If pictures are good and storylines are good, they will sell well but it hasn;t been marketed yet.
nath
I just saw History channel on TV an hour ago. When the Japanese attacked Malaya and Singapore, many young girls were forced to be comfort women. I cried when they interviewed an old lady who said that they all were housed in individual rooms and had to have sex with 20 men in the morning, 20 in the afternoon and 20 at night. What kind of animals do such things and now to deny, reject and ridicule!!! The shame then those young girls went through and the shame people who make light such acts!!!