Taiwan 'comfort women' museum launches campaign for compensation

NorwegianboyEE: "Imagine this demand for compensation happened in Europe instead of Asia."

Imagine you took a moment to learn that not only has Germany HONESTLY apologized MANY times, with one Chancellor even prostrated himself at the Auscwitz museum, they have gone above and beyond with compensation. You might realize that not only has no PM visited former sites of Japanese atrocities, but in fact many politicians and people here deny they ever occurred in the first place. Now... think about those differences for a moment, and then ask yourself again why no one ever asks Germany for more apologies and compensation, but many nations demand it of Japan and Japan refuses.

Imagine this demand for compensation happened in Europe instead of Asia. I find it silly to imagine holocaust victims demanding money from Angela Merkel's government for Hitlers wartime atrocities. Why should a democratic Germany compensate for something their (dead) great-grandfathers did? You might as well claim compensation and a official apology from the kaiser of Imperial Germany for stepping on a WW1 landmine in 2017.

Japan must pay, and pay big. Abe must make statement if he WOULD HE DO IT AGAIN?

"B-b-b-b-b-but I thought Taiwan liked us!"

That's the response I got last time this issue came up with a winger after Taiwan brought it up. He talked about how Japan saved the nation, taught them how to bathe, and gave them proper school systems, and how in thanks they built a museum to commemorate Japan's colonization. Yes, that is what he actually said, on top of, of course, Korea and China lying about sex slaves.

Hell, OssanAmerica above says they were all willing prostitutes, or it was all Korea's fault, and that there was no forced slavery, either. It's no surprise to see some on here defending the usual criminals and making them into victims. That Taiwan should speak out, on top of Korea, China, women in the Philippines, Dutch, English, and even Japanese in the past and present. Good on these women. Some day, perhaps they will no longer be called the guilty parties in their kidnapping/coercion and rape.

HalwickToday 12:29 pm JSTThe Japanese government is trying to "cease" these memories from existence!

The Japanese also suppress the events of 1937 Nanking Massacre and the infamous Unit 731 medial experiments in China, going so far as to state they never happened.

Not true. "The Government of Japan believes that it cannot be denied that following the entrance of the Japanese Army into Nanjing in 1937, the killing of a large number of noncombatants, looting and other acts occurred." - Japan Foreign Ministry Website.

"From the Second Sino-Japanese War until the Pacific War, ‘Unit 731’ developed biological weapons which were actually deployed in battle. Evidence of the unit’s activities was thoroughly hidden and destroyed, and because the personnel involved didn’t talk about it, information was very limited. 20 hours of recorded oral testimony from a key member of the unit at a trial held soon after the war in Khabarovsk, Russia were discovered. The truth about the development of biological weapons and the many researchers who worked with the unit have been uncovered."

NHK website - a special presentation on Unit 731 broadcast nationwide seen by the entire country on Aug 13th. Books on Unit 731 have been in bookstores in Japan for over the last 10 years.

I've visited the Hiroshima Memorial and in view of the many displays of horrible destruction and suffering, one gets the impression that there was actually no war, the evil Americans built the Bomb for anti-Japanese racial prejudice and used it without cause or reason against the poor and defenseless Japanese. The horrible destruction, suffering of the Japanese people and "American crimes against humanity" is all the proof that is needed to excuse Japan for causing the Pacific War.

Utter nonsense. The A-Bomb memorials, ceremonies are all aimed at the "evil of war" not at any country. Do you honestly believe that the POTUS would go pay respects at such a temple of hatred for Americans? As for the "victimhood", the civilians were indeed victims, first of a military dictatorship that rose to prominence post 1922 onwards, and second, the indiscriminate bombing of cities, towns, and civilians, schools, hospitals, anything that qualified as a "target of opportunity" under Lemay's air war against the Japanese homeland after he had already completely destroyed legitimate military targets. The indiscriminate bombings that we carried out on both German and Japanese civilians would have been tried as War Crimes had we lost the war.

I've talked with many Japanese people who were born after World War II and they ignore factual events prior to 1945. The older generations who lived through that era prefers to forget about it and pretend it never happened or they were unwilling participants.

All people in EVERY country ignore not facts, but "past history" before they are born. And those who survived WWII. most of whom have terrible memories of suffering as civilian bombing fodder may very well not want to think about. Or are you upset that they don't all harp on hating Americans? Your anti-Japan rant is classic textbook material that is out of date in 2017. Today he US-Japan alliance is stronger than ever due to the rise of Chinese militarism and expansionism as well as North Korea's nuclear program.

psyops:

Geez another one wants apologies and money. I dont care, happened 72 years ago, move on. WW2 in a nutshell, Japan started a war and we finished it for them the end. Everything else is insignificant.

If Japan stops playing the victim card come August every year and stops worshiping war criminals, then yes, we can move forward.

Speaking of war crimes, NHK showed a programme about Unit 731 this weekend, complete with some graphic photos ( a very very small tip of the iceberg, but listening to the words, you can imagine the rest). Very surprised, because Botchan would surely be mad about all the 'lies'. How did the programme get passed the censors and the puppet boss of NHK?

Japan has already apologized and given compensation. No matter what Japan does, they will always come back for more.

Japan needs to issue a formal apology to all parties and give compensation to individuals. Put the apology on some govt web page and get over with it. It is a reality and you know it, accept it and move on.

Geez another one wants apologies and money. I dont care, happened 72 years ago, move on. WW2 in a nutshell, Japan started a war and we finished it for them the end. Everything else is insignificant.

The Japanese government is trying to "cease" these memories from existence!

That's exactly the point I was trying to make when I commented that "Japan ignores everything prior to 6 August 1945." 

I've read translated Japanese history accounts of World War II, and there were pages and pages devoted to Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but only a few sentences about the Pacific War, very little about Japanese military expansionist campaigns during the 1930s and early 1940s that were the root cause of the World War II Pacific War, cursory comments about Manchuria and China and Pearl Harbor. The Japanese also suppress the events of 1937 Nanking Massacre and the infamous Unit 731 medial experiments in China, going so far as to state they never happened.

I've visited the Hiroshima Memorial and in view of the many displays of horrible destruction and suffering, one gets the impression that there was actually no war, the evil Americans built the Bomb for anti-Japanese racial prejudice and used it without cause or reason against the poor and defenseless Japanese.  The horrible destruction, suffering of the Japanese people and "American crimes against humanity" is all the proof that is needed to excuse Japan for causing the Pacific War.

I've talked with many Japanese people who were born after World War II and they ignore factual events prior to 1945.  The older generations who lived through that era prefers to forget about it and pretend it never happened or they were unwilling participants.

The comfort women issue was definitely a very poor diplomatic skills from the government of Japan, they believes they can suppress the anger voices from neighbouring countries as of they get used to do in Japan! The comfort women were not just Chinese, Koreans or western women. There were also Japanese women who has contributed themselves for providing pleasure service to Japanese military. It  is a very big scandal if the Japanese government let those Japanese comfort women speak up in their own country, many of them were still living and it will be a very political earthquake indeed!

i recommend to visit the comfort women/rape museum in Taipai. it is an eye opener and also a nice place to visit to understand the mentality of some of the people who may visit yasakuni shrine...

I get why Korea and Taiwan + China are so keen to preserve the memories of these women. The Japanese government is trying to "cease" these memories from existence! Thereby, it is important for other countries to continue to strive for a better world, even when you have governments who denies any involvement at all! This is crucial for as long as you have governments who tries to erade these memories. As simple as that.

If you for instance had Germany who denied the Holocaust, all of Europe and Israel would've probably sanctioned Germany for their denial of the persecution. Germany don't do this, but LDP-governments in Japan on the other hand has persistently denied and downgraded the scale of their invasion and exploitation of China and Korea. Each and one country on planet-earth know what Japan commited during WWll, and for as long as Japanese Governments pursuits a path of revision of their WWll-defeat. Thus more will countries keep reminding the Japanese Government of their evil deeds during WWll in an attempt to prevent another such dire outcome.

Thus more the Japanese Government revise the history to suit them best, the more pressure and reminders will meet Japan from the countries who suffered from the occupation.

It also wants the Japanese government to make public all documents about comfort women,

Definitely all for it.