politics

Berlin rescinds approval of 'comfort women' statue installation

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I wasn't OA. I said it was at this time off the point. That's elementary logic.

-6 ( +0 / -6 )

Pukey2Oct. 9  10:35 am JST

Does that mean other countries should start removing monuments dedicated to survivors of the Holocaust?

No sane person would place the genocide of 6,000,000 people and a military prostitution system on the same level.

4 ( +6 / -2 )

KabukiloverToday  01:51 pm JST

That this came about because of a demand by a foreign country, Japan, a nation guilty of sexual slavery in the near past, makes the removal of the statue all the more damning.

Germany is also a nation guilty of the same thing in tje near past for which they have never apologized. You don't see the hypocrisy?

7 ( +9 / -2 )

SK lies will b exposed so it has started from Berlin there is no hiding of anything by Japan SK should learn the difference between war n peace n if SK hadnt joined with Japan at time they will not b a country no bt a district of China

6 ( +9 / -3 )

South Korea should not mess with japan. Japan is diplomatically amongst the most strongest countries. south korea's whole economy stands upon its countable few companies. Such moves could hit hard to South Korea if they keep on escalating the polarization with Japan.

Its not anymore about freedom of speech. Out of nowhere if decades later a settled dispute is pushed by government, there has to be some motivation or they need some leverage.

7 ( +10 / -3 )

As someone above wrote, Germany still has much to answer for the crimes of the Nazi era. But right now this is off the point.

The point is that the ordered removal of the comfort woman statue is a violation of the freedom of expression. That this came about because of a demand by a foreign country, Japan, a nation guilty of sexual slavery in the near past, makes the removal of the statue all the more damning.

-7 ( +2 / -9 )

While public land in Berlin has been dedicated to the Jewish victims of war time horror,can not the same be given to the memorialise that of Koreans?

Whats the problem?

-10 ( +3 / -13 )

So glad with this decision. What I can't understand is why the Mitte District in Berlin agreed to do this in the first place. This is completely unrelated to them.

11 ( +13 / -2 )

For those who may have some difficulty with reading comprehension, Germany has apologized to many nations and paid reparations for WWII. However, they have never addressed nor apologized specifically for their military prostitution/brothel system as Japan has. The reason is that unlike Japan, the nations which surround Germany do not make an issue of it, much less use it as a perpetual political tool against them.

8 ( +13 / -5 )

Good decision after being tricked in granting the statue. Similar thing happened some years ago in Freiburg/Germany, where the mayor of Freiburg's new sister city Suwan/SK was to be given a present from the Suwan mayor: A statue remembering about womens rights... and so on. It was almost set up in the central park of the city but luckily the city was informed of the real meaning just days before it's planned installation. Now the statue is in a private park somewhere in Bavaria I think... I wonder how much more often cities around the world needs to be informed about the real meaning of these statues.

12 ( +14 / -2 )

Well all SK can do is build statue for living problem solved n again dont bring Germany here or even Japan as statue of lies r only Matter of SK

12 ( +12 / -0 )

Well, it's pretty common for people of ethnic Korean background who castigate the Japanese to repeatedly state that the Japanese need to become more like the Germans in terms of being contrite and remorseful. Is that rhetorical strategy now out the window since even the Germans appear to have "betrayed" Koreans?

A reassessment of strategy by Koreans wouldn't be a bad idea. Many of them tend to believe that Japan today is a barely legitimate, borderline "rogue" nation akin to Iraq under Saddam Hussein in the 1990s. Fair enough, you can think whatever you want about any country. The problem for Koreans who feel this way is that besides South Korea there is not one advanced industrialized capitalist democracy where a significant number of people feel similarly hostile towards Japan.

What do you do when you have no reliable allies in a campaign to admonish, castigate, and condemn another country's government and people?

13 ( +15 / -2 )

Thank you Germany/Berlin!

Thank you from the bottom of my heart!

What the South Korean community overseas are doing is disgusting! Bias, Political, double Agenda.

We have given the SKorean everything they've asked for! Past 50 years of Japan backing down, apologies after apologies, money paid multiple times, even the Emperor, Japanese citizens have apologies!

Korean takes the money.

He takes the apology.

He waits a few years.... It wasn't sincere, the money didn't cover emotional damages, it didn't cover my grandmother knee, it didn't cover harsh words, this building collapsed in 1915 Japan did not cover it!

Gets Redicuolous!!

15 ( +20 / -5 )

Yeah, I think we know what "being neutral" got a lot of German citizens in the past, as they allowed the horrors surrounding them to go on. No doubt they were pushed by their fellow former axis nation, possibly with an envelope, to do this and "forget history" like the politicians here always demand other nations do, while they plan for the next Hiroshima commemoration.

OssanAmerica: "No puke, it only means that perhaps Germany should apologize and pay reparations like Japan has."

Excuse me? Germany has apologized PROFUSELY for their past behaviour, with one Chancellor even prostrated himself at the Auscwitz memorial and begging forgiveness. Show me on OFFICIAL Japanese apology, and reparations paid with zero strings attached. When you do, I'll sell you a unicorn I've got just for you! and while showing you pages of textbooks where Abe has proudly had references to sex slaves removed.

Pukey: "Does that mean other countries should start removing monuments dedicated to survivors of the Holocaust? There were no Nazi camps in America or UK during WWII, as far as I recall."

Agreed. And while we're at it, I think we should demand that zero references be made to the atomic bombings when bidding for and holding international events, and all statues and references to them removed from textbooks overseas, with Americans coming to Japan to check the textbooks and demand the history books here be altered to express the American side of what happened. I mean, if people really support what this decision means.

-16 ( +5 / -21 )

These South Korean CW activist groups convince foreign municipal governments to allow these anti-Japan monuments by falsely claiming that it is for women's rights. If so, South Koreans need to address an issue right at home that is going on today, not 75 years ago.

"Trinh is one of thousands of Vietnamese women to marry South Korean men through matchmakers who set up brides with grooms -- a service that is not only encouraged in South Korea, it is even subsidized by local authorities."

" More than 42% of foreign wives reported having suffered domestic violence -- including physical, verbal, sexual, and financial abuse -- in a 2017 poll by the National Human Rights Commission. By comparison, about 29% of South Korean women surveyed by the country's Ministry of Gender Equality and Family last year said they were victims of domestic violence -- again including a range of forms of abuse."

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/08/02/asia/foreign-wives-south-korea-intl-hnk-dst/index.html

15 ( +18 / -3 )

The correct decision. People do not have a natural right to install permanent fixtures on public roads and streets, and thus approval of such a thing cannot be called a merely neutral act, but an act of support by granting the applicants extra rights.

14 ( +17 / -3 )

Wise choice by Germany. Besides the fact that the CW issue is entirely between South Korea and Japan, and the agenda runs counter to the current position of both South Korean and Japanese governments in the efforts to improve relations, and that the CW agenda exists to disrupt the US-JPN alliance, Germany would be seen as a hypocrite considering that it has never apologized for their own "Comfort Women System".

"It is estimated that, along with those in concentration camp brothels, at least 34,140 European women were forced to serve as prostitutes during the German occupation.[1] In many cases and Eastern Europe, the women involved were kidnapped on the streets of occupied cities during German military and police round ups."

https://military.wikia.org/wiki/German_military_brothels_in_World_War_II

Pukey2Today  10:35 am JST

Does that mean other countries should start removing monuments dedicated to survivors of the Holocaust? There were no Nazi camps in America or UK during WWII, as far as I recall.

No puke, it only means that perhaps Germany should apologize and pay reparations like Japan has. But Germany does not have neighbors that make anti-German sentiment a diplomatic and political tool making perpetual demands. But more importantly the Holocaust is entirely documented and we are talking about the genocide of some 6,000,000 people. Only an uneducated person would put any military brothel system in the same category.

17 ( +22 / -5 )

A slap well deserved. Stop peeing everywhere to mark your territory

19 ( +24 / -5 )

This is not abt Germany its abt SK so stop dragging Germany in

18 ( +23 / -5 )

I am Korean, and I am sick of Korea's obsession over anything Japan did seventy years ago. It was just a month ago when it was discovered a Korean activist group was embezzling money meant for the surviving comfort women. Load of hypocrisy.

30 ( +34 / -4 )

Does that mean other countries should start removing monuments dedicated to survivors of the Holocaust? There were no Nazi camps in America or UK during WWII, as far as I recall.

-17 ( +10 / -27 )

Message to any Korean-Americans:

You cannot on one hand claim to be a 'perpetual foreigner', yet continue your 'heritage's home country' baggage in America without being a total hypocrite.

Kudos to Germany. Also, for anyone in Germany trying that $hit....goodness don't you have a life to live other than to torment Japan about something that happened 75 years ago?

19 ( +30 / -11 )

Germany has its own demons from the past to contend with. Unsurprisingly, the Germans are wise not to open the can of worms that belongs to their former ally in the East for actions have consequences.

17 ( +21 / -4 )

In this case I agree with the German government decision.

Germany should not be put in the middle of something that is between two foreign countries.

Plus I believe that Koreans can have the right to build anything they want within their territories but shouldn’t escalate this thing involving third parties around the world building these statues.

Germany should and will remain neutral in such dispute as other foreign countries should.

32 ( +38 / -6 )

Well done to Germany, thankfully they have listened to and agreed with Japan. Having this statue erected by a foreign gov't on public land was disgraceful. The always strong German-Japan relationship can now continue.

Enough already with playing the so-called victim, Korea, and constantly picking on Japan. Most other nations have had just about enough, and are of course on Japans side.

18 ( +34 / -16 )

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