Yomiuri apologizes for using term 'sex slaves' in English edition

There is a vast difference between individuals' making a decision on their own and a government or an organization imposing and forcing a policy on the individuals. An individual cannot be held responsible for a decision that a larger entity has made for him or her any more than a government should be held accountable for an individual's choice.

A student looked up the word "sh*t" in the dictionary and found "daiben" (faeces). I don't notice many people shouting "daiben" when they hit their thumb with a hammer.

It's a similar thing with "comfort women."

It doesn't describe the situation. Women who were forced to have sex with Japanese soldiers were sex slaves. That describes it exactly.

It's not a pretty thing and we can't change history by pretending it didn't exist or making it less terrible than it was. Abe and his super right wing crew need to know that you move on from the past only by acknowledging it and taking responsibility for it.

Yomiuri had no need to apologise for printing the truth.

sad enough, after the Japanese lost the war, the sex brothels continued to operate to satisfy th american Forces..they are still working now

Don't you fools know that Japan was a VICTIM of WWII?

Therefore they simply COULDN'T have forced women to have sex against their will. There is no objective facts. Meaning there is no official document signed by official Japanese officials officially making it official documented policy to force women to have sex when they don't want to.

Therefore it didn't happen.

See how that works?

The conservative Yomiuri said in articles in English and Japanese that it was inappropriate to have used the phrase and others implying the women were coerced to provide sex

Firstly, It is truly incredible that this narrative still prevails in Japan, full stop. In fact, it is scandalous and Japan should be ashamed, for it truly is a national embarrassment.

It said non-Japanese people have difficulty understanding the term “comfort women,” used in Japan to describe the women, so its English-language edition added explanations improperly suggesting that “coercion by the Japanese government or the army was an objective fact.

And then there is this blatantly supremacist ideology whereby they have the temerity to question the intelligence of 'others'.

Ignorance of the events of World War 2 is a Japanese symptom, and it's widespread. Most Japanese people I know know virtually nothing about it, which is exactly how you get a population to believe such a scandalous assumption about sex slavery and the IJA.

How completely pathetic.

I'd like to tell Yomiuri that they don't need to apologize for using "sex slaves". They were right on the mark.

Newspaper forced to apologise for holding views not approved by the Government. Oh yes, that certainly sounds like a healthy society.

Whitewash whitewash, tantamount to brainwash !

Call it for what it is, no need to apologize. Are the press concerned about political backlash and pressure from Abe and cronies?

'Don't you fools know that Japan was a VICTIM of WWII?'

Absolutely it was a victim, as well as any other country involved. But it was also one of the main aggressors. Yes ruthless colonialism by the likes of UK, Spain and America was a factor in creating a hostile international climate and doubtlessly invited Japan to be more hostile too. But Japan's aggressive invasion and it's absolutely relentless progress was Japan's own doing. Given that the invasion took the lives of over 18 million non-Japanese, it's understandable that the world's academic community and indeed the international community greatly object to the Abe admin's latest attempt to sanitise its history, deleting less palatable facts, like the internationally accepted, evidenced version of events that states that these women were sex slaves. That is the UN's official position, it's also the official position of every credible academic without nationalist bias. I understand right-wingers not wanting to accept that, and I understand gaikokujin-samurai wanting to read minor, academically void literature to dispute that, but ultimately, if the conservatives keep veiling and obscuring what happened, we're going to have a generation that doesn't understand World War 2, the sins of war, Unit 731, the sex slaves and myriad abuses against women, the dangers of revering your political leader as a literal divine entity and of course the dangers of military dictatorships. If that's a trivial thing to you, I think that's a case of myopia. History is history. The world will not idly stand by and see these women tarnished as 'liars' when the huge majority of academic institutions around the world supports the facts. This is not a matter of national pride, but pride should be drawn from humble acceptance of history and how a country recovers itself. Japan has done incredibly positive, pacifist things since WWII. And now it seems Abe and the right-wingers are trying to undo that, destroying the worth of the Kono statement, destroying Japan's reputation as a sincerely regretful aggressor in World War 2. Which is ultimately, the only factual, internationally validated version of events.

I am not some left wing nut, I'm just an academic, tired of seeing media outlets tow the government line. Just because one guy was discredited in Asahi articles does not erase the indisputable weight of evidence that says these women were sex slaves, not 'so called comfort women' in the 'so called WWII' where 'so called Japan' abducted, abused and killed so many 'so called women'. You catch my drift?

This is 2014. History affronting, revisionist propaganda ain't gonna fly. Japan will get nowhere with diplomacy if its right-wingers keeps on trying to shirk responsibility like this. These people need to grow up and accept history. I guess a country cannot objectively judge the ultimate nature of its own history and actions on the world stage, that's up to the rest of the world to witness, decide and defend.

"Newspaper forced to apologise for holding views not approved by the Government. Oh yes, that certainly sounds like a healthy society."

Yes, seems like they realized or were reminded of their error and didn't want to antagonize the current government.

There was no "error." And, I absolutely do not accept the Yomiuri's apology. The Yomiuri is apologizing to Abe who has trouble with the term "sex slaves" and would prefer his fantasy land hearkening back to his Norman Rockwell version of Japan. The term "sex slaves" is an accurate description of what really happened historically.

There is a study from the Dutch MOFA and the Dutch Minister of Welfare, Health and Cultural Affairs commissioned in 1993 which states "The study shows that during the Japanese occupation, the Japanese military forces or military authorities were responsible for procuring the services of prostitutes for Japanese soldiers and civilians on the five large islands and a number of the smaller islands of the Dutch East Indies." http://www.awf.or.jp/pdf/0205.pdf Japan never argued with non asian countries (Australia, The Netherlands) about this and quietly accepted their claims because they know its true. Always say those claims are lies when they come from asian countries.

I will ask the American newspapers to apologize for using the word bombing like in "Tokyo bombing" because it never happened. They just released excess ordnance by mistake.

Sweeping it under the carpet in true Japanese government style.

Non-Japanese people have no trouble whatsoever understanding the phrase 'comfort women'. We know full well it means 'sex slaves'.

They shouldn't have to apologize for saying it like it is. But that's what you get when you vote in a China-like censorship and control of what gets printed, and those wingers who think the nation is any better are kidding themselves. I think the Yomiyuri should simply apologize for the fact that they MUST apologize for the truth, or else be censured by the government.

The Yomiuri apology effectively asserts that whether or not even a single woman was forced into sexual servitude by the Imperial Japanese Army is still a matter of debate — in other words, their contention is that possibly no women were forced to act as comfort women, not a single Dutch, Australian, Korean, Philippine or Chinese comfort woman was forced by the IJA into that role. That is what I find most shocking.

Their apology is not for what was written in their Japanese-language edition, but rather how the term "慰安婦" (ianfu) was dealt with by their English-language translators/journalists. For instance, in at least one case where the Japanese version had "慰安婦問題" (ianfu mondai, "comfort woman problem/issue"), the English translation had "the issue of ‘comfort women,’ who were forced into sexual servitude by the Imperial Japanese Army" thereby adding extra wording to the English defining the issue (because the issue at hand does not involve all women who served as comfort women, but only those who were forced into the role).

Well it is not often I as an outsider looking in can see such a blatant example of some elitists in Japan trying to hide facts. Though politicians are similar the world over, at some point politicians usually give in and accept reality, when it goes back so far. These women were forced into prostitution by the then Japanese government. To pretend otherwise is ridiculous. Yomiuri should keep publishing those women were sex slaves, that is what they were.

At least Yomiuri has one example of them protecting people from government, something the media should always do but instead always protect government from people. Not saying they do it in all other cases but if we dont want governments anywhere in the world, doing these crimes again, entities like media need to always report in a way that ensures the people are protected from the government or at leasts knows what the government is doing.

Ah yes the kisha club pressure is alive & well. Yomiuri apologising for simply stating THE TRUTH.

Yomiuri apologizes for using term 'sex slaves' in English edition

No apology necessary. In fact you should apologise for not using the term more often, and for letting yourselves be cowed by the right-wingers

Abe already making us appoligize for speaking the truth, can't wati to see what happens after the secrecy act is up and running next month.

A spade is a spade! A sex slave is a sex slave! A Fasciest government controlling the media to conceal the truth is a Fasciest governement controlling the media to conceal the truth!

I once heard a Japanese person describe his homeland as an ''innocence country.'' I took it to mean he believed they have never done anything wrong. I'm sure the majority of the country agrees with him and with the Abe government's stance on this particular issue.

Yomiuri do not need to apologize. Ian meant to console new widows at funeral. Nagusameru. Sympathized women console new widows.

Yomiuri do not need to apologize

Oh yes, they do. They have been inadvertently insulting tho the hundreds of thousands of sex slaves coerced by the imperial army

Why don't we all refer to them as "sex workers" as that term would remove any implication of guilt of the Japanese military and imply the women themselves were the guilty ones? Let's introduce more Orwellian Newspeak.

No doubt Abe remembers the days when school history books in Japan were not allowed to say Japan "invaded" China, but simply "advanced into" China.

Nothing to apologize for. The lack of freedom of speech in this country disgusts me. Give the LDP a permanent majority and they'll end up like China.

YOMIURI: DON'T NEED TO APOLOGIZE. When we Japanese use Ian? At funeral of a new widows. synpathizing neighbor ladies go to new widows and comforting new widows. Nagusamete Anshin saseru. so that widows will not lay on rail road truck.

''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''

The Yomiuri is nothing but an LDP propaganda rag. "Sex slaves" is the correct term to use when describing those enslaved by the Japanese army during WW2. Their argument that there are no official Japanese documents, therefore it never happened is utter nonsense. Shredding and hiding all the documents doesn't change historical facts.

I don't have any documents in my home about the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Can I therefore conclude that they never happened? People would rightly call me an idiot if I did so, yet this is the stance adopted by the lunatic Japanese prime minister Abe. By ignoring any non-Japanese documents and evidence Abe and the Yomiuri only make themselves look like fools in the eyes of the world.

Apologists.

Why don't Japan try to grow up, admit faults where faults were made and repent in honesty once and for all. These people so badly want to be respected and a part of the international community, but that will never ever happen until this nation learns how to act in such a manner. Laugable, really.

Your future is looking bleak, Japan.

YOMIURI: DON'T NEED TO APOLOGIZE.

I'm afraid they do, for being a government mouthpiece - and not an independent, freethinking newspaper.

Folks I have subscribed to the POS rag daily yomiuri now renamed ""japan news""

For almost 25yrs I have read them KNOWING they are full on right wing, I always wanted to see the BS they were up too & believe over 25yrs I have read TONS of stuff that turned my stomach, the lie, the absence of known truths often awful to read, so this "newspaper" DID NOT need any twisting from abe, THEY have done this all on their own & have been dieing to do so for several years now.

But the fact that they printed the utter BS makes probably the most sickening thing I have read in 25yrs!

Truly vile this news paper needs to be strung out & ridiculed by the world as we know the local media will do nothing.

And when you add the BS articles they have printed about Japan in relation to China & Korea(who both have done incredibly stupid things themselves in 2014) its made 2014 the biggest propaganda year by a massive margin!

The rot continues, Japan is headed due south on so many levels, a truly embarrassing day to be living in this country, Japan SHAME on yourself, the world expects MUCH BETTER from you!

And people think that Japanese media isn't influenced by government policy?

Ok....care to buy some of my beach front property too!

And people think that Japanese media isn't influenced by government policy?

Well it certainly will be after the secrecy law kicks in

and I understand gaikokujin-samurai wanting to read minor, academically void literature to dispute that,

William Adams?

Well it certainly will be after the secrecy law kicks in

Right, it will fall under the "diplomacy" heading......

Back to the states, we used to say “De Nile Is Not Just a River in Egypt” when someone lives in denial.

I am wondering when Japan as a nation is able to start to own the past and move on.

cHRISTOPHER, BUSDGLES AND ALL apologists: So yiou don;t believe there was no sex xlave.

Forget about telling Chinese and Koreans to "get over it" regarding the 1895-1945 period--clearly some Japanese have much the same problem. This obsession with parsing words and distinguishing coercion from non-coercion in any sphere of activity undertaken by former colonial subject peoples, let alone girls and women having sex with soldiers from the metropole--honestly, do any other ex-imperial powers have this sort of movement which is so powerful domestically?

Herein lies the problem--some Japanese view their country as a former imperial power that wasn't really an imperial power. They really believe the whole Japanese Empire was consensual and fully supported by non-Japanese subjects. But that's nonsense. The entire Japanese imperial project in Korea, Taiwan, and elsewhere was carried out in conscious imitation of how Europeans and white Americans ruled over their colonial holdings in Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean.

Well then why the resistance among some Japanese to accepting the fact that at least some Korean girls and women were violently coerced into serving as SEX SLAVES for the Japanese military during World War II?

And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed – if all records told the same tale – then the lie passed into history and became truth. "Who controls the past," ran the Party slogan, "controls the future: who controls the present controls the past." And yet the past, though of its nature alterable, never had been altered. Whatever was true now was true from everlasting to everlasting. It was quite simple. All that was needed was an unending series of victories over your own memory. "Reality control," they called it: in Newspeak, "doublethink."

There should be no apology for the truth.

Just change the context slightly and we can learn a lot from this article: http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-30212673

In many cases it can be a matter of interpretation.

A government investigation in the early 1990s concluded that many of the women “were recruited against their own will” and “lived in misery at comfort stations under a coercive atmosphere,” according to an apology issued by then-Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono.

It said in many cases the women were recruited by coaxing and coercion, and that government and military officials were often directly involved.

The investigation found no proof in existing official documents, and conservatives have used that to argue their case.

I'm sure that if the Yomiuri Shimbun did an internal investigation of itself over allegations that it's executives are wined and dined by Abe and get their marching orders from him and other members of ruling party that it too would find no proof in existing official documents!!

But that doesn't mean it ain't so!

The Yomiuri has publicly soiled itself by doing this.

"We're sorry we erred and tarnished the party message."

Herein lies the problem--some Japanese view their country as a former imperial power that wasn't really an imperial power. They really believe the whole Japanese Empire was consensual and fully supported by non-Japanese subjects.

In 20 years in Japan, I have literally never met a Japanese with this view. Not a once.

sad enough, after the Japanese lost the war, the sex brothels continued to operate to satisfy th american Forces..they are still working now LOL anything to shift the blame to somebody else, all too common in Japan. lets face the facts there where many evils and victims during WW2, Japan was far from being innocent. I just wish theyd stop playing the victim card to draw attention away from the atrocities that Japanese soldiers/leaders committed during that war

I guess the Yomiuri meant to say "campaign girls."

What other country's people insist on calling their figurehead monarch "emperor" instead of "king" in English? If Japan has an emperor, it once had an empire right?

So using your logic, King's had kingdoms too right? The word or title has nothing to do with "empire" either, it's just a word meaning "ruler" or "leader". Nice try, but quite the stretch.

In 20 years in Japan, I have literally never met a Japanese with this view. Not a once.

The average Japanese knows little of their 20th century, that's why. Abe and co however very much love in denial. The film Railway Man should be compulsory viewing in Japan. In the end two enemies are reconciled - with the Japanese guy openly and sincerely repenting for his actions

Here in Malaysia,there are plenty of eye witnesses that shows that women are indeed being FORCE to become prostitute. Just watch this documentary.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLx0V0GK4-A

To be fair to Abe, and I don't like him, he said quite clearly that he wouldn't go back on the Kono statement.

Surely that should be the end of it. Some women were sex slaves. End of.

Without getting into a debate on comfort women, I have to agree Yomiuri did a disservice to the Japanese state with its translation choice. Sometimes, you have to represent your country's position in your translations. If the world reads comfort women as sex slaves, that's their choice, but Yomiuri should not do that work for them.

"Sex slaves" is pretty accurate. Sure, some of the women may have been prostitutes before entering the military brothels, but most of them were coerced or kidnapped. "Abducted sex slaves" might be even better...

Yomiuri did a disservice to the Japanese state

@Kazuaki

In a democracy, the role of the media is absolutely NOT to serve the government, but to serve the people (by playing a fourth-estate role). However, in a fascist regime like North Korea, the role of the media IS to serve the state.

Ideally, the press is supposed to serve the people by keeping them informed about government actions, and by promoting dialog about important issues.

In a democracy, the role of the media is absolutely NOT to serve the government, but to serve the people (by playing a fourth-estate role). However, in a fascist regime like North Korea, the role of the media IS to serve the state.

So by what you are saying here is that Japan is a fascist regime now? Look, when the new secrets law goes into effect under the heading of diplomacy the Yomuri newspaper could find itself in trouble because they are printing articles and information against the governments "official" policy.

The government says it didn't happen so everyone is going to have to believe them on face value because the press just follows along.

Don't make me laugh.

Do they seriously think these women thought, "gee I really want to go to this enemy that's invading my country and 'comfort' their soldiers for a living, it'll be a ton of fun!"

Sex slaves is what they were. I can't speak for native Japanese prostitutes who maybe willingly supported the war effort, but for the foreign women brought from their home countries, it was a case of human trafficking

@Sensato

In a democracy, the role of the media is absolutely NOT to serve the government, but to serve the people (by playing a fourth-estate role)

I entirely agree that the role of the media is not to serve the government, and I deplore such acts as the recent SK v Japanese reporter. Or the persecution of Snowden and Assange.

On the other hand, I don't see the 4th estate role being played by calling "comfort women" "sex slaves". If the Japanese government is currently getting comfort women, fine, do your 4th Estate thing and report it. Make it spectacular. See if the citizens of your country feel this situation needs addressing.

However, we are talking about a event in the long past. Bringing it up actively has few consequences other than feeding ammo to Korea. As you say, the media serves the people, and dragging up Olds (as opposed to News) or reporting News in a way that affirms the opposing viewpoint only un-necessarily disadvantages Japan, and by extension the Japanese people they should be serving.

A leading newspaper in falsifying historical facts? A prime minister in the 21st century leading the leading newspaper? Double shame. The historical truth of forced prostitution and second the denial. Read that as Japan Today.

The conservative Yomiuri said in articles in English and Japanese that it was inappropriate to have used the phrase and others implying the women were coerced to provide sex.

Are some of you not noticing that the Yomiuri is indeed a conservative news outlet and that it has always towed the party line! Why is it so difficult to understand!

@Kazuaki Shimazaki A very underhand comment. This is the kind of nationalistic tactic which sullies Japan's name around the world and gives Korea and China 'ammo'. Either deny it outright or attempt cloud it to the point where they hope people will shrug their shoulders and say 'who knows?'. Nobody outside Japan's nationalists see this anything less than than insincere and frankly, cowardly. The Yomiuri is now playing the same game and the stench is overpowering. Japanese people are in no way 'served' by this. They are having their name unfairly humiliated.

However, we are talking about a event in the long past.

Ok, if everyone is to believe this then Japan has a responsibility to acknowledge it and move on. The problem is the current government wants to change history to fit it's own views and keep their people in the dark.

Japanese people are in no way 'served' by this. They are having their name unfairly humiliated.

Jimizo, The fact is more important than humiliation. Japanese people knows this issue very well. It does not matter if Japan is humiliated as long as they face the fact.

I'd add to Tina in saying that it is only by denying the facts that Japan sets itself up for humiliation if it ever admits them. they've dug this hole for themselves and then dismissed themselves on the grounds that they're fighting some sort of propaganda war with China and Korea. If they'd only fully admit the past and stop trying to revise it later, then Japan's critics would have a lot less ammo in the recriminations game.

I fear that most news articles like these shakes me to the very core, the mentality/ethical inability (seen as a mindset) to deal with this issue.

I fear that Japan, a country which i love most, will be seen in the future with a government that is described as "Fascist", or at least viewed as worse.

But I do not have that fear if the people will rise up and stop being ignorant about our past, present and future issues. People need not be concerned about politics, but we need be concerned of the utmost about these kind of issues that WILL affect the Japanese people, not only as a nationality, or as a nation.

Just read in a Dutch newspaper WW2 Dutch Indies veterans find the Yomiuri Shinbun comfort women denial, the denial of organized prostitution, claiming no women were forced into prostitution, shocking and disgusting. This paper probably long ago lost its mission of reporting the truth.

We see the problem and we understand it, now how do we deal with it?

A very thought-provoking comment of the Journalist Michael Yon.

https://www.facebook.com/MichaelYonFanPage/posts/10152528332430665:0

This paper probably long ago lost its mission of reporting the truth.

Apologies if ambiguous. By 'This paper' I meant the Yomiuri.

Headlines like this from Yomiuri are intended to provoke emotions and rub salt into open wounds. Yomiuri political sleight of hand offends and inflames tensions that are already near levels which will take years to mend. So much for the season of good will.

Here is a classical document written by NISHIOKA Tsutomu in 2007:

BEHIND THE COMFORT WOMEN CONTROVERSY: HOW LIES BECAME TRUTH

He concluded the document with the statement of

We must expose the lies they have been spreading during the past 15 years. That is the only way we can defeat them. And we shall prevail, because truth is on our side.

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

I hope the people of Japan will want to move on soon.

The people of Japan pretty much HAVE moved on. Except they have no knowledge of what they have moved on from. They know next to nothing about WW2 except they got atom-bombed, and then that the US occupied them to help rebuild. That's it

Cmmfort women or sex slave happen to not just Korea but also other Asian countries.

I leave here the link relating to the problem.

http://hassin.org/01/category/literature/comfortwomen

Please check the following sections.

Please check the following titles

A Guide to Understanding Comfort women Controversy

and

COMFORT WOMEN IN KOREA

where you can find the links for the PDF documents. Japanese as well as English versions are available.

Sex slaves. They were sex slaves. Pure and simple. Saying they were "comfort women" gives what happened dignity. And yes, some of the women did come from Japan as volunteer. But let's not forget the caucasian women from the Dutch east Indies shall we, who were scooped up by the imperial army.

'Here is a classical document written by NISHIOKA Tsutomu in 2007:'

A 'classical' document, eh? It must be true then. Please stop humiliating the people of Japan by this kind of thing. The majority deserve better than to have their name dragged through the mud.

This is an enlightening link about the sex slaves of the Dutch East Indies

http://www.awm.gov.au/collection/REL26396/

It is a particularly vile piece of deliberate provocation timed to elicit conflict and hatred. Nauseating in its nastiness.

Oh really? How so?

For those interested, Mrs O'Hearne's tragic story is available http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mard9WrYn2I

War brings poverty, and out of the wood work, woman suddenly get smart and sell what boys want.

Simple. World wide it happens.

So, are the women selling themselves in Roppongi, Kabukicho, and many other places in Japan still sex slaves?

Christopher Glen, in the event of any misunderstanding, I was not referring to Mrs O'Hearne's tragic story. Sorry of any offence the position of my post was coincidental.

War brings poverty, and out of the wood work, woman suddenly get smart and sell what boys want. So, are the women selling themselves in Roppongi, Kabukicho, and many other places in Japan still sex slaves?

So, what war in Japan brought the girls in Roppongi, Kabukicho etc. out of the woodwork?

Many of them are probably just prostitutes there, however there is little doubt that some of the women working in Japanese red light districts are sex slaves, working against their own free will.

So, are the women selling themselves in Roppongi, Kabukicho, and many other places in Japan still sex slaves?

A bit of historical research should give you the answer to that one

A new word enters post Orwellian Japan: ..."yomiurithink".....a huge PR blunder....

These wretched right wing revisionists, aided and abetted by Yomiuro, won't rest until they have spread there bitter message of denial of past events to all that will print it. At least in my family, the environment I inhabit and people I associate with won't tolerate this type of right wing propaganda.

So, are the women selling themselves in Roppongi, Kabukicho, and many other places in Japan still sex slaves?

What is that for a warped comparison. As far as I can tell, in Kabuki-cho, a single woman does not have to service a long line of eagerly waiting men and no woman there has been murdered with a bayonet or bullet.

Given the long list of documented atrocities perpetrated by the IJA in Asia, I often wonder why so much effort is spent denying this sex slave/comfort women category. Its not possible to rationally defend Japans conduct during he War, there is no exoneration available. So why bother, why focus so much effort on denying this particular type of aggression? I genuinely do not understand this.

I beg to differ about an earlier assertion that slaves are unpaid. Slaves can in many cases be paid, but the work that they do is coerced.

If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, then it's a duck. Every one of the participants of WW2 has the blood of innocent victims on their hands. Face up to the facts and get over it. Covering things up prevents closure.

Yomiuri apologizes for using term 'sex slaves' in English edition

A newspaper should not apologize for using words that best describe what the vague phrase 'comfort woman' truly means.

This is like Fukushima. You can suppress the truth but you can't alter what is true. Sadly, we know what kind of truth is ongoing in the Fukushima meltdown that effects the water table and Pacific Ocean. And suppressing the truth of the sex slaves does not in any way alter the underlying truth that many of the the women were sex slaves, just like many contemporary Japanese women are essentially sex slaves. It goes further than this, though, Abenomics is harmful and hurtful to Japanese society, as is Abe himself, and every one of his ilk. Look Abe, you can deny the truth but you can never escape what is true. And what is true for you can be found in the last moments of another right-winger such as yourself: Yukio Mishima. But of course, Mr. Abe, you would never accept the truth of this, because you, like every one of your ilk, are cowards and fools.

The earth is round!

Mmmh, sorry... it is flat, like a pizza!

Which is more appropriate?

Comfort women or sex slave?

If you have the stomach for it, read some of these:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comfort_women http://www.dw.de/former-comfort-woman-tells-uncomforting-story/a-17060384 http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_news/social_affairs/AJ201308120014 http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/indepth/2014-10/26/c_133743434.htm http://people.bu.edu/wwildman/courses/thth/projects/thth_projects_2007_jaemin_lee.pdf

And decide whether or not we need a return to Fascism.

@Jimizo

This is the kind of nationalistic tactic which sullies Japan's name around the world and gives Korea and China 'ammo'.

This is actually the kind of thought pattern that scares me. Despite the fact that you (and I) actually know very little about what really went on, you are so convinced the Korean accusers are right that anybody that holds a different opinion is not only wrong but he must be cowardly rather than just advocating his own read on the situation. Unfortunately, people like you are common.

@Yubaru

Ok, if everyone is to believe this then Japan has a responsibility to acknowledge it and move on.

Except that history has already proven that this does not work. This is a fact of life that people like you seem to refuse to accept. Japan is not Germany, but perhaps more important C&K are not Europe. They won't be just allowed to "acknowledge" it - the Koreans will extort money, break treaties, and demand the Japanese government violate free speech.

@Kazuaki Shimazaki I notice you frame this issue as a battle between the 'Korean accusers' and Japan as if it's simply the word of one against the other. As others have pointed out, there are attestations of this disgraceful system in many countries outside of Korea and denial or attempts to cloud it are greeted with the anger they deserve in these countries. Again, this is another unsavoury and predictable nationalist tactic - the attempt to dismiss something as a bloody minded attempt to defame a country despite the weight of the evidence in its favour. Your attempt to employ this one does seem to fall apart when the anger of those affected is not coming from a country with any particular axe to grind against nor loud calls for compensation from Japan. The world is watching and it truly saddens me to see nationalists defecating on the image of a country I have a lot of affection for.

I will also leave this here.

Evidence documenting sex-slave coercion revealed

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

Sex slave is an appropriate interpretation, After all Japan had custims of Northern farmers selling girls to /southern prostitute house until Gen Mac asje Hapan to stop such custimm. Some people do not believe these military prostitute house slave because they were paid. But they were.

@Kazuaki Shimazaki

I notice you frame this issue as a battle between the 'Korean accusers' and Japan as if it's simply the word of one against the other. As others have pointed out, there are attestations of this disgraceful system in many countries outside of Korea and denial or attempts to cloud it are greeted with the anger they deserve in these countries.

1) Attestations are not fact, at least in places with a modern legal system.

2) If we ignore 1, it is a logical fallacy to link the two. When processing a claim of Suspect A conducting a criminal action in Place Y, the agreed fact he did a criminal action in Place X is meaningless except for refuting any claim he is psychologically incapable of such an act. This is not nationalism but logic.

If a Suspect in any country was convicted not on the strength of the evidence of his criminal actions in Place Y, but the fact he did a criminal action in Place X, it is an abuse of the modern legal process.

This is especially so because of the very different status of Korea (which was part of Japan) and the conquered territories.

To take an less-charged analogy, you are using a claim that "Soldiers of Country X loot Conquered Country Y" to substantiate a claim that they loot in their own country as well. Can you see why this does not work very well?

In fact, is not the fact the Korean supporters are throwing in other countries a tacit recognition that Koreans actually don't have a lot of credibility, having only put in their claims after 50 years (you could make up something from zero in that time), and only after some Japanese decided to write an article. Despite all this prep time, inconsistencies in their own testimony are hardly unknown, and my "favorite" is one especially detail-less testimony which claims she can't remember anything because she was raped so badly (which conveniently frees her from having details busted in cross-examination).

3) As I said, I acknowledge I don't have all the facts. However, I am not so blinded by a "sense of justice" that I am incapable of seeing the factors that may reasonably cause someone to doubt all this happened.

Even if I categorically agree with the common interpretation of events, I am capable of differentiating between a person having an incorrect view of history from an immoral person. I find people who link incorrect = immoral much more dangerous and intolerant.

4) Finally, to get back to the topic on hand, the non-politically charged word, and the official position of the Japanese government is that those are comfort women.

Yomiuri is certainly free to report that the West feels they are sex slaves (in fact, it might be nice for the Japanese to at least know what the outside world thinks!)

However, to use the term sex slave themselves is to take a political stance (which media are at least nominally supposed to avoid), and because as people say they are viewed as a "conservative" post (the only major one worse is Sankei), words of that effect are un-necessarily harmful. I cannot see how it benefits the Japanese in any way.

@Hansaram

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

Nice find.

"The Special Naval Police (Tokei Tai) had ordered to keep the brothels supplied with women; to this end they arrested women on the streets and after enforced medical examination placed them in the brothels," one document, titled Prosecution Document No. 5330, says. The report on "comfort women" in western Borneo was prepared by the Netherlands Forces Intelligence Service.

By who? Is there a signed order? If yes, who signed it?

"I organized a brothel for the soldiers and used it myself," Lt. Seidai Ohara of the Japanese military was quoted in Prosecution Document No. 5591, dated Jan. 13, 1946.

Wow, a Lieutenant. If an American Lieutenant organized anything for the use of his soldiers, will the whole American military be indicted?

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

I must say, I find this at least a mitigating factor. If you attack the military police, well darn it you will be massacred. And I don't think sympathy would be given to the women and children you left behind.

I know many places where Japanese people forced the head of each area to send girls to their brothels.

In other words, by the medic's admission the Japanese did not do the forcing directly. The heads did. They claimed they were forced (I'd say that too).

This sex slave story, if you are Japanese you understand why military created system, In Japan, wealthy people sponsor Geisha business, often purchase one or more to be his mistress, Less rich ,men go to Sogi (prostitute) house. Japanese military had to recruit all men. In order to satisfy iy had to draft girls and women,

This is old story but then Crown Prince (Now Emperor) engaged, we gossipped that only Crown Prince falls in love and will marry in Japan.

,

So you agree that the Japanese military did create the system? This is at odds with the Japanese government position

During WW II, Japan created Joshi Teishintai for girls who could not go beyond 8th grade, We knew what they wouldbe even military government announced that useless girls will be working as nurse. We had to help classmates for study so that they will be able to pass to eter girls middle school. Fortunately, Japan lost war in 1945 and my classmates died not have to worry to be drafted. Then Gen Mac stopped Japanese custom of North to sell girls to Southern prostitute houses. We knew who were sold girls. //Yoshi is adopted, Gishi was sold girls. They were sold with promise of education. That kind of custom weas gone. please visit old libralies tthat has war time Asahi and Mainichi/ You will find articles that Japanese military proudly wrote about utilizing useless girls for War cause. Suga went JSDF library to find sex slave articles. We old Japanese knew that. It was called Shei Hoshi-sha.

These right wing deniers will scam you into believing that turnover any stone and out pops a nationalist nut case out to revise the 1993 “Kono statement"......

The Government of Japan would like to take this opportunity once again to extend its sincere apologies and remorse to all those, irrespective of place of origin, who suffered immeasurable pain and incurable physical and psychological wounds as 'comfort women'... (sex slaves if you will but only for the dignity women involved 'comfort women)....

To give these miserable non-entities the oxygen of publicity to peddle there poison is risible...

Word slave is not used in Japan. So, Yomiuri should use Japanese workd. Sei-Hoshi-sha. Seiyoku Manzoku Hoshisha,

Kazuaki Shimazaki, what is so depressing is clearly you are a intelligent and articulate person, you leave home in the morning with your head screwed on the correct way up. Yet you defend the indefensible, willingly, the time it must have taken to essay and justify outright denial displays a attention to detail that illustrates a degree of logic has gone into your betrayal and dishonor you heap upon your country and it's people. Why?

The so-called "proof" full of "facts" of "what really happened" authored by self-described Korea expert Nishioka Tsutomu and linked to by Kazuaki Shimazaki in these comments is flooded with innuendo, personal attacks and twisted perspectives meant solely to guide the reader to the author's nationalistic way of seeing the world, with Japan at the top, naturally. By attempting yet again to somehow legitimize the whitewashing of the historical experiences so many non-Japanese went through, this seems hardly the most trustworthy resource or foundation for an objective argument to really get to the heart of the matter.

Leaving aside the somewhat laughable (and desperate-sounding) name of the organization sponsoring this diatribe, the "Society for the Dissemination of Historical Fact", here are the report's ending words. Reading them, I wonder how ANYone who desires the truth can seriously view this report as an unbiased review of what really happened so long ago?

The controversy began with lies. The lies ballooned into fallacies, and ended with a resolution condemning Japan on the point of being passed by the U.S. House of Representatives. All along, the propel ling force was Japan-hating Japanese.

They formed a mammoth global network, steadily accumulated documentary material, and launched a perverted interpretation of international law. These misguided souls continue to attack our beautiful fatherland, their fatherland! Their obsessive anti-Japanese emotions are contrary to everything we stand for.

We must expose the lies they have been spreading during the past 15 years. That is the only way we can defeat them. And we shall prevail, because truth is on our side.

"Yomiuri", as far as reporting the news goes, has long been a euphemism for "gomi-uri", a tool and mouthpiece of the ever-present right-wing government. This ridiculous apology only sullies their name and standing in the eyes of the world even more, even if many in Japan believe that the rest of the world's opinions & concerns don't matter.

It is likely the paper was "encouraged" to make the (wholly unnecessary) apology by the government. A depressing but not surprising event given the denialism of the current Japanese government.

Except that history has already proven that this does not work. This is a fact of life that people like you seem to refuse to accept. Japan is not Germany, but perhaps more important C&K are not Europe. They won't be just allowed to "acknowledge" it - the Koreans will extort money, break treaties, and demand the Japanese government violate free speech.

Right, Japan isn't Germany, it can't admit to the truths of what happened because collectively then EVERYONE is at fault, throughout all time. (Which is a bunch of BS)

Also Japan does not have to reply or respond to every nutcase accusation either, but it chooses to do so, and you want to know why? Because they aren't nutcase accusations, it's the truth!

And dont go on for a second that Japan doesnt extort money, break treaties either, you are living with your head in the sand if you think they don't.

Japan could do the noble thing, but it wont, the noble thing would be to have the PM make an unambiguous official statement admitting the war crimes of it's past, AND like Germany make any attempts to cover it up a crime.

Japan and Germany were allies once, Japan could learn a lesson or two from how they dealt with it!

Should newspapers refer to the Asian "trainees" (kenshuusei) who are brough to Japan by the ship load to be "trained" in manual labour, today, as slaves? Some say they should be http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/aging-japan-struggles-to-make-immigrants-feel-at-home

As far as I am aware both the "trainees" and the women refered to in this article were not free, since they are required to repay an upfront sum. The trainees borrow it. while the women's families generally paid. Ms.Jeanne Ruff-O'Hearne being a well documented exception, released by the Japanese during the war. The mass abductions claimed by Yoshida Seiji are now, by the Asahi Newspaper at least -- and this is one reason why the editor was relieved of his post -- thought to have been false. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seiji_Yoshida#Memoirs_controversy

And alas it is claimed that in Japan in Kabukicho in the twenty first century, "Many of them were trafficked into the country and indentured by debt. The economic slump means that it takes them up to a year to buy back their freedom." http://articles.latimes.com/2002/dec/29/news/adfg-sex29

Intendentured labour can cause great suffering. But the belief that women were rounded up by the government in trucks is the one that Abe and Hashimoto are attempting to rebuff since it would be a crime so horrendous, of holocaust proportions, the responsibility for which would continue forever (e.g. Hashimoto, in Japanese, below) http://youtu.be/hKD6uLbpn2Q?t=1h24m24s He says something like paraphrasing, 'There are things that can be resolved by a peace accord and there are things that are not. Asahi Newspaper brought this issue into that area of the abbominable, which no peace accord can lay to rest. '

Japanese people knows this issue very well.

I beg to differ. Many Japanese (at least tens of millions) most certainly do not know this issue well. They probably know merely that there is an issue.

This is the first time I've ever encountered such a united front on an issue in this usually divided Japan Today comments section. I guess some things are so wrong, every legitimately sufficiently compassionate, ethical and educated person knows what's right.

Kazuaki Shimazaki and other defenders of the the right-wing fairy tale version of events that helps you sleep better… please entertain me for a minute by following me through these simple logical steps toward understanding world history.

Due to the phenomenon of myopic nationalism, countries can't really objectively chronicle actions they took that affected other countries. To understand world history, we must look at the largest amount of credible, academic evidence. If a country has done its best to destroy such evidence to save face, we must listen to the personal stories, the voices, see the scars, wounds of the victims and rationally consider the weight of their evidence. The weight of academic evidence and the amount of eye witness testimonies on this issue is absolutely undeniable

In cases where evidence and testimony is so abundant, the discrediting of one source does not suddenly mean the whole thing is a lie (Despite that being the LDP's and the Yomiuri's position). The UN is appalled by Japan's neglect of responsibility on this issue http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=48424#.VHpmwN65CL0

In some cases, the weight of evidence is so huge that international scholars more or less unanimously agree on the version of events. By rationally accepting the findings of this majority, who've dedicated their lives to studying the truth behind these issues, we arrive at the internationally recognised version of events. The sheer numerousness of these sources from different countries usually overcomes the inaccuracies wrought by the glorifying principle of one-sided nationalism In the case of Japan's sex slaves, internationally, the near-unanimous decision of historians is that they were just that… sex slaves. If you're going to rationally doubt that with due to some insignificant right-wing publication, you probably also doubt the events of Auschwitz, Nanking and Hiroshima. No one intelligent disputes these events. These are all World War events with significant evidence. I wonder if you doubt the events of all 3. That seems highly unlikely. Why? Because myopic nationalism. In short, to more accurately understand world history, side with the evidence and the weight of internationally validated historical fact.

I hope this helps you comprehend world history… I know it's difficult.

Yes, why deny the truth, Its Sexual slave. Nothing to be ashame of.

And the sex slaves went on to set up the lucrative pachinko business in Japan

What a fairytale ending.......

I have several friends, Japanese and expats in Tokyo, who worked at the Daily Yomiuri in those days. I wonder how they feel now? Ianfu is a euphemism. The women did not "comfort" the soldiers. They serviced them, 20 per day. Call them what they were...indentured sex workers. Period full stop.

@Christopher

So you agree that the Japanese military did create the system? This is at odds with the Japanese government position

I know that anything that even sets up the slightest doubt on the presumed equation Comfort Women = Sex Slave is unpopular in the West, but as I understand it, no one denies the Japanese military did create a Comfort Women system. What is at odds is whether there is coercion? If yes, how much? And how systematic?

@itsonlyrocknroll

Kazuaki Shimazaki, what is so depressing is clearly you are a intelligent and articulate person, you leave home in the morning with your head screwed on the correct way up. Yet you defend the indefensible, willingly, the time it must have taken to essay and justify outright denial displays a attention to detail that illustrates a degree of logic has gone into your betrayal and dishonor you heap upon your country and it's people. Why?

You have to start with the idea that the Koreans are right after all to begin to think about all that betrayal and dishonor stuff.

For the record, I do have a Japanese passport. But I live in Hong Kong and for the first 20 years of my life cannot read enough Japanese to read any Japanese accounts of the issue (and let's face it, in reality if you can't read Japanese you won't be able to read anything denying the sex slave stuff, such is the pervasiveness of the common interpretation). So your side had a huge head start.

Here's my beef. The CW thing is not exactly an obsession of my life, so I don't spend that much time on it. However, a few details do roll my way, namely the "picks" from those on the "Pro" side. Unfortunately considering they had 50 years to prepare they just aren't that convincing and I'm left with a "That's your pick? How did this become the All-Pervasive Common Interpretation with this kind of evidence?" feeling.

More importantly, I feel a historical interpretation is just that, a historical interpretation. It does not have anything more to do with your personality matrix than which baseball team you like (which, in a sense, is also a historical interpretation). Regardless of the truth, I can be quite satisfied with a world where everyone believes Comfort Women = Sex Slave, unless:

1) Certain countries try to use this as a basis to override a treaty that's intended to put the past behind them - a treaty BTW that was favorable to them.

2) One side feels their cause is so righteous that those on the other side are bad people just for holding a different historical interpretation. That is intolerance and at base is no different from the racism, facism, discrimination of other religions ... etc that all of them proclaim they so despise.

It also makes me wonder whether case is as strong as the Righteous think it is ... because I don't know. If I'm an advocate of a position that dominates 99% of the market already, I will take a serene attitude at the 1% that says different. Unless, of course, I'm aware of huge weak spots in my argument that if correctly poked will severely drop my position's market share, so I can't let people find out about it.

@Donny: If you want to write number, don;t guess. We in Japan heard Miliary claimed at the entrance of shucks, soldiers lined up to get their turn and numbers were 60 and more by a girl. Shacks that had no ceiling, During WW II, Asahi amd Mainichi were nationally sold beside local papers. Also heard that soldier complained because no tatami but large goza on ground/

"History affronting, revisionist propaganda ain't gonna fly."

Really? Been to any university in the USA or Europe lately? It just isn't Japan - the whole world revises history to not look like the morons they are.

With that said, it is an affront to truth that the Japanese government is forcing the "free" press in Japan to indoctrinate the masses. How far are we from a military government here again? Now that seems to be goal.

@excellentadventurer

In some cases, the weight of evidence is so huge that international scholars more or less unanimously agree on the version of events.

It seems to me that there are two versions of events.

1) There are those that believe that Japanese government systematically and deliberate rounded up and forced women to become sex slaves, based in part on the testimony of Yoshida Seiji who claimed to go on a human hunt (人間狩り), or by lying to the women about what they would be doing. This view is represented by Hicks. http://www.amazon.com/Comfort-Women-Japans-Enforced-Prostitution-ebook/dp/B00IMVZQS0/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1417320022&sr=8-5&keywords=comfort+women

2) There are those that believe that the Japanese government encouraged civilians to set up brothels in war zones using indentured sex labourers, with even more tragic exceptions where individual soldiers abducted women such as in the case of Jeanne Ruff-O'Herne and several others. This view is presented by Soh, who spares no detail describing the misery it caused. http://www.amazon.com/Comfort-Women-Violence-Postcolonial-Sexuality/dp/0226767779/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1417320272&sr=8-1&keywords=Soh+comfort+women

Which view is the one that is agreed upon? People like Hashimoto claim that this difference matters "mattaku betsu na mondai" because while the latter might be settled with a peace accord and the Kono apology, the former is so abhorrent, so evil, that - like the Holocaust - it can not and should not be laid to rest by a peace treaty.

I would side with version 1, judging by the fact that the "customers" at these establishments were mainly military

I met an elderly man once sitting on a park bench on Ueno Park in Tokyo, circa 1995, and i asked him as we chatted on an lovely spring day just before Ohanami, if he had been in the war, he was that age, and he said yes, in China, and then i asked, his English was pera pera, if he had ever used the ianfu for his sexual needs and he said yes telling me this story, as i recall: "I was 21, 22, then and we were all afraid we were going to die tomorrow or the next day, soon, so of course, being men, we needed some relief, and yes, i went into the comfort station and waited my turn and did the deed and it was over like that, wham bam thank yu ma'am, she was my age too, not so pretty, but that was not the thing, we just need to ejaculate inside a woman to releive our stress. So yes Mr Bloom, I did go to those women, it is not something i am proud of, i feel guilty, but you need to understand in war, young men, the fear of dying, far from home, we needed to get our rocks off that way and the ianfu served that purpose. i felt sorry for them, and now late in life i feel guilty but that was life then. it's hard for people outside our sitation to understand." THIS IS verbatrim recall and a true story. Now sure, some women were Japanese prosititues, and some women from Taiwan and Korea who worked as indentured sex workers, often unpaid, were not abducted or kidnapped or forced, they were recruited by military pimps who told the girls in Japan and Taiwan and Korea, -- and Taiwan and Korea were at that time part of the J Empire, part of Japan, so those girls at that time were in fact Japaense nationals. and anyways, thiese recruiters told the girls and their families that there were some good jobs as waitresses at military soldier cares at the war front, just sitting with men and chatting, drink coffee or a beer, no hanky panky, and a nice salary and mom and dad agreed and the girls themselves said cool let's go, we will be helping the war effort and just serving drinks...and off they went, and when they arrived in China and Japan and elesewhere to "work" as these "wei-an-fu" shops as they were called in Chinese, same as ianfu kanji but pronounced wei an fu, they had their papers confiscated and were told that the cafe had shut down and now they had to work as sex service providers to help the men ejaculate and they girls did their best to do their duty to serve the motherland. They did not comfort the men, that euphemism is shameful! but useful at that time. They did not comfort them men, they let the men stick their dicks inside the holes and closed their eyes and felt sick inside. What a fate. Man's fate. Women's fate. TRUTH

Kazuaki Shimazaki, Thank for your reply, my humble opinion is the 1993 “Kono statement" is not open to interpretation, it must be honoured by every politican in government office that is obtained by an election, and though diplomatic engagement, the Korean Government in turn repects this statement of sincere apologies as a means to move on for the sake of future generations. Denial of this statement would become a criminal offence.

One cannot pick and choose a statement of this importance, the document every word and paragraph must be honoured in its entirety no ifs or buts. If you feel my accusation of 'betrayal and dishonor' is rude and unwarranted it is not directed at you personally.

LSE gender institute archive. Listening to Voices: Testimonies of "Comfort Women" of WW2... Maki Kimura Issue 8, April 2003

<www.lse.ac.uk/genderInstitute/pdf/listeningToVoices.pdf>

check the link.

https://www.facebook.com/MichaelYonFanPage/posts/10152532482920665

Rather cowardly move on the part of the Yomiuri. Apologizing panders to historical revisionists and right-wing extremists.

There is a translation problem here.

What is translated as "comfort," might be better rendered in English as "relief."

So these unfortunate ladies would be slightly more accurately described as "relief women," however, I still think "sex slave" is appropriate.

There is a translation problem here.

No there is NO translation problem. The problem is TOTALLY with the government trying to obfuscate the issue from reality and use semantics to cloud it even further.

You only learned the word relief in regards to this issue because of Danny Blooms post.

itsonlyrocknroll

You mentioned the article of Testimonies of "Comfort Women" of WW2... Maki Kimura Issue 8, April 2003. Look at the reference # 1 of the article. It is the “Asahi Shinbun (1991)”.

Asahi shinbun, a big newspaper company in Japan, recently admitted that they had falsely informed us the comfort woman issues. So the document you indicated was primary basing on the false information source.

They were recruited and became professional sex workers. They were the Chinese, Korean, and Japanese women. Some of them earned good salaries. It was regal at that time.

OFFICE OF WAR INFORMATION Psychological Warfare Team Attached to U.S. Army Forces India-Burma Theater APO 689

Japanese Prisoner of War Interrogation Report No. 49.

Place interrogated: Ledo Stockade Date Interrogated: Aug. 20 - Sept. 10, 1944 Date of Report: October 1, 1944 By: T/3 Alex Yorichi

Prisoners: 20 Korean Comfort Girls Date of Capture: August 10, 1944 Date of Arrival: August 15, 1994 at Stockade

PREFACE

This report is based on the information obtained from the interrogation of twenty Korean "comfort girls" and two Japanese civilians captured around the tenth of August, 1944 in the mopping up operations after the fall of Myitkyin a in Burma.

The report shows how the Japanese recruited these Korean "comfort girls", the conditions under which they lived and worked, their relations with and reaction to the Japanese soldier, and their understanding of the military situation.

A "comfort girl" is nothing more than a prostitute or "professional camp follower" attached to the Japanese Army for the benefit of the soldiers. The word "comfort girl" is peculiar to the Japanese. Other reports show the "comfort girls" have been found wherever it was necessary for the Japanese Army to fight. This report however deals only with the Korean "comfort girls" recruited by the Japanese and attached to their Army in Burma. The Japanese are reported to have shipped some 703 of these girls to Burma in 1942.

Robbie1985, It is a good point.

Here is the report 49. everyone can investigate it.

http://www.exordio.com/1939-1945/codex/Documentos/report-49-USA-orig.html

Yubaru,

I did not read Danny Bloom's posts until you mentioned them. I'm glad you pointed them out. Very informative.

It just struck me today that partly this problem is caused by a mistranslation. "Comfort" is a "warm fuzzy sensation," whereas "relief" has, well, an end point.

I just thought that "relief" might be a better translation than "comfort."

"Comfort woman" implies someone such as a kindly aunt or elder sister, who listens and sympathises with a person's problems.

I somehow don't think that this is what the soldiers in the Japanese Imperial Army hoped for, as they lined up for their ten minutes of "comfort."

Do you?

Bertie Wooster, good points and I like your idea of calling them "relief workers" or "relief women" but aint gonna happen. In kanji it's always gojng to be ianfu and it was coined at the time as a euphemism on purpose by the then J-govt under Imperial Palace, and it was meant for internal communcatrion only. When some English language newspapers started transating this as "comfort women" -- another shameful euphemism -- it became apparent to many expat copy editors at the Japan Times, the Asahi Evening News, the Mainchi News and the Daily Yomiuri -- all expat papers then, that comfort women was too soft a word and in consulation with their Japanese colleagues in the newsrooms, even their Japanese top editors, that "sex slaves" was a good way to write it in English. Or French or German . The Yomiuri has stopped doing this, but I believe the Japan Times and the Asahi newspaper in English still use sex slaves word. So it's just one newspaper. History will be the judge. I wonder when the first time the English term "sex slaves" appeared in a newspaper outside Japan? Anybody know and show link?

I did not know but there is Yomiuri NY, NY so my guess is English edition is about an article in Yomiuri NY. So, Sex Slave is appropriate. It is more realistic than Comfort as comfort is used for easing pains by medical professionals in USA.

Kazume Nishidate, I posted purely for reference, I noticed the working paper on the school archive, which I believe is also available for public consumption. There are a diverse range of sources quoted from a number of different countries, Asahi shinbun is one. You are quite correct the Asahi Shimbun has been discredited, a gift to Abe san right wingers who positively rejoiced in telling all and sundry. Significantly withdrew any revision of the Kono statement when faced with the ensuing international political train wreck. Abe san foreign policy has also benefited China too by driving a political wedge between the US and Japan. A weak opposition at home has exasperated the situation.

@Kazume Nishidate: Again, some were recruited but others like Mrs O'Hearne clearly were not. At least 200,000 women went through the sex slavery system. Saying that all these women volunteered is a gross generalisation

Weren't they drafted? Older men were drafted as the war was becoming near to end. Male school teachers, older men, were drafted/ Girls were drafted to front line, too. I wouldn;t call recruitment, Shoshu reijo and shipped to front line.

Kazuaki Shimazaki Nov. 29, 2014 - 11:01PM JST

"I organized a brothel for the soldiers and used it myself," Lt. Seidai Ohara of the Japanese military was quoted in Prosecution Document No. 5591, dated Jan. 13, 1946.

Wow, a Lieutenant. If an American Lieutenant organized anything for the use of his soldiers, will the whole American military be indicted?

You ask those who disagree with your views to provide evidence to support your claims but then demand further validation when it is presented and assert it was either fabricated or not substantiated.

But to answer your question NO, if the military took action against ANY officer, enlisted or other who may be working on behalf or by contract of said military! Please provide us with evidence that the Imperial Japanese establishment took any legal or disciplinary action against ANY Japanese military officer or enlisted, organizations or contracted entities who worked on behalf of Japan before the end of WWII. Please list one Japanese officer or enlisted that was punished, IN ANY WAY, for actions unbecoming of a Japanese solider against NON-Japanese citizens.

Why it is SO important that you do so is if the Japanese Imperial establishment did not take any legal or disciplinary actions then it either condoned, encouraged, orchestrated or at the very least turned a blind eye which is worse. By NOT taking action it then becomes their responsibility and the blood is then on the hands of the Japanese Imperial establishment. Good luck and by the way, please don't use your most revered tactic and demand such from the other side because this is about Japan, NOBODY else!

Politically correct fools can go stuff themselves silly on quinoa and kale. There is nothing wrong with the term sex slaves. It is what it is. No apology required.

Calling a spade a spade is only the right thing and truthful reporting. Calling what happened to the thousands of ladies sex skave is (in my opinion ) only the truth. So, what I gather from this is, Japanese media do not have the freedom to print the truth....

Sad day.....

Weren't they drafted

Conscription? No, I wouldn't give the system the dignity of such a word. Can't you bring yourself to accept the term "sexual slavery?"

Christopher Glen You are wrong. see the link below.

========================================== Michael Yon Japan-Korea: Were Korean Men Cowards during World War II?

A vexing question

There are growing, unsubstantiated questions about whether the Japanese Imperial Army kidnapped 200,000 sex-slaves (Comfort Women) in World War II. Mostly from Korea.

A $30 million US Government Study specifically searched for evidence on Comfort Women allegations.

After nearly seven years with many dozens of staff pouring through US archives -- and 30 million dollars down the drain -- we found a grand total of nothing.

The final IWG report to Congress was issued in 2007. (Linked below.)

Nobody should be writing about Comfort Women issues without reading this report cover to cover.

Many of the unsubstantiated claims are coming from Korea. Korean allegations have led to unexpected twists.

At the time, Korea was actually part of Japan -- roughly in the way that Puerto Rico is part of the USA.

Many Koreans were members of the Japanese military. So any allegations that the Japanese military kidnapped 200,000 women implies that Koreans were involved in kidnapping Koreans. This is an uncomfortable reality. It gets even more uncomfortable.

So today, South Korean President Park Geun-hye constantly accuses Japan of kidnapping these shiploads of women.

Imagine how this boomerangs back. President Park is saying that Japan -- and her daddy was an officer in the Japanese Army at the time -- kidnapped uncounted tens of thousands of women from Korea as sex-slaves. Yet there is no evidence that Korean men fought back.

During the war, Korea had a population of about 23 million. Today, Texas has a population of about 26 million.

Imagine trying to kidnap 200,000 Texas women. There would be a bloodbath. The Army would lose thousands of soldiers, and thousands of civilians no doubt would have been slaughtered in return.

Evidence would be everywhere. Photos. Films. Battle sites. Texans would never allow 200,000 women to be stolen and raped without making a river of blood. So President Park is essentially saying Korean men during World War II were a bunch of cowards.

Also imagine this from the perspective of a Japanese military General or Admiral. He is at war with the USA, Australia, Britain, China, and more. His hands are full. The USA in particular is on the march with our Navy and Marines, and we are smashing Japan anywhere we can find Japanese.

All generals always want more troops and supplies. That is a fact of life. Just ask any General. Ask any business leader what he or she needs to expand or defend against competition: They always want more resources.

What kind of fool General would dedicate the resources to kidnap, guard, transport, and feed 200,000 women, knowing that he is creating yet another war to fight?

The Japanese were highly advanced military thinkers. They made their own submarines, airplanes, and aircraft carriers. These were serious people, and super smart.

There is no way that Generals would dedicate those resources to kidnapping women when the US military and allies were marching down their throats. They had a war to fight -- this was not Spring Break.

Any serious military or business person can see the folly in common sense of kidnapping 200,000 women. It does not make sense, and would have created a new war in Korea -- which was a base for Japanese recruitment. Koreans were fighting Americans. Koreans were our enemy.

And back to Korean men. It would be horrific to see the US Army try to kidnap 200,000 Texas women -- especially so considering that many US military members are Texans, just as many Koreans were Japanese Soldiers.

Texas would rise up and start smashing the Army. Bridges would blow up. Soldiers would be shot every day. Bases would burn. The Army would fight back and there would be total war.

So are we to believe that Korean men are such cowards that nobody lifted a hand to defend their women? Because if they allowed these many women to be kidnapped, they are cowards, and their sons today had cowards for fathers.

The reality is that we know that Koreans are no cowards. Koreans are a courageous people. So what really happened? It is clear from source documents, and the common sense that every water buffalo possesses, that there was no mass kidnapping.

It's all a lie, and no matter how much someone hates Japan, it will always be a lie.

Please read the IWG report that practically nobody seems to know exists. If you do not have time for the whole report, do a search inside the report for Comfort Women, and carefully read those parts:

http://www.archives.gov/iwg/reports/final-report-2007.pdf

========================================

Original link to the FB page

https://www.facebook.com/MichaelYonFanPage/photos/a.235978145664.135781.207730000664/10152528275045665/?type=1&pnref=story

Japanese translation by Kent Gilbert (FB page)

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=722058237885039&set=a.607719835985547.1073741828.100002426074837&type=1&fref=nf&pnref=story

@Mr Bloom

(ianfu) coined at the time as a euphemism on purpose by the then J-govt under Imperial Palace, and it was meant for internal communcatrion only

Ianfu 慰安婦 was used in recruitment adverts in Korean national newspapers, along with the salary at ten times that of a nurse or front line soldier. I think that it was a euphamism to protect not the Japanese government's dirty scheme (which was plain and in your face to any adult that read the recruitment advert) or subsequently the Korean government (or NPO) who used exactly the same phrase during the Korean war to recruit prostitutes to provide "comfort/relief" to US soldiers. The phrase was a euphemiism, imho, to protect a little of the dignity of those that that were responding to the adverts.

The problem is that even Ikuhiko Hata book details tha,t as you say, many of young women, did claim at least to believe that they would not be prostitutes but holding hands and otherwise comforting.

And deception is (from a Western perspective at least) equal to coercion.

It is also known that the Japanese goverment sent back some women when it found it they had been decieved, and the famous proof that the army was involved (published by Asahi in 1998) was an army memo saying "beware, some recruiters are coercing women."

However, it was known by millitary individuals at least that the women were at least "partially decieved."

I think Hashimoto would draw a line between systematic, documented acceptance of coercion (of which I am unaware) and individual soldiers awareness of coercion.

But is this really a point at which a line can be drawn? If a large number of soldiers knew what was going on and yet the army continue to accept the services of decieved young women, then wasn't the army, and the government complicit in the deception?

I would have to jump through some pretty difficult conceptual loops to defend the way in which Hashimoto and other right wingers might draw a distinction between physical cooercion and deception but, in this land of honne and tatemae, true meaning and the put up front, I think there are even different attitudes towards linguistic deception. I could imagine a Japanese defense along the lines of "They were told a lot of euphamisms, sure, but in their heart of hearts they knew what they would be doing," but this translates to "They were lied to. They were coerced. They were slaves."

Kabuki Shimazaki:

reporting News in a way that affirms the opposing viewpoint only un-necessarily disadvantages Japan, and by extension the Japanese people they should be serving

By that rationale the UK government, for example, did its people a great disservice allowing its media to report on Bloody Sunday or the Guildford Four. How thoroughly irresponsible!

Mr. Kazume Nishidate, you link to an individuals facebook page as evidence and reason to tell Mr. Christopher Glen, let me quote you;

Kazume Nishidate Dec. 01, 2014 - 10:35AM JST

Christopher Glen You are wrong. see the link below.

Since when did we start using personal Facebook accounts to prove or disprove history? I did not find any indication in Mr. Yon's description of him being an expert on WWII or that he has an academic background in issues pertaining to this thread. And the fact that he was born in 1964, which makes him about 50 in my estimation, means has NO first hand knowledge of accounts in WWII. WTF's up with that?

Michael Yon Born: March 9, 1964 About: Michael Yon is an American author, independent writer, columnist and photographer. Personal interests: Bird photography https://www.facebook.com/MichaelYonFanPage/info?tab=page_info

Who kidnapped them is irrelevant to whether or not they were sex slaves. If they were not allowed to leave, they were sex slaves.

HansaramNov. 29, 2014 - 10:28PM JST

I will also leave this here.

Evidence documenting sex-slave coercion revealed http://www.etan.org/et2007/april/21/18evdenc.htm

The case, Moa Island case is well known and well studied in Japan. Your link is only half true. Japanese HQ in Jakarta ordered the lieutenant to execute all 6 women on spy charges, but he did not follow the order and repeatedly raped them. In other words, his acts were AGAINST government policy.

The most comprehensive study of ianfu is here. http://www.awf.or.jp/e1/facts-00.html I hope peole learn a bit about the issue and make comments publicly.

StrangerlandDec. 01, 2014 - 11:26AM JST

Who kidnapped them is irrelevant to whether or not they were sex slaves. If they were not allowed to leave, they were sex slaves.

The international treaty written by Eurppeans and Americans at that time does not agree with you. http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/instree/whiteslavetraffic1910.html

International Convention for the Suppression of the "White Slave Traffic," May 4, 1910

FINAL PROTOCOL

D. The case of detention, against her will, of a woman or girl in a brothel could not, in spite of its gravity, be dealt with in the present Convention, seeing that it is governed exclusively by internal legislation.

Kazume Nishidate,

A $30 million US Government Study specifically searched for evidence on Comfort Women allegations.

After nearly seven years with many dozens of staff pouring through US archives -- and 30 million dollars down the drain -- we found a grand total of nothing.

I can only believe that if dozens of staff spent seven years looking for evidence of sexual slavery by the Japanese Imperial Army and found nothing that, for one reason or another, they didn't look. And also, that the American taxpayer was duped.

A free Google search comes up with pages of evidence.

Kazume Nishidate, you are wrong. The system of sexual slavery instituted by the Japanese military with the knowledge of the Japanese government remains one of the worst human trafficking crimes in history. As previously stated, some women were volunteers from Japan (or daughters sold by farmers to pay off their debts) but the vast majority were not. Your attempts to obfuscate and give the system dignity bring the old anology of "digging oneself deeper into the sand" to mind. The following links and but a small portion of the material out there. This one shows that Japan's obligations to the sex slaves of South Korea were NOT negated by the normalisation treaty of 1965 http://www.japanfocus.org/-Totsuka-Etsuro/3885 This one shows Mrs O'Hearne's story from the perspective of a caucasian woman http://www.smh.com.au/national/australian-wartime-sex-slave-jan-ruffohearne-hits-out-at-hideous-japanese-denials-20140224-33d4o.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/25/comfort-women-wanted_n_4325584.html http://www.dw.de/former-comfort-woman-tells-uncomforting-story/a-17060384 http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2014/08/14/national/filipino-comfort-women-demand-justice-japan/#.VHvsQGeZaSo This one by Indonesian sex slaves http://ajw.asahi.com/article/asia/around_asia/AJ201401080010 Shall I go on?

Christopher GlenDec. 01, 2014 - 01:20PM JST

I am afraid you know too little about the issue. Those who know little are prone to manipulation.

What the report on Jan Ruff-O'Hearne case you linked does not tell is the fact that it was Japanese MP that found Ms. O'Hearne was working against her will and let her free well before Japanese surrender. Her case is more of the evidence that Japanese military was protecting the rights of women than the other way around.

For 50 years, she kept secret her abuse at the hands of Japanese soldiers

Right after the end of WW2, Ms. O'Hearne brought her case to Batavia War Tribunal and the person who forced her into prostitution received death sentence and was executed. I am not sure "she kept secret" is an OK expression in this case.

https://www.facebook.com/MichaelYonFanPage/photos/a.235978145664.135781.207730000664/10152528275045665/?type=1&pnref=story

Facebook is suppose to be a legitimate source?

I am not sure "she kept secret" is an OK expression in this case.

If you were raped daily by soldiers I'm sure you'd keep secret. As we will never truly experience what these women went through, none of us are in a position to judge them in any way - but rather we should feel righteous anger and what they went through, and the despicable individuals who continue to white wash the I.J.A and Japanese government's behaviour

Christopher GlenDec. 01, 2014 - 04:03PM JST

If you were raped daily by soldiers I'm sure you'd keep secret.

Are you with me? She did not keep it secret and brought the case to Batavia War Tribunal. The perpetrator was executed. Justice was done.

Now, my question is whether it is OK to report in a daily press that she kept it secret, even though she brought the case to open court. Readers would get the impression that the justice has not been done.

There is no record or link that Mrs O'Herne testified at the Batavia war crimes tribunal, and she was not raped by just one man, but quite a number apparently. Ok, one man was hanged for the crimes of many. That still hasn't given justice to the hundreds of thousands of women Japan abducted for sexual slavery. As this link shows, her life could have been rather different. http://nationalinterest.org/feature/the-popes-verdict-japans-comfort-women-11168

Christopher GlenDec. 01, 2014 - 05:30PM JST

There is no record or link that Mrs O'Herne testified at the Batavia war crimes tribunal, and she was not raped by just one man, but quite a number apparently.

I said you know little about the issue. Here is a link to a study of the records of Batavia War Tribunal on Semarang Case. http://www.awf.or.jp/pdf/0062_p107_141.pdf It says 13 people were found guilty for Semarang case including one who got death penalty. Here is another study on court records. https://dspace.wul.waseda.ac.jp/dspace/bitstream/2065/36011/1/AjiaTaiheiyoTokyu_18_Yamamoto.pdf See footnote 12. Ms. O'Herne did brought the case to court.

I know plenty about the issue. And this is where right-wing morons get themselves undone: they focus on an individual and claim errors were made and use that to attempt to "muddy the waters". You are focussing on one speck, and ignoring the entire bigger picture: 200,000 women were mobilised from all over east and south-east Asia. http://www.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_international/606227.html

200,000 women were not mobilised, Christopher, they were repeatedly raped and slaved. Soldiers are mobilised, and though every single one of these women is a warrior, not one of them signed up for that deal.

Shinzo Abe, made a statement in March this year. ...

“With regard to the comfort women issue, I am deeply pained to think of the comfort women who experienced immeasurable pain and suffering, a feeling I share equally with my predecessors,” Abe told a parliamentary committee, according to a statement issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA). “The Kono Statement addresses this issue… As my [Secretary Suga] stated in press conferences, the Abe cabinet has no intention to review it.”

This statement is the basis for lasting agreement. Can it not follow that the "Kono Statement' be built into a legislative framework to prevent future misunderstanding?

Kazume Nishidate Dec. 01, 2014 - 10:35AM JST

There are growing, unsubstantiated questions about whether the Japanese Imperial Army kidnapped 200,000 sex-slaves (Comfort Women) in World War II. Mostly from Korea. A $30 million US Government Study specifically searched for evidence on Comfort Women allegations. After nearly seven years with many dozens of staff pouring through US archives -- and 30 million dollars down the drain -- we found a grand total of nothing. The final IWG report to Congress was issued in 2007. (Linked below.) Nobody should be writing about Comfort Women issues without reading this report cover to cover. Many of the unsubstantiated claims are coming from Korea. Korean allegations have led to unexpected twists.

Interesting read indeed and maybe you should have read through the link to;

Nazi War Crimes & Japanese Imperial Government Records Interagency Working Group (IWG)

In October 1998, President Clinton signed into law the Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act (NWCDA), which required the U.S. Government to locate, de-classify, and release in their entirety, with few exceptions, remaining classified records about war crimes committed by Nazi Germany and its allies. The act required the President to establish an Interagency Working Group to oversee its implementation. The IWG consists of high-level officials of seven key Executive Branch agencies (who designated representatives), and three public members appointed by the President (see figure 1). The act charged the IWG to “take such actions as necessary to expedite the release of such records to the public” and to report the outcome to Congress. Although the NWCDA covered records related to all of Germany’s allies, the Japanese Imperial Government Disclosure Act of 2000 (JIGDA) made explicit the Government’s responsibility to open its remaining classified records on Japanese war crimes. The JIGDA provided for a fourth public member, who was not appointed. In January 2004, Congress extended the JIGDA for one year to provide additional time for the CIA to comply with the law with respect to both Japanese and Nazi war crimes records. In February 2005, the Congress again extended the act until 2007 at the urging of the IWG public members, who viewed the task as yet unfinished primarily because of the reluctance of the CIA to release all its records on suspect individuals used as intelligence assets during the Cold War.

...the IWG estimates that the implementation of the two Disclosure Acts cost taxpayers $30 million.

http://www.archives.gov/iwg/reports/final-report-2007.pdf

Seems that the $30 million (US) price tag was not for a study of the comfort women at all. The $30 million was specifically used to research United States government archives, not those in Japan or in Germany. The intention of the study was not to address the comfort women but was a means of consolidating as best possible all records pertaining to both Nazi and Imperial Japan records the various government agencies had acquired over the decades since the war ended.

I total agree Kazume Nishidate, Nobody should be writing about Comfort Women issues without reading this report cover to cover.

Kazume Nishidate, simple question do you accept "Kono Statement" as a basis for closure, our Prime Minster has stated so. Please a simple yea or nay will suffice, over the Gettysburg address.

itsonlyrocknroll Dec. 02, 2014 - 03:55AM JST

Kazume Nishidate, simple question do you accept "Kono Statement" as a basis for closure, our Prime Minster has stated so. Please a simple yea or nay will suffice, over the Gettysburg address.

We all know the answer your looking for to this question! There is nothing, no physical evidence, no testimony from living victims, nothing that will distract these deniers from their deeply held beliefs!

If a video from WWII surfaced filmed by a Japanese Imperial journalist showing Korean women being dragged, kicking and screaming onto a Japanese Navy vessels with PM Tojo standing on the gangplank signing the handover of "passengers list" along with an entry found in Tojo's personal diary explaining in detail the same events as detailed in the video nothing would change with these people! I get it now, it's not about Japan but it's their deep seated hatred of the Koreans and Chinese and to a lesser degree the USA.

We are wasting our keyboard strokes continuing to have so-called dialogue when some individuals are so full of hatred.

@Kazume Nishidate.

If you really think about your Texan analogy in an intellectually honest way, you will realise how ridiculous it is.

But, one thing I agree with you on is that most people don't know much about what they are talking about.

For the record.

Not all women with the title "ianfu" were mistreated. It varied depending on the place and most importantly the people in charge. Some women were lucky or enterprising enough to become an officer's personal mistress and they lived in relative comfort. They were also mostly Japanese.

Yes, Koreans procured comfort women and did so for their own personal profit. But this happens in every country even today.

Some women were prostitutes before they became ianfu. But, anyone who knows much about prostitution in those days will know that they were in effect slaves - including the Japanese. Anyone interested in Japanese history should look into this. You'll see that many women who were prostitutes were sold by their parents, and once they were in a brothel they had no freedom - even in peace time Japan. If that brothel contracted to supply women to the military, the individual had no say in that. And of course once they were in a foreign country, they couldn't say "Oh, I think I'd like to leave now".

We could argue about numbers and how many women made how much money, and whether they were duped by Japanese, or Koreans, or Chinese forever. I don't think those numbers will even be able to be ascertained exactly.

But any decent human being - male or female - would be disgusted if they read of the treatment of many of these women.

As for the Roponngi statements - the same probably applies. There are no doubt women making lots of money living a fine life. But there are others who have no access to their own passports, and are literally sex slaves.

The difference is that many of the comfort women were simply killed when the war was drawing to a close or if they became of no further use.

Any decent Japanese who know the truth about the experiences of these women would not want to defend the practice.

but, it is definitely true that the existence of comfort stations did lead to a decrease in the sexual attacks on civilian women.

And it should also be remembered that the average Taro who went to a comfort station didn't always know what the women were going through. He was also encourage to go there because of superstitions regarding sex. Not that most probably needed that much persuading.

If I were Japanese I would keep the Kono statement. Even as a male, I feel like apologising.....

The right-wingers who defend all this, are usually the same people who think Hitler wasn't so bad, and question the holocaust. On the other hand, some people without much knowledge play into their hands.

Christopher GlenDec. 01, 2014 - 08:44PM JST

I know plenty about the issue.

I hope you catch up soon. You said, "There is no record or link that Mrs O'Herne testified at the Batavia war crimes tribunal." but I think you now understand the opposite is true.

200,000 women were mobilised from all over east and south-east Asia.

Here again, you know quite little about the issue. There is a very good read for you about the comparative study of the enormity of ianfu. http://www.awf.or.jp/e1/facts-07.html

There are several estimates of the number of ianfu, and all of them use the same formula.

"Number of Soldiers" x "Soldier to Ianfu Ratio" x "Replacement Multiplier"

Do you know how the 200,000 number calculated? Only the number of soldiers is concrete. The soldier to Ianfu ratio and the replacement multiplier are just wild guessing. As they say "garbage in garbage out", 200,000 is least reliable and least scientific. Only those easy to believe believe in that number.

CH3CHO Dec. 02, 2014 - 10:13AM JST

Here again, you know quite little about the issue. There is a very good read for you about the comparative study of the enormity of ianfu. >http://www.awf.or.jp/e1/facts-07.html

Your link CH3CHO is to information provided by the Asian Women's Fund Here is a very good read for you about the Asian Women's Fund

Establishment of the Asian Women's Fund

In this hall it is shown how the Comfort Women Issue came to be recognized as a serious social problem and how the Japanese government changed its attitude toward this problem. Finally the Japanese government came to have a clear notion of this problem and made official apology toward the victims. Further it is shown how the Asian Women's Fund came to be established by the Japanese government and how those people invited to join this fund discussed and decided the content of the projects of this fund.

http://awf.or.jp/e2/index.html

the Asian Women's Fund has as much credibility in the World as would an African-American Fund established by the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) to support victims of racial injustice in the United States. CH3CHO, if your going to have any credibility in the eyes of those you disagree with at-least show a little courtesy and respect and use a more neutral or mutually acceptable source for your argument. At least then when you so ungracefully dismiss other's opinions you won't be the one dismissed instead.

@CH3CHO: I checked out your links. One was all in Japanese for an apparent right-wing website, the other was a research paper written by someone called Mayumi at Waseda university. Would that be you? You have yet to provide any links for mainstream websites. The BBC, the Sun, Daily Mirror, New York Times, any of those would suffice. Sadly I'm inclined to distrust Japanese news websites for the simple fact that uncomfortable information gets covered up in Japan - and isn't discussed honestly. As was the case at the end of the war when much of the evidence about sex slaves was destroyed by the IJA. I can probably bring up about twenty websites showing the 200,000 figure.

200,000 women were not mobilised, Christopher, they were repeatedly raped and slaved.

My apologies - I am in complete agreement with this

Mr. PerfectDec. 02, 2014 - 12:12PM JST

AWF was established by the Japanese government during Murayama administration, which is known for pro Korea and pro China policies. If you read through the pages, you can find objective descriptions with references. If you have any question, you can check the reference for further study. I see nothing wrong with AWF. On the other hand, I have never seen any article written by Westerners or Koreans that has any reference to their claim especially the 200,000 number.

PeacetrainDec. 02, 2014 - 09:58AM JST

The difference is that many of the comfort women were simply killed when the war was drawing to a close or if they became of no further use.

That is rather a brand new accusation. Where did you get that? There are Japanese martial court records in which Japanese soldiers were severely disciplined for injuring or misbehaving against Ianfu. it seems we have unforeseeable past.

itsonlyrocknrollDec. 02, 2014 - 03:55AM JST

Kazume Nishidate, simple question do you accept "Kono Statement" as a basis for closure, our Prime Minster has stated so.

Koreans do not take it as closure to the issue. Koreans keep saying Japan has never apologized, in spite of Kono statement. Compensation payment by AWF was rejected. Any former ianfu who receives compensation from AWF is financially punished by the Korean government, and loses her right to receive pension from Korean government. The question itself is categorically wrong.

CH3CHO humbly the same simple question do you accept "Kono Statement" as a basis for closure, as our Prime Minster has stated so. Please politely requesting a simple answer. Hi Mr Perfect, l feel a frustrating merry go round has developed, surely there must be common ground we can all agree on. Sigh

itsonlyrocknroll Dec. 02, 2014 - 01:05PM JST

l feel a frustrating merry go round has developed, surely there must be common ground we can all agree on. Sigh

I'm afraid that any common ground found is only in our love of Japan and the Japanese people.. Unfortunately, those who disagree with us on so many issues as this one do not realize that we too love this country and want to see it and it's citizens prosper. To criticize anything about Japan is blasphemy and we are labeled Korean/Chinese sympathizers! The comfort women issue isn't about Korea or China for that matter, it's about women from nearly a dozen nations who were victims of the Imperial Army throughout Asia but they have to deflect the issue or try to draw comparisons and make analogies to justify the unjustifiable. Yes, I too feel the frustration!

Compensation payment by AWF was rejected. Any former ianfu who receives compensation from AWF is financially punished by the Korean government,

It was rejected because it didn't come directly from the Japanese government. They want an open public, unequivocal apology first - and compensation would certainly be a bonus. And they weren't comfort women. No aspect of this job was comfortable for these women. They were sex slaves

CH3CHO Dec. 02, 2014 - 01:02PM JST

Any former ianfu who receives compensation from AWF is financially punished by the Korean government,

I wasn't aware of this! What is your source for this information?

@CH3CHO: About that 200,000 sex slaves figure, here goes http://www.eventbrite.com/e/comfort-women-why-japans-200000-wwii-sex-slaves-matter-today-tickets-12960999699 According to wiki, 200,000 is actually a low estimate. What do you know? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comfort_women http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/25/comfort-women-wanted_n_4325584.html http://www.amnesty.org.nz/files/Comfort-Women-factsheet.pdf http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2014/04/01/japanese-opposition-comfort-women-statue-sydney http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-22680705 And there's still plenty more other links supporting the "200,000" figure. And yes, do you accept the Kono statement? Even Abe has hummed and hawed but hasn't changed it

"I'm afraid that any common ground found is only in our love of Japan and the Japanese people"...Now Mr P, that has made my day. A perfect place to start.

Mr. PerfectDec. 02, 2014 - 02:33PM JST

This is a link to the activitty report of AWF that is a Japanese government subsidiary which implemented compensation payment. http://www.awf.or.jp/e3/korea.html

Kim Dae-Jun became President of the Republic of Korea in March that year. In May, the new administration decided that, although it would not demand state reparations from the Japanese Government, it would pay 31.5 million won (at the time, about 3.1 million Japanese yen), plus an additional 4.18 million won from capital collected by the Korean Council ("Chongdaehyop,") as living expense subsidies to each former comfort woman who vowed to refuse Asian Women's Fund project benefits. The Government of the Republic of Korea paid this sum to 142 people, but did not pay it to 11 people - the seven who had accepted Fund benefits in the early stages, and four others who did not sign the written oath because they had accepted Fund benefits.

Christopher GlenDec. 02, 2014 - 02:48PM JST

Where is the reference given to the estimate of 200,000?

The 1st link(Eventbrite). No reference given.

The 2nd link(Huffington Post). No reference given.

The 3rd link(Amnesty). No reference given.

The 4th link(SBS). No reference given.

The 5th link(BBC). No reference given.

The message is clear. "Believe in the press, we give no detail." How can you defend your argument except you believe in the press? Go back to the comparative study by AWF. I think professor Yoshimi should get credit every time Western press quotes his work.

itsonlyrocknrollDec. 02, 2014 - 01:05PM JST

CH3CHO humbly the same simple question do you accept "Kono Statement" as a basis for closure,

Koreans do never accept Kono Statement as a basis for closure. It is pointless to discuss something the opposite side would never accept.

You are dissembling. All of the above links back-up the 200,000 figure, which may actually be conservative. As for the Kono statement, do you aspire to be a politician? You have yet to give a clear yes or no answer on the issue. Koreans will accept closure when the Japanese government apologises unequivocally, and even better compensates the women - and makes it a crime to deny the issue in future. That would cauterise this particular wound. Japan has Germany's fine postwar example to emulate as well: all issues settled, Nazi crimes taught in history class.

CH3CHO Dec. 02, 2014 - 04:28PM JST

http://www.awf.or.jp/e3/korea.html

Both the victims and the Fund found it hard to bear the fact that the atonement money and other benefits had led to pressure being applied on the victims who received them. The Fund therefore froze its projects temporarily and took steps hoping to improve conditions for project implementation in the Republic of Korea. However, a campaign was mounted to collect private donations within the Republic of Korea, to persuade women to refuse Fund project benefits. The donations were used to provide victims with a fixed amount of assistance money. The seven victims who had accepted benefits from the Fund's atonement projects were excluded from the program.

CH3CHO Dec. 02, 2014 - 01:02PM JST

Any former ianfu who receives compensation from AWF is financially punished by the Korean government,

Your statement is factually incorrect. The report says that the 7 victims who accepted benefits from the AWF would be excluded from receiving private donations within the Republic of Korea. How is that a punishment from the South Korean government if the funds were private donations from South Koreans? And by the way, those who accepted benefits did NOT receive cash!

The Asian Women's Fund's position was that it wished to implement projects in the Republic of Korea for victims so authenticated by the Government of that country, NOT pay cash.

Kim Dae-Jun became President of the Republic of Korea in March that year. In May, the new administration decided that, although it would not demand state reparations from the Japanese Government, it would pay 31.5 million won (at the time, about 3.1 million Japanese yen), plus an additional 4.18 million won from capital collected by the Korean Council ("Chongdaehyop,") as living expense subsidies to each former comfort woman who vowed to refuse Asian Women's Fund project benefits. The Government of the Republic of Korea paid this sum to 142 people, but did not pay it to 11 people — the seven who had accepted Fund benefits in the early stages, and four others who did not sign the written oath because they had accepted Fund benefits.

If victims had accepted the AWF's benefits they would not be allowed to collect private donations or payments from the government. Ok how is that a punishment?

CH3CHO Dec. 02, 2014 - 01:02PM JST

Any former ianfu who receives compensation from AWF is financially punished by the Korean government, and loses her right to receive pension from Korean government.

Couldn't find anywhere in your link that says victims lose their right to receive pension from Korean government. NOTHING about pensions mentioned.

Anyone who was in Japan at the time of the Asian Women's Fund creation back in 94~95, which I was, you would be well aware that it was a lackluster attempt by a administration who had it's hands tied by Juminto and the Kasumigeseki crowd who thought it unwise for compensation to be paid to the victims directly by the Japanese government. Money was NOT paid to the victims as it was the AWF's position was that it wished to implement projects in the Republic of Korea for victims so authenticated by the Government of that country.

CH3CHO, again, please read carefully and I again suggest using a source that provides more detail and less propaganda!

Maria Rosa Henson, A Fillipina survivor of Japanese soldiers in WW2 wrote a very powerful autobiography. She wrote that Twelve soldiers raped me in quick succession, after which I was given half an hour rest. Then twelve more soldiers followed. ... I bled so much and was in such pain, I could not even stand up. ... I felt much pain, and my vagina was swollen. ... Every day, from two in the afternoon to ten in the evening, the soldiers lined up outside my room and the rooms of the six other women there. I did not even have time to wash after each assault. At the end of the day, I just closed my eyes and cried

Perhaps you should read it CH3CHO, because although people who didn't go through it can argue about it till the cows come home, women like Ms Henson had to live it and live with it for the rest of their lives. They were not willing, there was wilful abuse and rape of these women over an extended period of time. If it takes a million apologies to make the tiniest dent in reparation for and acknowledgement of their suffering that they deserve, then they should have those.

LaWrenDec. 02, 2014 - 06:27PM JST

Reconciliation was made with Ms Maria Rosa Henson about 20 years ago. You can see her picture here. http://www.awf.or.jp/e3/philippine-01.html

If it takes a million apologies to make the tiniest dent in reparation for and acknowledgement of their suffering that they deserve, then they should have those.

I agree.

Christopher GlenDec. 02, 2014 - 05:56PM JST

and makes it a crime to deny the issue in future.

Does that apply to former ianfu, too? Ms. Yong Soo Lee, and Ms. Koon Ja Kim testified before US Congress, and their Oral testimonies contradicts their written testimonies that had been submitted to the US Congress previously. http://archives.republicans.foreignaffairs.house.gov/110/33317.pdf Isn't it denial of previous testimony, and therefore a crime? On top of that, if people talk about their case, they have to deny one testimony or the other and therefore end up being a criminal?

The issue is controversial because the testimonies of Korean former ianfu are contradicting. I suspect they are making contradictory testimonies on purpose.

Mr. PerfectDec. 02, 2014 - 06:20PM JST

However, a campaign was mounted to collect private donations within the Republic of Korea, to persuade women to refuse Fund project benefits.

That is a description of a"dditional 4.18 million won from capital collected by the Korean Council". "31.5 million won" come from Korean government.

Accepting the payments is not the same as "reconcilliation". She was a financially poor woman who saw the opportunity to make her life a little less desperate. Dont you dare read her desperation as reconcilliation.

Stop calling them by the disgusting Japanese imperial word IANFU. They are survivors of Japanese war crimes, every time you use that word you dishonor them.

''I lay on the bed with my knees up and my feet on the mat, as if I were giving birth. Whenever the soldiers did not feel satisfied they vented their anger on me. When the soldiers raped me, I felt like a pig. I was angry all the time.'' NINETEEN THOUSAND dollars and a halfassed apology doesnt make THAT better.

Japanese war crimes is no shame on modern Japanese. But the refusal to admit and apologise in a decent manner is incredibly shameful.

Does that apply to former ianfu, too? Ms. Yong Soo Lee, and Ms. Koon Ja Kim testified before US Congress, and their Oral testimonies contradicts their written testimonies that had been submitted to the US Congress

None of this negates the fact that roughly 200,000 women were coerced from about a dozen different countries. Further dissembling.

Ch3Cho you need to read the accounts of people like Walterina Markova, to use the name he adopted, who was repeatedly gang raped beaten and held captive by the Japanese. In one of the last interviews he gave before his death, this lovely joyful man was asked if he could forgive the Japanese. He said "yes but only if they ask for forgiveness".

Unfortunately he died before he got to forgive. 200,000 women is the accepted figure. I have had a look at the primary sources, but better historians than I will ever be accept this as around the correct figure.

Stop fumbling around CH3 in legalese and look at the human stories and human cost then come back. If you still don't think any differently, then perhaps there is no hope after all.

http://intersections.anu.edu.au/ is a good place to start.

Stop fumbling around CH3 in legalese and look at the human stories and human cost then come back.

Couldn't have put it better myself. Japan has a large moral debt to the world with regard to the sex slaves. Time to make unequivocal amends

Thank you Christopher. I think what some Japanese just do not grasp is that an admission of guilt is a positive step. It will not lead to condemnation or gloating, it will just open the way to true forgiveness and the ability to move on from the past. In fact admitting fully the guilt, updating textbooks, and offering a more open apology, which includes the gay men they also captured, detained and slaved, would be the most positive act for Japan I can think of.

"Kono statement", apology if you will, needs to be enacted/legislated into the constitution. The details lies in the realms of the diplomats. The issues surrounding revision will continue as elections bring political change. Full open political debate is needed to deal with "denial" festering within government office. The German constitution could be a example to follow.

"PeacetrainDec. 02, 2014 - 09:58AM JST The difference is that many of the comfort women were simply killed when the war was drawing to a close or if they became of no further use. That is rather a brand new accusation. Where did you get that? There are Japanese martial court records in which Japanese soldiers were severely disciplined for injuring or misbehaving against Ianfu. it seems we have unforeseeable past."

Ch3Co, If this is REALLY a new accusation for you, than you just haven't read enough. Seriously. And if you think the fact that some Japanese soldiers were disciplined in some cases for misbehaving means anything, then it's pretty hard to discuss this with you.

How many reports of the suffering of these women have you actually read?

Some right-wingers are ignorant and have just not read the literature, but others probably know but just want to argue. Which group are you in?

Stop calling them by the disgusting Japanese imperial word IANFU. They are survivors of Japanese war crimes, every time you use that word you dishonor them

The system itself is not a war crime. The system itself are basically private brothel operators who attached themselves to the military. The 'crimes' that were committed 'by individuals' were subsequently prosecuted by the Allied courts (most notably, Semarang case) where the responsible were punished accordingly.

The surviving former comfort women who are backed by civil groups are simply 'accusations' with very little credibility as evidenced by the conflicting testimonies (as mentioned by Ch3Co above) and whatever support they had received from people of Japan are quickly fading as a result of the retraction by Asahi of Yoshida testimony where it's no longer a taboo to question their accusations and their motives.

Nige, to call the victims of kidnap and rape "prostitutes" is disgusting, and Ch3CHO is using the word to push home their point that she believes these wo/men were willing, paid for and not victims.

We are not talking about prostitution, we are talking about women who were kidnapped and kept as sex slaves. If a woman is willing working in the sex industry, happy and her health taken care of, great. But this is not even close to that situation.

Ive no problem with calling a prostitute a prostitute, but prostitutes are willing wo/men, working in return for recompense. These women and men were not lanfu, not prostitutes. They were the victims of brutal, violent beatings and rapes, over an extended period of time.

A prostitute can refuse her client, wants to service them, and is paid for it. Giving these women 19 thousand dollars, fifty years later, does NOT make them prostitutes, EITHER, CH3. Bacce, an Indonesian woman was only in her mid teens when the soliders came.

One hot evening when I was cooking at home, two men came and pulled me outside against my will."

The words the men spoke were not Indonesian, and they held guns. Seeing this, Bacce says she figured they were Japanese soldiers. Tears welled up in her eyes 10 minutes or so into the interview.

Bacce was pushed onto the bed of a truck before her father's eyes as he screamed, "Don't take my daughter away!" Bacce says there were other girls around the same age riding with her.

The place they arrived at "had Japanese army tents set up." Bacce was taken inside one, where she said she was raped by several men.>

It wasn't just Asian women either, Mrs. Ruff-O’Herne a Dutch lady, now 91 years old, was directly and violently abducted, just like the rest of these people as she said,

‘it's just hideous to not acknowledge it, there are so many witnesses who have spoken out about this’> (The Age newspaper, 25 February 2014). She was a 17 year old girl, who then had to suffer repeated, violent, and brutal rapes over a period of years.

If you refuse to believe the many many victims, then perhaps you will believe the Japanese.

Japanese military records, soldiers' diaries and recorded recollections by veterans unmistakably record the close involvement of the military in the recruitment, transport and organization of women. Just one of numerous examples of such evidence is an Imperial Japanese Navy document recording the 'collection of native women' for a 'comfort station' in Balikpapan, Indonesia, carried out under the 'management' of the chief accounts officer of a local Japanese naval unit. The chief accounts officer in question (the document notes) was Nakasone Yasuhiro, who went on to serve as prime minister of Japan from 1982 to 1987, and is now a Liberal Democratic Party elder statesman. This document was presented and discussed in the Japanese Diet by an opposition parliamentarian in May 2013.

Sure, some of the women were lured under false pretences, to these "comfort stations" by brokers, where they were then imprisoned, or transported long distances with no way of getting back to their families and homes.

It was a war crime.

Nige, to call the victims of kidnap and rape "prostitutes" is disgusting, and Ch3CHO is using the word to push home their point that she believes these wo/men were willing, paid for and not victims.

That's not what I said.

We are not talking about prostitution, we are talking about women who were kidnapped and kept as sex slaves. If a woman is willing working in the sex industry, happy and her health taken care of, great. But this is not even close to that situation.

We are talking about prostitution and brothels during war. This is what the evidence indicates. Granted, there were cases where these women were recruited by private individuals with coersion and/or sold by their parents due to economic conditions but these type of issues are still prevalant today.

The Health of the these women are highly documented with regular health check ups. This is evidenced by hundreds of pages of archived documents.

Ive no problem with calling a prostitute a prostitute, but prostitutes are willing wo/men, working in return for recompense. These women and men were not lanfu, not prostitutes. They were the victims of brutal, violent beatings and rapes, over an extended period of time.

There is no way to distinguish the two. That's the point. Like I said, the system itself is basically a private brothel independently attaching themselves to the military.

A prostitute can refuse her client, wants to service them, and is paid for it. Giving these women 19 thousand dollars, fifty years later, does NOT make them prostitutes, EITHER, CH3. Bacce, an Indonesian woman was only in her mid teens when the soliders came.

Those are all indicated in the archived document from the AWF with rules and regulations (refusal of customers) and pay scale. Please read them.

Issuing travel documents to comfort women, verifying their age. -Order for weekly medical examination by military doctors to check for VD with hundreds of reports summarizing the results. -Order to carefully screen the operators for some are recruiting underage girls under false pretenses. -Supply orders for "condoms" because the local area did not have them. -Setting up price and working hours -Warnings not to use brothels set up by locals for it appears that they are growing in spurts due to presence of IJA soldiers and therefore, hasn't complied with the regulations (VD screening, age, how they were recruited, etc.) -Warning to soldiers to pay the prepaid ticket before the actual service for it was reported by operators that some have skipped paying. -Reports of fighting among IJA soldiers because of their affection towards a particlar comfort woman. -Advisement to the soldier to pay for the property damage incurred at the brothel to the operator.

http://www.awf.or.jp/pdf/0051_5.pdf

It's all there but you ignore them.

Absolutely disgusting that you would try to pretend these victims of brutal rapes and kidnap were willing prostitutes. Shame on you. Im not ignoring it, Nige, Im reading what you are writing in utter disgust. I can understand a Japanese revisionist, but one who denies crimes, presumably from elsewhere, just boggles my mind. PROPERTY DAMAGE? How about the damage to these people's bodies? Their minds?

NOT one of these women or men were willing. There were no lanfu. Only rape victims.

Absolutely disgusting that you would try to pretend these victims of brutal rapes and kidnap were willing prostitutes. Shame on you.

That's not what I said. Perhaps you should learn to read before jumping to your own conclusions.

The "System" which is basically a private brothel attaching themselves to the military is not a crime for prostitution was legal. Were there indivdiuals, whether be private operators, brokers, recruiters, and soldiers who conducted actions that were illegal in this system? Yes. Nobody's denying this.

No more bickering please.

LaWrenDec. 02, 2014 - 09:10PM JST I think what some Japanese just do not grasp is that an admission of guilt is a positive step. It will not lead to condemnation or gloating, it will just open the way to true forgiveness and the ability to move on from the past.

Now isn’t that interesting? Once it became South Korea’s responsibilty to compensate any losses due to Japan’s colonial rule miraculously any losses had already been compensated. And ever since early 2000's Korea has been trying to find ways to pass their financial responsibility back to Japan. If Korea had agreed back in 1965 for Japan to handle individual compensation, as Japan had first suggested, Japan would have immediately publicized, and given claimants a deadline by which to submit claims with substantiating evidence. Japan would have honored the claim. But based on the Treaty it was up to the South Korean government to set up these measures. It didn’t happen.

Japan settled the issue with Korea in 1965. But a treaty is a treaty. Japan had no control over who was head of Korea’s government nor the form of government at the time of the treaty of 1965. Japan made billions in reparations in good faith to the Korean government instead of to individuals because that’s the way the Korean government wanted it. The Korean government was supposed to pay our individual reparations. It was not Japan’s fault that Park Chung-hee used the money for infrastructure instead. Until recently, many Koreans didn’t even know that Japan paid reparations.

LaWrenDec. 02, 2014 - 07:54PM JST

Stop calling them by the disgusting Japanese imperial word IANFU. They are survivors of Japanese war crimes, every time you use that word you dishonor them.

It seems you want to change the past. I use the word ianfu in historical context. Changing the name retroactively does not do any good.

LaWrenDec. 03, 2014 - 07:05AM JST

We are not talking about prostitution, we are talking about women who were kidnapped and kept as sex slaves. If a woman is willing working in the sex industry, happy and her health taken care of, great. But this is not even close to that situation.

You may not be talking about prostitution, but the topic here and that of the Yomiuri article is ianfu. Now, the question is the nature of ianfu system. It seems that you put the conclusion before the discussion, and coerce everyone to call it "sexual slavery and rape" even though there are plenty of documents during ww2 that indicate it was prostitution.

This is the only one US interrogation report of ianfu during WW2, which says as follows. http://www.exordio.com/1939-1945/codex/Documentos/report-49-USA-orig.html

LIVING AND WORKING CONDITIONS;

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

You cannot paint the whole ianfu issue with just one brush of "sexual slavery and rape".

@As this link shows Japan still has moral and legal bligations to the sex slaves that were not settled by the normalisation treaty of 1965 with South Korea. http://www.japanfocus.org/-Totsuka-Etsuro/3885 This of course doesn't include the women coerced from other countries and raped by the military. All you right wingers can dissemble all you want. Japan lost the war, fact. Japan committed unspeakable atrocities, for which the evidence far outweighs your nitpicking and dissembling. So, Japan has a choice. It can belatedly follow the example of Gernany in teaching historical fact to its youth and making amends for its crimes - or it can continue to stick its head in the sand and be a pariah

You cannot paint the whole ianfu issue with just one brush of "sexual slavery and rape".

And yet you try to paint the whole sex slave issue with just one brush of "prostitution".

What's good for the goose is good for the gander.

PeacetrainDec. 03, 2014 - 01:11AM JST

Ch3Co, If this is REALLY a new accusation for you, than you just haven't read enough

It is up to you to establish your case.

LaWrenDec. 02, 2014 - 08:10PM JST

Ch3Cho you need to read the accounts of people like Walterina Markova,

OK. Here are his accounts. http://intersections.anu.edu.au/issue13/klein_interview.html

Markova: I started to have my hair long since 1939. I was wearing a dress since 1939. My hair was until here [points to shoulders]. My mother and brother didn't like me wearing girls' clothes, walking in the street in girls' attire.

Markova: Yeah. At that time, even before the war, I was always dancing in Lonapor, in Subic Bay, in Angeles Night Club. I used to do a floorshow there, twice a week, Friday and Saturday. But the American customers didn't know that I was a gay.

Markova: When the Japanese arrived in January,1942, they passed by Pasay, and we were all in the streets, looking at the Japanese passing by. So, that night, even though there was a blackout, I could not stay in the house. I went out flirting, looking for boys.

What was your point?

DISGUSTING. The fact that Walter was an actively gay man does not mean that gang raping him by a large group of Japanese male soldiers was ok. How dare you. What a FILTHY thing to say

d then this Japanese official called for the Japanese MP. By and by, a Japanese truck arrived with Japanese soldiers, MPs, Kempeitai. They grabbed our hair like that. They pulled us down from upstairs in the hotel and pushed us into the truck. And while we were being pulled down like that the Japanese soldiers were kicking us. They were doing that with their guns [shows being hit by rifle]. And they slapped us and boxed us like that [demonstrates punching].

They took us to the Rizal Memorial Baseball Stadium. In front of Rizal Memorial there was a long table. Sitting there were Japanese officials, Japanese MPs, civilian policeman, so when we got down there, this Japanese that was mad at us, he told the Japanese official, "Punish these people. They are not real women. They are men. Do you know what they did?" The Japanese officials stood up and each one of the four of us was kicked like that. You know Japanese boots? They kicked us like that [demonstrates].

RDK: Right in front. In your stomach?

Markova: In our stomachs, legs, anywhere they wanted to kick us. So then they brought us inside their quarters. They told the soldiers, "Punish those goddamn gays." Do you know what the soldiers did? They fell in line and they raped us one by one. We could not say, "No, no, no! Stop that. I don't like that." We could not do anything. We were surrounded by Japanese soldiers. Bayonets were doing like that to us [shows pointing bayonet] and they were raping us. Some of them were in front of us, holding our heads like that and pushing their front in our mouths. While they were raping us, they were hitting us with their guns, here in the back, anywhere [shows hitting with rifle].

Yep. The whole world knows what you did Japan. Time to acknowledge that fact - and make amends for your past

The entire thing was orchestrated and implemented at a military, industrial level. Absolutely disgusting and not what decent people do. How can anyone defend rounding up basically children and sending them to battlefronts to be sold to soldiers. It's simply pathetic.

The entire thing was orchestrated and implemented at a military, industrial level. Absolutely disgusting and not what decent people do. How can anyone defend rounding up basically children and sending them to battlefronts to be sold to soldiers. It's simply pathetic.

Nope. The military as a whole did not round up "basically children and sending them to battlefronts to be sold to soldiers". If such conducts was carried out, it was the invididuals.

Brothels/prostitution during war and military stations are nothing new. This was practiced by the Korean government throughout much of three decades during the Korean war and U.S. occupation. U.S. military caried out medical checks and supervision in other occupied areas while completely turning a blind eye to how these women were recruited in the first place.

One significant step that would lead to peace, closure and an end to the conflict that has blighted Japan Korea relations would be the formal decoration that membership of the extreme right wing group Zaitokukai (Citizens' Society against Special Privileges of Resident Koreans in Japan) be banned and out lawed as this group incites racial hatred calling on there extinction.   Kyoto's district court has come some way by ruling there vile protests outside  Korean schools constituted illegal  discrimination. However the main political organization "netto uyoku" infest and spread there poison on the Internet under the vail of freedom of speech. Examples must be made, fines, public shaming, and finally denial of their  freedom. Treat them as Austria do holocaust deniers with lengthy prison sentences.

Bad for Japan. And, ultimately, a lost cause.

Japan needs the US. Japan's nationalists need the US. To stop China.

The American Chinese and Korean communities both vastly outnumber the American Japanese community. The former two will never allow the US to go along with Japan's whitewash of Imperial Japan.

Nige, I wonder why you deny the war crimes of the Japanese? I would like to know your motive. Im so sorry these women and men couldnt document their experiences at the time, they were too busy being imprisoned and gangraped. Im sorry the Japanese didnt keep better records. And Im sorry you cannot believe the many many testimonies of the victims and the "brokers" who helped the Japanese abduct and slave and rape, and of the soliders themselves. Some of whom did admit to their actions, years later. CH3 is just a Japanese nationalist/apologist, her motives are transparent enough, but you seem like a reasonable person.

Readers, please stop bickering. If you wish to post on this thread, you need to be tolerant of opposing views.

Nige, I wonder why you deny the war crimes of the Japanese? I would like to know your motive. Im so sorry these women and men couldnt document their experiences at the time, they were too busy being imprisoned and gangraped. Im sorry the Japanese didnt keep better records

That's not the documents I'm referring to. It's quite simple. When one claims that nearly 200,0000 women were forcibly abducted from their homes and families by Imperial Japanese Army, it takes written orders from top down disseminated to thousands of public officials who are ultimately responsible for carrying out these orders. Were there such similar orders issued by the central government and disseminated to hundreds of public officers and branches to carry out whereby they ordered the citizens to comply the mass mobilization? You bet. The military draft and work mobilization order comes to mind. Were there such a thing for comfort women? No. Therefore, using common sense, it's logistically impossible for the IJA to abduct 200,000 women without such order.

Therefore, what you describe are solely individual cases which those who are responsible are actual individuals who conducted such heinous acts.

Supporting links please, Nigelboy. Oh while I'm at it..... <>http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/4325584<> <>https://www.eventbrite.com/e/comfort-women-why-japans-200000-wwii-sex-slaves-matter-today-tickets-12960999699<> <>http://cir.ca/news/japans-wwii-sex-slaves<>

these newspapers act like small children. whether right or wrong, no reason to correct old articles. though I don't subscribe to any newspapers, I was recently sent a free paper where they blamed another paper for causing controversy with South Korea. Childish.

Christopher GlenDec. 04, 2014 - 10:27AM JST

It is high time that you should admit that those links do not cite anything.

It is said, "If you repeat a lie often enough, people will believe it." That is because people want to believe what they want to believe without verifying.

You have no idea how the number of 200,000 was calculated, do you? If you do not, you have believed in the number without verifying.

Christopher GlenDec. 02, 2014 - 12:45PM JST

I checked out your links. One was all in Japanese for an apparent right-wing website,

You call this site "right wing"? http://www.awf.or.jp/pdf/0062_p107_141.pdf I take your comment as an admission that you cannot read Japanese.

You have yet to provide any links for mainstream websites. The BBC, the Sun, Daily Mirror, New York Times, any of those would suffice.

What are the circulation of those media? Which is "mainstream"?

Yomiuri 9,969 thousand

The Sun 2,770 thousand

The Daily Mirror 1,455 thousand

New York Times 1,034 thousand

Sadly I'm inclined to distrust Japanese news websites for the simple fact that uncomfortable information gets covered up in Japan - and isn't discussed honestly

If you cannot read Japanese, Japanese news media would be useless for you. But I can say that an honest man would not comment on the honesty of news media he cannot read.

Nige, whilst the Japanese army were cruel, they were not stupid. They knew they were doing wrong. The Asahi reported that "**A number of comfort station regulations the army wrote have been found.

Six of them are rules denying the women the freedom to leave the stations. None of them grant this freedom. Women who entered comfort stations via the slave trade were confined there until they worked off the money their owners had paid for them. And it goes without saying that those who were abducted were confined for a certain period of time as well. If they refused to have sex with troops, the soldiers or brothel operators would employ violence against them. "**

Still, historical revisionists like CH3, and yourself will not be satisfied with any evidence. Japan Today and a large part of the people who comment absolutely disgust me. Im done here.

LaWrenDec. 04, 2014 - 01:35PM JST

The Asahi reported that "A number of comfort station regulations the army wrote have been found.

"Found?" Those regulations were disclosed to the public decades ago. AWF even published them in book form in 1997. You can read them yourself on line here without going through the deflection of mass media. Isn't it great to live in this age? http://www.awf.or.jp/6/document.html

On page 163 of volume 3 http://www.awf.or.jp/pdf/0051_3.pdf, you can read the regulation issued by Japanese Occupying Army in Iloilo, the Philippines. It says ianfu may take a walk in the designated area in the attached map from 8 am to 10 am. The designated area includes the whole Plaza Libertad, San Jose de Placer Parish Church, and old Iloilo Hotel. "Confined" is misleading. By the way, do you think soldiers were allowed to leave the camp during war?

So the paperwork says they were allowed for a restricted amount of time in a restricted area? Not that they were free to go HOME, out of the area. The English word for that is a slave. These people were not soldiers, they did not sign up, they were abducted, stolen and slaved. If this is your "proof of Japanese good treatment, you REALLY dont have very much, do you, Chiko my dear. All you are proving is that they were not free. I came to this country loving it, the beauty and the culture. 14 long years later I loathe everything about this place, and it is people just like you who turned my respect into disgust.

@Ch3cho. I can read Japanese - but I choose to take mainstream Japanese news outlets' content with a very large pinch of salt, especially right-wing ones. Find me mainstream media content supporting your ideas and I'll take them more seriously. Japan can stick its head in the sand as long as it wants. If it ever surfaces for air, the sex slaves issue will still be there

Nige, whilst the Japanese army were cruel, they were not stupid. They knew they were doing wrong. The Asahi reported that "**A number of comfort station regulations the army wrote have been found. -

I'm aware of it. I even summarized some of the archived documents with the link @Dec. 03, 2014 - 07:16AM JST

In addition,

Rabaul

-Women between ages 20~25, the fee is 2.5 yen which includes condoms. The drinks are quite expensive. -Operation hours between 8 am~6pm. However, certain upper class military can stay overnight at a price. -Women can refuse service if the customer does not use condom.

Burma

-According the Korean operator there, his restaurant business wasn't doing to well so he decided to operate the comfort station. -He recruited women from ages 19 to 31 paying in advance from 300 yen~1000 yen per woman. -In his operation, his women earned between 300 yen~1,500 yen a month of which a minimum of 150 yen per month was collected by the operator from each women

These are all there in the Asian Women Fund site.

These are primary sources of how the IJA regulated the system. What is your point?

Nige, why do you believe the written rulebook of the Japanese and ONE Korean brothel owner, who no doubt doesnt want to admit to helping the Japanese rape and slave, and not the credible and consistent testimony of the many victims and the Japanese soliders who have admitted their crimes?

If those women couldnt refuse a man who used a condom, that is STILL RAPE, Nigel, repeated, body, mind and soul destroying rape. If they are not free to leave they are slaves. Who do you think got the money from those rapes? The women? Are you really that gullible? The condoms were to protect the Japanese not the person being raped. If a woman fought, do you honestly believe she wasnt beaten or worse and then...well just raped anyway.

Nigel, WHY? Do you hate women? Have a thing against prostitutes? Why do you believe the Japanese and not the victims?

Nige, why do you believe the written rulebook of the Japanese and ONE Korean brothel owner, who no doubt doesnt want to admit to helping the Japanese rape and slave, and not the credible and consistent testimony of the many victims and the Japanese soliders who have admitted their crimes?

One? No. I just cited 'one'. CH3CHO as well as myself have linked to AWF site where there are literally hundreds of pages of archived documents for you to read.

If those women couldnt refuse a man who used a condom, that is STILL RAPE, Nigel, repeated, body, mind and soul destroying rape. If they are not free to leave they are slaves. Who do you think got the money from those rapes? The women? Are you really that gullible? The condoms were to protect the Japanese not the person being raped. If a woman fought, do you honestly believe she wasnt beaten or worse and then...well just raped anyway.

That's not what the report states such as the U.S. report which indicates these women "...show that the health of these girls was good. They were well supplied with all types of contraceptives..."

If there were violence, there would surely be some physical evidence to attest to this during the interrogation. Please bear in mind that the U.S. report was conducted after forces captured the IJA unit. If such actions were done, the girls would no doubt jump into the U.S. soldiers arms and confess all those misdeeds done by the IJA officers, right?

Nigel, WHY? Do you hate women? Have a thing against prostitutes? Why do you believe the Japanese and not the victims?

Whether or not I believe are the testimonies of the former comfort women are irrelevant for even if it's true, the responsible ones are the very INDIVIDUALS who conducted such acts and NOT the people of Japan or the current government of Japan.

Imperial General Headquarters in Tokyo dispatched enciphered messages to field commands throughout the Pacific and East Asia ordering units to burn incriminating evidence of war crimes, especially offenses against prisoners of war. The director of Japan’s Military History Archives of the National Institute for Defense Studies estimated in 2003 that as much as 70 percent of the army’s wartime records were burned or otherwise destroyed.

A report filed by the 27th Marines, 5th Marine Division, on September 24, 1945, documents the systematic destruction of records by the Japanese after the initial surrender to the Allies but before Allied troops arrived. NA, RG 127, entry 1011, box 23, folder: Intelligence–Japanese.

I didnt know this! Now, Nigel we know why you dont have more of your precious written evidence. They burnt it.

@LaWren

I suspect that Korea will never be satisfied with any apology, and they are happy to keep rejecting apologies and pressing for new apologies because they can turn this position into a popular one among the people in their countries. While recognizing Japan’s guilt in this matter, we also need to recognize the political posturing on the parts of Korea, who want to keep this issue fresh and unresolved for the purpose of personal political gain.

What about the settlement in 1965? After the settlement, majority of these conscripted workers never received anything from their own goverment. Even if the 1965 settlement included the comfort women, what makes you think that Korean goverment would've disbursed the compensation money? Their goverment didn't care about their own people. The South Korean government needs to be forthright about the fact it spent the $800 million in compensation money and take some responsibility itself, instead of blustering that Japan “hasn’t apologized nor compensated enough.” If the South Korean government had done it’s part back in the 1960′s and disbursed compensation efficiently to those Koreans conscripted by the Japanese during WWII, much of the problems wouldn’t exist today.

Why did Korean goverment hid and deny until 2005 (40 years later) to release a secret file to their own citizens of the $800 millions that Japan to Korea in 1965? Rather than deny, Park should say that Korean goverment used up the money designed for individual compensation.

I didnt know this! Now, Nigel we know why you dont have more of your precious written evidence. They burnt it.

It's regarding POW as per your bolded exerpts. Of course, you failed to address the interrogation reports of many IJA military unit that were captured prior to the surrender.

LaWren and nigelboy, please do not address each other any further on this thread. You're just going around in circles and continue to bicker.

LaWrenDec. 04, 2014 - 01:35PM JST

Still, historical revisionists like CH3, and yourself will not be satisfied with any evidence

Christopher GlenDec. 04, 2014 - 08:06PM JST

@Ch3cho. I can read Japanese - but I choose to take mainstream Japanese news outlets' content with a very large pinch of salt, especially right-wing ones. Find me mainstream media content supporting your ideas and I'll take them more seriously.

I am thinking of this discussion in a historical analogy.

Today, news readers have direct access to the same original source material on which the news writers wrote the article, and we can know the accuracy or the bias of the article. This was not the case before the age of internet, when readers had no access to source material or the available material was of questionable quality, and people had to rely on the "reputation" of the media.

When printing press was invented, the Bible became available to everyone. People have access to the same Bible, and they can know the accuracy or the bias of church preaching. People no longer needed to depend on church interpretation of the Bible, or no longer needed to rely on the "reputation" of a church to decide which church to believe.

LaWren calls anyone who challenges orthodox a "revisionist". Christopher Glen relies on the reputation or authority to decide what to believe. I just go to the original material to decide what I believe.

AND...the bickering continues!!!

But what would this site be without the bickering?

It certainly wouldn't have the advertising revenue brought by so many bickerers...sorry, posters, and their frequent, unique visits!

So where is your original "material"? I don't call right-wing media "original material". Is a historian - who is not Japanese - and therefore unfettered by government censorship - biased? Sorry CH3CHO but mainstream evidence is overwhelming. Oh and while I'm at it........ Hashimoto would have us believe that sex slaves were a necessary evil http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-22519384 But the evidence for the figure of 200,000 is pretty overwhelming http://www.racism.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1326:japan01&catid=146&Itemid=254 http://www.eventbrite.com/e/comfort-women-why-japans-200000-wwii-sex-slaves-matter-today-tickets-12960999699 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/25/comfort-women-wanted_n_4325584.html https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-UwU1-RVWs http://www.mapdays.com/list/event.asp?ID=1956619

Christopher GlenDec. 05, 2014 - 12:22PM JST

Sorry CH3CHO but mainstream evidence is overwhelming.

You need to understand the difference between a claim and evidence. All that is in your links are claims, and none of them has any evidence, any citation, any reference, any quotation or any reasoning.

LaWrenDec. 04, 2014 - 07:47PM JST

So the paperwork says they were allowed for a restricted amount of time in a restricted area? Not that they were free to go HOME, out of the area. The English word for that is a slave.

On page 37 of the same volume 3 is the standard ianfu agreement form that was to be signed by an ianfu and a brothel owner. http://www.awf.or.jp/pdf/0051_3.pdf

Article 9. If the ianfu cancels this contract in less than 6 months of this agreement against the will of the employer (brothel owner), the ianfu shall pay the employer appropriate amount of compensation the amount of which must be approved by the district officer.

So, an ianfu is free to leave after 6 months. There are other provisions in the contract.

Article 1 -1(ro). The advance payment to ianfu or any additional loan to ianfu shall be free of interest.

Article 2. The following costs shall be paid and borne by the employer.

Room, wardrobe, and sanitation equipment, 2. Bed and linen, 3. Food and oil, 4. Sanitation supplies, 5. Medical health check.

Article 6. Any money or goods received by ianfu directly from the customers or others (such as tips) shall belong to the ianfu.

There you are again, posting right-wing links. I've checked out your material, and found it lacking. I very much doubt any of the dwindling remainder of sex slaves, and the souls of the other 200,000 or so departed - would agree with your sentiment about being able to leave after 6 months. They were not "ianfu". That word gives what they did dignity. They were sex slaves - and victims of one of the most gross abominations in human trafficking in history

A revisionist rewrites history, usually to erase the sins of a nation - a bit like the Japanese burning their documents when they realized they had lost. Im happy to call you what I think you are, CH3CHO if you dont like that word - a right wing rape and slavery apologist, someone who doesnt value non-Japanese lives and makes excuses for war criminals.

It seems you aren't far off the mark with that sentiment LaWren

Christopher GlenDec. 05, 2014 - 03:36PM JST

There you are again, posting right-wing links.

The links are reprints of government archives. So, the materials themselves are neutral. The research was done by AWF which was established by Murayama administration, led by Japan Socialist Party. JSP is by all means left wing.

What I find disappointing is that you said you can read Japanese. Anyone who can read Japanese would never fail to notice that the materials are reprints of government archives.

LaWrenDec. 05, 2014 - 04:40PM JST

Im happy to call you what I think you are

I know you call anyone who challenges orthodox a "revisionist", but you do not care if the orthodox is true or not.

The Japanese government neutral. Please pull the other one And yes, I can read Japanese. Japan's government officially burned many records regarding the sex slaves, so any material remaining on the issue is somewhat lacking. How's your search for mainstream media info going?

Ch3CHO, lets not talk about what I think you are, let me tell you what I am. Im a feminist who has seen how a large number Japanese men treat women even in modern day Japan, and without the added excuse of being an invading army. I can say that I believe, that should the same situation arise, that the Japanese, not having taken responsibility for their actions in WW2 and trying to excuse those very actions, would be more than capable of the same inhumane monstrosities again humanity.

The Japanese Government is not impartial, any documents worth anything were sent to ashes and dust, bit like the hopes, health and happiness of the women and men they slaved. To forget those men that suffered too breaks my heart. Walter was the only "comfort gay" (forgive me for using that vile term) to survive. The rest were killed. What happened to Walter and his friends was as brutal and soul destroying as what happened to any of the 200,000 some women.

It is telling that you hate being called a revisionist, but being called a rape apologist didnt make you bat an eyelid.

Christopher, I can barely open this thread without reaching for the red wine, so excuse me if I bow out. I also find the very restrictive moderation on Japan Today makes it very difficult to discuss anything in any depth.

CH3CHO, I tell my half Japanese children the truth about what happened in WW2. I tell them so they can understand and grow into decent people who know that while it wasnt their fault, and they should hold no shame personally, that Japan has a dark past which it has failed to come to terms with.

No doubt been previously presented, and is evidence enough to comply with international law.....

Winston Churchill didn't ring all my bells, but this quote sums up the act of denial to a tee.

"Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen."

Sexual Slavery and the Comfort Women of World War II

<http:// scholarship.law.berkeley.edu/bjil/vol21/iss2/6 >

I tell them so they can understand and grow into decent people who know that while it wasnt their fault, and they should hold no shame personally, that Japan has a dark past which it has failed to come to terms with.

Yes, that's the least anyone can do: tell the truth

No doubt been previously presented, and is evidence enough to comply with international law.....

Then why don't they go to the international court against Japan?

It doesn't require The International court of justice at the Hague to make an example of the extreme right wing group Zaitokukai, and the placard waving gaggle of racists spreading there vile agenda of hatred outside Korean Schools. To associate 'Japan' the Zaitokukai and political poison pedallers 'netto uyoku' in the same sentence is offensive. Extreme right wing agitators infest all walks of life in national societies globally. 

To recap, Abe san clearly stated his support for the 1993 The Kono Statement,  the Kyoto's district court has taken steps to define discriminatory behaviour. A further step would be to distinguish and categorize intolerance by criminalizing groups and individuals for there actions. The nature of forgiveness is to search for compromise. Acceptance unequivocally to the essense and sentiment contained within the Kono Statement is not the whole solution but provides consensus for the diplomats to make progress.

There you are again, posting right-wing links.

That's the first time I heard that Asian Women Fund were part of the "right wing" groups. I guess when one can't counter with primary evidence presented, one resorts to dissmiss it by labeling them to a group that's at the other end of the spectrum.

The link provided hundreds and hundreds of archived documents relating to comfort women system "at that time" which are considered as primary evidence by historians.

The Asian Women's fund were a private organisation. What these women want is an official, unequivocal apology direct from the Japanese government - and direct compensation. Setting up a little "slush" fund isn't the same thing. So, further meaningless attempts to dissemble by right-wingers like yourself.

Then why don't they go to the international court against Japan?

Japan would have to agree to accept the judgement of the court. Can't see that happening

Japan would have to agree to accept the judgement of the court. Can't see that happening

I think Japan will agree. At least you should try and see if Japan will agree.

How about this: Comfort women were women who were forced into prostitution by the Japanese Imperial Army. The term forced meaning they had no choice in the matter.

The Kono Statement declares a strategy for closure, adoption into the constitution give a unequivocal message of intent. This does not require the approval of any international court. All this will achieve is a platform for more right wing political mischief making. Abe must purge permanently the corrosive right with wing elements that manifest within government and his cabinet. Then lobby both China and SK for outright reinvention and construction of a new political relationship built on trust and reconciliation. China in turn must recognise international law, set about a programme of disarmament of it's military and actively engage in the political process of détente. The whole region needs complete political change, the pain surrounding the tragic mismanagement of the comfort women is exasperating the situation.

The term forced meaning they had no choice in the matter.

How about calling them what they were: sex slaves. They were nothing but sex slaves, save perhaps a few "volunteers" from Japan

its funny inspite 200000 korean women were dragged against their will, there are little evidence in korea. N.korea accused US: KCNA Commentary Terms U.S. Worst Human Rights Abuser http://kcnawatch.nknews.org/article/ey2c one million sex slaves for US army. is this true? why US media keep quiet?

Yomiuri Shimbun just admitted they had used inappropriate words, just like the interpreter who put extra wording to the speech of Abe about WWI, which provoked misunderstanding internationally. That's all. Yomiuri did a right thing.

New York Times, Dec. 2, 2014.

<http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/03/world/asia/japanese-right-attacks-newspaper-on-the-left-emboldening-war-revisionists.html

There is little evidence that the Japanese military abducted or was directly involved in entrapping women in Korea, which had been a Japanese colony for decades when the war began, although the women and activists who support them say the women were often deceived and forced to work against their will.

At last, NYT adimitted there is little evidence. The writer of this article should prove the credibility of the testimonies of the so-called Korean comfort women, before blaming Japan as rewriting the history (it is exactly what they are doing), or ignoring the Korean comfort women for US (and UN) soldiers during and after the Korean War, which has clear evidences and witnesses. They should do so, if they want to be called jurnalists. Otherwise, NYT should take the same course as Asahi Shimbun did.

As Toshiko says, US media is acting very unfairly.

All the evidence points to systematic abuse of 200,000 women from about a dozen different countries <>http://cir.ca/news/japans-wwii-sex-slaves

Sorry, I made a mistake. It was weorqereui, not toshiko. Sorry for both.

@ Christopher Glen.

Convincing evidence for that figure please. Over 50% of the comfort women were Japanese. Only this fact telles that the figure you stated is ridiculous. Besides, it is totally inconsistent with what Koreans have claimed so far. Paradox after paradox.

A link to a North Korean "news" propaganda site? Are you THAT desperate?

Christopher, whatever you say, these people will never ever admit Japan's guilt, culpability, or their own extreme racism/nationalism, but it is good that you said it.

Japan slaved and sexually tortured 200,000 mostly women. The way they treated their POW's was notoriously appalling. What they did in China rivalled anything the Nazi's did. I had thought Japan had grown as a nation after this event, it seems though that lessons are not even admitted, let alone learnt by some Japanese. I just pity the decent Japanese people whose national image suffers as a result of the not insignificant number of right wing black van driving deniers.

The Asian Women's fund were a private organisation. What these women want is an official, unequivocal apology direct from the Japanese government - and direct compensation. Setting up a little "slush" fund isn't the same thing. So, further meaningless attempts to dissemble by right-wingers like yourself.

It's an organization that was set up by the government to aid the surviving comfort women despite not a single evidence to suggest that these women were abducted by the IJA systematically. If these women want direct compensation from the government using the money from the tax paying people of Japan, they better cone up with more than 'testimonies' that has changed many times over.

Again, the responsibilities of these women no longer lies to the current government nor the Japanese individuals of today who had NOTHING to do with them.

despite not a single evidence to suggest that these women were abducted by the IJA systematically

Who abducted the women, or even whether they were abducted, doesn't change the fact that if they were not allowed to leave, they were sex slaves.

Who abducted the women, or even whether they were abducted, doesn't change the fact that if they were not allowed to leave, they were sex slaves.

Who sad they weren't allowed to leave and where is the proof?

"....In the latter part of 1943 the Army issued orders that certain girls who had paid their debt could return home. Some of the girls were thus allowed to return to Korea..."

StrangerlandDec. 07, 2014 - 09:56AM JST despite not a single evidence to suggest that these women were abducted by the IJA systematically. Who abducted the women, or even whether they were abducted, doesn't change the fact that if they were not allowed to leave, they were sex slaves.

You have replaced the goal posts again.

Life of comfort women for Japanese imperial army.

https://archive.today/1jcC4

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/08/13/national/koreans-war-brothel-diaries-offer-new-details/#.VIO9jrkcQ5t

http://texas-daddy.com/comfortwomen.html

Real sex slaves were the Korean women worked for US or UN soldiers during and after the Korean War, for which Korean and US governments, and even UN, ares responsible and blamed. I really feel sympathy for them because of the way their government and people treated and still treating them. Koreans just want to harass Japan, but they are not caring about the rights of women at all, and continue replacing the goal posts just like you are doing now.

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

Who sad they weren't allowed to leave and where is the proof?

Well, for one, you just did, and you provided your own proof:

"....In the latter part of 1943 the Army issued orders that certain girls who had paid their debt could return home.

Only certain girls, and only if they had paid their debt. This means that other girls couldn't leave, and that only when their debt had been paid could the 'certain girls' leave.

You have replaced the goal posts again.

I haven't replaced the goal posts, I've stopped the attempted at redirection by the revisionists to focus on what defines a sex slave. A sex slave is defined by someone who is a slave forced to have sex. It's not defined on whether or not they were abducted or not (though of course, abduction just makes it worse). The goal posts were already moved by the revisionists, I've just brought it back to what it should have been.

Only certain girls, and only if they had paid their debt. This means that other girls couldn't leave, and that only when their debt had been paid could the 'certain girls' leave.

Or decided to stay to earn for herself, finally. This isn't something new.

Or decided to stay to earn for herself, finally.

No. Re-read that to see where your logic is incorrect: "certain girls who had paid their debt could return home". If the comment read "certain girls who had paid their debt did return home", then the logical conclusion is that some didn't, for their own reasons. But the quote was that some 'could' return home, with the logical conclusion being that some could not. And they were not allowed return home, it meant they were slaves. And since that slavery required having sex, they were sex slaves.

@Christopher Glen Koreans say most of them were Korean women, i want to know how to trap 200000women without a witness except for some victims. if we can arrest anybody who are accused of rape without evidence, we dont need court.

No. Re-read that to see where your logic is incorrect

Or simply a dispute with the House master and the women. Or simply another advance payment to their families where they incurred another debt. Or simply a lack of logistics where transportation between Korea and Pacific was at scarce.

What are the circulation of those media? Which is "mainstream"?

Websites that are not Japanese. And basically you can pretend you are not a right-wing, warcrimes apologist but you deceive no-one. Sorry, but the Japanese government's history of covering up information leads me to be highly skeptical of any of Japan's media. Moreover existing media outlets in Japan don't even have the courage to do a little investigative journalism - but merely print what they are told. The LDP isn't even sending a representative to answer questions at the foreign correspondent's club. So, excuse me for being highly skeptical about any of your claims

StrangerlandDec. 07, 2014 - 12:23PM JST

No. Re-read that to see where your logic is incorrect: "certain girls who had paid their debt could return home". If the comment read "certain girls who had paid their debt did return home", then the logical conclusion is that some didn't, for their own reasons. But the quote was that some 'could' return home, with the logical conclusion being that some could not.

How is it a logical conclusion? The meaning of "certain girls who had paid their debt could return home" is obvious. It does NOT mean that some of certain girls who had paid their debt could NOT return home.

Yes it does.

Nigel - good try, but you already proved my point.

Or simply a lack of logistics where transportation between Korea and Pacific was at scarce.

That may have been because of the US submarine stranglehold on Japan at the time. For anyone who wants an idea of what conditions were like for sex slaves, I recommend this harrowing film on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eh5PxT4U2CY

When is a prostitute not a prostitute? When they are a sex slave. These were not empowered women deciding to earn a bit of cash off the Japanese, they were taken, slaved, raped, beaten, threatened, imprisoned.

ACtually I dont blame men who use prostitutes or Japanese people denying this happened. If I belonged to either group Ild want to stick my head in the sand too.

JAN RUFF-O’HERNE:...... We said that we were forced into this, that they couldn't do this to us, they had no right to do this, it was against the Geneva Convention, and that we would never do this. But they just laughed at us, you know, just laughed. I mean, they said they could do with us what they liked. We were given flower names and they were pinned on our doors, you know. I can't remember my Japanese flower name. I just didn't even want to know about it. They started to drag us away one by one. And I could hear all the screaming coming from the bedrooms, you know, and you just wait for your turn, you know. And there stood this large, fat, bald Japanese officer looking at me, grinning at me, and I put up an enormous fight, but he just dragged me to the bedroom. And I said, "I'm not going to do this." And he said, "Well, I will kill you. If you don't give yourself to me, I will kill you." And he actually got out his sword. I went on my knees to say my prayers and I felt God very close. I wasn't afraid to die. And as I was praying, he...he had no intention of killing me, of course. He just, you know, threw me on the bed - got hold of me, threw me on the bed and just tore off all my clothes and most brutally raped me. And, I thought he would never stop. It was the most...the most horrendous... I never thought suffering could be that terrible. And eventually he left the room and I was in total shock And when I got to the bathroom, all the other girls were there. We were all there in the bathroom, all totally hysterical and crying and just trying to wash away the dirt, you know, the shame. Within one night, we lost our youth. We lost our innocence, our youth. We were just such a...such a pitiful little group of girls.

Ungil I found this is aboyt Yomiuri NY article, I wrote what II, An, Fu means and How Ian is used in hospital, and ithought Tomiueu nufgr abbiyce bew trabskaruib but it hasn;t announced new translation. So, American people must be believing Sex Slave until new translation. Do you guy have a better transkartion?

Doesn't make any difference to "fix" the wording now. Like I said, its just a petty argument between Yomiuri and Asahi.

I wrote what II, An, Fu means and How Ian is used in hospital,

Comparing sex slaves to patients in a hospital is a false analogy.

We lost our innocence, our youth

Yes, that lies at the heart of the issue, and what Japan has to make amends for

I am afraid Toshiko that i can barely make out the total gobbledygook of that post. What the heck is a nufgr? This is not a problem of translation, but a problem of not seeing or admitting the reality of Japan's very dark past. Nor is it a petty argument between two papers, how dare you trivialize the immense suffering of these women and men.

That seems to be how it works with right-wing lunatics: focus on a minor discrepancy to try to muddy the waters. The sooner that Japan makes amends for the sex slaves the better

Thing is, if it were just a few right wing crazies, it wouldnt bother me. Every country has em. It appears to be a socially acceptable, very commonly held view here in Japan. Im still trying to work out what nufgr abbiyce could mean. Ive seen some rough English in my time, but that is not even Japaneselish. Does it make you not want to live here, Christopher - the denials of history, I mean.

Does it make you not want to live here, Christopher - the denials of history, I mean.

Not sure we're supposed to address each other on this forum "directly", but yes there are times when I ponder the same thing. As for the commonly held view with regard to the sex slaves, the problem with Japan is the blinkered way in which history is taught here. Students are encouraged to forget whatever they were taught after the exams - and thus have no knowledge of world affairs which stem from past historical events. ie, the sex slaves of world war 2

@ Toshiko bashers: Go bask to read my comment about sex slave. About Ian, I is nagusameru. An is Anshin saseru. Together Japanese used to discribe actions of neighbors who comforted newe widows at funeral so that widows would not go to railroad truck to lay down to wait train comes. That is why I insisted sex slave is best translation before I found out Yomiuri NY article Yomiuri apologized. You have better translation for this kind of drafted women who had to have sex with lined up soldiers?

RAPE. Kidnap.

LaWrenDec. 09, 2014 - 07:06PM JST

Thing is, if it were just a few right wing crazies, it wouldnt bother me. Every country has em. It appears to be a socially acceptable, very commonly held view here in Japan.

You should look at your argument on this issue objectively. What you are saying is basically "My view is correct because I think it is right. And I am a feminist." Your argument lacks persuasive evidence. The story about the male prostitute does not help, either.

My view is correct because it is the truth, Ch3Cho. Because it is the historical fact. Walter was not a prostitute he was the victim of homosexual rape by the Japanese soldiers.

LaWrenDec. 10, 2014 - 09:50AM JST You think your view is correct because you think it is the truth, and because you think it is the historical fact. Your comment just proves my point.

If you want to dwell on the topic of Walter, I present this evidence. http://intersections.anu.edu.au/issue13/klein_interview.html

Markova: Now one time, when we were at the club, we had no customers that night. So one of my friends suggested we take a walk. He was a notorious gay. He came here to Manila to avenge his family, because his family was killed by the Japanese in their province in Cebu. But he was not a real gay. He was what you call a bisexual. In Cebu City he dressed up as a girl and made his earning as a prostitute. He knew how to be a woman and he was teaching us. So, one night, he says we have no customers. We'd better go to Luneta, because the Tsubaki Nightclub is very near Luneta. So four of us went walking,

RDK: All dressed as women?

Markova: Yes. With our evening gowns. So we walked in front of Rizal Park and it so happened, we met these four Japanese officials They approached us. They talked to us. This and that. So they invited us to go to their hotel. You know the Luneta Hotel? They brought us to the Lunetta Hotel.

When we were in the hotel, we went to our separate rooms and the Japanese were making love to u - kissing, kissing, loving, loving. I forgot that the Japanese's hand was moving around, holding me like that and that. But suddenly, he put his hand right here [groin]. And then he stands up. "Bakero!" he yelled at me. "You are not a real woman, you're a boy!" He got mad.

Ch3, the bolded section is refering to a FRIEND of Walter who was a prostitute - the HIM referring back to the phrase "one of my friends", not to Walter. He was showing Walter how to dress as a woman.

This incident you are referring to is previous to his internment by the Japanese, and was a case of consensual contact. There is plenty there describing the appalling brutal gang rapes and imprisonment he suffered later, but then you heartless person, you would do anything to excuse war crimes.

at funeral so that widows would not go to railroad truck to lay down to wait train comes.

Not quite sure what you mean by this. Women who refused to commit suicide? It seems clear muddying of the waters to me. Back on topic, Japan has a lot to make amends for

I am sure those that were doing the raping felt very comforted by being able to use and brutally rape and abuse the women that were being held against their will. From the Japanese point of view, TOshiko, sure, they were "comfort women" to the raping soldiers. To the women, it was horror time, terror, brutality and rape.

Toshiko, do you believe these women were raped? Do you believe this was wrong of the Japanese soldiers?

@LaWren: It was not rape Yomiuri descrived. It was sex slave. RTape in Japanese is Go-Kan. When drafted girls had to have sex with soldiers lined up outside of open roof shuck Japanese spldiers, that is sex xlave, not rape . Just organized Sex Slave. Rape differ than this kind of organized operation.

No, Toshiko, the girls were RAPED. Rape just means non-consensual sex, whether it is done by an organisation or an individual, this was RAPE.

Lets go with, Gokan is an acceptable description for what these soldiers did. The girls were not drafted, they were KIDNAPPED and forced into sex with men they didnt want to have sex with. THey were raped, brutally and repeatedly. What is it with you and "lining up".

Do you believe the girls were raped - FORCED into sex with the soldiers, they have no choice, they wanted to say no, and no would mean beating, forcing, or death?

RAPE IS FORCED SEX. THESE GIRLS WERE RAPED.

LaWrenDec. 11, 2014 - 07:18AM JST

The girls were not drafted, they were KIDNAPPED

Here are some of the testimonies of Korean former ianfu. How many of them say they were kidnapped? http://koreaverband.ahkorea.com/_file/trostfrauen/Testimonies_KoreanComfortWomen_english.pdf

Remember, what you think may or may not be true. You need to check the reality.

There were no rest days, and the women couldn’t leave the brothel - from the FIRST page of that link.

She couldnt leave. SHe was kept captive.

She believed she was going to work in a Japanese factory.

She was drawn to the location under false pretences and wasnt allowed to leave. We call that Kidnap.

The proprietors of the ‘comfort station' bought us clothes and makeup but gave us no money. SLAVED

Shall I carry on to the part where she says she was beaten and threatened with being killed? She became institutionalised and accepted her fate, but make no mistake this was RAPE. FORCED sex under the threat of physical harm.

Even your own links support the TRUTH. The Japanese soliders kidnapped, raped, and lured these women under false pretences so they could be slaved.

It would make me very happy if you could see the truth, Ch3, and admit it. Please try and look past your own feelings of disgust at the reality and admit it. I would think a lot more of you if you could do that, and people would think a lot more of Japan if Japan could just admit the truth of the past.

Turned up a detailed refutation of the idea that the Koreans were already compensated by Japan in 1965 with the $800M payment to S. Korean government:

http://askakorean.blogspot.com/2011/12/1000th-wednesday-protest-and-lies-about.html

1000th Wednesday Protest, and Lies about Comfort Women by Imperial Japan Apologists ... December 15, 2011 ...

Three. Japan already paid reparation for Comfort Women in 1965, but Korean government diverted the funds.

a. Japan knowingly dealt with a dictator who clearly did not represent the interest of Korean people ... (details) ... b. The reparation amount paid by Japan was grossly inadequate ... (details) ... c. Korean government, in fact, paid out the reparation paid by Japan ... (details) .... d. Basic Treaty did not eliminate Comfort Women's claims ... (details) ...

Before I was taken I didn’t have my period. After I went there, it must have been when I was sixteen. I began menstruating, you see. But the bastards kept coming even during my period. That didn’t stop them but they would get so insanely mad and curse, but would still do it.

This is from page 17 of Ch3's link.

The only thing was that if you didn’t do as they demanded, they would hit you with their fists. Below, I was torn, turned inside out, bleeding...

This is from page 16 of Ch3's link.

Toshiko, this is RAPE. Please understand, you seem like a nice person, when even the Japanese imperial apologists link PROVES that these were SLAVED, KIDNAPPED, RAPED.

How about YOU go ask Lady Gaga if this. I tell ya what, Ill go twitter her and ask what she thinks about this issue, if it is rape.

LaWren

Your country do not teach it public proper history. I heard that many South Koreans even don't know that SK became independent from China after Japan-China War (Nisshin Sensou).

My country? What country is that then?

.. Excuse me - i too had a reply to the comment from Toshiko regarding Lady Gaga and Bill Cosby, and like LaWren hadn't realized it had been deleted. ... But, i will say - anyone who is denying or diminishing these crimes against women made sex slaves - are nothing better than the PERPETRATORS of said crimes; and need to face that fact, and stop trying to twist the issue into something defensible - when it is clearly REPREHENSIBLE.

Let me give you a clue, Ms Watanabe, Im causasian, was born in the western hemisphere, and as far as I am concerned have no loyalty to a country and am about as apolitical and unpatriotic as you can get.

What country is that then?

South Korea. In SK's history textbook, there is no mention of how SK became independent from China. Did you know?

Im not South Korean, Tina. God save the Queen an all that.

LaWren

If you are not a SKorean, you should be more objective. First, when there is enough reasonable doubts, you cannot give somebody guilty verdict as you do.

Reasonable doubts

If 200,000 young girls were kidnapped by Japanese, why did nobody say anything until about 3 decades ago? No news report, No parents complaining. There is documented evidence in US National Archives that the comfort women were recruited and paid. During the war, Japan did not have enough food even for J soldiers, it would be impossible to provide food for 200,000 girls. SK never provided the names or any information whatsoever of those 200,000 girls. How did they come up with the figure?

LaWren, Japan is confident that Japan did not kidnap 200,000 girls and did not sexslave them. If you want to accuse Japan, it is you who have to provide evidence other than some people's testimonies. Also, you should know you are tremendously hurting Japanese people's feelings. I mentioned SK history textbook because I thought if grown up with the anti-Japan history book, it would be difficult to be objective.

But tell me, Did you know It was Japan that made Korea (not SK, sorry above) independent from China?

We are not talking about South Korea or China. We are talking about Japanese war crimes. A sense of justice is not dependent on misjudged patriotism, and though I am not Korean - I AM A WHITE WESTERN WOMAN married to a Japanese man, living in Japan - I do not see what my nationality has to do with anything. You will defend Japan at all costs - you are not thinking about justice or compassion, merely defending Japan at all costs.

Japan has a fearful, disgusting history in WW2, which it seeks to hide and deny. Japan burnt the written evidence when it became apparent they had lost the war. I believe the Japanese soldiers who admitted their guilt, the women - Dutch, Korean, Australian, Chinese. They all give a similar story, which supports each others testimony as to Japanese war crimes and campaign of slavery, rape and torture.

Please look beyond your own patriotism and try and come to terms with the past war crimes of Japan.

I am not talking as a citizen of a particular country, but as a human being who empathizes with the suffering of other human beings, you should try looking at it from that side of things. Even CH3's link admitted the truth - a Japanese campaign of terror, rape and brutality against these poor women, some of them not even started mentruating yet.

http://www.archives.gov/iwg/japanese-war-crimes/introductory-essays.pdf Try starting here. The diary's of a Japanese solider proved enlightening reading.

@ tinawatanabe

.. So, if it were only 20,000 Women who were kidnapped, raped, starved and brutalized - that number would merit Your consideration, as something credible? .. Is it the enormity of the atrocity that has You in denial and disbelief?

I do not see what my nationality has to do with anything.

LaWren, As I said SK history textbook is made-up story. I heard they have no world history book, only history book. They don't teach they were China's vassal state for a long time. Very anti-Japan. So, yes your nationality has a lot to do with your anti-Japan. And if you are white, you don't seem to know the history of white either.

Tina, you are blinded by patriotism. These women raped by the Japanese suffered, and it is their suffering that I am moved by. My own country of birth has a muddy history, Tina, but I dont deny it. Slavery, genocides, really bad stuff. But I dont deny it, honey. I dont even love the country of my birth. The brutalization of these women is a national shame to Japan, and just as bad is the shame of the denial of Japan's history.

Japan's textbooks are just as much an edited made up story as you allege the Korean ones are. I would have no shame in being Korean, but as I said, girl, I am sadly caucasian.

LaWren, then why nobody said anything about this until Asahi Shinbun carried the Yoshida's made up story? Why did nobody notice in SK for decades if 200,000 were kidnapped?

200,000 is not a new figure, it is the accepted figure amongst respected historians. http://www.awf.or.jp/e1/facts-07.html.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/28/japan-second-world-war-brothels-papers-china

It is my constant struggle to make sure my children growing up in Japan do not grow up thinking like you. Thank goodness they are proving to be decent, compassionate people.

LaWrenDec. 11, 2014 - 09:55AM JST

You have very far reaching definition of "kidnap." Let us read the testimony. http://koreaverband.ahkorea.com/_file/trostfrauen/Testimonies_KoreanComfortWomen_english.pdf

two days later a Korean man came looking for us at home. The man asked whether we wanted to go to China or Japan, and we answered China. My mother said Manchuria was too far and told me not to go, but I insisted on going. It was sometime in June when I left. The Korean man took us as far as Kyongsong, and we went to an inn near Jangchungdan.

I spent about two weeks in Nanjing, rode on a boat, and spent another two weeks in Wuhu, before finally going to Wuhan. There were also soldiers on the boat, but all of the civilians were Korean. It was around December 1944 when I got out at Hankou. After a thirty minute walk, I and the other forty women arrived at Jokgyong village. Twenty of us went into some kind of house, named "Sanserio". The proprietors were from Pyongyang. When we first entered, we were examined by a doctor. We were given medicine, and injections to prevent pregnancy. We were presented to the the military department reponsible for comfort stations and with the permission slip stating that women had to be older than eighteen was presented, my age was raised to eighteen. by whom?

The persons who are responsible for the "kidnap" by your extended definition are Koreans. Fraud was illegal but prostitution was not, if consensual.

By the way, what was the job offering for the uneducated 16 year old Korean girl in China, who cannot speak Chinese? What was she doing between June and December 1944? I guess she was already engaged in her professional service there.

INSISTED ON GOING TO WORK I N A FACTORY. THEY WERE LIED TO. I doubt anyone could imagine, Ch3 that the job in a factory was going to end up in forced brutal rapes, my friend.

LaWren, You did not answer my simple question. Did you know it is Japan that made Korea independent from China? You don't want to admit, do you?

You don't want to admit, do you?

@ tinawatanabe - YOU cannot admit nor believe that a non Korean person would have compassion for these women. Compassion that you, as an Asian woman, totally lack.

@ tinawatanabe - You continue to sidestep the actual issue - with nonsensical sentences - trying to confuse and distract with irrelevant information. YOU need to address the ISSUES at hand - instead of exhibiting a pretense? of inability to understand what's being said before you.

LaWrenDec. 11, 2014 - 01:25PM JST

200,000 is not a new figure, it is the accepted figure amongst respected historians. http://www.awf.or.jp/e1/facts-07.html

Let us read your link.

No survey has been done to determine accurately how many women were taken to the comfort stations of the former Japanese military, what proportion of them were from Korea, or how many did not return from the battlefields.

Estimates vary, depending on the basic assumption applied and the related methodology selected by the person conducting the research.

Your link only states they could not find the number with accuracy and that estimates vary.

@ CH3CHO

.. So, if it were only 20,000 Women who were kidnapped, raped, starved and brutalized - that number would merit Your consideration, as something credible? .. Is it the enormity in NUMBERS? - of the atrocity that has You in denial and disbelief?

The documents, which are backed up by accounts from soldiers and victims, said Japanese authorities set up the brothels in response to uncontrolled rape sprees by invading Japanese soldiers in East Asia

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/01/AR2007030101498.html

Meanwhile I get accused of being Korean, because that is the only way the tiny minds of the right wingers can comprehend that I have compassion for these women...And I suppose to them, that is an insult, I wouldnt mind being Korean but am not. HOw can anyone discuss anything when posts disappear.

Tina, Ch3, your views disgust me. How can a woman deny the suffering the Japanese wrought on these women I will never know.

shado13Dec. 11, 2014 - 02:58PM JST

if it were only 20,000 Women who were kidnapped, raped, starved and brutalized - that number would merit Your consideration, as something credible?

I am interested in the truth. You may have no interest in the facts but I think the number is an important historical fact.

Japanese authorities set up the brothels in response to uncontrolled rape sprees by invading Japanese soldiers in East Asia

I know. Prostitution was legal. It is legal even today in many European countries. That leads to the question whether the ianfu agreed to prostitution or not, and if not, who is responsible.

Readers, no more bickering please.

Prostitution was legal. It is legal even today in many European countries.

.. Not FORCED Prostitution = SEX SLAVERY. .. So stop twisting the issue.

I think you are a bit too naive on that.

Yet again I've been deleted, but here I am back, posting RELEVANT info. At what point do you think Japan has "sincerely" apologised for its treatment of sex slaves, amongst other things?

." The Korean man took us as far as Kyongsong...The proprietors were from Pyongyang.but all of the civilians were Korean"

Which is essentially what this issue is all about. Korean individuals recruiting and operating the brothels.

And this isn't strange for the IJA soldiers were fighting wars in the Pacific so logistically speaking there was no way for them to recruit them in the Korean peninsula.

And this isn't strange for the IJA soldiers were fighting wars in the Pacific so logistically speaking there was no way for them to recruit them in the Korean peninsula.

The sex slaves came from about a dozen different countries - thus this issue isn't particular to just Korea

The sex slaves came from about a dozen different countries - thus this issue isn't particular to just Korea

The only country as a government that's making issue out of this is Korea.

Nope, afraid not. The issue keeps coming up because Japan has not adequately dealt with it. And I'm surprised the article has been taken down. Perhaps some "external pressure" is being applied to this website too. Hmm

So, reward for working for Japanese companies or military administration was to be forced into prostitution? Because those women happened to be at hand?

https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Enforced_prostitution_in_Western_Borneo_during_Japanese_Occupation

During the first half of 1943 the Naval garrison Commander of Pontianak, [name A] issued an order that no Japanese was to have intimate relations with Indonesian or Chinese women. At that time all European and practically all Indo-European women were interned. At the same time he issued the order for the establishment of official brothels. Those brothels were to be divided in two groups: three establishments for use of Navy personnel only and five or six for the use of civilians, of which latter one was reserved for the higher officials of the Naval Civil Administration. (Minseibu).

The brothels for Naval personnel were run by the garrison. Under the C. O., the signals Officer, [name B] was placed in charge and the daily business was attended to by the duty warrant Officer, [name C]. Women who had had relations with Japanese were forced into these brothels, which were surrounded by barbed wire. They were only allowed on the streets with special permission. Permission to quit the brothel had to be obtained form the garrison commander. The Special Naval Police (Tokei Tai) had orders to keep the brothels supplied with women; to this end they arrested women on the streets and after enforced medical examination placed them in the brothels. These arrests were mainly effected by the [names D, E, F, G and H] ...

...Visitors had to pay to the native servant (in the case of the Navy according to rank) who turned in the money daily to the duty Warrant Officer or to the cashier of Nanyo Kohatsu. In both cases 1/3 was retained to defray expenses, furniture, food, etc. and 2/3 was credited to the women concerned. Of this they could from time to time take up part for their personal use. ...

In their search for women the Tokei Tai ordered the entire female staffs of the Minseibu and the Japanese firms to report to the Tokei Tai Office, undressed some of them entirely and accused them of maintaining relations with Japanese. The ensueing medical examination revealed that several were virgins. It is not known with certainty how many of these unfortunates were forced into brothels. Women did not dare to escape from the brothels as members of their family were then immediately arrested and severely maltreated by the Tokei Tai. In one case it is known that this caused the death of the mother of the girl concerned. ...

The above report has been compiled form information obtained from interrogation of Japanese war criminals and from sworn statements by persons concerned.

I declare that the above facts are truly in accordance with above sources of information on my oath as an Intelligence Officer and interpreter of the Japanese language.

Batavia, July 5th 1946

/s/ JNH

J. N. HEIJBROEK, Capt. Netherlands Forces Intell. Service

Well said. Time to make amends, Japan