Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Reliable Testimonies by the Innocent Victims?



Most people who believe in “Japanese sex slavery of Korean women during WWII” probably do so because these “victims” are saying so. But have they ever examined their testimonies given at various places over time?

For example, Lee Yong-Soo, a former comfort woman living in Seoul at Nanum House, have been explaining the circumstance of kidnapping at various occasions as follows:

1992, in the report submitted to Korean Council for Women Drafted for Sexual Slavery by Japan: “Delighted to receive a red dress and leather shoes from a man wearing clothing resembling a uniform. Went along with him right away”.

2000 Dec, at Women’s International War Crimes Tribunal on Japan’s Military Sexual Slavery: “Deceived by Japanese man (comfort station proprietor)”.

2002 Jun, in the article in Akahata, Japanese Communist Party’s paper: “kidnapped at bayonet point at the age of 14”. 

2007 Feb, at hearing at US House of Representative: “In the autumn of 1944, when I was 16 years old, my friend, Kim Punsun, and I were collecting shellfish at the riverside when we noticed an elderly man and a Japanese man looking down at us form the hillside.… the Japanese beckoned to us to follow him. I was scared and ran away…. A few days later, Punsun knocked on my window early in the morning, and whispered to me to follow her quietly. I tip-toed out of the house after her. I left without telling my mother…. I followed my friend until we met the same man who had tried to approach us on the riverbank. He looked as if he was in his late thirties and he wore a sort of People’s Army uniform with a combat cap. Altogether, there were five girls with him, including myself.”

These statements differ so much from each other though describing the same event. Even if one would defend Lee Yong-soo for her weak memory due to old age, these are simply “different” stories on how the kidnapping occurred. It is natural to think that Lee Yong-soo cannot stick to one story, because what she is trying to say is not true. 

More details on “No Organized or Forced Recruitment” (Differing versions of Lee Yong-soo’s account on p.10)
http://www.sdh-fact.com/CL02_1/31_S4.pdf

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