Last week, Texas Daddy uploaded "Comfort Women the truth be told". There he shows a piece of the first degree evidence from the US military back in 1944, and asserts bluntly:
"The Koreans who set up memorial statues or plaques dedicated to these comfort women, claiming they were forced into sexual slavery by Japanese army - YOU ARE A LIAR, THAT DID NOT HAPPEN!!"
The below is the same video with Japanese subtitles: 字幕 [テキサス親父] 慰安婦は売春婦！証拠はコレだ！と親父ブチギレの巻！
What he shows as evidence is the Japanese Prisoner of War Information Report No.49 by the US Army written in August 1944 - one year before the end of WWII. The report is based on the information obtained from the interrogation of 20 Korean "comfort girls" captured in August 1944 in Burma.
(Note: In 1942, Korean girls were recruited for comfort service for Japanese soldiers. These girls, mostly in their 20s, moved with their Japanese "house master" to Burma, and carried out their duties. In August 1944, with the fall of Myitkyina, Japanese soldiers were fleeing with these girls, but were separated. The girls were captured by the US Army, who interrogated them and wrote the Report No.49. The report shows how the Japanese recruited these "comfort girls", the conditions under which they lived and worked, their relations with the Japanese soldiers, etc.)
In the report, it says:
"A 'comfort girl' is nothing more than a prostitute or 'professional camp follower' attached to the Japanese Army for the benefit of the soldiers."
"They lived in near-luxury in Burma in comparison to other places. 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, cigaretes, and cosmetics to supplement the many gifts given to them by soldiers who had received 'comfort bags' from home."
"While in Burma, they amused themselves by participating in sports events with both officers and men, and attended picnics, entertainments, and social dinners. They had a phonograph, and in the towns they were allowed to go shopping."
"In an average month, a girl would gross about 1,500 yen (half of which she turned over to the master)".
This means, a comfort girl earned 750 yen a month. To give you an idea of how humongous this salary was, a Japanese Imperial Army sergeant at the time was paid 30 yen a month.
The report goes on: "The girls complained that even with the schedule (morning to evening shifts for different ranks of soldiers), congestion (at the comfort house) was so great that they could not care for all guests, thus causing ill feeling among many of the soldiers."
Texas Daddy correctly questions: Can the sex slaves buy whatever they want? Can the sex slaves go partying and shopping ? Do the sex slaves feel sorry for soldiers who were not served by them?
Hell NO! They were no way sex slaves. They were extremely well-paid and well-cared prostitutes.
Remember, this report was written by the US army during the war - when Japan was an enemy. US could easily used "sexual slavery" as propaganda against Japan, yet they didn't, since it was simply not true.
Highly ignorant of the historical fact, and strongly pressured by Korean groups, city of Glendale, California, just recently has approved the establishment of a comfort woman monument in its public park. This is not only disgraceful for Japanese, but also for the residents of the city and the entire Americans who love peace and truth.
Not only Japanese, but also the world needs to know the facts on the comfort women issues, and stop the Korean lies. One's sense of justice and empathy should not be fooled by fabrications - in doing so, he will only be called a fool himself.
What you have here is one document about comfort women in one specific part of the Japanese empire at the time.
ReplyDeleteIt does not in any way represent the experiences of all of Japan's comfort women during WWII.
In fact, it says in this document that "[These 20 comfort women in Burma] lived in near-luxury in Burma in comparison to other places."
Meaning that in other places in the Japanese empire, comfort women fared a lot worse.
(This document also says that these Korean comfort women were recruited by means of deception and that they did not like their "work".)
In fact, three-quarters of comfort women died during the war.
They died due to harsh conditions and (mis)treatment, rampant sexually transmitted diseases, and battlefield losses.
Even the ones who survived were left infertile from STD's and traumatized for life.
Are you even aware of the Japanese govt's official position on the comfort women issue?
Until 1992, the Japanese govt had denied that Japanese military had any involvement with comfort women.
But in Jan. 1992, a Japanese researcher named Yoshimi discovered documents implicating the Japanese military in setting up and running the comfort women system and published the documents in a major newspaper.
The very next day, the Japanese govt admitted responsibility.
A few days later, Japanese Prime Minister Miyazawa, who was visiting Korea at the time, officially apologized at a meeting of top Korean and Japanese leaders.
From then until August 1993, the Japanese govt conducted a study about the comfort women issue.
"Institutions covered by the study: the National Police Agency; the Defense Agency; the Ministry of Justice; the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; the Ministry of Education; the Ministry of Health and Welfare; the Ministry of Labor; the National Archives; the National Diet Library; and the U.S. National Archives.
People covered by individual hearings: former comfort women; former military personnel; former officials of the Government-General of Korea; former operators of comfort stations; residents in the areas where comfort stations were located; and history researchers, etc."
(http://www.awf.or.jp/e6/statement-03.html)
This actual study is available here: http://www.awf.or.jp/e6/document.html
The Japanese govt announced the results of the study in August 1993, along with which they expressed sincere remorse and apologies to the former comfort women.
Here is the famous Kono Statement of August 4, 1993:
http://www.awf.or.jp/e6/statement-02.html
And here is a summary of what they found during the study:
http://www.awf.or.jp/e6/statement-03.html
Thank you for your comment, and I’m sorry for the late response. I appreciate much that you write in detail, but you seem to present commonly-held misconception on the comfort women issue, which I’d like to point out along with my comment. Since it will be long, I will just write partly, and continue writing in my blog.
DeleteFirst, the Japanese Prisoner of War Information Report No.49 dated Oct 1, 1944, is the official document of the US Army written based on the interrogation of 20 Korean comfort women who had been serving the Japanese Army in Burma up until the day they were captured by the US Army. This is the valid, first- or second-degree historical evidence to reveal the actual conditions of the comfort women from that period. The credibility of such document is thus significant.
You mention that “in other places in the Japanese empire, comfort women fared a lot worse”, and “three-quarters of comfort women died during the war. They died due to harsh conditions and mistreatment, rampant sexually transmitted diseases…”, but what is your historical evidence to claim these? Discussion of history must be based on analysis of valid evidence, and not assumption or belief.
As you correctly point out, the Report says that many women were recruited based on deception: “The inducement used by these agents was plenty of money, an opportunity to pay off the family debts, easy work, and the prospect of a new life in a new land, Singapore. On the basis of these false representations many girls enlisted for overseas duty and were rewarded with an advance of a few hundred yen” (p.1).
But note that they were “rewarded with an advance of a few hundred yen”. This was a huge amount, considering that the monthly salary of a first class solider was 10 yen, and the sergeant 30 yen. The Report says that “the contract they signed bound them to Army regulations and to war for the "house master " for a period of from six months to a year depending on the family debt for which they were advanced” (p.1), and “girls who had paid their debt could return home” (p.3). Again, the income these women received was humongous (about 25-75 times that of a soldier), thus some of them did go home. It looks to me that this was rather a fair business deal, not slavery.
The Report also mentions:
“The girls were allowed the prerogative of refusing a customer. This was often done if the person were too drunk” (p.1);
“The health of these girls were good… They were well trained in looking after both themselves and customers in the matter of hygiene. A regular Japanese Army doctor visited the houses once a week and any girl found diseased was given treatment, secluded, and eventually sent to a hospital” (p.4);
“There were numerous instances of proposals of marriage (from soldiers) and in certain cases marriages actually took place” (p.4).
Nowhere in the Report has it mentioned that women died due to mistreatment, as you claim. Quite the opposite. The Report says that 800 comfort women were sent to Burma, and it’s sensible to assume that these women operated under the same management and treatment. You mention that this is just one document about comfort women in one specific part of the Japanese empire. However, the Army operates in a highly disciplined manner, with the same rules wherever it goes. Why would the Army pay humongous salary and take good care of comfort women in Burma, and “abuse, mistreat and kill” comfort women in other countries? It does not make sense.
In fact, the soldiers who violated the military rule and forced Dutch women to become comfort women in Indonesia were severely punished by the Japanese Army Headquarters once found, and the comfort station was immediately closed. This clearly demonstrates that the Japanese Army did not tolerate abduction / mistreatment of women.
You mention that, in 1992, professor Yoshimi “discovered documents implicating the Japanese military in setting up and running the comfort women system and published the documents in a major newspaper”.
DeleteHere, we need to make the point of argument clear: Yes, the Japanese military established and managed the comfort women system, mainly to prevent rapes in the local communities in the battle field. It was very important for Japanese military to respect the local community and not to cause anti-Japan sentiment because the goal of the war was to achieve peaceful and prosperous Greater East Asia, getting rid of the Western colonial powers from the region. That is why Japanese military recruited their own prostitutes, brought them to the battlefield, and managed the comfort stations in a disciplined manner.
In fact, the armies in other countries, such as the US, France, Germany, Italy, etc, tacitly or openly managed comfort stations in the battle field (http://note.chiebukuro.yahoo.co.jp/detail/n203527). The tragedy is where such system was not established, as in the case of Korean army in the Vietnam war. The Korean soldiers abducted or raped a large number of Vietnamese women, leaving behind 5,000 – 30,000 Lai Dai Han, mixed-blood children. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lai_%C4%90%E1%BA%A1i_H%C3%A0n.
Thus, the point of argument is not whether the Japanese army managed the comfort stations or not, but whether the Japanese army “forced” women into prostitution or not, and the answer is NO.
In fact, the document that professor Yoshimi discovered in 1992 was the Japanese government’s order to ban and punish the crooked dealers who engaged in human trafficking / abduction of women (such trafficking had been traditionally a social problem in Korea and the police was clamping down on them under the Japanese administration). However, Asahi, the infamous anti-Japan pro-Korea newspaper, published a distorted article about it, widely claiming “Japanese involvement in comfort women system” to make the comfort women issue and amplify it. (This is how Asahi newspaper has been “making” historical issues, misleading the public. Beware if you are reading it!).
In June this year, professor Yoshimi was invited as a speaker at a symposium on comfort women organized by VAWWRAC. In the Q&A session, many questions were raised for him. I will introduce a few:
Participant: “Is there anybody who witnessed the abduction of these women by the Japanese army?”
Prof. Yoshimi: “If we understand abduction as taking by force, there is a case of a village in China. There is also a case of a Dutch woman abducted in Indonesia…” [Prof. Yoshimi never mentioned of Korean women. Why doesn’t he if so many Koreans were abducted?]
Participant: “At that time, 80% of the police in Korea were Koreans. How was abduction of Korean women possible?”
Prof. Yoshimi: “Er… If the recruiters were Koreans, their responsibility must have been pursued…” [He is not answering the question]
Participant: “How much income were the comfort women receiving?”
Prof. Yoshimi: “I don’t know. I think the soldiers were paying money, but the brokers were managing it, and some of it would go to comfort women, but some fees were subtracted….” [His answer is not clear, but he admits that the ones who managed the comfort stations were not the Japanese army but the brokers]
I will discuss Kono statement, etc, etc, in my blog next time.
In fact, the Japanese government has been the major source of creating the problem, because of their irresponsible statements without knowing the historical facts. I will write more.
Again, thank you for commenting on my blog, and thank you for reading.
It is an "undeniable" fact that, as you can clearly see from the report and other evidences, that "at least" the majority of comfortable women were in fact "prostitutues", not the "Military Sexuary Slaves. And it is important to note that even the Korean team to investigate this issue cannot find any evidence whatsoever to prove that there was a Korean woman who was forced to do sex with a Japanese soldier. And with regard to someone's comment below that says "This document also says that these Korean comfort women were recruited by means of deception and that they did not like their "work"", however, it is very important to understand that they were not recruited by the Japanese army but by the local brokers to whom those poor prostitutes were sold by their parents to pay off their debts. And with regard to his comment "In fact, three-quarters of comfort women died during the war", of course, you are most likely to die if you are in such a harsh dangerous war-zone, which is the reason why they were able to get such a high wage by being prostitutes for the soldiers - even larger than the money paid to a Japanese army VIP. And with regard to the Prof Yoshimi's book about his claim that Japanese army forced women to do sex with their soldiers, you need to be aware of the fact that in his book he completely fails to provide any record to prove that they orderd the soldiers or anyone to "hunt" and bring a local women as a sex slave. And iff the Japanese prime minister has apologized for it, then it does not mean that Japan should apologize for it again and again. And also it does not mean at all either that Japanese army forced sex slavery - especially in light of the facts that Japanese people are very polite people and far more ready to apologize even if it is not their fault - totally different to the more assertive and aggressive Anglo-Saxon culture in US, NZ, etc (and Korea as long as I have heard). And further, with regard to the content of http://www.awf.or.jp/e6/statement-03.html, you need to understand that the evidence from the mouths of former comfort women, operators, etc are far from unreliable. Who would be stupid enough - especially in this society with full of egoism and selfishness and corruptions - to admit that you used to work as a prostitute or sex broker when you could actually easily cover up the fact and make money by telling lies through juridical system? Recently in Tokyo, a woman sued for 26000 yens that she had saved as a "comfort-women" for 2 years during the war and it is also important to note that at that time even the Japanese army minister could earn only 6000 yens per year. Having said that, we cannot deny any possibility that some comfort women were mistreated even if they were prostitutes. However, if Japan is to be blamed for any mistreatment of any comfort women, then America should be also blamed for their cruel treatment and forced sex with black women slaves and apologize to them, and most of other countries with the history of internal or external wars should make an apology. In conclusion, if you don't forgive others even after they have already apologized and/or even if it is not their fault, you will not be forgiven for your own mistreatment to others that you have done in the past and do not confess to others to apologize for because nobody and no ethnicity is far from perfect and we all have the same level of bad treatment or revenge to others and other countries - like dropping of Atomic Bombs in Japan to kill about 100 thousands people - certainly one of the most inhuman way of killing anyone in war in human history.
Delete(cont'd)
ReplyDeleteAfter this, in 1995, the Japanese govt established the Asian Women's Fund to atone Japan for its crimes against the comfort women.
Now, the purpose and intent of the Asian Women's Fund were commendable.
The AWF sought to provide letters of apology from the Japanese prime minister and monetary compensations to the former comfort women.
But the problem was.. that the AWF's funds came not from the Japanese govt, but from private donations.
This was the sticking point. The women wanted the compensations to come from the Japanese govt, so that it would be official.
It's not just the Korean comfort women who rejected AWF's compensations.
Taiwanese comfort women, Filipino comfort women, and Dutch comfort women also rejected the AWF compensations.
The Japanese govt eventually agreed to give state compensations to the Dutch comfort women; they did so in 1998.
However, the Japanese govt still refuses to give state compensations to the Asian comfort women.
The Japanese govt maintains that Japan's post-WWII treaties with these Asian nations settled all matters of reparations and that Japan can no longer give state compensations to these Asian comfort women.
But the fact is, Netherlands too signed the 1951 San Francisco Treaty and thereby waived all rights to claim further reparations from Japan. But still Japan gave the Dutch victims state compensations, not once, but twice.
First in 1956, then in 1998.
I don't understand why Japan cannot give the Asian former comfort women state compensations as well. It would mean so much to these women.
And on a separate note..
The reason why some Japanese are calling comfort women liars is that Japanese students are not taught properly about Japan's WWII war crimes properly.
They simply don't know enough about the issue.
The fact is, the Japanese govt has already admitted in 1993 that the Japanese military established the comfort women system, that many of the comfort women were coerced into it, that Japanese military/administrative personnel were sometimes directly involved in recruiting the women, and that these comfort women lived in absolute "misery" in a "coercive atmosphere" at comfort stations and were robbed of all human dignity.
And for this, they sincerely apologized to the comfort women.
You too, sir, should study the comfort women issue more before calling the comfort women liars.
Thank you for reading.
I need to write about Kono Statement, because this is THE cause of global misunderstanding on the comfort women issue. (which you seem to believe so firmly as well).
DeleteMs. Sakurai Yoshiko, the journalist and the founder of the Japan Institute for National Fundamentals, explains well in her book “Japan, Brush up your Historical Knowledge” （日本よ、歴史力を磨け）, pp. 12-37:
*********
Kono Statement, made by the then Chief Cabinet Secretary Kono Yohei in 1993, acknowledged that the Japanese military “forced” women into prostitution, in response to the Korean government’s request for doing so.
Miyazawa Cabinet at the time researched over 200 official documents, internal and external, yet found not even one document that indicated the “coercion” of comfort women by the Japanese government. Nevertheless, based only on the interviews with some Korean comfort women, Kono acknowledged “coercion” and stated publicly that the Japanese government “coerced” women into prostitution.
Kono Statement says the following:
“… The Government study has revealed that in many cases they were recruited against their own will, through coaxing, coercion, etc, and that, at times, administrative / military personnel directly took part in the recruitments…”
After issuing the statement, Kono was questioned by journalists at the press conference:
Journalist: “Do you mean that there were facts of coercing women into prostitution?”
Kono: “There were facts – this understanding is ok.”
Journalist: “I understand that there was no official document found, and thus interviews with Korean comfort women were conducted. Wasn’t there any objective evidence found?”
Kono: “Coercion can be physical, or mental. Mental coercion cannot be recorded on the official documents… In either case, it is clear that there were many cases that happened against the women’s will.”
In short, there was no objective evidence.
Then why did Kono issue such false statement to acknowledge the coercion by the government / military, disgracing Japan beyond words?
DeleteThe then Deputy Cabinet Secretary Ishihara Nobuo confessed later as follows (“The Cost of the Secret Deal: Why the Comfort Women Issue got Complicated“, in Bungei Shunjyu, April, 1997. 文芸春秋、97年4月号、「密約外交の大小―慰安婦問題はなぜこじれたか」):
In view of the political situations at that time, the Korean Government had been strongly requesting the Japanese Government to acknowledge “coercion” to respect the “honor” of the comfort women. The Korean Government selected 16 comfort women, and requested the Japanese Government to listen to their testimonies. The Japanese Government listened to the testimonies; however, the testimonies did not prove the direct coercion by the Japanese military, nor did they have objective rationality. The Japanese Government was not convinced of the “coercion”, yet the atmosphere became such that the government had no choice but to “politically” admit “coercion”. At the same time, the Japanese Government implicitly understood that, as long as the Japanese Government acknowledged “coercion”, the Korean Government would never ever bring up the issue of Comfort Women, and would not request economic compensation.
However, such “implicit understanding” is not documented.
Thus, without fairly analyzing the comfort women’s “testimonies”, the Japanese Government acknowledged “coercion”, in wishful thinking that the matter would settle if it compromised. As a consequence, the Kono Statement is now regarded as the “evidence” of the “coercion”. 14 years later, Kono Statement was used as the evidence for the Resolution on the Comfort Women at the US Congress. The fabrication has led to another fabrication, spreading more fabrications around the world.
*******************
Indeed, the first Abe Cabinet in 1997 approved that “Among the documents that the government discovered, there was no document that directly indicated the coercion (of comfort women) by the military or the government”.
The second Abe Cabinet, under the Chief Cabinet Secretary Suga Yoshihide, indicates that they would re-examine Kono Statement through the well-informed panel.
Kono Statement is thus a groundless statement made by an irresponsible government official who is ignorant of the historical facts. It is absurd that the Japanese Government has held it as an official view until now. This is mainly because: 1) many government officials lack sufficient historical knowledge to counter fabrications, 2) large number of leftist Japanese intellectuals and media (like Asahi), who are anti-Japan and pro-Korea/China, with masochistic historical view, strongly support and disseminate fabrications, and 3) Korea, supported by 2), make this a sensitive political issue.
First and foremost, Japanese people must wake up to the facts that Japanese government / military never forced women into prostitution during WWII. Then, Japanese should speak up and stop the bloated lie of “200,000 sexual slavery by the Japanese army” that anti-Japan Japanese and Koreans spread so willingly.
It is only then, Japan will be able to restore itself, and make things better. True peace cannot be built on lies.
Japan Revisited,
ReplyDeleteThank you for replying.
First, I would like to point out that this US Army report on comfort women in Myitkina, Burma was one of the documents that the Japanese govt reviewed in the 1991-1993 study, before releasing the Kono statement in Aug. 1993.
Also, comfort women were recruited in different ways.
Some were deceived, and others were kidnapped.
Some received an advance payment, others didn't.
Some were sent to large bases, and others were sent to remote places.
Korean and Taiwanese comfort women were mostly deceived; some were kidnapped.
But if you read the testimonies of Filipino and Indonesian comfort women, you find that an awful lot of them were outright kidnapped by soldiers.
"In the Philippines, large numbers of former comfort women have gone public with their stories. ..an extremely large number of women were forcibly seized by the Japanese Army.
According to the "Written Complaints", almost all of the forty-six victims were forcibly seized by the Japanese Army. The youngest among them was ten years old, the oldest was thirty, and a total of thirty-three were minors."
(Yoshimi, Yoshiaki. Comfort Women, 2001. p.126)
You can find many Filipino former comfort women's testimonies online.
Also, here are some Indonesian comfort women who have recently come forward:
http://www.janbanning.com/gallery/comfort-women/
As for the comfort women's living conditions:
The comfort women in Myitkina, Burma are said to have lived in "near luxury". But in more remote places, the comfort stations themselves were little more than huts or shacks, and the women lived/worked in much worse conditions.
In remote places, there was hardly any medical care, let alone formal hospitals.
Many women were sent to the South Pacific islands, where diseases such as malaria and dengue fever were rampant, while others were sent to frigid Manchuria where they nearly froze to death.
In some places, there wasn't even enough water to drink, let alone other amenities.
At the front lines, comfort women sometimes had to assist the soldiers.
But most of the time, the comfort women were confined to their comfort stations and weren't allowed to set foot outside.
You may ask for evidence of all this, but I have read a lot of comfort women testimonies and there are definitely recurring themes.
(Regarding written evidence about comfort women..
It's known that Japanese military destroyed an awful lot of documents, especially those pertaining to their war crimes, at the end of the war.
For instance, it's estimated that the Japanese Army destroyed about 70% of their records.
They clearly destroyed as much documents about the comfort women as they could. In fact, they wanted to hide the comfort women so much that at the end of the war, when Japanese units were surrendering to Allied forces, they sometimes disguised their comfort women as nurses (!).
Also, tons of WWII-era Japanese records that could contain information about comfort women are being kept classified by the Japanese government.
Japanese comfort women researchers have been asking the govt to declassify these records, but to no avail.
Yoshimi himself has lamented that he only has access to the "tip of the iceberg" in terms of Japanese records.)
Now, getting back to the treatment of comfort women..
If you're very knowledgeable about Japan, you'll know that Japan was the losing side in WWII, and that conditions for Japanese forces became more and more desperate in the latter part of the war.
The Japanese supply lines were all cut off by Allied forces, and Japanese soldiers themselves ran out of food. (esp. on the many Pacific islands)
And when Japanese units were retreating hastily, they sometimes massacred their comfort women and Korean forced laborers.
You should stop quoting Professor Yoshimi because his arguments are not supported by evidence to prove “coercion” by the Japanese government. In my previous reply, I’ve introduced the Q&A between him and participants at a symposium on comfort women organized by VAWWRAC on June 23. 2013, where you can see his unclear arguments.
DeleteWith regard to Kono Statement, he explains as follows in the same symposium:
Participant: “Kono Statement says that the administrative / military officers directly got involved, but what does this mean specifically?”
Yoshimi: “I guess, Kono Statement takes into consideration the Semarang Incident (in Indonesia). In the case of the lawsuit by the Pilipino women, the administrative / military officers were directly involved. I think their testimonies are one basis for Kono Statement. But this is just my guess.”
You should note that in Semarang Incident, there was indeed a violation of the rules, and four comfort stations were closed, and after the war, one officer was executed, and 11 were punished as B/C level criminals. However, why doesn’t Professor Yoshimi talk anything about Korean women? He can only “guess” the basis / content of Kono Statement, even though it is supposed to be THE evidence of “coercion”. This clearly shows that Kono Statement is groundless.
You mention that you have read lots of testimonies of comfort women, but do you realized that these testimonies are discredited even by Korean professors? Professor Ahn Byung-jik of Seoul National University supervised an extensive research on the testimonies of former comfort women, and published “Testimonies, Part 1” in 1993. In the preface, he says “The cases that presented the most serious problems to researchers were those in which the witnesses seemed to be intentionally distorting the facts”. The findings are analyzed in detail in “Behind the Comfort Women Controversy: How Lies Became Truth”, by Nishioka Tsutomu (pp.36 -43 is especially relevant, http://www.sdh-fact.com/CL02_1/39_S4.pdf ).
Prof. C. Sarah Soh at San Francisco State University discredits claims that most of Korean women were tricked into prostitution by recruits: “in most cases, the process was open and the woman (and her family) knew she was headed to a brothel because thousands of Korean women were often sold into brothels by their fathers or husbands, or went willingly as a way to rescue their family from poverty. Confucian patriarchy in Korea relegated women to an expendable resource.” en.yoshiko-sakurai.jp/2013/05/28/5341
I’ve discussed discrepancies of testimonies of comfort women (they say different things at different times) in my earlier blog posting “Reliable Testimonies by Innocent Victims?” http://japanrevisited.blogspot.jp/2013/06/reliable-testimonies-by-innocent-victims.html, so you should take a look.
You also mention that Japanese military destroyed an awful lot of documents, especially those pertaining to their war crimes. However, saying so is easy but where is your evidence? There are many documents and orders stored at Japan Center for Asian Historical Records, National Archives of Japan, etc. Remember, the research was done jointly by Korean and Japanese governments, and no document or data came up to show “coercion” of comfort women by the Japanese government.
Your last para, “Japan was losing WWII, Japanese soldiers ran out of food, and when Japanese units were retreating hastily, they sometimes massacred their comfort women…” doesn’t make any sense to me, and sound irrelevant to discussion of the issue. “sometimes massacred” ? We are not telling stories here. Histories must be discussed based on hard facts, and not assumptions or stories or belief.
(cont'd)
ReplyDeleteThe following is an account of one such atrocity.
(I must warn you, though, that it is a bit graphic and disturbing.)
It comes from a book I read titled Jungle Ace, about an American ace in WWII named Gerard Johnson ("Jerry").
This took place in 1944, at a place called Hollandia on the island of New Guinea.
Under the command of Gen. MacArthur, a large American force landed at Hollandia and sent the Japanese forces into a hasty retreat.
The US forces secured the airfields there and soon sent fighter wings there.
However, the area wasn't completely cleared of Japanese, so the American pilots sometimes joined the infanty on patrols to clear the Japanese stragglers out.
This happened on one such occasion:
"Jerry and his men continued to explore their surroundings.
Not far from their camp area stood a small thatch-roofed shack built on stilts.
A gruesome stench radiated from it, which kept the men from exploring it at first.
Finally, however, curiosity overcame disgust and Jerry, Ralph Wandrey, and a couple of other pilots walked over and explored the inside.
The shack had clearly been used as quarters for the "comfort women" the Japanese kept at the base. The Army had forced these women - mostly Chinese or SouthEast Asian - into sexual slavery.
They were frequently kidnapped and then taken to far-flung bases, where their sole function was to submit to the local garrison's sexual desires.
This squalid little shack gave Jerry and his comrades a window into the lives of these hapless women.
The floor was scattered with broken and used condoms; the bedding was sullied and gray with filth. Wandrey later wrote that he saw "evidence of several miscarriages" inside the shack.
Revolted, the men retreated and Jerry ordered the foul place burned to the ground and the order was quickly executed.
The men were left wondering what had happened to these poor women.
They were not left behind when the Japanese fled Hollandia - could they be out in the jungle?
About this time, Bill Runey was driving around in another borrowed jeep, looking for more friends from his days in the Oregon National Guard.
He had served from September of 1940 through the fall of 1941 with two different companies, so he had a lot of friends in the infantry at Hollandia.
As he was poking around, he ran into an ashen-faced lieutenant.
Bill stopped the vehicle and asked him if he needed a lift.
The man stared at Bill with an odd, sort of off-kilter look.
"You want to see something?" the lieutenant asked him.
Bill shrugged and said, "Sure."
The lieutenant led him beyond a copse of trees and out into a clearing.
There, the Japanese had dug long trenches near a garbage dump.
Inside the trenches were hundreds of corpses piled one on top of another.
Flies swarmed over the bloated, decomposing bodies, and the stench was so powerful that it nearly knocked Bill off his feet.
Faces poking through the jumble of limbs and torsos were wracked in frozen anguish - they had not died quickly.
"They're Koreans," said the lieutenant, "From a labor battalion the Japs massacred when they bugged out of here."
The lieutenant led Bill to another clearing a few hundred yards from the hellish scene at the garbage dump.
What lay in this little field was far worse.
Here were the comfort women, butchered and laid out in odd patterns that appeared to Bill to have been meant as some sort of message to the GIs.
The Japanese had arranged the murdered women in precise stacks all over the field.
Each stack was layered with bodies facing different directions, so that legs jutted out every few levels, while heads hung grotesquely in between.
At that moment, Bill came the closest to feeling hate than at any other time in his life. How could humans do this?
He fled the scene with the lieutenant, thinking "There was about as much humanity in a bunch of Japanese as there was in a swarm of fire ants."
(Bruning, John R. Jungle Ace, 2001. p.164-166)
Again, stories must be backed up by evidence. How many were killed? Did anybody witness the killing? South East Asian - which countries exactly? How were they kidnapped in the first place? From which villages or towns? Are there any witnesses for kidnapping? Which unit in the army ordered the kidnapping? How was the comfort station run? etc etc. So many questions are left unanswered from such story, isn't it?
Delete(cont'd)
ReplyDeleteNow, if you have done any reading on the Pacific War, you'll know that the Japanese committed many atrocities during the war.
This was one of them.
As for the harsh treatment of comfort women by Japanese soldiers, so many testimonies agree on this fact.
This doesn't come to me as a surprise.
Japanese soldiers themselves were trained very harshly, in order to maintain the strictest discipline.
If you look at how the Japanese soldiers often fought to the last man and mounted suicide banzai charges against the enemy, it's very clear that they were very brutally trained.
The soldiers themselves were often beaten by their superiors.
(Because of this, many Japanese soldiers hated their superior officers.)
The comfort women, esp. when they were first sent to comfort stations, tried to resist the soldiers. But they were beaten and raped.
It is especially shocking that often the Japanese military doctors who first examined the girls were the first to rape them.
Day to day, beatings and mistreatment were quite common.
Also, so many comfort women have testified that they had to service so many soldiers a day that at the end of the day they weren't even able to stand up.
They had to "work" even through injuries and illnesses.
Some were even given drugs, so that they could work through the pain.
(The reason? Again, there were just too many soldiers to service.)
Many of the women sustained permanent injuries and were left sterile, some suffer from STD's even to this day.
Not a few of the women committed suicide, unable to withstand their ordeals.
"A 2011 clinical study found that comfort women are more prone to showing symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), even 60 years after the end of the war.[82]"
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comfort_women)
"Approximately three quarters of comfort women died, and most survivors were left infertile due to sexual trauma or sexually transmitted disease.[35]"
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comfort_women)
As I said before, the Japanese govt already admitted in 1993 that the comfort women "lived in misery at comfort stations under a coercive atmosphere",
and that the women's "honor and dignity" were "severely injured".
You must understand that the Japanese govt did not make this statement lightly.
(The Japanese govt never makes any statement lightly.)
They did not just turn around 180 degrees all of a sudden and admit responsibility for the comfort women system (after denying it for decades) simply because of a few former comfort women's testimonies.
In fact, they did a 20-month study on the issue of comfort women and reviewed hundreds of documents, before announcing their findings in August 1993 and releasing the Kono Statement.
And not only did they apologize to the comfort women, they also set up the Asian Women's Fund in 1995 to compensate the women.
Therefore, please do not discount the Kono Statement.
Thank you.
See my previous reply on Kono Statement.
Deletehttp://japanrevisited.blogspot.jp/2013/10/what-is-kono-statement.html
You are a fucking moron! The entire country of Korea were under Japanese rule and they treated all Koreans as subjects. By 1945 there were 2 million Koreans living as forced laborer's. Only an imbecile such as yourself could believe that a sex-slave was engaged in a well paid career. Money was promised and sometimes paid to lure the women to lock-down holding cells for re-programming. Even if a few beautiful women were well paid and asked to be wives they would have been sheltered from the system as no sane man would want a woman who is that used...well you might? But, I can't imagine any woman (Except maybe a bag-lady) wanting you. It just occurred to me...you have a mail order Japanese wife, don't you? If a few Korean women were paid well, as you say, that doesn't negate the fact that most of them died from what you call a privileged lifestyle. I hope you and your deluded form of hate rot in Hell!
ReplyDeleteYou should make efforts of studying the subject before writing.
DeleteWhy don't you start by reading "The New Korea" by Alleyne Ireland written in 1926 right when Korea was annexed by Japan. You see a whole different view on "Japanese rule" from the third party British scholar. http://japanrevisited.blogspot.jp/2013/09/truth-uncovered-new-korea-when-korea.html
You should also try to read at least some of my blog posts on comfort women issues and read the references as well. Then please develop your logical arguments.
Most importantly, you should watch your language when you talk to people. This blog is about discussing issues logically based on valid references, and not about throwing emotions carelessly like yours.
BTW Japan, Korea, China, the Philippines,women from Burma, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan, Indonesia and other Japanese-occupied territories were used for military "comfort stations". Stations were located in Japan, China, the Philippines, Indonesia, then Malaya, Thailand, Burma, New Guinea, Hong Kong, Macau, and French Indochina. So focusing your argument on Korea shows how little you know about the subject.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that you don't know that comfort stations were only at the battlefield outside Japan shows how little you know about the subject.
DeleteAlso, please let me know, if you have, which resources you refer to when you talk about Japanese comfort stations in all these countries and how they were managed. Thanks.
It is an "undeniable" fact that, as you can clearly see from the report and other evidences, that "at least" the majority of comfortable women were in fact "prostitutues", not the "Military Sexuary Slaves. And it is important to note that even the Korean team to investigate this issue cannot find any evidence whatsoever to prove that there was a Korean woman who was forced to do sex with a Japanese soldier. And with regard to someone's comment below that says "This document also says that these Korean comfort women were recruited by means of deception and that they did not like their "work"", however, it is very important to understand that they were not recruited by the Japanese army but by the local brokers to whom those poor prostitutes were sold by their parents to pay off their debts. And with regard to his comment "In fact, three-quarters of comfort women died during the war", of course, you are most likely to die if you are in such a harsh dangerous war-zone, which is the reason why they were able to get such a high wage by being prostitutes for the soldiers - even larger than the money paid to a Japanese army VIP. And with regard to the Prof Yoshimi's book about his claim that Japanese army forced women to do sex with their soldiers, you need to be aware of the fact that in his book he completely fails to provide any record to prove that they orderd the soldiers or anyone to "hunt" and bring a local women as a sex slave. And iff the Japanese prime minister has apologized for it, then it does not mean that Japan should apologize for it again and again. And also it does not mean at all either that Japanese army forced sex slavery - especially in light of the facts that Japanese people are very polite people and far more ready to apologize even if it is not their fault - totally different to the more assertive and aggressive Anglo-Saxon culture in US, NZ, etc (and Korea as long as I have heard). And further, with regard to the content of http://www.awf.or.jp/e6/statement-03.html, you need to understand that the evidence from the mouths of former comfort women, operators, etc are far from unreliable. Who would be stupid enough - especially in this society with full of egoism and selfishness and corruptions - to admit that you used to work as a prostitute or sex broker when you could actually easily cover up the fact and make money by telling lies through juridical system? Recently in Tokyo, a woman sued for 26000 yens that she had saved as a "comfort-women" for 2 years during the war and it is also important to note that at that time even the Japanese army minister could earn only 6000 yens per year. Having said that, we cannot deny any possibility that some comfort women were mistreated even if they were prostitutes. However, if Japan is to be blamed for any mistreatment of any comfort women, then America should be also blamed for their cruel treatment and forced sex with black women slaves and apologize to them, and most of other countries with the history of internal or external wars should make an apology. In conclusion, if you don't forgive others even after they have already apologized and/or even if it is not their fault, you will not be forgiven for your own mistreatment to others that you have done in the past and do not confess to others to apologize for because nobody and no ethnicity is far from perfect and we all have the same level of bad treatment or revenge to others and other countries - like dropping of Atomic Bombs in Japan to kill about 100 thousands people - certainly one of the most inhuman way of killing anyone in war in human history.
ReplyDeleteThank you very much for this.
DeleteLike you say, Japanese people are inherently polite: not to say things to offend others, looking at our faults first before looking at others', etc. So when others say things loud, we listen and try not to react emotionally, because we tend to think it is rather childish to do so. This is a virtue in a sense, but this has also been a big mistake that Japanese people and the government have been making. Because we did not speak up when Koreans started fabricating comfort women issue, and they have been doing it so persistently, now the lies have spread so widely, and even Americans and others who are not familiar with this side of the history started to believe the fabrication. Yes Japanese government had comfort station system, yes these women were offering sexual services. But the Japanese government did NOT force these women, and most of the women CHOSE the profession, and they were PAID, very well. Also, it was the KOREAN brokers who recruited these women, not the Japanese military. There are many historical evidence to prove these, but why do the advocates of comfort women keep their eyes away from these facts, and only repeat that these women were simply victims of sexual slavery? A Korean comfort woman did come to Japan to claim her saving, which she could not withdraw in time because Japan lost the war. This fact alone proves that she WAS paid. If she was paid, why should one conclude others were not paid? If you look at pieces of historical evidence logically, you can easily understand that the claim "200,000 sexual slaves killed/mistreated by Japanese military" does not make sense. But, many people already have a fixed idea on the Japanese military/government during WWII, and want to support these "vulnerable poor comfort women", showing their sense of justice. They can never imagine that these "poor women" have been in fact making false testimonies. But this is a historical issue - we have to look at facts. Discussion based on false testimonies are meaningless.
It shocks the conscience that many still deny the well-documented atrocities committed by the Japanese. Where is my evidence? Just type "Japan war crimes" into Google and take your pick. There appears to still remain attachment to Hitler's proclamation, "Tell lies, big bold lies, keep it simple and repeat it enough, people will believe."
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment. But you know, there are all kinds of information on the internet, and you need to read carefully whatever you get from Google search. This is especially true for the information on WWII, which is an extremely complicated and controversial subject, with various propaganda, arguments, and "facts" told since then up to now. Indeed your pick of word "Japanese war crimes" already indicates a bias, and I assume surely you can get the kind of info you saw.
DeleteWhich Japanese atrocities are you talking about? Chinese fabrication of "Nanking massacre of 300,000 people"? Korean fabrication of "killing 200,000 sexual slaves?" For your info, Chinese government claimed 20,000 death in Nanking at League of Nations back then. Also, none of the photos used to "prove Nanking massacre" proved credible (like the ones used in "Rape of Nanking"), they were either taken in other battlefields, fabricated, changing captions etc. Moreover, the first journalist who reported on "Nanking massacre" was Harold Timperley from Manchester Guardian who had been hired as an adviser to the propaganda bureau of Chinese National People's Party. As for the comfort women issue, please take a look at other blog posts under comfort women. The comfort women system that the Japanese military had did not have an element of atrocity.
Have you googled American "atrocities" during WWII? You may not get that many, compared to Japanese "atrocities". Besides Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which killed 200,000 instantly, and 380,000 up to now, are you aware of American aerial attack on Tokyo killing 100,000 civilians in ONE night, and other attacks in many other cities across Japan? Do you also know Tsushu atrocity (通州虐殺) in which Chinese army brutally killed 230 Japanese women, children and elderly (including Korean Japanese) near Beijing, and many other killings done by the same?
There are many "atrocities" done by many countries, but the winners' acts are not condemned - only the loser's acts are fabricated and exaggerated, making it like the only truth. That is highly biased.
Japan went into the war, not because it wanted to colonize others, but because it was pushed into it by the US and its allies - it is obvious from various measures taken against Japan such as ABCD encirclement which cut all the natural resources coming into Japan, Hull Note, etc. Japan was pushed into the situation in which it had only 6 months reserve of oil left, and it had to choose to fight or be colonized without fighting. Even Douglas MacArthur confessed in US senate in 1951 that the reason for Japan in going to war was for security.
The commonly-held view of "the imperial Japan did so much atrocities during the WWII" is one-sided and simplistic. Japan fought a war. There are of course casualties through fighting the war. But many stories on "Japanese atrocities" are fabricated, because it is convenient for the winners to keep those story lines.
After 70 years from the end of WWII, facts need to be confronted. Your citation of Hitler describes the situations well - lies on Japanese atrocities have been told many times persistently and now people firmly believe them.
i hope one day this nonsense "war crimes" will be finally come to be officially known as a lie
ReplyDeletethe west and asia education must accept the facts and evidence, not the fabrication of americans, chinese or koreans
unit 731 experiments (no evidence)
nanking massacre (debunked)
comfort women (debunked)
Japan was not fighting a war of agression
but a war for liberty of the asian countries of western occupation
there is also no single evidence pointing that Japanese imperial army had ambission of invasion
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comfort_women
ReplyDeleteyou are a liar
Nanking Massacre is hoax.It's a just fabricated propaganda story.
ReplyDeleteChinese tell lies to the world 24/7/365.
False Accusations of Nanking Massacre
http://www.howitzer.jp/nanking/index.html
Is UNESCO a propaganda machine of PRC ?
http://www.howitzer.jp/nanking/page10.html
Here is the first-hand witness account of the conditions of "Comfort Women" in South East Asia. It also describes how they were murdered as mentioned above.
ReplyDeletehttp://dokdo-takeshima.jp/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Jungle-Ace-3.jpg