Falling Kono Statement - culprit of the comfort women myth

As you may know, Kono statement of 1993 is regarded as the evidence, and the official affirmation, that Japan committed the atrocity of making massive number of women as sex slaves. 

I do not blame those who believe in this – it is totally the fault of the Japanese government who has been silent, irresponsible, and coward in not stating known facts on the sensitive issue. But one should know what Kono statement really is and how it came about.

[The following is the rough English translation of the Sankei scoop on this]

The Kono statement was made based on the 5-day hearing investigation of 16 former so-called comfort women in 1993; however, the interview report was long undisclosed. 

On October 15, 2013, Sankei Shimbun finally obtained the interview report. In the report, the factual information was obscure, and different from what the women said in other occasions. Some names and date of birth were inaccurate. Although proper family registration system existed in the Korean peninsula at the time, only 8 comfort women indicated their date of birth, while 6 left it blank. 13 women left their hometown “unknown” though in Korea, the hometown is an important indication for an individual.

Some names indicated only family name, or were insufficiently written, without proper Kanji. Furthermore, some women testified that they worked in Osaka, Kumamoto, and Taiwan, i.e. non battle zones where comfort stations did not exist, though ordinary brothels existed. 5 comfort women who sued the Japanese government in 1991 were included as interviewees, but their testimonies differed from what they said in other occasions.

Before this interview took place, then Korean Professor Ahn Byung-jik of Seoul National University and his group conducted hearing investigation with 40 comfort women in 1992. The group met and interviewed the women 5-6 times, and stated in its report that “the cases that presented the most serious problems to the researchers were those in which the witnesses seemed to be intentionally distorting the facts”, and thus adopted only 19 of them in the report.

pp.36-43 is relevant to Prof. Anh's research --> http://www.sdh-fact.com/CL02_1/39_S4.pdf

It is highly probable that the hearing investigation of the government included those who were dismissed in the Korean investigation, but the government has not done any cross-checking or confirmation.

Former Deputy Cabinet Secretary Ishihara Nobuo, who was involved in the making of the Kono statement, was interviewed by Sankei, and said:

 “I did not look at the report, and I made judgment based on the briefing by the officer in charge. However, if the content of the interview report, which was the foundation of the Kono statement, is sloppy and lacks credibility, then it is a grave problem. The Korean government selected the 16 comfort women, thus the trust would be shaken.”

Kono Statement: In August 1993, then Cabinet Secretary Kono Yohei, under Miyazawa Kiichi administration, expressed remorse and apology for former comfort women. Despite the fact that no government record was found, in and outside Japan, to prove abduction of women in recruitment, the statement confirmed forced recruitment, indicating 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." There is no cabinet approval for the statement.

 

Click here for Sankei scoop on Oct 16, 2013, in Japanese 

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The Korean government opposes to re-examination of the process of how the investigation with the comfort women was done for making the Kono statement. If there is nothing to hide, they should be glad to re-examine the process to prove their credibility.