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"Comfort Women" Issue Quick Summary 2-1
Quick Summary of "Comfort women"
Comfort Women Questions And Answers
I don't understand why this issue was raised lately again.
And It's been getting more and more complicated.
So I'd like all viewers to review it, and know it well if you don't.
It's fairly easy, very simple story.
Question 1: What are the comfort women all about ?
Let's put it this way.
Answer 1: During world war 2 Japanese army and or govt organ organically abducted mostly Korean women, and forced them to be prostitutes and release soldiers' sexual frustrations.
However govt didn't try to take any responsibility to that.
That's all it is. But I wonder if it's true.
Question 2: Then were Korean women really abducted with coercion ?
Answer 2: Until now concrete grounds that prove abductions haven't been seen.
It's very hard to prove what didn't acrually happen. But if an evidence of a fact hasn't been submitted, there would be nothing to blame for and or to accuse of.
Then when we think whether there have been concrete evidences or not, we can't find anything.
There has been no evidence of abduction.
Question 3: Then what could be the evidences of this issue ?
Answer 3: They are as follows:
1. Documents describing army and or authorities were involved with abductions
2. Proved victim's testimony
3. Proved criminal's testimony
4. Proved witness's testimony
If only one of these evidences is submitted, we would admit the fact of this issue.
Question 4: Is there any document that proves the fact ?
Many people have been wondering why, but actually there is no such document.
Answer4: This was clarified by ex-chief cabinet secretary Yohei Kono on Jun 17th 1997 where he stated the documents that proved abductions hadn't been found.
Then he had already been known for so called 'Kono statements' in that he had admitted the broad coercion on the prostitutes.
Then,
Question5: There should be a lot of victims' testimonies or mere commercial prostitution couldn't be like this big issue ?
The answer is,
Answer5: Japanese govt interviewed 16 ex-prostitutes for investigation, who had been selected by the Pacific War Victims Association but the govt didn't even try to validate or confirm the result of the investigation.
At this point everyone may feel strange that Japanese govt didn't select them by itself,
but anti-Japan Korean entity did. That's to say the first step of the investigation was biased.
Moreover the govt tried to make the investigation spontaneous leaving the result not validated or confirmed. To make matters worse, ex-lawyer Mizuho Fukushima et al were present there, and none of testimonies' names and interview contents has been given out. It's hard to think that we can get proved evidences through such an irresponsible investigation.
The innovative lawyers, calling themselves witnesses, controled the victims' talks so they were able to prevent the govt from getting useful information for a validation.
Those witnesses were afraid that the victims could speak too much and give the govt information possibly leading to undesirable result. That's why they had to lead testimonies as they wanted when answering the questions. And besides the govt itself weren't unmotivated for that investigation. Despite numbers of testimonies they got, from only 16 victims though, it's ovbious every single testimony wasn't the proved one. Then what about Korean side ?
There were 155 women who registered as ex-prostitutes. 74 among them were alive in 1992 and a citizen group called the Council for Measure of the Issue of South Korean Volunteer Corps, this name itself contains misconception, have 55 women as registrants. The council was able to get in touch with about 40 women among these 55 and interviewed them. Then it published the result of interviews as the testimony collection and that was translated in Japanese.
Korean Foreign Ministry assured the book covered all facts of the comfort women. Since then the book has been the powerful card for Koreans. The detail investigations were done with this book later and even the Korean citizen group found a lot of conflicts, omissions, errors and distortions. Actually
in the book were only 19 womens' testimonies.
The story is, among all registrated Korean ex-prostitutes who were alive, there were about 40 women the citizen group was able to get in touch. Since they found what many of those women said were completely wrong, they came to know the testimonies weren't at all reliable enough to be published. Thus they had to get rid of more than half of the testimonies.
As the result there were only 19 women among all, whose testimonies were identified as the facts. But there were only 4 women whose testimonies were identified as the facts of coerced abductoins. You know what, 2 of them said they were taken to brothels in Toyama and Busan, where brothels weren't installed, in other words enough validation wasn't done by Korean side. These women should have been removed from the victim registrants. Only 2 women were left as real victims, they are Kim Haksoon and Moon Okchu. But the fact was, Kim's mother sold her in 40 yen as a prostitute called kiseng.
Moon was deceived by a Korean calling himself Sung who told her to work in a restaurant, and she was forced to be a prostitute in Burma. After all they weren't coerced prostitutes either. But being pointed out of their testimonies later, they changed their testimonies. A changed testimony isn't trustworthy at all. That's all about this issue. How do you think ?
There has been no victim's reliable testimony. None of all registered ex-prostitutes' testimonies hasn't been reliable at all.
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"Comfort Women" Issue Quick Summary 2-1
Question 6: Any perpetrators' testimonies ?
Then what about the perpetrators' testimonies ? is the question 6.
The answer for this question is,
Answer 6: Seiji Yoshida, Seiji is an alias and real name is ?Yuto?, whose false testimony is the only one.
Yes, it's Mr.Seiji Yoshida. He used to identify himself as 東治, Toji
for a certain period. I'm sure this is obviously an alias also and he
seems to have a real name. His last name Yoshida is certainly a real one
though. The only perpetrator's testimony is the false one given by him.
His testimony is like this.
Mr. Yoshida, 10 conscripts and 10 local soldiers abducted 205 women into
2 trucks in Jeollanamdo and Jejudo under the order from the military as
descibed in "My war crime - abduction of Koreans with coercion" issued in
1983. He said they abducted women just as kidnappers did.
However, is this trustworthy ?
According to the news reporter Heo Yeongseon's article in the local Jeju
news on August 14th 1989 and the modern historian Ikuhiko Hata's field
investigation described in "Seiron" issued in June 1992, it's obvious
that Mr.Yoshida's testimony is a lie.
Moreover, even "Asahi shinbun" that had repeatedly reported his testimony
and agitated for the abduction with coercion, wrote later as "Asahi news
and some other media came to doubt his testimony" on March 31st 1997.
In fact they declared to deny his testimony.
I'm surprised to see how Asahi corrected their tones.
They are quite unscrupulous aren't they ?
Well now that we know there have'nt been any trustworthy perpetrators'
testimonies, what about the witnesses' testimonies ? is the question 7.
Question 7: Any witnesses' testimonies ?
The answer for this question is,
Answer 7: This is also zero. It's a strange story that in spite of existences of the women calling themselves the victims, we've never seen a Korean witness.
Next is the question 8. Then,
Question 8: Was the comfort woman issue taken up through the negotiation process for the establishment of diplomatic relations between Japan and Korea ?
Though I hinted at the answer a bit, the answer 8 is,
Answer 8: The talks between Japan and Korea continued as long as 14 years. Though every single issue, even if it was very small, was taken up one by one, not only Japan didn't submit this issue but Korea didn't.
This is the very important fact, isn't it ?
And the question 9 which is the simple question.
Question 9: There has been none of a document, a victim's testimony, a perpetrator's testimony and a witness's testimony that we can trust to be the proved fact. And even Korea didn't take up this issue at all through the process of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Japan and Korea. Why has this become the international issue ?
We should know the answer for this. The answer 9 is,
Answer 9: After Japan had entered Heisei Period, "Asahi Shimbun" sparked this issue and the Kiichi Miyazawa cabinet implemented the apology policy.
The course of this policy is like this.
Mr.Takashi Uemura, a reporter of "Asahi", reported ex-comfort woman's
testimony in Osaka headquarter edition on August 11th 1991. This article was
the root cause of the "comfort woman issue". Nothing about the issue had not
been reported even in Korea at that time.
As for the contents of the artcle, it was a fabricated report in which Mrs.
Kim Haksoon was abducted, forced into the "Women's Volunteer Corps" and then"sent to the battle area". As being a group of women mobilized to the
military arsenals or the clothing factories, the Women's volunteer Corps had
nothing to do with the "battle area" or the soldiers' sexual frustrations
either. Besides, Mrs.Kim wasn't "abducted" but was sold by her poor mother.
That's to say, the "comfort woman issue" has come from the fabricated report
by "Asahi". This fabrication can't compare with Aru-aru's fabricated natto
report. And next, on December 16th same year, the Pacific War Victims
Association of Korea filed a suit with the Tokyo district court for 20
million yen a person, 300 million yen in all to be paid to the plaintiffs:
35 people including three ex-comfort women. The chief attorney was Mr.
Kenichi Takagi.
As "Asahi" sensationalized this accusation, it rapidly became critical.
Here, we should never forget that Mr.Takashi Uemura reported this lawsuit.
To tell the truth, he had been married to a daughter of then executive
director and a current chairman of the Pacific War Victims Association of
Korea that brought an action to the court. In a word, the man whose position
was the executive director's son-in-law gave the first report on this lawsuit. I think we should never forget this fact.
Moreover, what disastrously depraved the issue had been Prime Minister
Miyazawa's diplomatic stance at that time.
Without clarifying the fact or arguing with Korea thoroughly based on the fact,
he tried to calm down the situation by admitting the fault and apologizing as
half measures.
It was ex-chief cabinet cecretary Kono's statements announced on August 4th
1993, the day before the general resignation of Miyazawa cabinet that has left
traces until today.
By his statements, not only the situation has never calmed down at all, but
as Japan's govt itself has been considered to have admitted the "direct
involvement" in the "abductions" of the comfort women by the "authorities etc.",
Japan's honor in the international community has been disastrously stained.
The resolution to demand Japan's apology in the American House of
Representatives this time is also based on Kono statements.
I believe everyone knows it. What huge problems it has created for the future !
This is the last question.
Question 10: Is Japan liable for the ex-comfort women ? This is the question 10.
Yes, this is the answer.
Answer 10: No. There hasn't been any evidences that we can confirm the facts of abductions by the army and the authorities. Additionally the both countries admitted that all issues between the nations had been "completely and permanently" solved based on the "agreement of claim and economic cooperation" agreed in the process of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Japan and Korea in 1965.
Accoding to this agreement, Japan provided Korea with the huge amount of
economic cooperation that were free $300 million and the loan for $200 million:
the foreign currency reserves of Korea at that time was only $130 million.
This means that Japan provided far more than three times, close to four times
of the Korea's foreign currency reserves.
No one can deny the fact that this fully contributed to Korea's economic
recovery after the war and it's well known to the public.
And the conclusion.
The comfort woman issue isn't the fact legally and from a historical angle.
It's nothing but the political phantasm generated by Kono statements and keeps
harming Japan's national interests.
I think earnestly that we Japanese shouldn't lose sight of this fact.
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