Japanese PM denies wartime 'comfort women' were forced

Let it be known that:

1) A resolution is introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives, calling on Japan to make an official, formal apology for the kidnapping and imprisonment of as many as 200,000 women in Asia during the war;

2) The measure is sponsored by Rep. Mike Honda (D-Calif), who is Japanese-American.

 

This is a terrible stance for the PM to take at a time when tensions have stepped down in East Asia from the latest NK agreement. Making a statement like that only reinforces the perception of other Asian countries that Japan cannot be fully trusted since they continue to hold onto revisionist views of WWII.

 

Sometimes I feel like Japan is being paid by the Chinese military to make these kinds of statements about the war. Everytime, they make one of these revisionsit remarks, anger grows and the Chinese military just aims another missile at Tokyo.

If they want the region to remain stable, they might wanna start with acknowledging all the crimes committed during WW2, or at the very least not deny them when practically the entire continent is HIGHLY aware of the atrocities committed by the Japanese during WW2.

 

ok

IM confused, how does admitting this make them look any worse internationally than what it is already established they did in that war?

In case they have forgotten, they were the aggressors towards more than a few countries AND they perpetuated what was arguably the single biggest sneak attack(the actions of a coward btw) in history.

and thats not even getting into the freakyass stuff that we keep hearing about from japan.)

 

Displaced Koreans still living in Japan, who are the remenants and decendents of prisoners and comfort women, in many cases are still treated like third class citizens. They are taught in separate schools and have only limited job opportunities.

 

"We did not coerce these women into doing anything. They wanted to be comfort women."

 

It doesn't make them look worse internationally, it makes them look bad domestically to the hard right elements.

It's all a matter of domestic politics. The government trying to appease the hard right elements, probably because 1)their votes are probably important enough of a swing block and 2) most of the rest of population don't give enough of a **** about this history thing to change their votes based on the government appeasing the hard right on it, so appeasing the hard right won't cost them too many votes.

 

was referring to the quote about international embarrassment and wondering how they can be any more embarrassed than they already should be.

I cant comment on their domestic issues, since I know nothing about them other than less than 60 years ago, they still thought the Emperor was some sort of god or something.

 

i'm no expert in the matter but i think this is exactly right.

 

It would be like the German government denying the Holocaust, and teaching their children that they were merely occupying Western Europe during WW2.

Americans generally don't remember their own history too well, but other countries, who have lasted far longer and have several nations as neighbors, keep score. Actions like these open old wounds and get in the way of the economic incentives for moving on.

 

Next thing you know they'll be claiming they "accidentally" blew up Pearl Harbor.

 

they'll probably claim that the American-made ships blew up themselves because they were too big and used fuel inefficiently. See their original intent was to actually sell smaller, more fuel efficient battleships.

 

I agree with our Brazillian monickered poster, he was one of my favorite players .

Off the top of my head Abe is from the Rightwing party and a key element of his support are those who want to downplay and even honor Japan's wartime past. This would be almost like Neo-Nazis having political sway in Germany.

 

japan will do anything to stay mainstream in america and the rest of the world, they will never apologize fully, and they are hoping the world will forget.

 

But never apologizing keeps them out of the mainstream of the World.

 

yes. This article talks about some conflicts they had during the 50th anniversary of Hiroshima

http://www.uwosh.edu/faculty_staff/earns/legacy.html