Japanese PM denies wartime 'comfort women' were forced

Sishir Chang · Mar 7, 2007

HayesStreet said:

He's not Brazilian.
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You're right Venezualan. My bad.

Sishir Chang · Mar 7, 2007

StupidMoniker said:

The reason that Japan is viewed as having a positive effect by most countries is that outside of a few east asian countries, no one is still hung up on what they did in WWII, apology or no. Japan now is fairly pacifistic (constitutionally), does tons of trade, is known mostly for cars and consumer electronics. If you look at modern Japan, it would be hard to say they are negatively affecting the world. Of course they SHOULD own up to what they did in WWII, but that has very little effect on the world today.
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This is true that Japan has to some extent been able to buy the good will of many countries that were in the Co-Prosperity sphere. I know that in Singapore there is generally good will towards Japanese but there is still discussion regarding Japan's war time history and harsh occupation of Singapore. Travelling in Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand I'm frequently mistaken for being Japanese and any good will that is, mistakenly, expressed to me seems primarily in regard to getting some money.

As a sidenote to this debate since WWII relations between Japan and the PRC haven't always been as negative and in the late 70's and 80's there was a warmer relationship. Current tensions have risen due to both recent historical revisionism and inflamatory actions by Japanese Rightists along with the rapid rise of PRC power.

Sishir Chang · Mar 7, 2007

RocketForever said:

I pray to God too that what happened 60 years ago will never occur again. But who do you think has caused the current climate? The current Japanese Government which tries to deny and whitewash its history or the Chinese and the Korean who complain about the denial?
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I'm willing to say that Chinese Nationalism has stoked some of this and some of the protests were allowed to get out of hand. That said the Japanese could remove the impetus for any protest by living up to their history. As long as they don't do that they will never be able to be fully trusted by their neighbors.

rrj_gamz · Mar 7, 2007

To back away from comments is cowardly, but typical govt. stance...It is known that this did happen, whether it was 200 or 200,000 women is debatable, but do believe some women if not all did not have a choice...

Lil · Mar 7, 2007

Japan --> There were no forced comfort women
US --> There is no global warming, no waste of life in Iraq
China --> There is no Taiwan government, no human rights violations worth mentioning in China.
Israel --> There are no nukes in the Israeli arsenal
Switzerland --> There are no Nazi loot in Swiss banks
Iran --> There are no plans to build a nuke (just plans to wipe Israel off the map)

Welcome to politics!!!

hotballa · Mar 7, 2007

Lil said:

Japan --> There were no forced comfort women
US --> There is no global warming, no waste of life in Iraq
China --> There is no Taiwan government, no human rights violations worth mentioning in China.
Israel --> There are no nukes in the Israeli arsenal
Switzerland --> There are no Nazi loot in Swiss banks
Iran --> There are no plans to build a nuke (just plans to wipe Israel off the map)

Welcome to politics!!!
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thats 100% true, unfortunately we're talking about the personal effects of denial of war crimes.

johnrox · Mar 7, 2007

Lil said:

Japan --> There were no forced comfort women
US --> There is no global warming, no waste of life in Iraq
China --> There is no Taiwan government, no human rights violations worth mentioning in China.
Israel --> There are no nukes in the Israeli arsenal
Switzerland --> There are no Nazi loot in Swiss banks
Iran --> There are no plans to build a nuke (just plans to wipe Israel off the map)

Welcome to politics!!!
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even taiwanese would say there isn't a taiwanese government

Rocket River · Mar 7, 2007

wnes said:

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.
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I hope Jessie Jackson III is seeing this
cause we, African American, want a few Apologies of our own.

Rocket River

getready · Mar 7, 2007

This is a response from the Yomiuri Shimbun. Correct me if i'm wrong but I think they are the most popular and respected newspaper in japan so i guess most Japanese generally tend to agree with their views, and they are usually conservative and right wing leaning, as opposed to the much less popular but more internationally respected liberal daily, the asahi shimbun (spelling?)

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/editorial/20070307TDY04005.htm

Yomiuri: Don't misinterpret comfort women issue

The Yomiuri Shimbun(2007-03-07)

The nub of the issue of the so-called comfort women is whether there were instances of their being forced into sexual servitude by the Japanese authorities.

The Foreign Affairs Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives is deliberating a resolution against Japan in connection with this issue. The resolution calls on the Japanese government to acknowledge historical responsibility for the Imperial Japanese Army's coercion of young women into sexual slavery during Japan's occupation of Asia until the end of World War II and urges the prime minister to apologize for the crime.

The resolution says the Japanese military commissioned the acquisition of comfort women. However, no documents have been found to support this assertion. Historians also accept that no such orchestrated action was undertaken by the Japanese military.

We wonder whether the U.S. lawmakers who sponsored the resolution have evidence to back their claims.

At a Diet committee session, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said the resolution was "not based on objective facts." Foreign Minister Taro Aso has expressed a similar view, calling the resolution "extremely regrettable."

Since the resolution is filled with distortions, the government must properly explain the facts and do everything to prevent it being adopted.

===

Kono statement inaccurate

Concerning the recruitment of comfort women, the prime minister stressed, "None of the testimonies confirmed coercion in the narrow sense."

Abe explicitly asserted that the comfort women were not forcibly recruited, saying there was no "coercion like the hunting of comfort women, with officials rushing into houses to drag women out, like kidnapping them."

However, Abe acknowledged that private recruiters lured women against their will in a "broader sense of coercion." This is totally different from coercion by the military.

Some mass media organizations and Diet members have inaccurately interpreted the meaning of "coercion" and criticized the government, ignoring the nitty-gritty of the issue.

Why does the comfort women issue keep on surfacing?

The main reason is the 1993 statement issued by then Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono. The statement suggested that the Japanese military forcibly recruited comfort women, saying, "The authorities were directly involved" in the recruitment of such women.

However, a former deputy chief cabinet secretary and other officials later said that phrase was written without the facts having been confirmed.

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Govt caved in to pressure

A group of Liberal Democratic Party lawmakers wants to have the Kono statement revised, saying vague expressions in the statement have led to misunderstandings.

The U.S. House resolution criticizes such moves in Japan, saying there is a "desire to dilute or rescind the 1993 statement."

But it is a natural course of action to revise the inaccurate Kono statement.

What was behind the issuance of the Kono statement was the government's misjudgment--made under pressure from South Korea--that its acknowledgement that the comfort women were forcibly recruited would lead to the settlement of the issue.

The government should not make the same diplomatic mistake in its response to the U.S. House resolution.
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Sishir Chang · Mar 7, 2007

The resolution says the Japanese military commissioned the acquisition of comfort women. However, no documents have been found to support this assertion. Historians also accept that no such orchestrated action was undertaken by the Japanese military.
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Unbelievable... Unbelievable... The proof is the surviving comfort women and other witnesses who say they were forced into become prostitutes.

This is the kind of stuff that pisses off the rest of Asia about the Japanese.

hotballa · Mar 7, 2007

Sishir Chang said:

Unbelievable... Unbelievable... The proof is the surviving comfort women and other witnesses who say they were forced into become prostitutes.

This is the kind of stuff that pisses off the rest of Asia about the Japanese.
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wow, and they wonder why China and South Korea can't let these things go

pirc1 · Mar 7, 2007

hotballa said:

wow, and they wonder why China and South Korea can't let these things go
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I always say let Germany government say holocaust never happend and see **** fly from every where in the world.

getready · Mar 10, 2007

more update...now he is blaming the US and other foreign media for overblowing the issue

March 11, 2007
Wartime past returns to haunt Japan
Abe blames misreporting by foreign media for furore over WWII sex slaves

TOKYO - JAPANESE Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has accused overseas media of inaccurately reporting his views on Japan's wartime army brothels and fuelling an outcry.

'Unfortunately, our remarks on this issue have not necessarily been carried accurately and calmly, but they have been carried in a way quite different from what was really said,' he told Parliament on Friday.

But he said he would not respond to the reports because 'it would trigger unproductive arguing'.

Mr Abe caused an uproar early this month when he said there was no hard evidence to show that so-called 'comfort women' were forced by the army into sexual slavery 'in the strict sense of coercion'.

He later elaborated that he was talking about physical coercion such as soldiers kidnapping women for brothels.

His comments came as a US congressional committee worked on a Bill demanding Japan apologise for its treatment of comfort women.

The New York Times criticised Japan in an editorial last Tuesday for its 'efforts to contort the truth' on the issue.

In the article headlined 'No comfort', it said: 'Japan is only dishonoured by such efforts to contort the truth.

'What part of 'Japanese army sex slaves' does Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe have so much trouble understanding and apologising for?

'These were not commercial brothels. Force, explicit and implicit, was used in recruiting these women. What went on in them was serial rape, not prostitution.'

Historians say up to 200,000 women, mostly from Korea, but also from China, Indonesia, the Philippines and Taiwan, were forced to serve in Japanese army brothels.

On Friday, Mr Abe said: 'We have already been offering sincere sympathy and apologising to (comfort women) for the fact that they were put in an extremely harsh situation and went through hardships.'

He has acknowledged a 1993 government statement that apologised to sex slaves and said the army was involved 'directly or indirectly' in the recruitment and management of the brothels.

Still, he said his government would provide data to help conservative lawmakers reinvestigate facts on comfort women, a move that could lead to the 1993 statement being watered down.

Yesterday, the China Daily said Japan's new study must not hide the truth.

'Mr Abe's approach to restoring pride in Japan amounts to sheer denial of the horrific suffering of the sex slaves,' it said in an editorial.

AFP, Reuters
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http://www.straitstimes.com/portal/...rtid:4d2f7a7612d31110VgnVCM100000430a0a0aRCRD

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Japanese PM denies wartime 'comfort women' were forced

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