The source by AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE revealed more madness from Japan’s ultra-nationalists.
Japanese lawmakers and academics protested on Friday against a US congressional demands for a clear apology over wartime military brothels, saying the women were not sex slaves but camp followers and it was not a human rights issue but a commercial dealing.
In a letter to the US embassy in Tokyo, the activists say they were “surprised and shocked” by the pressure for a fresh apology to the “comfort women” in a resolution which they claim was based on wrong information.
“No sex slaves existed,” it says. “Professional camp followers were providing prostitution. There were only business organizations and prostitutes to make money from soldiers.”
Shoichi Watanabe, history professor emeritus at Tokyo’s Sophia University said: “If America keeps saying this is a human rights issue, then what were the indiscriminate bombings on Tokyo and other cities? What were the atomic bombings? Compared with that human rights issue, prostitution in battlefields is only a commercial act.”
Rightwing author Kimindo Kusaka said women from Japan initially went to frontline brothels, but a shortage led to Koreans recruiting women from the “low classes” on the peninsula.
“They paid when they recruited the girls,” he said.
“It was probably a severe blow to the girls, but it was their dads who betrayed them. It was their moms who betrayed them.”
What should we do about it?
The last statement is really beyond me as to whether they wants to mitigate the wrongdoings or go into complete denial is unclear to me.
Given the influx from China’s hinterland to service the modern and supposedly much still hated Japanese, then I suspect it is fair to suspect at least some of the supposed sex slave stuff was indeed voluntary, but required some other justification after the guns fell silent.
Although if that was the case, you’d think the Japanese would have mentioned that a long time ago… unless they somehow uncovered new, startling evidence and surprise witnesses. /sarcasm
Alternatively and rather ironically, they may not have wanted to piss people off more.
In the early stages of the war, Japanese authorities recruited prostitutes through conventional means. Middlemen advertised in newspapers circulating in Japan and the Japanese colonies of Korea, Taiwan, Manchukuo, and mainland China. Many who answered the advertisements were already prostitutes and offered their services voluntarily. Others were sold by their families to the military due to economic hardship. However, these sources soon dried up, especially from Japan.citation needed The Ministry of Foreign Affairs resisted further issuance of travel visas for Japanese prostitutes, feeling it tarnished the image of the Japanese Empire.citation needed The military turned to acquiring comfort women outside mainland Japan, especially from Korea and occupied China. Many women were tricked or defrauded into joining the military brothels.citation needed The US Army Force Office report of interview with 20 comfort women in Burma found that the girls were induced by the offer of plenty of money, an opportunity to pay off the family debts, and on the basis of these false representations many girls enlisted for overseas duty and were rewarded with advance of a few hundred yen.
Anyway, how do the allies justify their play mates?
Rangoon, Burma. August 8, 1945. An ethnic Chinese woman who was in one of the Imperial Japanese Army’s “comfort battalions” is interviewed by an Allied officer.
“So, I erh, suppose you’ll be looking for a new job my little darling, eh? There might be something around here for you to do . . .”
I think one needs to be very careful about differentiating what happened early is the war vs. later, or what shows up on paper vs. really what happened. As an example, what if the future took the Taipei Times as evidence of what is really going on?
I also don’t think it is a valid arguement to allude that because allied forces have used prostitutes, therefore what the Japanese did was OK.
All Asian women look like their pre-pubescent. It’s part of their appeal
Huang Guang Chen,
This is the same man that argued the people in China “wanted” the British opium…
I mean people that age want to have sex; one cannot blame the Japanese for facilitating a structured environment for this to occur during the war. One cannot expect either prostitute or sex from ending just because of a trifle war.
All Asian women look like their pre-pubescent. It’s part of their appeal[/quote]
Be careful not to give too much away now.
[quote=“ac_dropout”]Huang Guang Chen,
This is the same man that argued the people in China “wanted” the British opium… [/quote]
Then it shoud be easy to back your claim by finding my statement, no? Please do, because what I actually said was that the English laid opium on the doorstep, but it was Chinese that delivered it to the hinterland. You can see that’s not quite the same as you claim, right?
