Contents
Introduction
FAQs
Q1:
Why would young women voluntarily want to become comfort women?
Q2:
Why on earth would Korean families send their children to become comfort women?
Q3:
Did the Imperial Japanese military directly kidnap, abduct, or conscript women
for comfort women service?
Q4:
Why would some people exaggerate the stories about comfort women?
Q5: Were recruiters/agents dishonest
when informing women about the job of comfort women?
Q6: Were comfort women allowed to go
home after fulfilling the contract?
Q7: How were the work conditions for
comfort women?
Q8:
Were the comfort women abused, beaten, or tortured by the Imperial Japanese
military?
Q9: Some former Korean comfort women
have stated that they were "abducted, " “coerced,” or "forced." Did this happen?
Q10:
Why is there the belief that very young girls were conscripted to become
comfort women?
Q11: Did Japan apologize and pay
compensation to Korea and comfort women before 2015?
Q12: Are certain groups and
individuals deceiving the world?
Q13: What is an appropriate way to
describe comfort women?
Q14: How did all this misinformation
start and spread?
Q15:
What key reports used erroneous, fabricated, biased, or questionable source
materials?
Q16: Was the Imperial Japanese
military directly involved with comfort women brothels?
Q17: Do Japanese people deny the
existence of comfort women?
Q18: Why doesn't what is written here
match what is mentioned on websites and other reports?
Q19:
Is S. Korea hiding "skeletons in its closet"?
Q20: Why are Japanese so upset about
this issue?
Q21:
Is there more to this story?
References:
INTRODUCTION
Americans value truth and
justice. There is now, however, a misconception that has been repeated so often
by certain groups –and disseminated via the media and Internet –that the true facts
have become obscured. Even
erroneous government reports and resolutions have been issued, with references
traceable to a limited number of faulty sources.
The misconception is that
all "comfort women" of Imperial Japan were kidnapped or forcibly
conscripted by the Japanese military, and that they were all treated as
"sex slaves." Yes, it is
difficult to believe, but these are elaborate exaggerations, propagated by
people with agendas. These
prevarications have been repeated so many times that many people now believe
them.
During the first half of
the last century, poverty was widespread in much of Asia, including Korea and
Japan. Many families, especially
farm families and those in rural areas, struggled to survive and were in debt,
forcing families to make sacrifices unimaginable today. This stark economic reality, along with
the patriarchal nature of Korean society, created an environment where young
women desperately desired an opportunity for a different life. This backdrop provides the context
needed to understand the events.
(1) The vast majority of Korean
comfort women were sent by their impoverished families to pay off family debts
or joined of their own accord –though many may have been misled about the
nature of the job by civilian recruiters.
(2)
Comfort women were often paid (or their families had been paid) and could go
home when they had paid off their debtor their obligations were met. As such, their situation was vastly different
from slavery of antebellum America.
(3)
There were, however, isolated cases where local military commanders forcibly
acquired women in territory Japan occupied during the war. Such an incident occurred in Indonesia;
but, when a higher ranking Japanese officer discovered this, the women were
released from this situation and the violating officers later punished. This small percent of women 'forcibly
recruited' by the military were the exceptions rather than the rule: their
unfortunate situation has been misapplied to all comfort women. Additional details and references are
presented in the next section: FAQs.
To
further confound the facts, some groups have been spreading disinformation that
Japan has neither apologized nor paid any compensation to comfort women. In fact, the Government of Japan issued
a formal apology in 1993; Japanese officials at the highest levels (including
prime ministers) have personally apologized; and, Japan and Japanese have paid
compensation before 2015 (see next section).
For
true justice, one must investigate exhaustively, with an open mind, until facts
can be discerned from fiction.
Anyone who has studied the Middle East knows that if only one side were
allowed to present their version of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the story
would be drastically different from that of the other side. Those who seek justice must always be
wary.
Justice
depends on the ability to discern facts from fiction, and this is the purpose
of this report.
FAQs
Q1: Why would young women
voluntarily want to become comfort women?
Unbeknownst to most
Westerners, many people in Korea and Japan lived in extreme poverty during the
first half of the 20th Century; large numbers of families had difficulty
subsisting. The opportunity of
working as a comfort women was a way for destitute women to survive under this
stark economic reality. (Ref. 2 and 3)
Further, the patriarchal nature of Korean society, where daughters were
often under-appreciated, given little autonomy, and sometimes mistreated by
their fathers, was also a contributing factor. (Ref. 3a)
A point that has been
often ignored is the fact that many comfort
women were from Japan. However,
the Japanese comfort women experience has been rarely discussed in
English-language documents.
Q2: Why on earth would
Korean families send their children to become comfort women?
As
mentioned above, many families in Korea were impoverished and in
debt. In order to pay off their
debts, parents (often the father) offered the services of their children, and
received payment. (Ref. 2, 3)
Historically, this type of practice was very common in Korea and in
other parts of Asia (e.g., sending daughters to become live-in baby sitters,
maids, and such, in exchange for advance payment). Boys were also sent as workers by parents. In addition, some daughters were sent to
“kisaeng” houses, where young women learned to become entertainers. Prostitution was legal at the time, and
many poor women ended up in the “world’s oldest profession.” Some people have stated that these
parents "sold" their daughters, which may have contributed to the
misconception that they would be treated as "slaves", and thus were
"sex slaves."
Q3: Did the Imperial
Japanese military directly kidnap, abduct, or conscript women for comfort women
service?
No,
this is false in most cases (the exceptions were described in the
introduction). In Korea, many
recruiters/agents were Korean men.
Because Korea had been part of Japan for decades, many Korean men had
adopted Japanese names and could speak Japanese flawlessly. (Ref. 3) Moreover, recruiters sometimes wore
uniforms that resembled Japanese military uniforms, and were fulfilling the needs
of the military. Combined, these
factors may have contributed to the misconception that the Japanese military
directly recruited all of the comfort women. There were isolated cases where civilian agents/recruiters
in Korea attempted to forcibly take women, but this was illegally done, and
Japanese authorities freed women who were taken in this manner when discovered
on the Korean peninsula.
Q4: Why would some people
exaggerate the stories about comfort women?
In
1910, Korea was annexed by Japan, and became part of Japan until the end of the
Second World War (WWII). Some
Koreans harbored deep resentment, as well as jealousy, toward Japan, while
others accepted, even embraced, Japan.
Unfortunately, in recent times, the state-run school system in S. Korea
has been teaching selective history, emphasizing the negatives aspects of
Japanese rule and promoting anti-Japanese sentiment. Strongly indoctrinated people often prefer to remain
ignorant and spread misinformation.
In actual fact, during WWII, many Koreans voluntarily joined the
Japanese military and served in the Japanese military as soldiers, as well as
officers. For example, Chung-Hee
Park, the father of the current President of S. Korea (Geun-Hye Park), was an
officer in the Imperial Japanese military. (Ref. 1)
Unfortunately, there are those who gain by spreading
misinformation, such as politicians seeking approval, attorneys who profit in
lawsuits, journalists who embellish the facts, activists whose once idealistic
visions have become distorted, and, sadly, hate groups.
Q5: Were recruiters/agents dishonest when informing women about
the job of comfort women?
Some recruiters, many of
whom were Korean, were not completely honest about the nature of the job of
comfort women. When joining, some
women assumed they would be doing "work connected with visiting the
wounded in hospitals, rolling bandages, and generally making the soldiers happy".
(Ref.2) So, there is a basis to
say that some women were tricked into becoming comfort women. Also, as parents offered the services
of their children to pay off debt, this may be construed, by some, as being
"forced" or "coerced" to become comfort women. However, being deceived by agents or
"forced" by one’s parents is completely different from being kidnapped,
abducted, or conscripted.
Q6: Were comfort women allowed to go home after fulfilling the
contract?
Yes. Korean comfort women could go home
after fulfilling their contract (often one to a several years) or paying off
their debt. (Ref.2) Some women
chose to continue, as the pay was much better than most jobs. Most brothels, however, were owned and
operated by civilians (Korean and Japanese), and the women were often dependent
on the integrity of these owners.
Toward the end of the war, as Allied forces cut off transportation
routes, traveling home, however, became more difficult.
Q7: How were the work conditions for comfort women?
The treatment and work
conditions for the comfort women depended on the civilian brothel proprietor,
and varied from location to location: some comfort women were treated
relatively well; others, poorly.
Here is a description of
conditions for a group of comfort women stationed in Burma: A comfort women's
average age was about twenty-five years old. These comfort women earned
approximately 750 yen per month, lived and worked in conditions similar to an upscale
brothel, and were in good health.
By comparison, a low-ranking Japanese soldier earned 10 yen per month;
thus, a comfort woman earned potentially 75 times more than some Japanese
soldiers. They had time to
participate in recreational activities: "While in Burma they amused
themselves by participating in sports events with both officers and men; and
attended picnics, entertainments, and social dinners. They had a phono-graph;
and in the towns they were allowed to go shopping." Most significantly, comfort women
"were allowed the prerogative of refusing a customer. " Certain
women "who had paid their debt could return home" (Ref.2) Further
details are described in Ref. 2.
Q8: Were the comfort
women abused, beaten, or tortured by the Imperial Japanese military?
Not
in general. Comfort women were
considered a valuable element for the military's well-being, and were generally
treated very well by the soldiers: "There were numerous instances of
proposals of marriage and in certain cases marriages actually took place."
(Ref.2) However, incidents of
abuse by the civilian brothel operators, who managed the comfort stations and
were often Korean, occurred perhaps even more often than abuse by individual
unruly soldiers. The abusive
behavior by the civilian brothel operators and individual oldiers has been
inappropriately generalized to the Japanese military.
Some
claim that most comfort women were killed at the end of the war by Japanese forces.
This claim is dubious, and apparently arose after a left-wing Japanese
politician (Seijiro Arafune) made wild claims for political reasons after the
war, which were then parroted.
During the war, as a result of cultural misunderstanding, wartime
enmity, and propaganda, many Japanese soldiers believed that American forces
would abuse and violate captured women.
On Pacific islands, when facing capture or defeat, Japanese troops often
killed themselves, and many Japanese troops believed it would be better for
accompanying civilians, including women, not to be captured alive –so as to not
be tortured and/or raped by Americans.
Q9: Some former Korean comfort women have stated that they were
"abducted", “coerced” or "forced". Did this happen?
Korean women did not
publically declare that they were abducted, coerced, or forcibly recruited by
the military until well after a
Japanese man, Seiji Yoshida, falsely claimed that he rounded up Korean women
forcefully in a 1983 book. The
media coverage some years later (e.g., by Asahi Newspaper) appears to have set
off the chain of events, including lawsuits against the Japanese
government. Yoshida's book was
later discredited as being a hoax.
Scientific
studies have demonstrated that “false” memories occur, e.g., eye-witnesses will
"remember erroneously events and details that did not occur,"
depending on who asks the question, how the question is asked, and under what
circumstances the question is asked. (Ref. 4) Moreover, recent research has confirmed that memories can be
“re-written,” under certain conditions. (Ref. 4b) These phenomena appear to be the case with several former
comfort women who seemingly validate Yoshida’s tale, as their testimonies have
changed over the years. Many
former Korean comfort women whose stories were recorded before the comfort
women issue became publicized worldwide indicated that they were
"sold" by their parents to pay off family debt or became comfort
women of their own accord (albeit possibly deceived about the nature of work by
civilian brokers).
There
were a small number of exceptions, e.g., women in Indonesia (as mentioned
above) and in the Philippines. It
is important to recognize the distinction between comfort women from Imperial
Japan (i.e., Japan, Korea, and Taiwan) and women acquired illicitly by soldiers
in territories Japan occupied during the war.
A
small number of Korean women were illegally abducted by brokers/agents, many of
whom were Korean and possibly misidentified as Japanese military (due their
Japanese-language ability, their use of Japanese names, and that they may have
worn military-like uniforms). The
possibility that a small number of local government personnel (e.g., police,
soldiers) conducting such activity in Korea, illicitly, also cannot be ruled
out.
More
recently, it should never be forgotten that before the US invaded Iraq in 2003,
witnesses ‘testified’ that Saddam Hussein had a viable
weapons-of-mass-destruction program, fabricating stories of remarkable detail
and credibility. Clearly, they did
not tell the truth.
Q10: Why is there the
belief that very young girls were conscripted to become comfort women?
For
the war effort, the Imperial Japanese government recruited Korean and Japanese
civilians to work in factories, e.g., make munitions, etc. (Ref. 3) They were called "Teishintai"
("Volunteer [labor] Corps,"
"chongsindae" in Korean), and these recruits did include young
girls (e.g., toward the end of the war, female Japanese between ages 12 -39
were mobilized for this labor force).
The number of these recruits was reported as 200,000 by some
sources. This Volunteer Corps was
distinct from the comfort women system. However, the two systems were conflated
by reporters in newspapers (e.g., Asahi Newspaper and others) and became the
basis for the inaccurate statement: "200,000 girls and women were 'forced'
to become 'sex slaves.'"
Documents substantiate that comfort women were
typically in their twenties, with the youngest seventeen years old. (Ref. 2,
3) Still, the possibility that
impoverished and desperate fathers sold younger daughters and unscrupulous
civilian agents misreported ages is highly likely.
Q11: Did Japan apologize and pay compensation to Korea and
comfort women before 2015?
Yes. These facts have been drowned out by a
massive misinformation campaign by certain Korean groups, and the details are
more complex than commonly known. In 1965, Japan and S. Korea signed a treaty
and concomitant agreement that normalized relations and settled any and all
grievances (Ref. 5): Japan provided S. Korea $800 million in payment, loans,
and assets as reparation –equivalent to billions of today’s dollars. This Agreement settled, “completely and
finally,” all issues and claims between Japan and S. Korea. Specifically, the
Treaty states, in Article II, paragraph 1:
"The High Contracting
Parties confirm that the problems concerning property, rights, and interests of
the two High Contracting Parties and their peoples (including juridical
persons) and the claims between the High Contracting Parties and between their
peoples, including those stipulated in Article IV(a) of the Peace Treaty with
Japan signed at the city of San Francisco on September 8, 1951, have been settled
completely and finally."
Because this
mutually-agreed-upon treaty explicitly states that both nations "confirm
that the problems...and interests" of both nations and "their
peoples" and "the claims between" both nations and "between
their peoples...have been settled completely and finally," it became the
S. Korean government's responsibility to compensate Korean comfort women, which
it failed to do.
The treaty details were
negotiated between S. Korea and Japan over a period of nearly fifteen YEARS
(1951-1965). Thus, it was more than sufficient time to bring up all
grievances. The comfort women were
never brought up as an issue; and, therefore, there was no mention of comfort
women in the treaty, consistent with the S. Korean government’s concerns. If nearly 200,000 Korean girls and
women were kidnapped, enslaved, and raped (as some claim), it seems
unfathomable that the S. Korean government would ignore them in a treaty that
was designed to settle all claims "completely and finally."
Nevertheless, Japan and
Japanese people went above and beyond their international legal obligation to
make amends when the comfort women issue heated up as a result of publication
of inaccurate stories and reports arising from Yoshida's false claim that he
abducted Korean women. To diffuse
the growing criticism from the S. Korean people and government, the Japanese
government made an official apology: on August 4, 1993, Japan's Chief Cabinet
Secretary, Yohei Kono, as part of a more comprehensive apology, stated the
following: "The Government of Japan would like to take this opportunity
once again to extend its sincere apologies and remorse to all those,
irrespective of place of origin, who suffered immeasurable pain and incurable
physical and psychological wounds as comfort women." (Ref. 6)
The wording of the
comprehensive apology was done in collaboration with S. Koreans to satisfy
their wishes in hope that there would finally be resolution to this issue. To Japan’s chagrin, by using wording to
please S. Korea, the apology created misunderstandings observed today, where
Japan appears to have admitted that the Imperial Japanese military high command
authorized certain systematic conduct that it had actually not done.
Moreover, even though the 1965 treaty freed Japan
from claims by S. Korea and S. Korean people (and the reparations should have
been paid to comfort women by the Korean government), Japan and Japanese paid
compensation to former comfort women to atone for the actions of the Japanese
militarists. Specifically, Japan
and Japanese people created what was called the "Asian Women's Fund"
in 1994 and paid millions of dollars in compensation to comfort women.
Unfortunately, many former Korean comfort women
rejected the compensation because of pressure from an anti-Japanese Korean
organization known as "Chong Dae Hyop" and because of media pressure,
thereby giving anti-Japanese groups a means to claim that comfort women were
never compensated by Japan.
Because the Japanese government had already
fulfilled the 1965 treaty and paid the S. Korean government for all claims by its
citizens, the Japanese government did not wish to appear as if Japan had not
fulfilled the treaty terms, and instead created the Asian Women’s Fund. One can envision the Japanese
government thinking something like, "We already paid compensation via our
1965 Treaty, so it is not right for the Japanese government to redress Korean
comfort women individually when we (S. Korea and Japan) had agreed that the S.
Korean government would compensate their citizens with the funds we provided;
however, as the S. Korean government did not fulfill their obligations, we will
mediate the compensation of comfort women. "Honoring the 1965 treaty restricted much of the
Japanese government’s subsequent actions, and made it more difficult to
directly compensate the women.
Q12: Are certain groups and individuals deceiving the world?
Sadly, yes. Those deceiving the world include
politicians with self-serving goals, anti-Japanese organizations (non-government
organizations, NGOs), certain historians pushing their perspectives, activists
who exaggerate claims to win support for their cause, lawyers who present selected
facts to win cases, reporters who sensationalized the stories, some comfort
women who had been coerced to deceive by anti-Japanese groups like Chong Dae Hyop,
elements within the S. Korean government, and certain Japanese leftists. All these groups ignore or dismiss (i)
the 1965 treaty between S.Korea and Japan, (ii) apologies by Japan and Japanese
officials, (iii) the compensation by Japan and Japanese, and (iv) documented
facts related to comfort women. These
groups clearly have self-serving motives and agendas, whereby vilifying Japan
advances their agendas.
As a result of constant
pressure –and even coaching (Ref. 3) –from anti-Japanese groups, it is likely
that some former comfort women who have provided testimonial narratives today
have false memories or their memories have been changed through a process
called “reconsolidation.” (Ref. 4b)
Thus, some may truly believe what they are saying, even if it did not
happen. What woman would want to
remember being sold or forced by her father or being so poor that this was the
only way to survive? Wouldn't one
be happier to remember, "The
Japanese military forced me!" –especially when that is what nearly everyone
is saying?
Q13: What is an appropriate way to describe comfort women?
This is complex. As described above, most Korean comfort
women were either “sold” by their families or joined on their own (perhaps
after being deceived by civilian agents).
So, for these women, a reasonably accurate description is ‘indentured’ prostitutes
under contracts, accompanying military units, who could go home after
fulfilling their contract or after their debt was
paid. (Ref. 2) The small fraction
of women in the occupied territories (e.g., Indonesia, Philippines) who were
‘forced’ should be considered differently and separately; these women in
Indonesia were released after about two months by Japanese military
authorities, when their situation was discovered by a higher ranking
officer. The personnel responsible
were later brought to justice.
Q14: How did all this misinformation start and spread?
Ironically, it was the
Japanese, themselves:
specifically, a Japanese man named Seiji Yoshida claimed that he rounded
up Korean women forcefully. Like
in the US, different Japanese hold different views: some are liberals,
conservatives, moderates, ‘anti-establishment,’ etc. When Yoshida’s 1983 memoir became the interest of a
left-leaning Japanese newspaper (Asahi Shimbun), they (e.g., reporter Takashi
Uemura –who was married to a S. Korean woman, Sun In Yang) wrote a series of
articles based on the book and selective evidence. Yang’s mother was involved a lawsuit against Japan over
comfort women compensation, and there was a clear conflict-of-interest for
reporter Uemura; reporter Uemura had a vested interest in spinning the story a
certain way.
The stories in Yoshida’s
book turned out to be complete fabrications. Asashi Newspaper, years later, admitted that several of
their news articles were incorrect, and retracted them. However, after Asahi Newspaper’s
articles were published in the early 1990’s, this news created a firestorm of
protest in South Korea, as well as in Japan. Subsequent on-site investigations by researchers,
journalists, and others demonstrated that the events in his book could not be
corroborated by anyone who lived on the island where Yoshida claimed the events
had occurred. In the mid-1990s,
Yoshida, himself, admitted that his account was fiction; it was never learned
why he fabricated his stories –perhaps a desire for fame and fortune and/or a
dislike of the Japanese establishment.
Unfortunately, the avalanche of protest and hatred created by Yoshida
and Asahi Newspaper spread rapidly, resulting in various activists and
organizations ignoring the later facts
disproving Yoshida’s story and Asahi’s articles. Anti-Japanese groups, leftist Japanese organizations,
attorneys pushing lawsuits, politicians seeking votes, and certain activists
further exaggerated and spread the misinformation, creating a ‘snowball’ effect
since then.
Even
the highly inflammatory and provocative phrase “sex slave” is thought to have
been started by Japanese attorneys involved in lawsuits against the Japanese
government, and was disseminated internationally by a Japanese attorney, Etsuro
Totsuka, seeking to win empathy for their clients and maximize compensation.
If
news organizations and others of influence propagated a certain view, is it
possible that average people would believe it? In modern times, how was it possible for well-meaning
Americans to believe (and spread) the lie that Saddam Hussein possessed a
dangerous WMD program (which was then used as a pretext to invade Iraq)? Why did the people who claimed that
Iraq had WMDs lie?
Q15: What key reports
used erroneous, fabricated, biased, or questionable source materials?
(a)
George Hicks’ 1995 book “The Comfort Women”;
(b)
Radhika Coomaraswamy’s 1996 U.N. Commission on Human Rights report;
(c)
United States House Resolution 121 (passing in 2007).
Revealingly,
(c) cites (b) and other earlier sources; (b) cites (a) and earlier sources; (a)
relies almost totally on evidence gathered by a single activist of Korean
descent, who “found about 80 per cent of the material (much of it exceedingly
obscure) used in the writing of this book.” Thus, all these documents can be traced back, directly or
indirectly,
to the mendacious Seiji Yoshida, the inaccurate
Asahi Newspaper articles, the subsequent testimonials of certain comfort women
(some whose stories had changed from their early versions), and a limited
number of other sources (e.g., English-language documents, many by authors who
cannot read or communicate fluently in Japanese). The vast majority of the historical documents on the
Japanese comfort women system are in Japanese, but most of these salient
documents were ignored, dismissed, or misinterpreted.
Q16: Was the Imperial Japanese military directly involved with
comfort women brothels?
This aspect is a key point
of contention, and misunderstood by many.
The Japanese military interacted with civilian recruiters/agents/brothel
owners to post advertisements seeking women to serve as comfort women. Proof of these ads is readily available
(Ref. 3). Aggressive
recruiters/agents, many of whom were Korean, would pursue women in poor
families, tempting them or their parents with a lucrative job opportunity,
where their debts would be paid off.
The women would serve under terms defined in an agreement (often one to
several years, depending on the amount of debt assumed by the broker). Unethically and immorally, some brokers
did not explain the exact nature of the job. (This tactic is seen today where unscrupulous predators prey
on the young and/or poor, saying that they have a great job opportunity for
them).
With the case of comfort
women, however, some were paid well (or their families had been paid) –although
no amount of money could undo the deception by the recruiters/agents or the
hardships suffered by the women.
Once indentured or after joining, the women, along with the brothel
owners/managers, were transported by the military, as the brothels needed to be
located near the front lines. Most
of the comfort women brothels were owned and run by civilians, often Koreans, and
not by the Japanese military. Only
a small fraction of comfort women stations were, in fact, directly operated by
the military. The military did
provide protection, medical services, transportation, and helped systematize
business practices when brothel managers were found to be inept or inefficient
(Ref. 2). The comfort women were
seen by the military as essential for the well-being and morale of the
soldiers; thus, the military would protect women from abusive brothel
operators, as well as from soldiers who were unruly. The military also facilitated the return home of the comfort
women when their obligations were met.
So, in these types of capacities, the military was involved with most
brothels.
As such, the Japanese
military clearly was involved with comfort women brothels, recruiters, and
brothel proprietors, facilitating and enabling their existence. However, the military neither
systematically dragooned women to become comfort women, nor did they sanction the
mistreatment of the women. Post-war
Japanese governments have acknowledged the Imperial military’s involvement,
issued apologizes, and supported the compensation of former comfort women. The Japanese government has endeavored to
convey accurate history, wording its official statements carefully. Anti-Japanese groups have used Japan’s
fastidiousness to details and reluctance to admit to false accusations as proof
that Japan is “insincere,” “rewriting
history,” and “back tracking,” when, in fact, it is the anti-Japanese groups
who are attempting to rewrite history.
Q17: Do Japanese people deny the existence of comfort women?
Absolutely not. The Japanese people are well-informed
on the history of comfort women.
Many Japanese correctly believe that most comfort women were not
kidnapped and were not treated as “slaves" reminiscent of antebellum
America. Many believe that they were paid prostitutes, consistent with what was
reported in the US Office of War Information document (Ref. 2),and that some of
these women were deceived about the nature of their jobs, often by Korean
recruiters (and not by the Japanese military).
Because of the deception by civilian recruiters, the
fraction of women who were forced (e.g., those in Indonesia, Philippines), and
the hardships endured by all comfort women, many Japanese feel remorse and
sympathy for those who were forced to do things against their will. As such, Japan and Japanese apologized
and paid compensation to former comfort women, and are willing to apologize and
atone again, as Japanese Prime Minister Abe’s government has demonstrated in
December 2015.
Nevertheless, most Japanese (i.e., those in the
political center and right) are chagrined over the world-wide spread of
misinformation designed to elicit hatred toward Japan. Only Japanese left-wing elements (many
of whom loathe the Japanese establishment and especially the current
Abe-government) support the spread of exaggerated claims and comfort women
memorials. Right-wing extremists
in Japan, on the other hand, generally dismiss the suffering and the tragic
circumstances of the comfort women, and see little difference between the
comfort women brothels and the brothels or prostitutes used by other nations’
militaries. Similarly, in America,
there are those who push extreme views: some Americans promote the narrative
that President Obama is a foreign-born Moslem, destroying America, while other
Americans assert that former President Bush is a war criminal deserving of
punishment.
Q18: Why doesn't what is written here match what is mentioned on
websites and other reports?
Unfortunately, those
writing about this topic in English are predominantly on the side demonizing
Japan -at least at this time.
Sadly, once seeds of misinformation have been sown, the misinformation
can spread quickly: a false story is repeated in two reports, then each of
these reports is cited in five others, etc.; thus, false information can spread
exponentially, with a chance of becoming more exaggerated at each stage.
Proof of false information
spreading is seen in the paper by Carmen Argibay appearing in a legal journal (9): She states, on p. 4, of
Ref. (9), that “The OWI [US Office of War Information] Report also indicates
that the women could not leave* the comfort stations even
after they had fulfilled the terms of their contracts.” (*emphasis added to point out her
error) This statement is in
contraction to what is actually written in the report, which states: “certain
girls who had paid their debt could return home. Some of the girls were thus allowed to return to
Korea.” Argibay also mentions the
women in Indonesia taken by the Japanese military, but she fails to disclose
that were they released when a higher ranking officer discover this, about two
months later. These critical
errors completely change the narrative, and push a point-of-view not consistent
with the overall facts. These
types of errors or selective presentation of facts can be observed in many of
books and documents related to comfort women (e.g., Coomaraswamy’s 1996 U.N.
report).
When
documents related to mistreatment of comfort women are checked to identify the
sources of the information, they generallyl ead back to the same small number
of questionable, subjective, or inaccurate sources (e.g., Yoshida's book,
mistaken newspaper articles, politicians making unsupported claims, andcertain
former comfort women, some of whom have changed their stories dramatically over
time). No doubt, some (or many)
comfort women were mistreated, but who were responsible (e.g., brothel
operators –many of whom were Korean –or individual soldiers) and the true
degree and magnitude of abuse are difficult to ascertain.
Q19: Is S. Korea hiding
"skeletons in its closet"?
Sadly,
yes. Ironically, the S. Korean
government provided "comfort women" to United Nations troops during
the Korean, as well as Vietnam, Wars. One hundred twenty two of these former Korean comfort women sued the current
S. Korean government in 2014 for recognition and compensation. (Ref. 7b)
The current President of S. Korea, Geun-Hye Park,
has been suppressing news that will tarnish her image in any way. For instance, a Japanese reporter was
indicted after writing an article that only cited what Korean media had
reported, asking about President Park’s whereabouts during a deadly ferry
accident. (Ref. 8)
In addition, textbooks in S. Korea are controlled by
the state, and have been cleansed of anything that puts a blemish on Korea or
Koreans, while emphasizing negative aspects of Japan. S. Koreans have demanded that history books include all
misconduct by Imperial Japan, but Korean textbooks have been whitewashed of all
misconduct committed by S. Koreans.
Ironically, S. Koreans are 'rewriting' history, as well as spreading
misleading accounts against Japan.
The hypocrisy and deceit are beyond comprehension to many; thus, many do
not believe it possible. But, it
is well-known that those who commit transgressions often accuse others of the
very acts they, themselves, are committing.
During the Vietnam War, South Korea sent over
300,000 troops, as an ally of the US.
These S. Korean forces systematically massacred innocent civilians,
committed rapes, exploited prostitutes, and abandoned countless mixed
children. Tens of thousands or
more Vietnamese civilians (children, pregnant women, women, elderly, and men)
were massacred, terrorized, and harmed by the forces of the Republic of Korea
(South Korea) between 1966 and 1973, with massacres occurring at Binh An, Go
Dai, Dien Nien, Phuoc Binh, Ha My, Binh Hoa, Phong Nhi, Tay Vinh, Vinh Xuan,
and many other locations. (Ref.7a)
The S. Korean government has attempted to hide their war crimes from
their own people and the rest of the world. Thus, most young Koreans are unaware of the atrocities
committed by their own people.
Q20: Why are Japanese so upset about this issue?
In addition to distorting
the facts by saying that all comfort
women were abducted or forcibly recruited and horrifically treated as “slaves”
by the Imperial Japanese military, the S. Korean government and some Koreans (and
monument supporters) are ignoring the 1965 treaty between S. Korea and Japan,
denying that Japan has apologized, and belittling the reparations made by Japan
and Japanese. For many Japanese, S. Korea has reneged on the terms of the 1965
treaty that was negotiated in good faith and fulfilled by Japan. Many Japanese
now feel that certain Korean groups (and their supporters) are conspiring to
spread disinformation and fomenting worldwide hate toward Japan in the guise of
supporting women's rights.
No
matter how much Japan and Japanese have compromised and given in to please S.
Korea in the past, some Japanese people now believe that certain individuals
and groups will never be satisfied. Because of the disinformation being
propagated, many Japanese people are upset and frustrated, and cannot
understand why people in the West are ignoring Japan’s pleas to investigate the
facts in an objective and fair way, which would reveal that much of the
narrative being disseminated in the West is exaggerated, subjective, or
questionable.
Q21: Is there more to
this story?
Yes,
much more evidence exists, and many details have not been covered here. Most of
the information, however, is written in Japanese; nevertheless, references (2)
and (3a) are essential starting points for those interested in learning the
facts.
References:
(1)
http://www.britannica.com/biography/Park-Chung-Hee
(2) United States Office
of War Information, Psychological Warfare Team Attached to U.S. Army Forces
India-Burma Theater, Japanese Prisoner of War Interrogation Report No. 49,
1944. URL:
http://www.exordio.com/1939-1945/codex/Documentos/report-49-USA-orig.html
(3a) C. Sarah Soh, “The
Comfort Women,” University of Chicago Press, Chicago(2008)
(b)
http://scholarsinenglish.blogspot.jp/2014/10/summary-of-professor-park-yuhas-book.html
(c) http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/19/world/asia/south-korea-comfort-women-park-yu-ha.html?_r=0
(d)
https://studyofenglish.wordpress.com/category/ianfu-comfort-women/
(4a) Laura Engelhardt,
STANFORD JOURNAL OF LEGAL STUDIES, vol 1., pp. 25-30, "The Problem with
Eyewitness Testimony Commentary on a talk by George Fisher and Barbara
Tversky".
http://agora.stanford.edu/sjls/Issue%20One/fisher&tversky.htm
(b)
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/741941598
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0749596X96900170
(5) http://bit.ly/1CiJDju
(6)
http://www.mofa.go.jp/policy/women/fund/state9308.html
(7a)
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/754022/Villagers-recall-S-Korean-atrocities-in-Viet-War.html?pg=all
(b)
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/07/11/us-southkorea-usa-military-idUSKBN0FG0VV20140711
(8)
http://www.voanews.com/content/japanese-reporter-faces-defamation-charges-over-story-on-south-korean-president/2540701.html
(9) Carmen M. Argibay (2003), Berkeley
Journal of International Law, vol 21, Issue 2, Article 6, pp. 375-389.
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