2016年3月14日月曜日

Tsutomu Nishioka (西岡力)



Nishioka Tsutomu (西岡 ) was born in 1956 in Tokyo. He earned his undergraduate degree at ICU (International Christian University), and a master’s degree in international studies at Tsukuba University’s Department of Regional Studies. Mr. Nishioka continued his studies at Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea. Between 1982 and 1984, he served the Foreign Ministry as research specialist at the Japanese Embassy in Seoul. He was editor-in-chief of the monthly Gendai Koria (Modern Korea) from 1990 to 2002. Mr. Nishioka is currently a professor at Tokyo Christian University. He is deputy chairman of the National Council for the Rescue of Japanese Abducted by North Korea. Among his many publications are The Mountain of Misconceptions Separating Japan and Korea (issued by Aki Shobo), Penetrating the Darkness: Understanding North Korean Abductions, Starvation, Comfort Women and Anti-Japanese Movements (Tokuma Bunko), Starvation and Missiles: North Korea’s Future (Soshisha), The Truth about History-related Disputes between Japan and South Korea: Who Manufactured Abductions of Koreans and the Comfort Women Issue? (PHP Institute), The South Korean Schism: North Korea Sympathizers vs. Supporters of the South Korea-U.S.-Japan Alliance (Fusosha) and North Korean Problems (Nuclear Weapons, Abductions) Can Be Resolved (PHP Institute).

 

Publications: 

The Comfort Women Issue in Sharper Focus
by Tsutomu Nishioka, Published from Japan Policy Institute (2015)

The basis of the ongoing diplomatic problem between Japan and South Korea known as “the comfort women” issue is presented in the 2014  publication entitled “The Comfort Women Issue—A Review of the Facts and Common Misunderstandings. —“ Among the fixed perceptions refuted in the pamphlet is the misconception that “the Japanese army mobilized 200,000  Korean women as sex slaves and slaughtered many of them after the war.” In this sequel, I will examine the factual relationship of the following points to the comfort women discussion.
1. The significance of the Asahi Shimbun’s August 2014 acknowledgment of misreporting, its apology and its retracting of related articles on the comfort women issue;
2. The reason why “comfort women” suddenly emerged as a diplomatic point of contention in 1992; and
3. A description of the life of actual comfort women and how it differed from that of “sex slaves.”


The Comfort Women Issue: Review of the Facts and Common Mis-understanding.
by Tsutomu Nishioka, published from Japan Policy Institute (2014)

PREFACE
It is a fact that during the war era a large number of Korean women, along with Japanese women, became comfort women and suffered greatly as a consequence. This was unforgivable from the standpoint of today’s values by which Japan as well as South Korea prohibit the comfort women system and prostitution. On the other hand, the allegation that the “Japanese military forcefully recruited 200,000 Korean women as sex slaves and slaughtered many of them after the end of the war” is not true. Substantive research and debate over the past twenty-two years have vastly improved our knowledge of the comfort women issue. This essay will address common allegations by illuminating the facts while dis-pelling falsehoods that are unsupported by the evidence.




BEHIND THE COMFORT WOMEN CONTROVERSY: HOW LIES BECAME TRUTH
by Tsutomu Nishioka, published from The Society for the Dissemination of Historical Fact

PREFACE
First of all, I would like to extend heartfelt greetings to all those kindred spirits who have embraced the universal values of freedom, democracy, human rights and the rule of law.  

In 2007, the citizens of Japan were stunned by a spate of resolutions condemning the Japanese government in connection with the comfort women (prostitutes who provided sex services to Japanese military personnel prior to and during World War II) emanating from the U.S. House of Representatives, the Canadian Parliament and the EU Parliament. Their reaction was perfectly understandable, given that the accusations in those resolutions simply parrot anti-Japanese propaganda, and have no basis whatsoever in fact.

Take, for example, the following language in the U.S. House resolution:

Whereas the Government of Japan, during its colonial and wartime occupation of Asia and the Pacific Islands from the 1930s through the duration of World War II, officially commissioned the acquisition of young women for the sole purpose of sexual servitude to its Imperial Armed Forces, who became known to the world as ianfu or ‘comfort women’;

Whereas the ‘comfort women’ system of forced military prostitution by the Government of Japan, considered unprecedented in its cruelty and magnitude, included gang rape, forced abortions, humiliation, and sexual violence resulting in mutilation, death, or eventual suicide in oneof the largest cases of human trafficking in the 20th century;

To make matters absolutely clear, these accusations can be traced to political propaganda; not one of them is true.

Beginning in the 1990s, Japan was the arena of contentious debates over these very accusations, which became the subject of diplomatic discord between Japan and South Korea. The Japanese government conducted an exhaustive investigation, scrutinizing thousands of documents. Scholars in the private sector engaged in separate research efforts. No evidence was uncovered indicating that the Japanese government had coerced anyone to serve as a comfort woman.

According to a statement issued by the Japanese government in 1994 (commonly referred to as the “Kono Statement” after then chief Cabinet Secretary Kono Yohei, who delivered it) mentions that “in many cases [comfort women] were recruited against their own will.” This means that they were deceived by procurers or were born into poor families who sold them into prostitution. It also acknowledges that “at times, administrative/military personnel directly took part in the recruitments.” Here, the statement is referring to exactly one case in which several Japanese soldiers stationed at an outpost in Java, Indonesia, forced a female Dutch prisoner of war to work as a prostitute for approximately one month, in violation of military regulations. When military authorities got wind of the crime (a war crime), they immediately shut down the brothel. The Allies later tried the perpetrators of the crime (five soldiers and four private citizens), who were executed or given prison sentences.

The Kono Statement acknowledges that many women who serviced Japanese soldiers in war zones did so because no other options were available to them during the era of imperialism. The statement also expresses empathy for the ordeals they endured, and acknowledges moral responsibility.

Later in the Kono Statement, the Japanese government apologizes to the Korean people who suffered under Japanese colonial rule, and reiterates its “firm determination never to repeat the same mistake.” Moreover, the government offers an apology to the comfort women for their pain and hardship. There has been no change in this position.  

In North Korea, Kim Jong-il’s terrorist administration is attempting to deflect global attention from its abductions of private citizens by launching a relentless political propaganda campaign at the United Nations and elsewhere, accusing the Japanese government of forcing 200,000 Korean women to become sex slaves prior to World War II. Although the series of resolutions condemning Japan, which stand on the same lies and misconceptions as the North Korean propaganda, has come as a great shock to the Japanese people, it has given terrorist elements a cause for great rejoicing.  

It would give me great pleasure if my book were received as my attempt to provide information about the investigations and research on this controversy conducted in Japan, in the hope of widening the network of people who cherish freedom and democracy. For the past 16 years, I have been on the front lines of the debate over the comfort women controversy, as it unfolded in Japan. The English translation has been done by volunteers who share my views and concerns. The great majority of Japanese will be heartened if readers come to realize that at the heart of the controversy is a tragedy, meaning that prostitution was one of the few options for many poor women, and that neither administrative nor military authorities ever forced women to become sex slaves.

Nishioka Tsutomu
Tokyo, 2007


Youtube: Brief review on Historical Facts underling Comfort Women Issues between Japan and South Korea


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