Japan WWII 'comfort women' (sex slaves) were 'necessary' - Hashimoto

[Turborama]

Source: BBC

A prominent Japanese politician has described as "necessary" the system by which women were forced to become prostitutes for World War II troops.

Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto said the "comfort women" gave soldiers putting their lives at risk a chance "to rest".

He acknowledged that the women had been acting "against their will".

Some 200,000 women in territories occupied by Japan during WWII are estimated to have been forced into becoming sex slaves for troops.

Many of the women came from China and South Korea, but also from the Philippines, Indonesia and Taiwan.

Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-22519384

---

Bigtime backfire: Hashimoto justifies sex slave use, prostitutes for U.S. forces
BY ERIC JOHNSTON

OSAKA – The fallout escalated Tuesday over Osaka Mayor and Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Restoration Party) coleader Toru Hashimoto’s remarks the previous day that Japan’s wartime sex slave system was necessary and that U.S. service members in Okinawa should use more prostitutes.

The uproar began Monday morning when Hashimoto told reporters in Osaka that the “comfort woman” system, which forced thousands of girls and women from around Asia into Japanese military brothels, had been necessary in order to maintain military discipline.

Hashimoto further fanned the fire Monday evening by noting that, on a recent trip to Okinawa, he’d met with U.S. military brass there and told them that, on mainland Japan, there were legal facilities for releasing sexual energy, and that unless soldiers in Okinawa made more use of similar facilities, it would be difficult to control the sexual energies of the marines.

The remarks provoked an uproar.

In Washington D.C., the Pentagon called Hashimoto’s remarks stupid. In Tokyo Tuesday morning, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga declined comment, except to say the remarks were those of an opposition party politician.

More: http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/05/14/national/bigtime-backfire-hashimoto-justifies-sex-slave-use-prostitutes-for-u-s-forces/

[MADem]

1. Awww Geeeeeeeeeeeeeeeez!!!!!!!!!

How hard was it to fit that foot in his mouth, I wonder?

Is this why the Japanese are working on those "Lady Robots" all the time?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=eAuam8iiH3Q&feature=fvwp

[fujiyama]

3. I get the impression that many Japanese

are sort of oblivious to the pain and destruction the country caused during WWII and their occupation of Korea. It's incredible how insensitive and tone deaf an otherwise very peaceful nation can be.

Though as you've noted some of these comments could partly stem from cultural misogynistic and sexist attitudes.

[Hekate]

6. Post-WW II Japanese history textbooks have been sanitized

Post-WW II the Germans were made to confront their Nazi past -- and they did confront it.

The Japanese not so much -- the majority of their younger generations since then are largely ignorant of the atrocities committed by the Japanese Army during the Greater East Asia War.

Ignorance of the past does not excuse it, nor does it mean it did not exist. "Comfort women" were enslaved against their will and made into objects in service of the armed forces day after night after day after night. The Japanese have yet to atone for that crime.

[csziggy]

30. At the same time every year the US is expected to feel guilt over

Dropping the atomic bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki - the Japanese have made sure we perpetuate that guilt. They have never apologized for Pearl harbor or the Bataan death march or the millions they tortured, enslaved, raped, and killed in China and the Philippines, but Americans that were never born and who would not have been born are still made to feel responsible for those who died in those two Japanese cities.

I will never feel guilt about the bombs being dropped on Japan. My father was serving on a submarine in the Pacific and would have been part of an invasion if that had been necessary. My mother was serving as a Navy Nurse in Hawaii and would have had to care for the injured who survived an invasion. While they never have talked about that aspect of the war, they also have not bought into the re-write of history that expunged the atrocities that the Japanese committed and the blame that has been placed on the US for those two bombs that brought a faster close to the war and saved millions of lives.

[erpowers]

35. America

I am not trying to be mean to America, but the Japanese do not make Americans feel guilty about dropping atomic bombs on Japanese cities. Americans choose to look back and reflect on those events.

In terms of learning about the horrible things Japanese soldiers did during WWII it seems the problem is not a rewriting of history. The real problem is a general lack of teaching WWII history. It is possible that since WWII was so long ago some history teachers may now feel that there is no need to spend that much time teaching students about the events that occurred during WWII. However, maybe more time should be spent teaching the events of WWII.

There are those who disagree with the idea that a full scale invasion would have been necessary if atomic bombs had not been dropped on Japanese cities. There are those who believe that a surrender could have been obtained without a land invasion or the dropping of bombs. The fact that some believe that the dropping of those bombs was unnecessary may also be part of why some Americans try to reflect yearly on the dropping those bombs.

[enlightenment]

37. WWII was "so long ago"?

Are you honestly suggesting that Japanese children learn nothing earlier than 1945? More likely that they don't reach WWII - it is a not uncommon problem when teaching history to run out of time before you get to the modern stuff. Still, Japanese textbooks do not spend an inordinate amount of time on what was done by the Japanese Army in the war and yes, they do spin it:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21226068
http://www.jpri.org/publications/workingpapers/wp107.html
http://www.tofugu.com/2012/03/22/japanese-textbook-controversy/

[erpowers]

43. American Textbooks

My comments were in reference to American textbooks. I do not think the problem in America is the rewriting of history. Yes, I think students should be taught events that occurred before 1945. My point was some history teachers might not want to spend more time discussing WWII.

[AtheistCrusader]

2. At least the Pentagon called it what it is.

Too bad the Pentagon has yet to get a handle on it's own abuse problems...

[woo me with science]

18. Actually, "stupid" is a horrifying understatement here.

Forcing women into sexual servitude is not merely "stupid." It is unconscionably evil.

[AtheistCrusader]

31. The spokesman was referring to the claim that it was 'necessary'.

[woo me with science]

36. Right. That is NOT just a "stupid" claim.

It is a horrifying claim.

[AtheistCrusader]

38. I can think of a variety of invectives.

Stupid would just be part of the stream.

[nolabels]

4. Sure seems to me the word 'rest' was not what most were thinking about.

When was the last time you heard of someone asking the doctor for a Viagra prescription so they could relax more?

[SoapBox]

5. Wow...

what an idiot.

[Poll_Blind]

7. Savage and sub-human. nt

PB

[hughee99]

9. I feel sorry for his 4 daughters. n/t

[davidpdx]

11. His four daughters should slap the shit out of him for saying that

followed by a good kick in the nuts.

[Turborama]

14. Maybe we should send Skittles to do it for them? n/t

[davidpdx]

16. Umm..

no comment

[Skittles]

13. but that's just it

like all guys who like to use women as semen receptacles, it is a fine job only if it's someone else's mother, sister, daughter

[davidpdx]

17. All guys?

Please tell me I'm reading that wrong. I have been having some eye strain this week.

[Skittles]

20. read the qualifier

like all guys who like to use women as semen receptacles

I'm assuming you're not that kind of pervert

[davidpdx]

21. Ok, I got it

[Skittles]

22. I'VE HAD IT WITH MEN!!!!

liked it too

believe me, I think most most men are decent folk but they really, REALLY need to start speaking out against the men who drag them through the mud

[davidpdx]

23. I know people like that, it's not hard to find where I am

I live in Korea and am married to a Korean, so I have heard quite a bit about the comfort women during WWII. It is one of the many issues in which Korean and Japan still fight about (To name the other issues would take too long. Korea, Japan, and China are like a dysfunctional family). The sad thing is most of the women who suffered through this tragedy are passing and we need to remember what happened to them.

[Skittles]

25. even the name "comfort women" is degrading

comforting rapists?

[davidpdx]

26. Well I only use that term because that is how it is commonly referred to

But I agree with you in principle.

[Skittles]

42. aw no I did not mean you referring to that term

just a comment

[davidpdx]

10. That is a very sensitive issue here in South Korea

As some feel not enough has been done. This guy surely did put his foot in his mouth not only about a historical event, but US Military policy. As I understand it, the military is very adamant against soldiers doing those kinds of things (it does happen unfortunately even despite the rules).

[Ash_F]

12. This man is a leader of the right-wing nationalist party over there. /nt

[Art_from_Ark]

15. Public approval of his Japan Restoration Party, which never was very high,

is now in a free-fall, dropping from 3.3% in February to 1.5% in April. Hashimoto's essentially a loose cannon who's head of a very insignificant political party.

http://www.jiji.com/jc/graphics?p=ve_pol_politics-support-pgraph

[Bucky]

27. "Mayor of Osaka" doesn't sound like just a fringe crank

[lunasun]

32. conservative party

Hashimoto, 43, is co-head of the newly formed Japan Restoration Party with former Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara, who is a strident nationalist.
Sounds like those Repug congressional runs in US last yr

[Art_from_Ark]

44. Rudy Giuliani was mayor of New York

but that didn't really help him further his political aspirations. He got to speak at the 2004 Republican National Convention, but ended up fading into the woodwork.

Mayor of Osaka is just that-- mayor. He was elected to a 4-year term in November 2011, long before he made these recent public comments. Given Hashimoto's current comments and diminishing support for his wacky political party (1.5% and falling), he's not going anywhere.

[Cal33]

33. Yes, he does remind me of some members of the Neocon and Tea Party leadership.

[Quantess]

19. Defending SEX SLAVERY?!

Defending voluntary prostitution is one thing, but saying that coerced sex work is just A-OK is inexcusable. I do believe that there are shades of variation, as to how voluntary prositution is, but it makes a huge difference in the wrongness and unethicalness.

[In_The_Wind]

39. +1

[grahamhgreen]

24. Meanwhile in Hawaii:

As in many other places and times (WWII), the police were therefore given the power to “regulate” prostitution in Honolulu, and they did so by establishing a series of practices so Draconian they eventually led to the collapse of the system.

Only brothel prostitution was allowed; independent whoring of any kind was strictly suppressed, and of course the madams had no objection because that meant all girls had to work for them (just as in modern Nevada). Every passenger ship which arrived in Honolulu was met by the police vice squad, and any unescorted woman was assumed to be a prostitute; she was fingerprinted, registered and given a copy of the “Ten Commandments” she was expected to obey:

She may not visit Waikiki Beach or any other beach except Kailua Beach [across the mountains from Honolulu].
She may not patronize any bars or better class cafes.
She may not own property or an automobile.
She may not have a steady “boyfriend” or be seen on the streets with any men.
She may not marry service personnel.
She may not attend dances or visit golf courses.
She may not ride in the front seat of a taxicab, or with a man in the back seat.
She may not wire money to the mainland without permission of the madam.
She may not telephone the mainland without permission of the madam.
She may not change from one house to another. She may not be out of the brothel after 10:30 at night.

The police enforced these rules by beatings and threatened eviction from the islands. Though working in Honolulu was lucrative ($30,000 or more per year at a time most women were lucky to make $2000), most girls could only handle it for about six months, and when they left the islands they were not permitted to return for at least a year. http://maggiemcneill.wordpress.com/2011/07/05/honolulu-harlots/

[Bucky]

28. Great link! Thanks

They never put this in my history books for some reason.

[hack89]

40. I didn't see where the women were forced into prostitution. nt

[carla]

29. Putting their lives at risk?

For the sake of militarist expansion. Slap the mayor, kick him out of office and make him perform comfort on some soldiers. Jerk.

[geek tragedy]

34. Sexual intercourse is not a human need. nt

[midnight]

41. This is what begets right to work states-slavery...

[DVDGuy]

45. Horrific statement

This is a horrific statement making light of a horrific incident in history. While I'd like to imagine this being an isolated act from an extremist, the fact is that there is a thriving industry in Japan built around the denial of the Asian Holocaust, where atrocities committed were often even more brutal than the Holocaust experienced in Europe (sexual slavery being only one part of the bigger picture).

The sad part is that the prolonged denials makes it increasingly difficult for everyone in the region, including the Japanese themselves, to gain closure. I do no believe that children should bear the sins of the father, but until the entire truth is accepted and those peddling lies and denials publicly and strongly rebuked, real reconciliation can never happen. And this is to the detriment of both the affected nations in Asia, and the people of Japan.

Japan needs to learn from the German experience and own up to their mistakes in the most sincere and unequivocal form possible. It is their best and only hope for putting the past where it belongs, in the past.

As for the issue of "comfort women", a far too sanitized term compared to the historically accepted truth, a good film to watch to gain some historical perspective is City of Life and Death, currently available on Netflix. While some have labeled this film the Chinese version of Schindler's List, it is a much much tougher watch than Spielberg's classic. You've been warned!

[Monk06]

46. Not surprising, both his father and uncle were/are in the Yakusa. Sex slavery of foreigners is a

major Yakusa racket world wide.