Japanese politicians say Korean ‘comfort women’ claims fabricated

[alp227]

Source: South China Morning Post

A group of Japanese politicians who visited California to protest about a statue in honour of Asian "comfort women" have joined the movement demanding the government reconsider the apology made in 1993 to the victims of forced military prostitution during the second world war.

Known as the Kono Statement, after then chief cabinet secretary Yohei Kono, the government of the day acknowledged that the Japanese military was involved in the forced recruitment of women from Japan's colonies for its military.

But summoned before the Diet on Thursday, Nobuo Ishihara, Kono's deputy, confirmed that the government did not verify accounts given by 16 South Korean women who claimed they had been forced into sexual servitude for the Japanese military - testimony that served as the basis for the apology.

That admission has provided an opportunity for the right wing in Japan to dismiss the women's stories as fabrications.

Read more: http://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1435294/japanese-politicians-say-korean-comfort-women-claims-fabricated

[RandySF]

1. They will never understand how ignorant they look.

[cosmicone]

2. Wait till a few tea party politicians claim

that the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki never happened and the claims were fabricated.

[Nanjing to Seoul]

3. These people will never fucking learn. Wait. I can't say anything

I'm just getting my PhD in the Japanese treatment of Chinese. . .and I was accused of being a racist and not objective (as well as a bad teacher) after they denied the Rape of Nanking again.

Japan will never learn.

[rpannier]

8. My answer to these people is always the same

John Rabe the German representative in the area sent a multitude of communications back to Berlin regarding the atrocities. Though a businessman he became the chosen leader of the westerners. He wanted direction from his government on what to do and how to deal with the crisis. The Germans were allies of the Japanese. It's more likely if he'd lie it would be under-reporting what was happening.

[Nanjing to Seoul]

10. I have a document from the Japanese that say John Rabe lied and his diaries were hearsay evidence.

[Art_from_Ark]

9. Please don't lump all of Japan in with a few crazies

There are crazy politicians in all countries, as I am sure you are well aware.

[davidpdx]

12. True

It is just really the far right. As I said below they are much like our Tea Party. If we in the US had a choice in the matter, I think the Tea Party nuts would be on a island somewhere surrounded by sharks.

[psychopomp]

14. Except that the crazies are now in the mainstream...

Abe's popularity remains high and without exception his espoused positions on wartime history revisions have gone unchallenged in the Liberal Democratic Party which he now leads.

Unfortunately, Abe and the others on the far right that the USA has supported since the end of the occupation feel that now is the time to turn the clock back on Japanese society. A dominant China and a weakened USA have spurred the right into action. Their belief is that Japan can only thrive if old-school standards are upheld: reverence for the Imperial tradition, absolute social harmony, national pride, acceptance of a detente status with regards to its neighbors and an inflexibility with regards to immigration, openness or a free, open debate about the kind of future Japan should have by the general public of Japan.

[Art_from_Ark]

16. Abe's popularity is based mainly on economics

The weak yen has helped exports, and he has been spending big bucks/yen on public works projects. But even so, his popularity has been falling recently, from 55.9% in late January to around 52% today, although that is still quite high.

And I would like to see his popularity numbers when the consumption tax increase to 8% kicks in in April. If past results from the last two increases are any indication, there will be a negative impact on the economy.

[psychopomp]

18. Yes, but those are the economic factors--related to macroeconomic forces

We're mostly concerned about the social changes Abe and the network of dominant factions of the LDP that he represents: the historical revision; the prevailing silence concerning the very obvious connections between Abe and the highly visible right wing in this country; the willful dissolution of any ties to neighboring countries (by means of provocative statements and gestures).

The national debt has been, is and will continue to be a major issue in Japanese politics, as it is in the States. That does not account for the dramatic move to the right being shepherded by the LDP these days. The timing for this emergence of the right has to do with a number of factors: shock at losing to the Democratic Party, shock at the rise of China, shock at the competitiveness of other countries' electronics firms--especially Korea, the dying off of the only generation that remembers the horrors of war, an aging, shrinking demographic, a United States that appears on the ropes in terms of foreign policy (failed wars, embarrassing leaks), education, infrastructure and competitiveness....there is a new generation of politicians who are looking to gain control of a chaotic world the only way they know how: turn back the clock!

[Art_from_Ark]

19. I understand what you're saying

and I am a little creeped out about the right-wing direction this country seems to be taking. But I also find that the (Japanese) people I talk to are not really aware of what is going on with that, they're mainly concerned about the economy. No one I know, though has expressed any desire to start a war over the Senkaku Islands

[rpannier]

22. The history books that are being released this year whitewash

much what happened.
I work with people in Japan. You might be surprised how many well-educated, politically connected people believe this.
The public in Japan is tiring of being told they're a bad country for what happened in WW2.
It isn't a hard sell that the accusations are lies

[psychopomp]

24. I'm pretty sure that Art isn't going to be surprised by much these days coming from Japan

Both he and I are long-term residents in the country.

That being said, yeah, there isn't much, if any outrage concerning the direction the country is taking. Just some voices in the Left-opposition parties can be made out, as in former PM Murayama's recent statement.

[Art_from_Ark]

25. The most outspoken voices from the Japanese left

Last edited Thu Feb 27, 2014, 01:37 AM - Edit history (1)

seem to be from the Japanese Communist Party. But just the name is an automatic turn-off to many voters, even though their platform is much closer to that of a European labor party. I don't know why they just don't change their name to the Japanese Labor Party.

Here is a local Communist Party candidate talking about things like raising wages, repealing the consumption tax hike, phasing out nuclear power and focusing more on renewable energy sources.

[geomon666]

4. These people are no different than holocaust deniers.

In my opinion, anyway. They are disgusting and they should be publicly ostracized for their rhetoric.

[psychopomp]

15. They are absolutely different in a very important way

They are in power.

They are pushing for education about the war to be revised. Future generations of Japanese will either feel neutral about the war or feel victimized by the West. Already, a significant portion of the public feels so.

[DFW]

5. And there were never slaves in the South, and there was no Holocaust, etc etc.

One wonder why these people bother.

[Loaded Liberal Dem]

6. No rapists in Japan, no racists in America

Riiight.

[rpannier]

7. At some point I'd think I'd get used to the stupid

But it never happens.
The stupid only gets more painful.
These *ahem* people join the ranks of the Holocaust deniers
The deniers of the Nanjing Massacre
The 'slavery wasn't so bad'-'slavery was a blessing in disguise'
'The Great Depression wasn't really so awful'
and so on

I have a theory that with the death of those people who were around in the 30's and 40's and old enough to remember these atrocities the revisionist twits have found their opening. There's almost no one with first hand knowledge to challenge them. And those that are old enough are mostly old and too infirm to travel around the country shutting down these *ahem* people

[davidpdx]

11. I believe a similar article was posted recently

The claims are pretty common among the right wing in Japan. They do it for attention much like the Tea Party shitheads in the US. It just goes to show, every country has their crazies.

[WinkyDink]

13. Women forcibly raped were not "recruited" for "prostitution."

[NaturalHigh]

17. This goes a long way toward explaining...

the harsh feelings that many Koreans have towards Japan. It's probably different than when I was stationed in Korea, but a great many Koreans still hated the Japanese twenty years ago.

[rpannier]

23. They've hated them for centuries

The Japanese have invaded (tried to invade) Korea many times.
For the Japanese, Korea was a strategic location for invading China. If they could get control of Korea, they could invade the less populated areas in northeast China and then moved toward the coastal cities and interior.

[Beacool]

27. After the "Rape of Nanking", the Chinese don't hold much love for the Japanese either.

The Japanese army massacred 300,000 Chinese civilians in 1937.

"The incredible carnage - citywide burnings, stabbings, drownings, strangulations, rapes, thefts, and massive property destruction - continued unabated for about six weeks, from mid-December 1937 through the beginning of February 1938. Young or old, male or female, anyone could be shot on a whim by any Japanese soldier for any reason. Corpses could be seen everywhere throughout the city. The streets of Nanking were said to literally have run red with blood.

Those who were not killed on the spot were taken to the outskirts of the city and forced to dig their own graves, large rectangular pits that would be filled with decapitated corpses resulting from killing contests the Japanese held among themselves. Other times, the Japanese forced the Chinese to bury each other alive in the dirt.

After this period of unprecedented violence, the Japanese eased off somewhat and settled in for the duration of the war. To pacify the population during the long occupation, highly addictive narcotics, including opium and heroin, were distributed by Japanese soldiers to the people of Nanking, regardless of age. An estimated 50,000 persons became addicted to heroin while many others lost themselves in the city's opium dens.

In addition, the notorious Comfort Women system was introduced which forced young Chinese women to become slave-prostitutes, existing solely for the sexual pleasure of Japanese soldiers."

http://www.historyplace.com/worldhistory/genocide/nanking.htm

[Javaman]

20. more of the sometimes subtle not so subtle slide of Japan in to right wing territory of insanity. nt

[MisterP]

21. LDP a'course

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yamashita's_gold

[Beacool]

26. These Japanese politicians are full of crap.

[hollysmom]

28. It is not as if armies had not been doing this for forever though

my grandfather's second wife lived with us for a year. When she was 16 the young pretty woman in her town were rounded up and taken to a concentration camp for the Nazi guards use. She showed us the numbers tattooed on her leg. And warned us about men are cruel and you have to learn how to use them. She never could get married in Poland because she was shamed and rejected which is why she married the first guy three times her age who came to town. She got old waiting for my grandfather to die, he lived to 96. She died 6 months after he did in her 50's

Any way, Women were always used and abused in war.