Agony of the 'Comfort women' still waiting for an apology after 70 years

[steelseries779]

Japanese comfort women in the movies.

 

[Aepsilons]

Japanese comfort women in the movies.

That's your only contribution to this thread? Paltry.

 

[steelseries779]

That's your only contribution to this thread? Paltry.

My contribution is nothing worth to mention, especially comparing to little JPnese's contribution to WW2. And Turk's contribution to keep world peace.

 

[steelseries779]

References:

1. The Asian Women's Fund. "Who were the Comfort Women?-The Establishment of Comfort Stations". Digital Museum The Comfort Women Issue and the Asian Women's Fund. The Asian Women's Fund. Archived from the original on August 7, 2014. Retrieved August 8, 2014.

2. The Asian Women's Fund. "Hall I: Japanese Military and Comfort Women". Digital Museum The Comfort Women Issue and the Asian Women's Fund. The Asian Women's Fund. Archived from the original on May 15, 2013. Retrieved August 12, 2014. "The so-called 'wartime comfort women' were those who were taken to former Japanese military installations, such as comfort stations, for a certain period during wartime in the past and forced to provide sexual services to officers and soldiers."

3. Argibay, Carmen (2003). "Sexual Slavery and the Comfort Women of World War II". Berkeley Journal of International Law.

4. Soh, C. Sarah (2009). The Comfort Women: Sexual Violence and Postcolonial Memory in Korea and Japan. University of Chicago Press. p. 69. ISBN 0-226-76777-9. "It referred to adult female (fu/bu) who provided sexual services to "comfort and entertain" (ian/wian) the warrior..."

5. Fujioka, Nobukatsu (1996). 污辱の近現代史: いま、克服のとき [Attainder of modern history] (in Japanese). Tokuma Shoten. p. 39. "慰安婦は戦地で外征軍を相手とする娼婦を指す用語(婉曲用語)だった。 (Ianfu was a euphemism for the prostitutes who served for the Japanese expeditionary forces outside Japan)"

6. Asian Women'sFund, p. 10

7. Huang, Hua-Lun (2012). The Missing Girls and Women of China, Hong Kong and Taiwan: A Sociological Study of Infanticide, Forced Prostitution, Political Imprisonment, "Ghost Brides," Runaways and Thrownaways. McFarland. p. 206. ISBN 0-7864-8834-4. "Although Ianfu came from all regions or countries annexed or occupied by Japan before 1945, most of them were Chinese or Korean. Researchers at the Research Center of the Chinese Comfort Women Issue of Shanghai Normal University estimate that the total number of comfort women at 360,000 to 410,000."

8. Rose 2005, p. 88

9. "Women and World War II – Comfort Women". Womenshistory.about.com. Retrieved 2013-03-26.

10. Coop, Stephanie (23 Dec 2006). "Japan's Wartime Sex Slave Exhibition Exposes Darkness in East Timor". Japan Times. Archived from the original on 6 June 2011. Retrieved 29 June 2014.

11. YOSHIDA, REIJI (April 18, 2007). "Evidence documenting sex-slave coercion revealed". The Japan Times. Retrieved 29 June 2014.

12. Reuters 2007-03-05.

13. Yoshimi 2000, pp. 100–101, 105–106, 110–111;

Fackler 2007-03-06;

BBC 2007-03-02;

BBC 2007-03-08.

14. "Comfort women". Australian War Memorial. Retrieved 13 September 2013.

15. Hicks 1995.

16. Jump up to: a b korea.net 2007-11-30.

17. Mitchell 1997.

18. "[…] Pak (her surname) was about 17, living in Hamun, Korea, when local Korean officials, acting on orders from the Japanese, began recruiting women for factory work. Someone from Pak's house had to go. In April of 1942, turned Pak and other young women over to the Japanese, who took them into China, not into factories […]", Horn 1997.

19. Yoshimi 2000, pp. 100–101, 105–106, 110–111;

Hicks 1997, pp. 66–67, 119, 131, 142–143;

Ministerie van Buitenlandse zaken 1994, pp. 6–9, 11, 13–14

20. Yoshimi 2000, pp. 82–83;

Hicks 1997, pp. 223–228.

21. Yoshimi 2000, pp. 101–105, 113, 116–117;

Hicks 1997, pp. 8–9, 14;

Clancey 1948, p. 1135.

22. LEI, Wan ((2010/2)). "The Chinese Islamic "Goodwill Mission to the Middle East" During the Anti-Japanese War". Dîvân Disiplinlerarasi Çalişmalar Dergisi. cilt 15 (sayı 29): 141. Retrieved 19 June 2014. Check date values in:

23. Fujiwara 1998

24. Himeta 1996

25. Bix 2000

26. Yorichi 1944.

27. Yoshida 2007-04-18

28. Japan Times 2007-05-12

29. Bae 2007-09-17

30. (Japanese) "宋秉畯ら第２期親日反民族行為者２０２人を選定", JoongAng Ilbo, 2007.09.17. "日本軍慰安婦を募集したことで悪名高いベ・ジョンジャ"

Shameless JP war crimes.

 

[Aepsilons]

My contribution is nothing worth to mention, especially comparing to little JPnese's contribution to WW2. And Turk's contribution to keep world peace.

Okay, so in other words, you have nothing to contribute.

I actually gave you the benefit a doubt. Oy Vei.

 

[S10]

The core of the issue is Japanese government refused to recognize forcing thousands women into becoming sex slaves for the Japanese occupational forces during WW2. Instead, it tries to white-wash the fact by claiming most of them are paid volunteers, and that rapes are just in the minority. If that's the case, then I can also say the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were nothing more than firecrackers going off.

 

[terranMarine]

The core of the issue is Japanese government refused to recognize forcing thousands women into becoming sex slaves for the Japanese occupational forces during WW2. Instead, it tries to white-wash the fact by claiming most of them are paid volunteers, and that rapes are just in the minority. If that's the case, then I can also say the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were nothing more than firecrackers going off.

How about harmless farts?

 

[TaiShang]

I respect the Comfort women, their sacrifices, their duty, and their role in comforting Imperial soldiers in the time of their need.

@Keel

Confession reveals Japan's underage sex slaves
August 20, 2015

Confessions by Japanese war criminals released Thursday revealed Chinese women and underage girls were forced by the Japanese army to work as sex slaves during Japan's World War II invasion.

According to the 1954 confession of Seki Inaba, who served as the communications officer of the invading Japanese army, a squadron commander ordered 20 women and girls aged 17 to 20 to be taken from those captured in a village attack in Shanxi Province in March 1945 to serve in a "comfort station."

The account of an officer named Hayato Murayama showed his troops recruited seven Chinese women as prostitutes for a comfort station in Shanxi Province in October 1944. He admitted to raping a 15-year-old girl when the station opened.

Confessions documenting Japan's WWII atrocities also include one by Masao Watanabe. The Japanese munitions officer recounted that Japanese troops lured and imprisoned about 50 Chinese women and girls aged 16 to 25 from May 1942 to March 1944 in Shandong Province.

The victims were subjected to "the greatest material, mental and physical sufferings in the world," according to Watanabe's confession.

Tuesday's release by China's State Archives Administration (SAA), is the sixth installment in an eight-part series of videos and archives documenting the suffering of sex slaves at the hand of the Japanese military over 70 years ago.

The documents are available at the SAA's website.

 

[TaiShang]

Chicago Chinese Hold Concert to Mark 70th Anniversary of Victory of China's War against Japanese Agression
2015-08-23

The Yellow River Cantata Concert is held in Chicago Symphony Hall in Chicago, the Untied States, on Saturday, Aug. 22, 2015. [Photo: Xinhua/He Xianfeng]

A concert was held in the Chicago Symphony Hall, celebrating the 70th anniversary of China's victory in the War of Resistance against Japanese Agression.

The concert started with a medley of China's finest patriotic songs of the World War II era, including On Taihang Mountain, Graduation, Flowers of May, Guerrilla's Song and On Songhua River.

Theme from Schindler's List was performed by South Shore Orchestra.

Music of the Yellow River Cantata – an influential symphonic music work composed by Chinese composer Xian Xinghai brought the concert to the climax.

The 600-person choir was believed to be the largest of its kind ever organized in the U.S.

Members were from 16 musical groups in the greater Chicago area and nine states in the U.S. Midwest.

The concert was organized by Dongfang Chinese Performing Arts Association and the Asian Culture Center.

 

[Keel]

Who has moved my cheese?

WTF call this a propaganda again.



Federal judge upholds 'comfort women' statue in Glendale park - LA Times

Federal judge upholds 'comfort women' statue in Glendale park

According to a federal judge, Glendale didn't break any laws by erecting this 1,100-pound bronze statue in Central Park in 2013. The memorial honors women coerced into sexual slavery by the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II. (Liz O. Baylen, Los Angeles Times)
By BRITTANY LEVINE

Federal judge dismisses a lawsuit seeking removal of controversial 'comfort women' statue from Glendale park

The statue honors women coerced into sexual slavery by the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II

The statue's opponents were unable to show that the 1,100-pound memorial caused them harm

Former 'comfort woman' Bok-dong Kim
Liz O. Baylen / Los Angeles Times
Bok-dong Kim, an 88-year-old former "comfort woman," touches the statue after its unveiling. The memorial is just one example of a large-scale effort to raise international awareness of the World War II sex slaves' plight.


A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed against Glendale that sought the removal of a controversial statue installed in a city park to honor women coerced into sexual slavery by the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II.

The statue's opponents were unable to show that the 1,100-pound memorial caused them harm, and Glendale didn't break any laws by erecting it in Central Park in July 2013, according to a court order signed last week by U.S. District Court Judge Percy Anderson.
"The fact that local residents feel disinclined to visit a local park is simply not the type of injury that can be considered to be in the 'line of causation' for alleged violations of the foreign affairs power and Supremacy Clause," Anderson said in court documents.

The decision comes after more than a year of unsuccessful attempts to block, then to remove, the bronze memorial of a girl in Korean dress sitting next to an empty chair. In addition to the lawsuit, multiple delegations of conservative Japanese politicians have traveled to Glendale to ask the City Council to get rid of the monument.

At the same time, supporters who visit the statue leave behind bouquets and gifts.

"We are pleased that the court recognized our City Council's right to make public pronouncements on matters important to our community," said City Atty. Mike Garcia.

William Benjamin DeClercq, an attorney for those who filed the lawsuit, declined to comment on the decision.

The Glendale statue, supported by the Korea-Glendale Sister City Assn. and the Korean American Forum of California, is just one example of a large-scale effort to raise international awareness of the comfort women's plight.

For years, surviving comfort women have been calling on the Japanese parliament, known as the Diet, to draft a resolution apologizing for the mistreatment of an estimated 80,000 to 200,000 women from Korea, China and other countries.

But the awareness campaign has angered Japanese nationals who deny that their country was involved in a system of sexual slavery, despite a personal apology to former comfort women from an ex-prime minister and an admission by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs that some women working in brothels overseen by the government were deprived of their freedom.

Phyllis Kim, spokeswoman for the Korean American Forum of California, said her organization's members are happy with the decision, but they plan to continue to work with local, state and federal governments to honor former comfort women.

"The decision did not change anything. The root cause of the issue has not been resolved, and the victims are still waiting for an official apology and reparations from the government of Japan," Kim said.


brittany.levine@latimes.com

• All of Asia should file a lawsuit in Japan and in the Hague against the Yasukuni Shrine in Japan, the city of Kyoto, and against the Shinto religious organization. File a suit to remove all 5000 war criminals enshrined there. We probably won't win such a suit in Japan. But the suit will cause a lot of shameful international press coverage and it might influence them to remove those war criminals from the shrine.
  
  Use similar arguments that the complainants used in this Glendale case.
  JOKERXXX
  AT 1:58 PM APRIL 29, 2015

ADD A COMMENT SEE ALL COMMENTS

 

[TaiShang]

Who has moved my cheese?

WTF call this a propaganda again.



Federal judge upholds 'comfort women' statue in Glendale park - LA Times

Federal judge upholds 'comfort women' statue in Glendale park

According to a federal judge, Glendale didn't break any laws by erecting this 1,100-pound bronze statue in Central Park in 2013. The memorial honors women coerced into sexual slavery by the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II. (Liz O. Baylen, Los Angeles Times)
By BRITTANY LEVINE

Federal judge dismisses a lawsuit seeking removal of controversial 'comfort women' statue from Glendale park

The statue honors women coerced into sexual slavery by the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II

The statue's opponents were unable to show that the 1,100-pound memorial caused them harm

Former 'comfort woman' Bok-dong Kim
Liz O. Baylen / Los Angeles Times
Bok-dong Kim, an 88-year-old former "comfort woman," touches the statue after its unveiling. The memorial is just one example of a large-scale effort to raise international awareness of the World War II sex slaves' plight.


A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed against Glendale that sought the removal of a controversial statue installed in a city park to honor women coerced into sexual slavery by the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II.

The statue's opponents were unable to show that the 1,100-pound memorial caused them harm, and Glendale didn't break any laws by erecting it in Central Park in July 2013, according to a court order signed last week by U.S. District Court Judge Percy Anderson.
"The fact that local residents feel disinclined to visit a local park is simply not the type of injury that can be considered to be in the 'line of causation' for alleged violations of the foreign affairs power and Supremacy Clause," Anderson said in court documents.

The decision comes after more than a year of unsuccessful attempts to block, then to remove, the bronze memorial of a girl in Korean dress sitting next to an empty chair. In addition to the lawsuit, multiple delegations of conservative Japanese politicians have traveled to Glendale to ask the City Council to get rid of the monument.

At the same time, supporters who visit the statue leave behind bouquets and gifts.

"We are pleased that the court recognized our City Council's right to make public pronouncements on matters important to our community," said City Atty. Mike Garcia.

William Benjamin DeClercq, an attorney for those who filed the lawsuit, declined to comment on the decision.

The Glendale statue, supported by the Korea-Glendale Sister City Assn. and the Korean American Forum of California, is just one example of a large-scale effort to raise international awareness of the comfort women's plight.

For years, surviving comfort women have been calling on the Japanese parliament, known as the Diet, to draft a resolution apologizing for the mistreatment of an estimated 80,000 to 200,000 women from Korea, China and other countries.

But the awareness campaign has angered Japanese nationals who deny that their country was involved in a system of sexual slavery, despite a personal apology to former comfort women from an ex-prime minister and an admission by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs that some women working in brothels overseen by the government were deprived of their freedom.

Phyllis Kim, spokeswoman for the Korean American Forum of California, said her organization's members are happy with the decision, but they plan to continue to work with local, state and federal governments to honor former comfort women.

"The decision did not change anything. The root cause of the issue has not been resolved, and the victims are still waiting for an official apology and reparations from the government of Japan," Kim said.


brittany.levine@latimes.com

• All of Asia should file a lawsuit in Japan and in the Hague against the Yasukuni Shrine in Japan, the city of Kyoto, and against the Shinto religious organization. File a suit to remove all 5000 war criminals enshrined there. We probably won't win such a suit in Japan. But the suit will cause a lot of shameful international press coverage and it might influence them to remove those war criminals from the shrine.
  
  Use similar arguments that the complainants used in this Glendale case.
  JOKERXXX
  AT 1:58 PM APRIL 29, 2015

ADD A COMMENT SEE ALL COMMENTS

Good move by our CA partners.

 

[Keel]

The above posting @ #27 was in response to the following series of actions events that preceded the posting:

A.
Unveiliing of the "Comfort Woman" statute in Glendale, CA - the first on the west coast USA

Glendale unveils "comfort women" statue - ContraCostaTimes.com

Glendale unveils "comfort women" statue
By Susan Abram, Staff Writer
POSTED: 07/30/2013
09:15:53 PM UPDATED: 2 YEARS AGO


A statue honoring the "comfort women" of WWII is unveiled in Glendale on Tuesday, July 30, 2013. (David Crane/Staff Photographer)



Bok-Dong Kim, a former sex slave during WWII at the unveiling of a statue honoring the "comfort women" of WWII in Glendale on Tuesday, July 30, 2013. (David Crane/Staff Photographer)


Photo gallery: Glendale unveils "comfort women" statue

She was once like the teenage girl now immortalized in bronze, dressed in Korean attire who sits still and silent, with clenched fists on her lap and her feet bare.

For Bok-dong Kim and others once like her, the new bronze statue unveiled in Glendale on Tuesday symbolizes two moments of their lives: when they were "comfort women" -- a euphemism for the 200,000 mostly Korean women and girls forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese military during World War II. And when their stories became acknowledged, and victims of sexual slavery could come out from the shadows of silence and shame, to tell their stories freely.

"I am grateful and very appreciative," said Kim, 88, through an interpreter. "I cannot express my thanks."

The Glendale City Council approved the monument earlier this month, over the objections of some Japanese-Americans who said during council meetings that comfort women did not exist or their stories were exaggerated. But historians have said that 200,000 women and girls -- mostly Koreans, but also Chinese, Taiwanese, Filipina and Dutch (from the then-Dutch colony of Indonesia) -- were rounded up and forced into brothels where they were raped by Japanese soldiers.

The Japanese government issued a formal apology in 1993, but some within the Korean community have said there was a lack of sincerity.

Council members called the memorial a "peace statue," meant to forge solidarity with Glendale and its sister cities in South Korea. The Korean American Forum of California, a nonprofit human rights organization, funded and built the memorial unveiled Tuesday in a park near the Glendale Public Library.

The memorial depicts a girl in traditional Korean costume sitting on a chair, and from head to toe, she is a symbol: from her fists that represent her resolve for justice to her bare feet which mean she was abandoned by a cold, unsympathetic world. It is a replica of one installed by Korean civic leaders directly across the street from the Japanese Embassy in Seoul, where surviving comfort women have held a protest every Wednesday for 21 years.

"We had a lot of pressure at City Hall and hundreds and hundred of emails opposed to this," said Glendale City Councilwoman Laura Friedman.

But in the end, the council agreed 4-1 that Glendale would become the first city on the West Coast to install a memorial to comfort women.

"The city of Glendale stands united with the Korean community and with sexual victims," Friedman added.

For Councilman Zareh Sinanyan, who is of Armenian descent, the memorial represents the importance of acknowledging man's inhumanity to man. The grandson of survivors of the Armenian genocide -- which the Turkish government continues to deny was a genocide but which resulted in the deaths of more than a million people, including Greeks and Assyrians -- Sinanyan said the lack of acknowledgement means the wounds inflicted on his people remain.

"I'm very happy we're taking this step to heal a deep wound to Korean women," Sinanyan said. "I understand the pain the victims have undergone."

And many from the Japanese community applauded Glendale's decision.

U.S. Rep. Mike Honda, D-San Jose, a Japanese-American, expressed support for the proposed memorial in Glendale. And Kathy Masaoka, of the Nikkei for Civil Rights & Redress, said during the unveiling that Japan must apologize again and make reparations.

Korean artist Bok Lim Kim said the bronze memorial offers a broader, universal meaning.

"Every girl has dreams," she said. "Dreams of happiness, of peace and of freedom."

susan.abram@dailynews.com @sabramLA on Twitter


B:
A protest launched by the Japanese camp against the establishment of the statue on the day of the unveiling of the Statute

Third Japanese delegation bashes comfort-women statue
Group requested meeting with City Council but members decline invitation to address comfort-women memorial
January 16, 2014|By Brittany Levine, brittany.levine@latimes.co


Korean groups lobbying for the installation of comfort-women monuments in American cities hope memorials like the one in Glendale — the first on public land on the West Coast — will pressure the Japanese parliament, known as the Diet, to pen an official resolution apologizing to former comfort women.

In the 1990s, a former Japanese prime minister personally apologized to former comfort women for their plight, but supporters of comfort women say that wasn’t sufficient.

The latest Japanese delegation to Glendale vowed at the press conference to lobby members of Japan’s parliament to revise the government’s official statements about the military’s role in the comfort-women brothels.

Before visiting the statue, which was surrounded by bouquets of flowers, the delegation hand-delivered a letter signed by more than 300 Japanese politicians to Glendale City Clerk Ardy Kassakhian that described their opposition to the statue. The group requested a meeting with Glendale City Council members, but officials denied that invitation.

Dan Bell, Glendale’s community relations manager, said city officials would not meet with the delegation because they are following the advice of the Los Angeles Consul General of Japan to not politicize the monument.

The delegation did meet this week, however, with members of Buena Park’s City Council, which opposed installing a similar statue last year, partially because of the hullabaloo it caused in Glendale and the Orange County city’s desire to steer clear of international controversies.

Glendale City Council members have said they consider it their duty to support victims of atrocity, no matter where they may come from in the world. The statue, donated by the Korean American Sister City Assn., is the first of what officials hope will be more sister-city gifts to be displayed in Central Park.

-- Follow Brittany Levine on Google+ and on Twitter: @brittanylevine.


C:
And other protests from the japanese camp

D:
The lawsuit filed by the japanese against the establishment of the Statue that led to the subsequent verdict by the local judge on posting # 27

This captured image from cable channel YTN shows Japanese lawmakers protesting to pull down a statue honoring victims of sexual slavery in a park in Glendale, Los Angeles, California on Friday (Jan. 17, 2014) .

The Chosun Ilbo (English Edition): Daily News from Korea - U.S. Senate Urges Kerry to Act on 'Comfort Women'

 

[TaiShang]

Japan revisionists deny WW2 sex slave atrocities

• 3 August 2015
  

Seventy years after the end of World War Two, the voices of revisionism in Japan are growing stronger and moving into the mainstream, particularly on the issue of comfort women, who were women forced to be sex slaves for Japanese soldiers during the war.

One of the most eloquent voices of revisionism is Toshio Tamogami.

Mr Tamogami is well-educated, knowledgeable and, when I meet him, exquisitely polite. The former chief of staff of Japan's air force believes in a version of Japanese history that is deeply at odds with much of the rest of the world.

But it is increasingly popular among young Japanese, tired of being told they must keep apologising to China and Korea.

Last year Mr Tamogami ran for governor of Tokyo. He came fourth, with 600,000 votes. Most strikingly, among young voters aged 20 to 30 he got nearly a quarter of the votes cast.

"As a defeated nation we only teach the history forced on us by the victors," he says. "To be an independent nation again we must move away from the history imposed on us. We should take back our true history that we can be proud of."

In this "true" history of the 20th Century that Mr Tamogami talks of, Japan was not the aggressor, but the liberator. Japanese soldiers fought valiantly to expel the hated white imperialists who had subjugated Asian peoples for 200 years.

It is a proud history, where Japan, alone in Asia, was capable of taking on and defeating the European oppressors. It is also a version of history that has no room for the Japanese committing atrocities against fellow Asians.

Mr Tamogami believes that Japan did not invade the Korean Peninsula, but rather "invested in Korea and also in Taiwan and Manchuria".

I ask him about the invasion of China in 1937 and the massacre of civilians in the capital Nanjing. Surely that was naked aggression?

"I can declare that there was no Nanjing Massacre," he says, claiming there were "no eyewitnesses" of Japanese soldiers slaughtering Chinese civilians.


Media captionFormer chief of Japan's air forces, Toshio Tamogami, says that stories of atrocities such as the Nanjing massacre in the 1930s are "lies and fabrication"
It is when I ask him about the issue of Korean comfort women that Mr Tamogami's denials are most indignant.

He declares it "another fabrication", saying: "If this is true, how many soldiers had to be mobilised to forcibly drag those women away? And those Korean men were just watching their women taken away by force? Were Korean men all cowards?"

Although they may not say it as loudly and as bluntly as Mr Tamogami, this is a version of history that is widely believed by many of Japan's nationalists.

Earlier this year at a joint session of the US Congress in Washington DC, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe expressed deep sorrow for the suffering caused by Japan during WW2.

Mr Abe does not deny there were Korean women serving as comfort women near the frontlines in China and South East Asia.

But he has repeatedly said there is no evidence these women were coerced or that the Japanese military was involved in their recruitment and confinement. The implication is the women were prostitutes.

This is a very murky area. Girls from poor families have been sold in to prostitution in Japan, Korea and China for centuries, and the practice was certainly still going on in the 1930s and 1940s.

But that does not absolve the Japanese military from responsibility.

'We were kidnapped'
In a quiet valley an hour's drive from Seoul there is a small care home called the House of Sharing. This is where some of the last surviving comfort women are cared for in their old age. There are only ten left here now.

Lee Ok Seon is a tiny 88-year-old with thick white curly hair and badly-fitting false teeth. She chuckles as I try to cajole her to speak to me in Chinese.

Ms Lee spent 65 years in China, and only returned to South Korea 15 years ago.

She was born in the port city of Busan on the southern tip of modern day South Korea. Her family was poor and she was sent out to work at the age of 14.

"I had to start work as a housekeeper for another family at a young age. It was at that time I was out on the street one day… that's how I got kidnapped," she says.

She said two men grabbed her and put her on a train. "By the time we arrived I realised we had crossed the border into China. I was sent to a place where there were already several comfort women.

"I wonder why they called us comfort women. We didn't go by our own accord, we were kidnapped. I was forced to have sex with many men each day."

A monument to comfort women was erected outside the Japanese embassy in Seoul in 2011
Ms Lee spent three years in the brothel close to a Japanese military camp in Manchuria. I ask her why she didn't try to escape.

"Of course I tried to escape several times!" she says. "Each time I was taken back and I was beaten over and over.

The military police would ask me 'Why are you trying to escape?' I would tell them because I am cold and have no food. They would hit me again saying I talked too much."

She says that she lost part of her hearing and some of her teeth from those assaults.

Revisionists like Mr Tamogami say women like Lee Ok Seon have been coached to embellish their stories; that they are tools of a South Korean government that is intent on humiliating Japan and squeezing it for more money

It is certainly true that the comfort women issue is used by the South Korean government for its own political ends. But there is plenty of other evidence that the Japanese military organised the comfort women system, not least from the men who served in the Japanese imperial army in China.

'Ridiculous to deny'
Masayoshi Matsumoto is now 93 and lives with his daughter on the edge of Tokyo. He has a warm open face and the piercing eyes of a much younger man.

As a 20-year-old he served as a medical orderly in northwest China. "There were six comfort women for our unit," he tells me. "Once a month I would check them for sexually transmitted diseases.

"The Korean women were mainly for the officers," he says. "So the ordinary soldiers attacked local villages screaming, 'Are there any good girls here?' Those soldiers robbed, raped, or killed those who did not listen to them."

Those who were captured were taken to Mr Matsumoto's unit to serve as comfort women.

After the war Mr Matsumoto became a priest to try and atone for his sins. For decades he said nothing of what he'd seen.

But then as the voices of denial grew stronger he was filled with righteous anger, and decided to speak out.

"It's ridiculous... Mr Abe speaks as if this is something he witnessed, but he didn't. I did," says Mr Matsumoto.

"Someone told me this, 'One who fails to look back and perceive the past will repeat their wrongdoing'. But Mr Abe thinks we should erase anything bad Japan had done in the past and pretend nothing happened. That is why I cannot forgive him," he adds.

Mr Matsumoto sits back in his chair and chuckles.

"One day the right-wingers will come and get me for saying such things," he says, drawing a finger across his throat.

That seems unlikely, but Mr Matsumoto and all the other survivors are now in their late 80s or 90s.

Soon they will all be gone - while the voices of denial grow louder and stronger.

 

[Keel]

@Keel

Confession reveals Japan's underage sex slaves
August 20, 2015

Confessions by Japanese war criminals released Thursday revealed Chinese women and underage girls were forced by the Japanese army to work as sex slaves during Japan's World War II invasion.

According to the 1954 confession of Seki Inaba, who served as the communications officer of the invading Japanese army, a squadron commander ordered 20 women and girls aged 17 to 20 to be taken from those captured in a village attack in Shanxi Province in March 1945 to serve in a "comfort station."

The account of an officer named Hayato Murayama showed his troops recruited seven Chinese women as prostitutes for a comfort station in Shanxi Province in October 1944. He admitted to raping a 15-year-old girl when the station opened.

Confessions documenting Japan's WWII atrocities also include one by Masao Watanabe. The Japanese munitions officer recounted that Japanese troops lured and imprisoned about 50 Chinese women and girls aged 16 to 25 from May 1942 to March 1944 in Shandong Province.

The victims were subjected to "the greatest material, mental and physical sufferings in the world," according to Watanabe's confession.

Tuesday's release by China's State Archives Administration (SAA), is the sixth installment in an eight-part series of videos and archives documenting the suffering of sex slaves at the hand of the Japanese military over 70 years ago.

The documents are available at the SAA's website.

I havent read your tag carefully several hours ago and after reading the above posting again, it is absolutely disgusting to read about another chapter of inhuman acts committed by the beastly japanese imperial amy which is heaping on top of the volumes of the most horrenous war crimes against humanity in the size and height of mount fuji

 

[Keel]

Japan revisionists deny WW2 sex slave atrocities

• 3 August 2015

Seventy years after the end of World War Two, the voices of revisionism in Japan are growing stronger and moving into the mainstream, particularly on the issue of comfort women, who were women forced to be sex slaves for Japanese soldiers during the war.

One of the most eloquent voices of revisionism is Toshio Tamogami.

Mr Tamogami is well-educated, knowledgeable and, when I meet him, exquisitely polite. The former chief of staff of Japan's air force believes in a version of Japanese history that is deeply at odds with much of the rest of the world.

But it is increasingly popular among young Japanese, tired of being told they must keep apologising to China and Korea.

Last year Mr Tamogami ran for governor of Tokyo. He came fourth, with 600,000 votes. Most strikingly, among young voters aged 20 to 30 he got nearly a quarter of the votes cast.

"As a defeated nation we only teach the history forced on us by the victors," he says. "To be an independent nation again we must move away from the history imposed on us. We should take back our true history that we can be proud of."

In this "true" history of the 20th Century that Mr Tamogami talks of, Japan was not the aggressor, but the liberator. Japanese soldiers fought valiantly to expel the hated white imperialists who had subjugated Asian peoples for 200 years.

It is a proud history, where Japan, alone in Asia, was capable of taking on and defeating the European oppressors. It is also a version of history that has no room for the Japanese committing atrocities against fellow Asians.

Mr Tamogami believes that Japan did not invade the Korean Peninsula, but rather "invested in Korea and also in Taiwan and Manchuria".

I ask him about the invasion of China in 1937 and the massacre of civilians in the capital Nanjing. Surely that was naked aggression?

"I can declare that there was no Nanjing Massacre," he says, claiming there were "no eyewitnesses" of Japanese soldiers slaughtering Chinese civilians.


Media captionFormer chief of Japan's air forces, Toshio Tamogami, says that stories of atrocities such as the Nanjing massacre in the 1930s are "lies and fabrication"
It is when I ask him about the issue of Korean comfort women that Mr Tamogami's denials are most indignant.

He declares it "another fabrication", saying: "If this is true, how many soldiers had to be mobilised to forcibly drag those women away? And those Korean men were just watching their women taken away by force? Were Korean men all cowards?"

Although they may not say it as loudly and as bluntly as Mr Tamogami, this is a version of history that is widely believed by many of Japan's nationalists.

Earlier this year at a joint session of the US Congress in Washington DC, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe expressed deep sorrow for the suffering caused by Japan during WW2.

Mr Abe does not deny there were Korean women serving as comfort women near the frontlines in China and South East Asia.

But he has repeatedly said there is no evidence these women were coerced or that the Japanese military was involved in their recruitment and confinement. The implication is the women were prostitutes.

This is a very murky area. Girls from poor families have been sold in to prostitution in Japan, Korea and China for centuries, and the practice was certainly still going on in the 1930s and 1940s.

But that does not absolve the Japanese military from responsibility.

'We were kidnapped'
In a quiet valley an hour's drive from Seoul there is a small care home called the House of Sharing. This is where some of the last surviving comfort women are cared for in their old age. There are only ten left here now.

Lee Ok Seon is a tiny 88-year-old with thick white curly hair and badly-fitting false teeth. She chuckles as I try to cajole her to speak to me in Chinese.

Ms Lee spent 65 years in China, and only returned to South Korea 15 years ago.

She was born in the port city of Busan on the southern tip of modern day South Korea. Her family was poor and she was sent out to work at the age of 14.

"I had to start work as a housekeeper for another family at a young age. It was at that time I was out on the street one day… that's how I got kidnapped," she says.

She said two men grabbed her and put her on a train. "By the time we arrived I realised we had crossed the border into China. I was sent to a place where there were already several comfort women.

"I wonder why they called us comfort women. We didn't go by our own accord, we were kidnapped. I was forced to have sex with many men each day."

A monument to comfort women was erected outside the Japanese embassy in Seoul in 2011
Ms Lee spent three years in the brothel close to a Japanese military camp in Manchuria. I ask her why she didn't try to escape.

"Of course I tried to escape several times!" she says. "Each time I was taken back and I was beaten over and over.

The military police would ask me 'Why are you trying to escape?' I would tell them because I am cold and have no food. They would hit me again saying I talked too much."

She says that she lost part of her hearing and some of her teeth from those assaults.

Revisionists like Mr Tamogami say women like Lee Ok Seon have been coached to embellish their stories; that they are tools of a South Korean government that is intent on humiliating Japan and squeezing it for more money

It is certainly true that the comfort women issue is used by the South Korean government for its own political ends. But there is plenty of other evidence that the Japanese military organised the comfort women system, not least from the men who served in the Japanese imperial army in China.

'Ridiculous to deny'
Masayoshi Matsumoto is now 93 and lives with his daughter on the edge of Tokyo. He has a warm open face and the piercing eyes of a much younger man.

As a 20-year-old he served as a medical orderly in northwest China. "There were six comfort women for our unit," he tells me. "Once a month I would check them for sexually transmitted diseases.

"The Korean women were mainly for the officers," he says. "So the ordinary soldiers attacked local villages screaming, 'Are there any good girls here?' Those soldiers robbed, raped, or killed those who did not listen to them."

Those who were captured were taken to Mr Matsumoto's unit to serve as comfort women.

After the war Mr Matsumoto became a priest to try and atone for his sins. For decades he said nothing of what he'd seen.

But then as the voices of denial grew stronger he was filled with righteous anger, and decided to speak out.

"It's ridiculous... Mr Abe speaks as if this is something he witnessed, but he didn't. I did," says Mr Matsumoto.

"Someone told me this, 'One who fails to look back and perceive the past will repeat their wrongdoing'. But Mr Abe thinks we should erase anything bad Japan had done in the past and pretend nothing happened. That is why I cannot forgive him," he adds.

Mr Matsumoto sits back in his chair and chuckles.

"One day the right-wingers will come and get me for saying such things," he says, drawing a finger across his throat.

That seems unlikely, but Mr Matsumoto and all the other survivors are now in their late 80s or 90s.

Soon they will all be gone - while the voices of denial grow louder and stronger.

This guy is one of the right wing jpnese who want to white-wash jpnese war crimes:

Toshio Tamogami 田母神 俊雄

His bio:
Toshio Tamogami - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hereunder are some extracts of his ridiculous viewpoints and the reporter's comments from the quoted reports above



"Tamogami believes that Japan did not invade the Korean Peninsula, but rather "invested in Korea and also in Taiwan and Manchuria"."

"I can declare that there was no Nanjing Massacre," he says, claiming there were "no eyewitnesses" of Japanese soldiers slaughtering Chinese civilians.

Media caption Former chief of Japan's air forces, Toshio Tamogami, says that stories of atrocities such as the Nanjing massacre in the 1930s are "lies and fabrication"

It is when I ask him about the issue of Korean comfort women that Mr Tamogami's denials are most indignant.

He declares it "another fabrication", saying: "If this is true, how many soldiers had to be mobilised to forcibly drag those women away? And those Korean men were just watching their women taken away by force? Were Korean men all cowards?"

Although they may not say it as loudly and as bluntly as Mr Tamogami, this is a version of history that is widely believed by many of Japan's nationalists. (edit: like those jpnese members on PDF)

Earlier this year at a joint session of the US Congress in Washington DC, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe expressed deep sorrow for the suffering caused by Japan during WW2.

ALSO:

Mr Abe does not deny there were Korean women serving as comfort women near the frontlines in China and South East Asia.

But he has repeatedly said there is no evidence these women were coerced or that the Japanese military was involved in their recruitment and confinement. The implication is the women were prostitutes.

ALSO READ the stories in the ensuing paragraphs:

The sad and traumatice experience of Ms Lee Ok Seon, a tiny 88-year-old Korean elderly lady whose life is ruined by the fascist jpnese army

"She said two men grabbed her and put her on a train. "By the time we arrived I realised we had crossed the border into China. I was sent to a place where there were already several comfort women.

"I wonder why they called us comfort women. We didn't go by our own accord, we were kidnapped. I was forced to have sex with many men each day."

--------

Revisionists like Mr Tamogami say women like Lee Ok Seon have been coached to embellish their stories; that they are tools of a South Korean government that is intent on humiliating Japan and squeezing it for more money ( edit: a Chinese propagand? WTF )

,,,, there is plenty of other evidence that the Japanese military organised the comfort women system, not least from the men who served in the Japanese imperial army in China.


And the confession and eye-witness account of this Japanese:

Masayoshi Matsumoto is now 93

As a 20-year-old he served as a medical orderly in northwest China. "There were six comfort women for our unit," he tells me. "Once a month I would check them for sexually transmitted diseases.
......

Those who were captured were taken to Mr Matsumoto's unit to serve as comfort women.

After the war Mr Matsumoto became a priest to try and atone for his sins. For decades he said nothing of what he'd seen.

But then as the voices of denial grew stronger he was filled with righteous anger, and decided to speak out.

"It's ridiculous... Mr Abe speaks as if this is something he witnessed, but he didn't. I did," says Mr Matsumoto.

"Someone told me this, 'One who fails to look back and perceive the past will repeat their wrongdoing'. But Mr Abe thinks we should erase anything bad Japan had done in the past and pretend nothing happened. That is why I cannot forgive him," he adds.

.....


but Mr Matsumoto and all the other survivors are now in their late 80s or 90s.

Soon they will all be gone - while the voices of denial grow louder and stronger.