"They were simply prostitutes"

[Randy W]

It takes a LOT of gall to make that statement from the Japanese side - trying to shift blame from the soldiers who enslaved them to the women they enslaved

 

Japanese historians contest textbook’s description of ‘comfort women’

 

“Prostitutes have existed at every time in human history, so I do not believe that comfort women are a special category,” Hata told foreign journalists in Tokyo on Tuesday.

The issue of the comfort women is at the core of the political friction between Japan and the victims of its wartime actions in Korea and China. Seoul and Beijing contend that Japan is trying to whitewash its history of coercing as many as 200,000 women and girls — from occupied countries such as Korea, China, the Philippines and other Southeast Asian nations — to work as sex slaves, while Tokyo says that it has dealt with the issue already.

. . .

 

As soon as Wednesday, 19 Japanese university professors will send a letter to McGraw-Hill taking issue with eight phrases in the two paragraphs about the “comfort women” in “Traditions and Encounters,” a 900-page history textbook used in U.S. colleges.

 

Japan’s Foreign Ministry has already attempted to persuade both McGraw-Hill and Herbert Ziegler, the University of Hawaii professor who wrote the paragraphs, to change the wording, and was rebuffed by both. Ziegler last month told The Washington Post that he viewed the request as “an infringement of my freedom of speech and my academic freedom.”

 

Twenty American professors published a letter in this month’s edition of the American Historical Association’s journal to express their “dismay at recent attempts by the Japanese government to suppress statements in history textbooks both in Japan and elsewhere.”

 

Now Japanese professors, led by Hata, are taking action, writing to McGraw-Hill to contest the textbook’s statement that as many as 200,000 women were forcibly recruited to be comfort women for Japan’s imperial army. Hata says the real number is about 20,000.

 

They also take issue with the claim that the women were “a gift from the emperor.” “This is too impolite expression for a school textbook, which defames the national head,” the Japanese letter says.

 

The Japanese historians also criticize the estimate that the women serviced 20 to 30 soldiers a day. If that were true, Hata said, “the soldiers would have had no time to fight the war; they would have been too busy going to the brothel all the time.”

 

 

[tsap seui]

Yeah, and the holocaust never happened either. This sort of lying, trying to shift the blame shit enrages me to no end...but...I ain't gonna say anything more about Japan. They are jes lucky I ain't in charge. My first act would be to send all of the aircraft carriers, planes and soldiers, etc, to Africa or someplace, and sell the WHOLE country to China for $50. Now...I'm not going to say anything more.

[Mick]

It is not only an outrage that Japan continues in its intransigent attitude about the issue of "comfort women," it is also an insult to the intelligence of anyone who has conducted even the most superficial research into the actions of the Japanese soldiers during the war. I am not going to get on a soap box about this, but I do want to share something that perhaps puts this into some degree of perspective. As some of you know, my first real girlfriend, Mikko, was a second generation Japanese who lived in my neighborhood. We began dating at age 15, shared our first physical intimacy with one another, and dated on again off again until after high school. Her father used to talk to my dad quite often about the war. Although my father served in the European theater, he was knowledgeable about the Pacific campaign. Mr. Matsui often spoke of "regrettable and reprehensible" things he and his comrades did during the war. He said they still kept him awake at night. Mikko often told me she heard her father weeping and praying at night. He had become a Christian after moving to America in 1947, two years before Mikko was born. A devout Catholic, he and his family lived their faith deeply. I remember him telling my dad over dinner one night that it took him over a year to get through "confessing" his sins to his priest. I also recall that he said that his healing began when he allowed himself to admit what he and others had done. I don't think any true healing can begin for the Japanese of that generation until the government openly confesses its wrongs. It is a shame these 19 professors are perpetuating the lie, rather than confronting the truth. If you haven't read Iris Chang's "The Rape of Nanking," I highly recommend it. Mr. Matsui, by the way, served in Shanghai and Nanjing. He passed away about ten years ago.

[tsap seui]

Pretty heavy stuff there, Mick. This man was a REAL man to admit his wrongs. I would hope others like him would do so, but honestly, I've never heard anything but sorry crap "perpetuating the lie" like in Randy's link.

 

I don't know why I get so worked up over these three things, as I am neither an American Indian, Jewish, or Chinese, yet what happened to those peoples in those times infuriates me to the point of "burning craziness" in my head when I hear or read about things such as this. To deny those acts or play them down now, especially to try to deflect the blame, like these f'ing Japanese professors are currently doing by pointing the finger at Chinese women as if they were all whores back then anyhow, is only digging the sewer hole that much deeper than it already is!!! What does it say of the race of folks who played into this whole thing in China to begin with? I never read anywhere that someone held a gun to those soldier's heads to make them do what they did in village and city after village after city, again and again and again. Never read anywhere that the Japanese population held any returning soldiers from China in contempt as war criminals and prosecuted any of them.

 

You and I were soldiers, I didn't, and I know you didn't think it was okay to kill whole families or babies, rape women, or commit atrocities, nor did anyone else I knew in the war. No one was going to give me orders to do such things. Atrocities are committed by individuals with the mindset that the people they are committing them on are less than human. What was done in China sure wasn't some random acts like a My Lai. It sure says a lot about a people whom allow people like these professors to try and rewrite history, or cover up what was done with some lame ass excuse like what is in Randy's link. Where is the outrage against those professors?

 

Oh well, I would like to think that many Japanese folks are offended by these professors, and by the actions of so many Japanese soldiers who were in China...I wish, if that is so, we could read the reports about those that are offended. Thank you very much Mick for telling us about Mr. Matsui.

[Doug]

I've written before about the rep company that represents us in Japan. The man married the daughter of the direct personal handmaid of the wife of the emperor. He took his wife's family name. Supposedly it is a big deal over there. He told me about seeing Japanese pilots landing in their back yard when he was 5 during the war. He told me how China belongs to Japan and I could tell it burned fervent in his heart he really believes this, and I can tell he resents the USA. I was never invited back on the next Asian biz trip. You had to be there to witness his true to the core feeling that China belongs to Japan. He is still alive and representing us.

[Randy W]

Wow! Some intense stories there from both Mick and Doug! Thanks for sharing them with us.

[warpedbored]

A little perspective. Politicians of all countries say unbelievably stupid shit all of the time. I've read where a US congressman claimed women's bodies protect them from getting pregnant if they are raped. None of the war criminals who perpetuated the atrocities of WW-2 are still alive. They aren't the same country they were then. Indeed they have a whole new constitution which forbids having anything but a small self defense army. My ex is Japanese. I've known many Japanese people. The vast majority are good honest hard working people who had nothing to do with what happened then. If you lose something on the street in Japan, even cash, it will likely be turned into the police for you to collect. That would seldom happen in China or America. Are there extremists in Japan? Hell yes, just like every other country in the world. I don't see anything productive in continuously rubbing Japan's nose in their past mistakes.

 

We do have Japanese American members here. Let's refrain from Japan bashing, Muslim bashing or bashing of any other groups any of us may not like.

[Mick]

Carl, I agree with your perspective that this was something that happened a long time ago. And yes, nothing is to be gained by rubbing Japan's nose in their past mistakes. In this case, however, Japan started the current flap when those 19 professors demanded that the history books be changed. That is inexcusable and cannot go unchallenged. In my post, I hope it did not seem I was Japan bashing. If anything, sharing about Mr. Matsui spoke to the fact that many Japanese are indeed noble, honorable people.

[Doug]

I will agree with you Carl that Japan is a very clean good noble place now. I loved being there, except for the expense. Most are truly sorry, if they think about it at all. If not for my wife, when flying to China and changing planes in Japan, I would have just stayed in Japan. Best legs on earth. And men are treated well. It is modern and their cars have normal bumpers. Engineers are good and no one thinks of all that WWII crap.

I simply told a true story about one man who fervently believes the way he does, and connected to the palace to this day. In his eyes I could see the murder some in the upper government must have felt during that era. It WAS an eye opener to me. I truly never expected that. A man like him would never apologize, but do it all again if he could. We have those types in the USA and every country I imagine. They are exceptions to the norm. I too have Japanese friends, and I get your point.