GIs Frequented Japan's `comfort Women' (AP's historical hit piece)

AP via ABC News ^ | Apr 25, 2007 | ERIC TALMADGE

[james500]

Japan's abhorrent practice of enslaving women to provide sex for its troops in World War II has a little-known sequel: After its surrender with tacit approval from the U.S. occupation authorities Japan set up a similar "comfort women" system for American GIs.

[james500]

"Sadly, we police had to set up sexual comfort stations for the occupation troops," recounts the official history of the Ibaraki Prefectural Police Department, whose jurisdiction is just northeast of Tokyo. "The strategy was, through the special work of experienced women, to create a breakwater to protect regular women and girls."

Because otherwise, the Americans surely would have raped anything that moved?

[stumpy]

Well I got a lot of comfort from the “working women” on Okinawa, and Honshu during 1966-67, and from the “working women” of Viet Nam in 1967-68. Semper Fi

[Renfield]

’ “...I rushed there with two or three RAA executives, and was surprised to see 500 or 600 soldiers standing in line on the street,” Seiichi Kaburagi, the chief of public relations for the RAA, wrote in a 1972 memoir. He said American MPs were barely able to keep the troops under control....’

[Oberon]

Because otherwise, the Americans surely would have raped anything that moved?

The Japanese assumed that was SOP for the US military. It was, after all, SOP for the Japanese Imperial Army.

[popdonnelly]

So the Japanese police were setting up brothels for American servicemen? And the servicemen are to blame?

[colorado tanker]

Although there are suspicions, there is no clear evidence non-Japanese comfort women were imported to Japan as part of the program.

Hit piece. Could it be a coincidence that Japanese sources dropped this on the U.S. media at the same time a resolution condemning Japan for the comfort women is pending in Congress???

Other armies raped. The Americans paid for it.

[popdonnelly]

How much money did the Japanese police make off this operation?

[scan59]

Did the Japanese reveal that these women were forced into prostitution before opening the doors to American GIs? I'm fairly certain that if the US troops knew these were slave women, there is no way they would have used their "services". (At least not most.)

This is just another hit piece on the troops.

[3AngelaD]

“Because otherwise, the Americans surely would have raped anything that moved?” Snort. Like that ol’ serial rapist, Douglas MacArthur?

[Mack the knife]

Because otherwise, the Americans surely would have raped anything that moved?

---

You have to remember that, when the Russians “liberated” the Germans from Hitler, the Russian Soldiers raped every female in German above the age of 10.

And during the “Rape of Nanking”, the Japanese raped and slaughtered their way through an entire city.

The Japanese expected to experience no less.

(This is not a new story - I have seen it at least once before.)

[edcoil]

It was only a matter of time before the AP would take an issue like this and make sure it ended up being America’s fault.

[wideawake]

(1) The article admits that this was legal under Japanese law.

(2) The article admits that these women were experienced prostitutes - not random women and girls forced into a life of prostitution.

(3) The article admits that these women were not only paid, but "highly paid."

(4) The article basically says that the ones who were unhappy were unhappy solely because of their racist feelings toward non-Japanese US soldiers, and because of their employers insistence that they not let their racist feelings influence their work.

So comparing this to the Japanese practice of kidnapping unwilling women off the streets and forcing them into prostitution as unpaid slaves is clearly disingenuous.

But the AP will do its level best to equate the two.

[Steve_Seattle]

Actually, this is - in a sense - good news. It is a reminder, and the libs really need such a reminder, that everything bad in the world didn’t start with Bush, and that the myth that Bush has destroyed America’s values, sullied an unblemished record of virtue, is just that, a ridiculous and slanderous myth.

[Oberon]

In March of 1968, I turned one year old. =]

[Brad from Tennessee]

[Tens of thousands of women were employed to provide cheap sex to U.S. troops until the spring of 1946, when Gen. Douglas MacArthur shut the brothels down.]

The brothels were probably closed because by 1946 the private sector was providing services to adequately meet this demand. The “oldest profession” is older than the U.S. or even Japan.

[ZULU]

“Not one Japanese woman has come forward to seek compensation or an apology,” Wada said. “Unless they feel they can say they were completely forced against their will, they feel they cannot come forward.”

Not surprising, in light of Japanese moral codes as well as those of most other civilized nations.

“Because otherwise, the Americans surely would have raped anything that moved?”

They were judging us by the standards of their own military.

This is truly a disgusting and ugly part of American history. Leave to AP to dredge it up - especially right now.

[wideawake]

They weren't slave women. The article itself admits they were "highly paid."

[wideawake]

This is truly a disgusting and ugly part of American history.

Except that it isn't.

[Zeppo]

The quotes from Japanese authorities in this article seem to be expressing a single excuse that does not seem to be supported by any factual information, namely the “you made me do it” excuse ... That’s about what you would expect from your typical five-year-old. No doubt none of the Japanese authorities made a dime from it (yeah, right)...

[ZULU]

They made the whole thing up? WOuldn’t surprise me.

AP stinks.