Posted on 06/19/2007 5:15:16 PM PDT by Republican Party Reptile
Japan Lawmakers Take Out U.S. Ad on Comfort Women
A group of Japanese lawmakers in a full-page ad in the Washington Post on Thursday denied the Japanese government and military had a hand in conscripting women from Asian countries as sex slaves for the Imperial Army during World War II. Titled “The Facts”, the ad published Wednesday claims “no historical document has ever been found” proving the direct involvement of the Japanese government and military, contrary to a recent U.S. congressional resolution sponsored by the Democrat Representative Mike Honda. The ad was co-sponsored by some Japanese academics, political commentators and journalists.
The ad claims the so-called comfort women were in fact authorized prostitutes, earning more money than officers. It claims the testimony of former comfort women was inconsistent since they first testified that they had been kidnapped by civilian brokers but later changed their story saying they were forced into slavery by men in “what appeared to be police uniforms.”
The lawmakers accused the U.S. congressional resolution of “gravely and intentionally” distorting historical facts by defining the “comfort women tragedy” as “one of the largest cases of human trafficking in the 20th century.”The ad also flies in the face of the current Japanese government’s position, which is to uphold an apology by chief Cabinet secretary Yohei Kono in 1993 acknowledging the government and military’s role.
Luckily they found documentation of the Holocaust, otherwise, it too would be just a myth backed up by little more than crematory ovens and millions of missing Jews.
Kempetai!
This sounds like the denial by the Turk parastate about the thousands of Christian women raped and murdered by Turk Muslims during the holocaust in Asia Minor.
for your Asian ping list ...
This is scary.
The WW II generation is dying off and leaving a bunch of ignoramuses hell-bent on stoking the fires of nationalism.
Not a good sign.
It’s amazing how few know what that word means, or what a bunch of wacky loveable lugs they were. My father learned firsthand, their impish pixi-like little ways at Cabanatuan No. 3 and Hoten Camp.
The ex-HQ of the Kempetai in Singapore is now a museum with some deeply disturbing exhibits.
This is the second post I've read today about Japanese attempts to obfuscate what they did. I think that it's much too early for them to get away with it, as there are many in Asia still living who remember very well. The Japanese have done a masterful job of raising an entire generation with either no knowledge or a very glossed over version of it.
Thank you, gentlemen, and my deep admiration for the survivors of Cabanatuan (my Dad was on his way to the Pacific Theater when Little Boy and Fat Man greatly improved my chances of being born).
Kempetai.... Dad was stationed at HQ 8th Army in Yokohama 1956-58. We American kids played with Japanese kids. But later upon adulthood I learned the horrors perpetrated by the Imperial Japanese Army. And it seems that as time goes on and information technology improves, Japanese atrocities of the WWII period just seem to increase in number and crowd closer to those who choose to remember.
“We were victims, too!” is heard quite a lot lately in the new Germany and the new Japan.
Kempetai.... that very word once struck terror in the hearts of millions. Today’s Japanese may soon grow proud of it. Like the Yasekune Shrine, where butcher Tojo is worshipped, godlike.
Whew, they’re on a roll. This will help win them friends in Asia.
Related:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1852984/posts
‘No massacre in Nanking,’ Japanese lawmakers say
Nanjing Massacre
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-backroom/1521072/posts?page=39#39
There was once a WWII TV documentary (I think that it was on the kamakazi) which had an interview with a former Japanese soldier. He mentioned the comfort women, and that they were mainly Korean. He smiled as he told how enjoyable they were, and how it gave spirit to the young soldiers, that now they could die happily for the Emperor, knowing that they had already had a chance to enjoy life’s pleasures.
To what extent the women were coerced, one could not tell from that interview. However, prostitution is never a clean business, in whatever form: not even in Nevada. It always has the smell of slavery about it.
The Japanese did horrible things in World War II. We regarded them at the time as hopeless sub-humans. Now they are among our best friends. Not only are they a modern, successful nation, but individual Japanese I have known are attractive and honorable people. This should give me hope. Maybe some day I will actually find that some enemies of today are actually reformable.
Nah! I am probably dreaming! The Russians, for example, seem totally beyond hope.
I remember some Japanese films about the war made back in the 50’s and 60’s - complete with forced comfort women. Even Japanese film makers knew about it and put it in their movies.
Keep in mind the politicians of Japan grew up during the war and reconstruction.
The younger generations have an inkling of what happened and the internet is hopefully opening their eyes. They don’t like talking about it. We also took the wind out of their sails quite a bit.
Seems like every 70 years or so the japanese get this nationalistic fever and make a retarded vie for power.
I can say though that anime saturation of the Gundam series in Japan has pacified a great deal of them. However I have yet to see any animes that were subbed or dubbed that talk about the warcrimes that the japanese committed.
Many of the folks in my generation (30something) don’t know why we went to war with Japan...only that we were “horrible” for dropping the bombs. How convenient?
The Japanese have a serious problem with denying their own disgraceful actions during the second World War. They were horrendously cruel and violent to prisoners of war and to civilians in the countries they captured. China and Korea are mad as hell that they are whitewashing this history and denying truth and I am too. Very dangerous for a nation to build the history they teach their youth on lies. Germany has confronted its Nazi past. Japan needs to confront its past too.
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