Australian 'Comfort Woman' Survivor to Testify Before Congress on February 15

[Emac44]

As I said Rall. have met many ex POWs in my time all had same story or similar stories to tell whilst POWs under the Japs. I do not blame the generation of today whose grandfathers committed crimes but I have no use for denials by the Grand children what their Grandparents did during WW2 as they are trying to protect sacred ancestors syndrome. Simple fess up like the Germans have done and admit the guilt

 

[Cojimar 1945]

One thing I still don't get is why the Japanese leaders would want their country to be defeated. Having Japan's cities destroyed, its navy largely annihilated, etc seems like a horrible thing for Japan's leaders to want.

The Japanese displayed great cruelty towards others but I don't understand why they would want Japan itself to be devastated.

 

[FLYBOYJ]

One thing I still don't get is why the Japanese leaders would want their country to be defeated. Having Japan's cities destroyed, its navy largely annihilated, etc seems like a horrible thing for Japan's leaders to want.

The Japanese displayed great cruelty towards others but I don't understand why they would want Japan itself to be devastated.

Stupidity?

The mentality was to have their armies fight to the death - similar to what we see today with regards to many terrorists.

 

[plan_D]

It's based on the Bushido code of honour. To retreat from battle is a disgrace in Japan; and this translates to a retreat from war. The Japanese leadership did not want to be dishonoured and would fight to the death. Losing their country in the process.

They surrendered because it was blatantly obvious that the country would become a wasteland. And while Japanese honour would remain intact, the country wouldn't. So what would be the point?

 

[Emac44]

Simply put the Japanese Mentality at the time as Plan has said was the Bushido Code. A warrior mentality. Death before dishonour. It came from the Samurai attitude that the the more Militaristic aspects of the Japanese Govt and Military tapped into after World War 1. The Government and the Military literally turned the population by education propaganda radio newspapers schools programming and every type of device they could come up with to infuse the population with this idea. They also infused the Japanese Population in Emperor Worship. Literally turning the Emperor into a Japanese version of a Sun God. To die for the Emperor was considered to be the utmost devotion under this ideology a Japanese could aspire to. If the 2 Atomic bombs had not been dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki the Japanese Military and Government would have literally turned the whole 4 home islands of Japan into one massive Bushido Style Military/Citizen Fortress infused with the afore mentioned code. As for the Japanese themselves the individual was there for one purpose to serve the Emperor even unto death. This was mixed with Buddist/Shinto religious dogma as well all mixed in with the Bushido Code and with the aid of then modern technology became a way of life in wartime Japan

 

[islander]

Lee said she was abducted in July 1942 in the southern city of Ulsan. Two large men grabbed her by the arms while she was on her way to the restaurant where she worked. She kicked and screamed, to no avail.

She was thrown into a truck with five Korean girls _ also about 15 years old _ and taken by train to Yanji in northeastern China, which was occupied by Japan at the time. There she said she was confined to a brothel and forced to "serve as many soldiers as we can to pay them back for providing us clothes and food."

A woman might have sex with as many as 30 soldiers a day. Typically she worked in a 40-square-foot room furnished with a wooden bed and a hard mattress, according to replica at the museum in Gwangju. Often the only other object was a tin basin, dimly lit by a single bulb.

Women who refused to comply were beaten and stabbed with knives, Lee said, showing scars on her right arm and foot. She said she suffered lasting damage to her uterus and nearly went deaf from the frequent blows.

Many women died, if not from the beatings then from starvation, she said, and their bodies were tossed out on the streets "to be eaten by dogs."

One of her friends at the brothel became pregnant and the baby was taken away at birth, never to be seen by its mother again.

Thanks for the article, Rall.

I don't think she is lying. I think she is telling the truth about her experience. I trust that Prime Minister Abe was not denying her story because that was not the point he was trying to make. What was he trying to say, then?

OK, let's take another look at what Ms. Lee said, in the above quote, very closely and very carefully this time. If you do, you can easily notice that Ms. Lee does not say who did it. Not even once, doesn't she? Was it done by Japanese soldiers or Korean brothel owners, or someone else, for that matter? This is a pattern being pointed out for years in Japan. Obviously she's been through horrifying experiences. No questions about it. She must be telling the truth, but we just don't know who did it, and we are unable to find out who did it.

Thus, Mr. Abe's comment: there is no evidence (known to us that proves the Japanese authorities did it). I don't think he was attempting to deny the whole thing.

 

[Emac44]

Thanks for the article, Rall.

I don't think she is lying. I think she is telling the truth about her experience. I trust that Prime Minister Abe was not denying her story because that was not the point he was trying to make. What was he trying to say, then?

OK, let's take another look at what Ms. Lee said, in the above quote, very closely and very carefully this time. If you do, you can easily notice that Ms. Lee does not say who did it. Not even once, doesn't she? Was it done by Japanese soldiers or Korean brothel owners, or someone else, for that matter? This is a pattern being pointed out for years in Japan. Obviously she's been through horrifying experiences. No questions about it. She must be telling the truth, but we just don't know who did it, and we are unable to find out who did it.

Thus, Mr. Abe's comment: there is no evidence (known to us that proves the Japanese authorities did it). I don't think he was attempting to deny the whole thing.

Doesn't deny who done what Islander. Does Prime Minister Abe expect Miss Lee to say it was aliens who kidnapped her. You know exactly where this women ended up in and for what reasons. It matters little who supplied the woman for use of Japanese Troops the QUESTION IS WHY SHE HAD TO BE FORCED IN FIRST PLACE and used at end place as a prostitute for the Japanese Army against her will. Lets examine if it was contractors. Who employed the contractors in the first place and who supplied the market for contractors to operate in. The Japanese Govt with the Japanese Military in both cases Islander. Are you trying to suggest that the Japanese Govt and Military at the time didn't take notice of each other. that the Japanese Military operated without authority of the Emperors Govt during WW2 and the contractors were employed by some fictious entity who was neither Govt or Miltary of Japan. If Miss Lee doesn't say who violated her rights other Comfort Women have said who it was with out compunction. Mrs Jan Ruff O'Herne an Australian women who was forced and raped by the Japanese Military and who has protested the Japanese Embassy in Australia for many years makes no such distinction about who forced her to be a Comfort Woman to be used by Japanese Military. She lays the BLAME AT THE FEET OF THE JAPANESE GOVERMENT AND MILITARY and she is pretty adamant who did what. Prime Minister Abe may try and deny a simple country girl from Korea. but he can't deny a western educated Australian Woman with the same bullshit he is trying with Miss Lee from Korea. You want to split hairs Islander. We have a saying in Australia. You are pissing up a gum tree with this line of crap about denying the exsistence of Comfort Women from WW2. No evidence according to Prime Minister Abe Known to us that the Japanese Authorities did it. Yeah right and I suppose there is no evidence about Nanking Singapore Hong Kong Burma Thai Railways. All the massacres by Japanese Troops on Civilians all through Asia and Pacifc. No evidence according to us (JAPAN). If no evidence Islander why the apology in 1993 to Comfort Women and the set up of the Asian Womens Fund by Japan and now a backflip by Prime Minister Abe just recently. No evidence that Japanese Govt is telling the truth you mean Islander. Oh and here is what your own Japanese Govt had to say in 1993 web site below

MOFA: Statement by the Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono on the result of the study on the issue of "comfort women"

Very interesting reading Islander. I suggest you read the statement very carefuly from your own Govt from 1993 Islander. Read it word for word. In less then 14 years your present Govt is trying to white wash it and deny what your War Time Govt and Military was responsible for during WW2. Put quiet simple Islander. Your Military created a market and a hideous one at that against all human rights. Military with Contractors acted upon supply of this market and your War Time Government funded the market of trading in slavery of women for forced prostitution against these women

Do not take this as a personal attack on yourself Islander but understand this most of us are very well educated and very much aware what the Japanese Military and Government of Japan had done during WW2. for me I do not blame the current generation of Japanese for crimes committed by your grand parents during WW2. But if you deny that your grandparents committed such crimes then I will let you know in no uncertain terms that is bullshit ok

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

Thus, Mr. Abe's comment: there is no evidence (known to us that proves the Japanese authorities did it). I don't think he was attempting to deny the whole thing.

No that is denial. When you have thousands of women saying it happened and there is actual evidence of it and you say something like that, that is denial.

 

[Cojimar 1945]

The amount of atrocities attributed to Japan during the WWII era is simply so enormous that trying to deny comfort women seems pretty silly.

The Japanese would still have to deal with all the horriffic biological warfare experiments that were conducted on humans, all the various massacres in China, the killing of POW's, etc. If the Japanese admit to all these other heinous crimes why would comfort women be an issue?

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

For the sakes of these women before they are all gone. Closure for them...

 

[FLYBOYJ]

The amount of atrocities attributed to Japan during the WWII era is simply so enormous that trying to deny comfort women seems pretty silly.

The Japanese would still have to deal with all the horriffic biological warfare experiments that were conducted on humans, all the various massacres in China, the killing of POW's, etc. If the Japanese admit to all these other heinous crimes why would comfort women be an issue?

How would you feel if you, or a family member was one of them?

 

[Emac44]

The amount of atrocities attributed to Japan during the WWII era is simply so enormous that trying to deny comfort women seems pretty silly.

The Japanese would still have to deal with all the horriffic biological warfare experiments that were conducted on humans, all the various massacres in China, the killing of POW's, etc. If the Japanese admit to all these other heinous crimes why would comfort women be an issue?

Because Cojimar. The stink of War Crimes committed by the Japanese during and before World War 2 goes all the way up to the Japanese Imperial Palace. From Nanking to the end of the war the Imperial Palace was implicated in Atrocities against Civilians for example the Nanking Massacre in 1937/8. The Emperors own Uncles were members of the Military Operating in Nanking China at the time and were in command of regiments of the Imperial Japanese Army at the time in and around Nanking China.

The Japanese Govt denies the whole Nanking Massacre took place to shield the Imperial Household in Japan from War Crimes committed by members of the Imperial Palace.

Quiet simply put those Uncles of the Emperor would have to admit guilt because it was their troops that committed those acts against civilians in China and as such they were in command of these troops at the time.

To say they had not been implicated would mean that the Uncles involved had no control over their own Troops in and around Nanking which is seen as ridiculous that a Military Commander had no knowledge of what his troops were doing.

So the Japanese Govt has no option but to deny Nanking Massacre took place to shield Imperial Palace.

But however there is one more side of the story and something that shames the USA. The US Govt and in particular General Douglas MacArthur made sure that the War Crimes Commission did not actual proscute the Emperor or members of the Imperial Family and major Japanese Industrialist and Politicans of the time during the period of the War Crime Trials in Tokyo and other Asian and Pacific court cases of War Crimes committed by the Japanese.

Some of these Industrialist and Politicans actually profitted from this aggressive war and were found guilty of such but any attempt to implicate these men was squashed or if sentances were carried out they were mild and often they were released in a short period of time from prison.

On this to the absolute credit of the US your government recognised what they had done and it is admitted by the US Government that this was not a crediable thing to have done to interfer in the justice system that should have been allowed to proscute War Criminals from Japan, but the damage had been done unfortunately.

However the Allied Nations of the USA at the time USSR China Great Britian The Netherlands Australia and New Zealand were unimpressed by this stance of the US Govt at the time and in particular the absolute power MacArthur weilded in Japan after the war.

My stance is this Cojimar, Should the Imperial Family and including the Emperor been charged with War Crimes after WW2. My answer is yes very much so. Should Japanese Politicans and Industrialist been charged with War Crimes? Answer Yes absolutely.

Many of these Industrialists and Politicans profitted directly from factories mines industrial manufacturing of War Goods and Transport etc by the use of forced labour from captured civilians and POWs in slave labour conditions in Japan itself and other captured territories and under such is a violation of human rights of treatment of POWs and Civilians and is a War Crime due to it contrevening the Hague and Geneva Conventions. Which Japan was not a signitory of either,

As for MacArthur he should never have been granted that much power in Post War Japan to have interferred with the War Crimes Trials in Tokyo or elsewhere in Asia or the Pacific.

This is not a reflection on the Current US Govt or previous US Govts since MacArthur and Truman but it did strain diplomatic tensions between Allies after the war in the improper dealings with War Criminals from Japan. Which in my opinion has led to Japan denying war crimes such as the Comfort Women or the Nanking Massacre to this very day. Unfortunately in some cases the US is implicated in the cover ups of War Crimes committed by the Japanese in some instances but fortunately not all of course. But the War Crime trials didn't go far enough in the proscution and indictment and imprisonment of War Crimes committed by some Japanese and including the Emperor and his Family

 

[FLYBOYJ]

Comfort Women, An Unfinished Ordeal

People's Daily Online -- ROK comfort women protest Japan gov't, demanding apology

More Info.......

 

[Emac44]

Well presented FBJ well said and yes our Governments need to put pressure on Japan and release evidence our nations have to be presented

 

[islander]

Yes but Austalians Women and about the vast majority of these women were not "recruited" they were forced to do so.

Tradition dies hard in Asia. It is true in South Korea too. Here's a piece of old newspaper article from one of the three major dailies in Korea, called the Tong-A Ilbo.

I am unable to read Korean, but it is supposed to read that the Korean Police or the Seoul city government is looking for comfort women for U.N. soldiers stationed in Korean Peninsula in September 1st, 1961. The article notifies that the munincipal authorities are now accepting registration for the job.

CORRECTION:
I have been informed that this is not about hiring comfort women. The article is about Korean comfort women for the U.N. military forces and the potential trasmission of sexual diseases, for which the Seoul city government are trying to introduce a preventive measure.

 

[FLYBOYJ]

Its one thing if the government sanctions prostitution (personally I don't think it should be a crime). It's another thing when women are forced into it, especially by an invading army.

 

[Emac44]

When are you going to realise Islander that some of us are not buying your crap. As for that piece of Paper you put on the website it could be a laundry tag for some ones laundry.

Are you trying to equate with the Sex Industry trade that sprung up during the Vietnam War in S.E.Asia in Philippines and Thailand and Vietnam itself servicing US and Allied Troops in those countries with what Japan had done prior to WW2 and during WW2 with Comfort Women etc. Or is this another denial thread about the War Crimes committed by Japan once more. If this is the case of Comfort Women has come under the notice of the UN Islander what does that tell you. The major difference of the prostitution which raised itself in S.E.Asia during Vietnam War had been going on before in Bangkok and Angel City with pressence of US Servicemen but to say it was sanctioned by the US Military and Government like that of the Japanese Military and Government is a bit far fetched. Especially since Bangkok and Angel City have a very much properous prostitution rackets still going on due to the Sex Trade Vacation and Sex Tours being conducted even today. Which may I add includes Japanese Businessmen who frequent these bars as well as other Foriegners. And according to Interpol. Many of these problems in Thailand and the Philippines have organised criminal gangs working in them. For example the Yakuza from Japan and Triads from China and Hong Kong. Do you honestly believe Islander that the US Govt and Military would sanction organised crime gangs especially when you include the illegal drug trade which is tied up in this area.

But what you are trying to tie in here Islander is that you are suggesting that the US Military and Government had forced women into prostitution in Soeul Bangkok or even Angel City as did the Japanese and Military did during WW2. So then you can feel and amongst your fellow Japanese that the crimes committed 70 years ago against Comfort Women can be deminished. You put this piece into the website admitted you do not read Korean and expect us to believe it was an official notice from Korean Police from 1961 about prostitutes etc and then try and rope the US Government and Military into the Sex Trade in 1961 in Korea and think its the same as what your Government and Military did in the War. One big problem if that notice is what you say it is then the Korean Police were allowing women to choose to become prostitutes for US Servicemen and was not forcing these women under any duress like your Government had done previously during WW2. But as I said before that Korean Notice you placed in this website could be a laundry tag and you admitted you do not read Korean. So that constitutes no evidence just something you dug up from some where and claiming it was about Korean Prostitution. You have tried on numerous occassions to downgrade the Comfort Women on this forum with pathetic attempts to try and deminish the impact your Government and Military of Crimes committed during WW2 against the Comfort Women. That your Government and Military had forced women into prostitution during WW2. Just proves to me how low the Japanese Govt is prepared to go to deny War Crimes even today and the future

 

[islander]

When are you going to realise Islander that some of us are not buying your crap. As for that piece of Paper you put on the website it could be a laundry tag for some ones laundry.

I believe that suffering is suffering and humiliation is humiliation. If comfort women are going to be saved for their suffering, so should other women who were sexually abused by soldiers of any countries.

American soldiers, for instance, raped 20,000 Japanese women (only reported cases) during the period the U.S. was occupying Japan. South Korean soldiers raped countless women during Vietnam War. Those victims must be compensated only by filing their testimnies to the U.S. and South Korean government. No one can say to those victimized women that their cases are not bad enough, unlike comfort women's cases, and therefore they don't deserve state apology and compansation.

It is time for the U.S. Congress to issue a statement to the world that the U.S. is going to unconditionally accept all tesimonies from all women who claim that they were sexually victimized by American soldiers in the past or at present, and, without questions, they will receive official apology on behalf of all American poeple and compenstion, 50,000 dollars each.

 

[FLYBOYJ]

I believe that suffering is suffering and humiliation is humiliation. If comfort women are going to be saved for their suffering, so should other women who were sexually abused by soldiers of any countries.

American soldiers, for instance, raped 20,000 Japanese women (only reported cases) during the period the U.S. was occupying Japan. South Korean soldiers raped countless women during Vietnam War. Those victims must be compensated only by filing their testimnies to the U.S. and South Korean government. No one can say to those victimized women that their cases are not bad enough, unlike comfort women's cases, and therefore they don't deserve state apology and compansation.

It is time for the U.S. Congress to issue a statement to the world that the U.S. is going to unconditionally accept all tesimonies from all women who claim that they were sexually victimized by American soldiers in the past or at present, and, without questions, they will receive official apology on behalf of all American poeple and compenstion, 50,000 dollars each.

20,000 Raped women by US servicemen? Perhaps - but when a US soldier goes bad and is caught, not only is he punished, we show it to the whole world. Can the Japanese government make the same claim? They can't because an apology is a disgrace!!!!

OK - let's pay restitution to those 20,000 women you say were rapped by US servicemen - but just to even the score why don't we nuke a few more Japanese cities "Just for old times sake" and then we could all it even!

 

[Emac44]

I regard any woman or child raped by any servicemen from any country a crime Islander but perhaps when you government admits its war crimes as other countries have done for example Germany and makes restittution to the victims then I will be satisfied. At the moment your country has failed to do any of this. As FBJ has said any US Sericeman or Woman committing a crime is dealt with by the US Government accordingly. as for example the current case of rape and murder of Iraqi citizens before the US Courts at the moment and that of Prisoner Abuse by US Military in Baghdad. Also I might add so is the British Government of its Military and abuses by British Soldiers in Iraq of Iraqi Citizens. Japan has had a dismal piss poor response to any war crimes committed by Japanese Military and Government in and prior to World War 2 and to date has rejected many claims upon it by 1 Comfort Women 2 Citizens or foriegn nationals of other countries like China Malaysia Philippines Korea Australia New Zealand Great Britian The Netherlands Indonesia Thailand Burma Singapore and a myrid of Pacific Island Nations 3 Claims by former Prisoners of War who were held by Japanese Military in invaded countries by Japan and the Home Islands of Japan 4 Admission of Chemical and Biological war Fare by Japan in China 5 Murder rape and atrocities committed by Japanese Miltary upon civilian populations in other countries 6 Atrocities committed by Japanese Troops on civilains pows and recorded massacres by Japanese Troops over the period of from 1937 to 1945 and as such Japan needs to recognise and compenstae all victims of Japanese aggression. As in the case the US Government was to do the same. But Japan has never recognised its obligation to war crimes as your Diet has constantly rejected any claims made by any one against War Crimes committed by Japan. I do agree if its is proven that if US Troops had committed Rape of 20,000 Japanese women during the occupation then the US Government has to take responsiblity of said crimes. As so does Korea. But seeing that Japan has constantly denied claims against it and the distortion in your history books about Japanese War Atrocities and Crimes during WW2 that are taught to your children in Japan. Then in my view Japan needs to be abled to lead by example. Which to date it hasn't. So when Islander is Japan going to stop ****ing about and get on with it and own up to its war crimes like Germany has in the past since WW2 and your Government has contatntly denied such Atrocites even before WW2 for example the Rape of Nanking in 1937/38 the involvement of members of the Imperial House of Japan in War Crimes pertaining to Nanking. Your Government today still insists Nanking didn't occur and ultra right wing organisations in Japan demiss Nanking as Chinese Propaganda and your Government inisist that 300,000 deaths in Nanking could not be attributed to the Japanese Government or Military as it isn't possible for Japan to have committed this act or 2 uncles of your former Emperor took part in this act as military commanders of your army when it attacked Nanking in 1937. Your country's human rights abuses go further back to the 19th century in Korea and into the 20th century as well in other parts of Asia and your country has the audascity to try and shift responsiblity of these crimes to others like for example what your Prime Minister Abe has done recently as in the case of the Comfort Women attributing it to contractors of your government and miltary and in future Islander when you quote me use all of the all of my last posting. And I still stand by what I said some of us are not buying your crap. As for that piece from some obscure newspaper clipping in Korean from 1961 it is meaningless as you do not read Korean and nor do I to translate it into English. I question its valdity as I said it could be an advertisement for a laundry for all the good you placed it onto this forum and website. You need to prove your arguement not with something that is written in Korean and you expect as to believe it perbatim. If you think I don't trust the Japanese Government you would be correct in assuming that. As Japan has shown me no reason to trust it