comfort women

Some time ago I wrote about Japanese Prime Minister's denial that there was any evidence of Japan's sex slave war crimes during WW II, the reason why he never should have said that, and his later semi-apology. In all, the refusal of Japan to fully face up to its wartime atrocities the way Germany has fully faced up to its wartime atrocities is shameful.

Recently (I meant to blog this earlier but got sidetracked) new evidence has surfaced about Japan's use of "comfort women." From BBC news:

Reports from Japan say documents have been found that suggest the Japanese authorities forced women to work as sex slaves during World War II.

They come from the Dutch government archives and include the testimony of a 27-year-old Dutch woman from May 1946.

The Kyodo news agency says the documents show women were coerced into prostitution in occupied Indonesia.

PM Shinzo Abe had claimed there was no evidence of Japanese officials forcing women into prostitution...

The journalist who found these documents says they contradict the prime minister's denial that the authorities were directly involved in coercion.

I have recently been covering the horrible comment by Japanese Prime Minsiter Abe denying that there is any proof that the sex slaves called "comfort women" used by Japanese soldiers in WW II had been coerced. You can see my coverage here, here and here. From this last one, let me point out that international legal findings disagree with Abe's statement:

"It is indisputable that these women were forced, deceived, coerced and abducted to provide sexual services to the Japanese military ... [Japan] violated customary norms of international law concerning war crimes, crimes against humanity, slavery and the trafficking in women and children ... Japan should take full responsibility now, and make suitable restitution to the victims and their families."

International Commission of Jurists, November 1994

The only response I ever got from my inquiries to the Japanese embassy was that Japan had apologized, set up funds for the comfort women (neglecting to say that these funds were not paid for by the government but mostly from private donors) and that Abe's comments changed nothing.

A couple of weeks ago Japanese Prime Minister Abe turned his back on law and justice, declaring that there is no evidence that the Japanese army coerced women into serving as sex slaves during and before WW II. Although Japan is one of my favorite nations to visit and a culture I admire greatly, I find it shocking that Japan cannot face up to the mistakes of their past and I realize that this failure is the primary reason why they are still hated by all their neighbors.

I wanted to once again remind our readers that Abe's comments are atrocious and go against international opinion. From the report of the International Commission of Jurists:

"It is indisputable that these women were forced, deceived, coerced and abducted to provide sexual services to the Japanese military ... [Japan] violated customary norms of international law concerning war crimes, crimes against humanity, slavery and the trafficking in women and children ... Japan should take full responsibility now, and make suitable restitution to the victims and their families."

International Commission of Jurists, November 1994