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Osaka Mayor Hirofumi Yoshimura has vowed to snap his metropolisโs six-decade sister-city relationship with San Francisco in protest in opposition to the US metropolis accepting a statue of โconsolation girlsโ as public property.
โConsolation girlsโ, a euphemism for some 200,000 ladies and younger girls who have been coerced, kidnapped, bought or captured to be sexually exploited in Japanโs army brothels earlier than and through World Struggle II, is a taboo time period for a lot of in Japan. And these folks have been attempting to comb the difficulty underneath the carpet.
The statue in San Francisco options three girls๏ผa Chinese language, a Korean and a Filipina๏ผwith the 2 phrases, โintercourse slavesโ inscribed on a plaque. Yoshimura has written a number of letters to his San Francisco counterpart Edwin Lee this yr, saying some historians do not acknowledge the historic info about โconsolation girlsโ.
Ikuhiko Hata is a kind of historians. In an interview with Yasuo Naito, editor in chief of Japan Ahead, Sankei Shimbunโs English-language web site, Hata mentioned the Republic of Korea makes use of the โhistorical past conflictโ as a weapon and ladies werenโt kidnapped to be sexually exploited. He mentioned that his analysis exhibits the ladies who labored within the โconsolation stationsโ werenโt โintercourse slavesโ and didnโt dwell underneath the merciless situations.
Hata additionally mentioned the wartime newspapers in Seoul carried ads for recruiting โconsolation girlsโ, and the recruiters werenโt Japanese however Koreans. And he claims that almost all of โconsolation girlsโ in Japan and Korea have been skilled prostitutes. The โconsolation girlsโ earned 300 yen ($2.7 now) each month, he mentioned, whereas Japanese troopers have been paid on common 10 yen.
In 1991, some Japanese legal professionals mentioned โconsolation girlsโ have been โintercourse slavesโ and took the difficulty to the United Nations Human Rights Council.
Hata blamed some Japanese media retailers such because the Asahi Shimbun for spreading โpretend informationโ about โconsolation girlsโ with the assistance of the Japanese legal professionals, which was then drummed up right into a worldwide problem.
In Hataโs phrases, these girls who endured a half century of humiliation and trauma, and but had the braveness to talk up, and people activists who helped dig out the reality and struggled to get the โconsolation girlsโ justice and respect have been mendacity for private or political causes.
If the โfindingsโ of historians equivalent to Hata are true, Tokyo mustnโt have signed an settlement with Seoul in 2015 to apologize to and compensate Korean โconsolation girlsโ.
With the settlement, Japan wished to bury the difficulty.
The โconsolation girlsโ problem, nonetheless, isnโt a โdisputeโ between Japan and the ROK alone. Jan Ruff-OโHerne, a Dutch Australian, was taken from an Indonesian prisoner-of-war camp the place she was residing along with her household throughout Japanese occupation. Ruff-OโHerne fought disgrace to talk up and have become an advocate for girlsโs rights.
When Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited the Philippines in January, surviving Filipina โconsolation girlsโ requested for a proper apology and compensation from Japan for the atrocities they suffered by the hands of Japanese troopers throughout occupation.
Former US congressman Mike Honda took the statue in San Francisco as a bodily illustration of one thing that occurred up to now that must be discovered about to stop violence in opposition to girls and finish human trafficking.
However the Japanese authorities refuses to look into the nationโs darkish previous. After the ROK parliament designated Aug 14 as a day to commemorate Korean โconsolation girlsโ, Japan criticized the transfer, saying it violated the spirit of the 2015 settlement. On Aug 14, 1991, Kim Hak-soon, a surviving โconsolation girlโ, turned the primary to discuss her ordeal. Tons of of others adopted her.
Japan considers any event to pay respects to the โconsolation girlsโ in different elements of the world as a shame to itself. But it surely permits the nationโs right-wingers to demean the now aged survivors and those that died carrying the Japanese insult that โconsolation girlsโ have been nothing greater than skilled prostitutes.
Japanโs angle makes the 2015 settlement extra like hush cash for the ROK than a honest apology for exploiting harmless girls.
The creator is China Day by day Tokyo bureau chief. [email protected]
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