THE TRUTH ABOUT THE “COMFORT WOMEN”

THE TRUTH ABOUT THE “COMFORT WOMEN”
Moteki Hiromichi, CEO
The Truth about the “Comfort Women”：

http://www.sdh-fact.com/CL02_1/84_S4.pdf
　CL02と84の後はアンダースコアー _ です。

Sekai Shuppan
This article is dedicated to the self-proclaimed champions of truth and
justice who fell victim to the tales spun by Yoshida Seiji, the fabulist of
the century. And may it also serve as a reminder to Americans who are so
patronizing to the Japanese: Have you forgotten about the brothels that
flourished during the Vietnam War?
Society for the Dissemination of Historical Fact c
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THE TRUTH ABOUT THE “COMFORT WOMEN”
Moteki Hiromichi, CEO
Sekai Shuppan
Misguided activists
They argue that members of the Women’s Volunteer Labor Corps were forced to
become military prostitutes, which is total nonsense. They institute
lawsuits. They demand apologies. Every Wednesday they hold demonstrations.
And now they have outdone themselves by installing a statue of a young woman
in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul to symbolize Korean women whom
they allege were coerced into sexual slavery during World War II. Who are
these Koreans, and why do they continue to indulge in such shameless
behavior?
The claim that members of the Women’s Volunteer Labor Corps were military
prostitutes is worse than misguided; it is an outright lie. The two have
absolutely no connection with each other.
In accordance with the National Labor Mobilization Order issued in 1941, all
unmarried women between the ages of 14 and 25 were required to serve their
country by working in a factory or other production facility for a total of
30 days per year. An administrative order issued by a vice-minister in
September 1943, and intended to encourage women to help the war effort by
doing factory work, resulted in the formation of groups of volunteer female
workers (the Women’s Volunteer Labor Corps). In March 1944, with the
expansion of the program, the term of service was extended to one year. In
August 1944, with the issuance of the Women’s Volunteer Labor Ordinance,
industrial service became mandatory for women. The ordinance applied to
Korean women as well, but unlike in Japan proper, it elicited little
response, but the Government-General did not want to force the issue by
making women’s labor mandatory. When Korea was a tributary state of China,
women were sometimes offered to the Chinese as tribute; the Koreans
misunderstood the term “Women’s Volunteer Labor Corps,” thinking that
they were being asked to render sexual services. But most of the volunteer
work took place in nearby factories. It was very rare to assign Korean women
to factories in Japan proper. And the corps never had any connection with
military prostitutes, who worked in overseas war zones.
In fact, not one interview of a former military prostitute has revealed that
women who joined the Women’s Volunteer Labor Corps were then forced to
serve as prostitutes. An Byeong-jik, a former Seoul University professor,
supervised a research report based on interviews with former military
prostitutes (Testimonies, Part I: Korean Women Forced To Serve as Military
Prostitutes). According to that report, of 19 somewhat reliable testimonies,
only two of the women said that they were compelled to join the Women’s
Volunteer Labor Corps and taken to Busan, in one case, and Toyama, in the
other. Both allegations are dubious and, in any case, neither Busan nor
Toyama was a battle zone.1
1 Nishioka Tsutomu, Yoku wakaru ianfu mondai (Complete guide to the
“comfort women” issue) (Tokyo: Soshisha, 2007), p. 98; English title:
Behind the Comfort Women Controversy: How Lies Became Truth,
http://www.sdh-fact.com/CL02_1/39_S4.pdf , p. 41.
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Yoshida’s “confession” repudiated
One of the more prominent Korean organizations focusing on the “comfort
women” (the term often used to describe military prostitutes) issue is the
Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Sexual Slavery by Japan. (Its
English-language name is misleading and deceptive: a literal translation of
the original name is “Council on the Korean Volunteer Labor Corps
Question.”) The council’s founding principle is a bald-faced lie ? there
is no other way to put it ? and the behavior of its members is shameless and
shrill. It is destined to bring dishonor to the Koreans.
However, in examining source material relating to the comfort women, I have
had occasion to feel respect for the Korean people. One instance was my
reaction to a report entitled “Special Questions on Koreans,” which is
housed in the US National Archives (My subsequent search for the
English-language version was unsuccessful, but I believe that the document
is genuine.)2
This is what the three Korean prostitutes told the Americans: “All Korean
prostitutes working in the Pacific theater applied for that work of their
own free will, or were sold by their parents. If the women had truly been
abducted, Koreans, young and old, would have gone on a rampage and, heedless
of possible repercussions, killed the Japanese.”
This made perfect sense to me, as I know how proud the Korean people are. If
women had been abducted, there would have been riots.
Another instance is the hunt for prostitutes described by the infamous
Yoshida Seiji in My War Crimes.3 He claims that a “roundup” of potential
military prostitutes took place on Jeju Island. Heo Yeong-seon, a reporter
for the Jeju Ilbo, a daily newspaper, decided to investigate; she visited
the village where the abductions supposedly took place.
She spoke to Chon Ok-tan (85), a resident of Seongsan-li, who rejected
Yoshida’s story: “It’s not true. There are only a little over 250 houses
in this village. If an incident that serious, where 15 people were abducted,
had taken place, everyone would have heard about it. But no one did.”
Local historian Kim Bong-ok, infuriated by Yoshida’s lies, said: “It is a
totally immoral book that shows how corrupt the Japanese are.”
These seem to be very healthy responses from respectable Koreans.
Unfortunately, the article in the Jeju Ilbo was ignored in Korea. And
Koreans failed to react to Yoshida’s book, which maintains that the
Japanese treated Koreans brutally and unjustly, and that the latter neither
resisted nor protested. They might just well have said, “Our women were
abducted and taken away, and we, their miserable
2 “Composite Report on Three Korean Navy Civilians,” List No. 78, 28 March
1945. US National Archives.
3 Yoshida Seiji, Watakushi no senso hanzai: Chosenjin kyosei renko (My war
crimes: abduction of Koreans) (Tokyo: San’ichi Shobo, 1983).
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compatriots, offered no resistance.” I don’t think anyone would blame me
for asking, “Where is your pride as Koreans? You should be ashamed of
yourselves.”
“Strongman” Syngman Rhee silent on “comfort women”
How did this whole controversy begin? Not in Korea, but in Japan! The first
assertions that Korean women were coerced into serving as military
prostitutes were made not by Koreans, but by Japanese. The anti-Japanese
movement in Korea owes its existence to Koreans who were fooled by the lies
of a Japan-hating Japanese.
Prior to World War II, Japan never attempted to conceal or control
information about the existence of military prostitutes. In fact,
recruitment notices appeared in newspapers (see Fig. 2). Private brokers
made strenuous efforts to recruit them, for obvious reasons. At that time
prostitution was legal in Japan, just as it was in most of the world’s
nations. It was therefore not at all unusual to establish brothels in battle
zones. That is why Korea’s leading newspapers carried advertisements
intended to attract women to work in those brothels. It is also common
knowledge that a large number of Korean women worked in war zones as
military prostitutes.
Fig. 1: Source material released by the Korean government in an attempt to
demonstrate that Korean women were coerced into serving as comfort women;
strangely enough, it includes newspaper advertisements for comfort women
(see Fig. 2)
Fig. 2: Advertisements for comfort women in Seoul newspapers stating that
remuneration is \300 per month, and that advances of up to \3,000 may be
granted; (left)
Keijo Nippo (July 26, 1944) and (right) Mainichi Shimbun (October 27, 1944)
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After Japan was defeated in World War II, Korean President Syngman Rhee
implemented uncompromising anti-Japanese policies, making demand after
demand, including reparations for having impressed Koreans into the labor
force. But he did not insist that reparations be paid to military
prostitutes, because such a demand would exceed the bounds of common sense.
Rhee certainly knew about military prostitutes and the high wages they
commanded. Everyone knew.
It is common knowledge that Koreans residing in Japan at the end of the war
claimed, preposterously, that they were citizens of a victor nation and
should be treated as such. There were many Koreans holding high-ranking
positions in the JCP (Japanese Communist Party), among them Kim Cheon-hae,
who voiced strenuous demands relating to the rights of Koreans residing in
Japan. However, no one referred to requisitioned labor as “forced labor.”
No demands for reparations or accusations that prostitutes were coerced were
forthcoming, precisely because they would have had no basis.
Immediately after World War II, when memories of the time previous to the
conflict were still vivid, no one made up stories about how women had been
compelled to serve as prostitutes. It wasn’t until memories had begun to
fade, in the 1970s, that journalist Senda Kako wrote a book entitled
Military Comfort Women. In it he used language (“military comfort women,”
for instance) that didn’t even exist before or during the war, and is also
misleading. For instance, “military comfort women” gives the impression
that the prostitutes were attached to a military unit, like military
correspondents were, but this was not at all the case. Nevertheless, many
left-wing human rights activists embraced what Senda wrote as though it were
the truth.4 Then Aoyagi Atsuko and Takagi Ken’ichi (a lawyer) entered the
scene; they went to Korea, where they encouraged former military prostitutes
to institute lawsuits. They were not
responding to Korean demands for redress. It was not Koreans, but left-wing
Japanese human rights activists who launched a “comfort women campaign”
founded on lies.
Yoshida: fabulist of the century
When the lies about women having been coerced to serve as military
prostitutes began to spread, Yoshida Seiji burst onto the scene with his
earth-shaking confession.
The year was 1983, and Yoshida’s published confession was entitled My War
Crimes: Abduction of Koreans. The author, who claims to have been head of
the Shimonoseki Branch Mobilization Department, which operated under the
oversight of the Yamaguchi Prefectural Labor Association, recalls receiving
an order from Western District Army Headquarters stating that 200 Korean
women from the Women’s Labor Volunteer Corps were to be mobilized as
military prostitutes. Yoshida then proceeds to describe how women were
rounded up on Jeju Island and elsewhere.
Those who weren’t aware of the facts (or rather, those who were convinced
that Japanese military personnel were evil personified), must have thought
that Yoshida’s realistically woven tale was true. Surely they felt new
anger at the unforgivable criminal acts he recounted.
4 Senda Kako, Jugun ianfu (Military comfort women) (Tokyo: Futabasha, 1973).
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The book had a tremendous impact. Asahi Shimbun and other publications of
its ilk were already entrenched in the conviction that Japanese soldiers
were wicked creatures. Those publications gave Yoshida’s book a tremendous
amount of coverage, primarily because he validated their own credo. It isn’t
difficult to understand why the many Diet representatives who
simple-mindedly believe that the Asahi Shimbun is the font of wisdom
believed Yoshida as well. So widespread had the myth of women coerced into
prostitution become that even a Foreign Ministry bureaucrat, when questioned
about the veracity of Yoshida’s claims, said “Why would an admitted
wrongdoer lie?” Nishioka Tsutomu felt compelled to include this comment in
his book.5
Yoshida Seiji didn’t stop with My War Crimes. He set out on an atonement
pilgrimage, travelling to Korea, where he prostrated himself and begged for
forgiveness!
But as I have already stated, everything he wrote or said was untrue. His
lies further entrenched Korean misconceptions, even inspiring the erection
of a statue commemorating the suffering of the “coerced comfort women,” an
act historic in its imbecility.
At long last Yoshida’s lies were exposed, and even the Asahi Shimbun and
television coverage of his book and adventures ceased. But I find it
unforgiveable that neither the Asahi Shimbun nor the television networks had
the decency to print or broadcast a retraction. That means that many
Japanese continue to harbor the notion, however vague, women really were
coerced into serving as military prostitutes, and by extension, that
Japanese military personnel must have been involved in other acts involving
compulsion and fraud.
Why did Yoshida Seiji go to the trouble of making up stories that
incriminated him, and then broadcast them to the world? Readers may wonder,
as did the Foreign Ministry bureaucrat, why someone would confess falsely.
But it is not difficult to arrive at an explanation.
It is righteous to condemn the evil Japanese military. It is categorically
righteous to expose evil deeds perpetrated by the Japanese military and to
denounce them. It may seem as though Yoshida is apologizing for having been
party to those evil deeds. But in actuality he becomes symbolic of the
Japanese military; when he confesses to his sins and prostrates himself, he
enters the realm of absolute righteousness. And one might add that it is
permissible to lie to attain absolute righteousness.
We should be mindful that, to use the language of Lenin, the notion that the
end justifies the means is coursing through leftist minds.
And he calls himself a lawyer!
The term “sex slave” is now in widespread use all over the world,
particularly in the context of military prostitutes who serviced Japanese
soldiers. For this we have Totsuka Etsuro, a Japanese attorney, to thank.
Totsuka represents International
5 Nishioka, op. cit., p. 59; English translation at
http://www.sdh-fact.com/CL02_1/39_S4.pdf , p.25.
Fig. 3: Article in Mainichi Shimbun (May 12, 1992 edition) about former
military prostitute Mun Ok-ju, who accumulated \26,145 in savings; headlines
read “Records of military savings account found”; “Right to claim has not
expired. Give me my money!”
Education Development (IED), a Japanese NGO. Sex slaves is the term he used
in his relentless petitions to the UNCHR (UN Commission on Human Rights) for
the opportunity to address the comfort women issue. It is indeed unfortunate
that the UNHCR adopted Totsuka’s terminology.
According to left-wing doctrine, lying is a permissible means to an end. To
achieve righteousness (condemning the Japanese military as evil), it is
perfectly all right to lie.
We can forgive the world outside Japan for being unfamiliar with military
prostitution and how it works. But here we have a Japanese lawyer who is
convinced that the
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military prostitutes visited by Japanese soldiers were sex slaves. How can
someone be so ill informed and ignorant?
“Comfort women” is a term often used to describe military prostitutes who
worked in overseas war zones where the Japanese fought. How could Totsuka
not know that? It is hard to imagine how someone so ignorant could manage to
exercise the legal profession.
An article in the Mainichi Shimbun (Fig. 3) dated May 12, 1992 states that
Mun Ok-ju, a former military prostitute who worked in Burma, once visited
the Shimonoseki Post Office to claim funds she had deposited in her postal
savings account during her term of service (two years and six months). Ms.
Mun had accumulated a balance of \26,145! Since it is unlikely that she
deposited all the money she earned, she may have been making as much as
\1,000 per month. This was in an era when an Army officer earned a monthly
salary of \70 (or at the maximum, \90, if one includes a combat allowance).
Ms. Mun must have been paid more than 10 times that, or 40 or 50 times the
salary of a rank-and-file soldier.
Does Totsuka Etsuro really think women with such high earnings were sex
slaves? Whatever the case, \26,000 would have bought Ms. Mun 10 houses in
her native land. Does Totsuka not know that women from poor families were
willing to take risks and face danger when a great deal of money was at
stake?
It would seem that Totsuka Etsuro, in petitioning the UNCHR on behalf of
“sex slaves,” was guilty of a crime of conscience motivated by leftist
ideology. Perhaps that was not the case, but his behavior was certainly
shameful.
Mike Honda and the US Congress
By adopting the term “sex slaves,” the UNHCR perpetuated the grossly
mistaken notion that the Japanese forced women into prostitution.
Furthermore, the words have such a powerful impact that they robbed
listeners or readers of their reasoning power, and caused outrage to
multiply exponentially.
Totsuka and other Japanese left-wing human rights activists, as well as
like-minded anti-Japanese Koreans, shared their views about military
prostitutes with American left-wing human rights activists. Consequently, in
2006 a resolution condemning Japan was brought before the House Committee on
International Relations, which passed it; however, it did not go further
that that.
The Society for the Dissemination of Historical Fact sent messages
protesting the injustice of the resolution via facsimile to all 435 members
of the US House of Representatives. Nevertheless, Rep. Mike Honda submitted
another, similar resolution in 2008. We sent a list of open questions to
Honda, which explained, in great detail, exactly why the resolution was
unjust. We sent copies of those questions to Rep. Tom Lantos, chairman of
the House Committee on Foreign Affairs (the new name of the House Committee
on International Relations), and to the other committee members.
In those open questions we placed particular emphasis on an official US
document emanating from the US Office of War Information, Psychological
Warfare Team attached to the US Army Forces, India-Burma Theater. The
document states that
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“‘comfort girls’ are nothing more than a prostitute or professional
‘camp follower,’” and that the that “the girls’ average total monthly
earnings were 1,500 yen, and 750 yen went to their master.”
This is a very reliable document, based on interviews of prisoners of war
conducted by US military personnel. The comfort women were not coerced, and
they were paid very well for their services. The document thoroughly
repudiates the claims about sex slaves stated in the resolution.
Incidentally, Japanese Army sergeants at the time were paid \30 per month;
therefore, the prostitutes made 25 times what they did.
This document alone negates the portion of the resolution that reads as
follows:
Whereas the ‘comfort women’ system of forced military prostitution by the
Government of Japan, considered unprecedented in its cruelty and magnitude,
included gang rape, forced abortions, humiliation, and sexual violence
resulting in mutilation, death, or eventual suicide in one of the largest
cases of human trafficking in the 20th century;6
This notwithstanding, our open questions and protests were ignored. We even
wrote to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, asking her to review the facts
carefully before voting on the resolution. This appeal too was ignored, and
the US House of Representatives passed a resolution based on lies, and thus
unparalleled in history.
Mike Honda and the US Congress must be made to understand that they passed a
criminally fallacious resolution.
How the US military procured prostitutes
Throughout history all the world’s nations have formulated policies
designed to respond to the sexual needs of their soldiers stationed
overseas, in accordance with domestic laws governing prostitution. In Japan
prostitution was legal; therefore, brothels were established in war zones
and run as businesses.
Since prostitution was not legal in the US, prostitutes were procured
locally. There is no need to go back 70 years to learn what the situation
was. In her best-selling Against Our Will: Men, Women and Rape, Susan
Brownmiller describes the situation in Vietnam 50 years ago, and the
behavior of American GIs.
Military brothels on Army base camps (“Sin Cities,” “Disneylands” or
“boom-boom parlors”) were built by decision of a division commander, a
two-star general, and were under the direct operational control of a brigade
commander with the rank of colonel. Clearly, Army brothels in Vietnam
existed by the grace of Army Chief of Staff William C. Westmoreland, the
United States Embassy in Saigon, and the Pentagon.7
Americans seem to believe that their soldiers are innocents who would never
6 http://www.thomas.gov/home/gpoxmlc110/hr121_ih.xml .
7 Susan Brownmiller, Against Our Will: Men, Women and Rape (New York: Simon
& Schuster, 1975), p. 95.
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Fig. 4: Articles from Dong-a Ilbo dated January 31, 1961 (left) and
September 14 of the same year (right) about Korean government establishing
brothels for American GIs
patronize a prostitute, but they are in for a huge surprise. They are still
doing what Japanese military personnel were doing during World War II. The
only difference is how the prostitutes were hired (domestically or locally).
And what were American GIs doing in Korea? Articles appearing in Dong-a
Ilbo, one of Korea’s leading dailies, on January 31 and September 14, 1961
(Fig. 4) answer the question.
The January 31 article describes a training course for 800 prostitutes
conducted by US Army officers and Korean police. Taking strict precautions
to prevent the spread of venereal disease was the main focus of the program.
The September 14 article states that the police in Seoul had asked municipal
authorities to oversee the registration of prostitutes who serviced United
Nations Command soldiers, again in an attempt to prevent the spread of
venereal disease.
Therefore, we know that American military personnel procured prostitutes
locally, with the cooperation of the Korean government. Americans have no
business condemning Japan. But more important, I recommend that Koreans and
their government, if they object so much to the procurement of military
prostitutes, focus their wrath not on events that occurred nearly a century
ago, but something much more recent and much closer to home.
Kono Yohei owes Japan an apology
As already stated, the Japanese government did not coerce Korean women into
serving as military prostitutes. Nor was it necessary to do so, given the
laws and mores of that era. Interviews of former military prostitutes have
failed to prove otherwise.
But one Japanese politician issued a statement that pandered to demands from
the Korean government. On August 4, 1993, Chief Cabinet Secretary Kono Yohei
issued what is now known as the Kono Statement. In it he conceded that women
were indeed coerced into serving as military prostitutes in some cases, for
which he apologized. Kono was admitting to coercion “in a broad sense,” an
extremely bizarre turn of phrase. His words were exceedingly ill-chosen,
since they implied that every unfortunate
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event in society can be blamed on “coercion by the authorities” (the women
came from poor families). Furthermore, as a result of his statement, the
idea that the Japanese forced women to serve as military prostitutes,
turning them into sex slaves, and mistreated them, soon spread all over the
world.
The Kono Statement was issued even though Deputy Cabinet Secretary Ishihara
Nobuo had said that an examination of all research resources, including
interviews with former comfort women, had revealed no proof of coercion.
Then what motivated Kono to issue the statement, with its “broad sense”
excuse?
My guess is that that Kono is a victim of the Tokyo Trials mindset, meaning
that he is convinced that the Japanese military committed atrocities during
World War II. Consequently, he felt that he should apologize because,
despite the fact that there was no conclusive proof of those evil deeds,
Japanese soldiers must have committed crimes. The media, including Asahi
Shimbun, had devoted an inordinate amount of time and space to Yoshida Seiji’s comfort women hunt tales. But they never issued a retraction, even after
they discovered he had been lying, probably because in the back of their
minds was the thought that there really had been coercion, somewhere,
somehow. And the government must have issued the criminal statement for the
same reason, because they thought it was the right thing to do.
The ignorance and the masochistic perception of Japanese history that arise
from laziness, which prevented him from doing a careful investigation into
the facts, makes Kono Yohei guilty of crimes against Japan. He should
apologize for the statement he made. If he has a conscience, that is.
Fraud with international repercussions
The first attempt at government regulation of prostitutes was made in Paris
in 1798. Not long thereafter Great Britain enacted a law designed to prevent
the spread of venereal disease, which was to be administered by military
authorities (British colonial policy involved dispatching a great number of
soldiers to foreign outposts).
By the mid-1850s the concept of the oversight of venereal disease had been
introduced to Japan from Great Britain and other European nations. Japan
made genuine efforts to regulate prostitution and manage venereal disease in
both the civilian and military populations.
The Relationship Between ‘Comfort Women’ and Medical Treatment, written by
Amako Kuni and Aso Tetsuo, traces the history of prostitution in the modern
era, as well as attempts to prevent the spread of venereal disease. It also
describes efforts made by the Japanese military along those lines in detail.
Dr. Aso writes about his experiences as an army physician and his efforts to
prevent venereal disease and to improve methods of combating it. The book
also includes an essay he wrote entitled “Assertive Venereal Prophylaxis,”
which contains Dr. Aso’s descriptions of methods used to fight venereal
disease in France, Germany, Italy, Great Britain, the
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US and the Soviet Union. It turns out that the Japanese were more
conscientious than other nations in waging war with these diseases. Any
claims that the Japanese rounded up and abused “sex slaves” are utter
nonsense.
Once their coercion argument is thoroughly discredited, human rights
activists will broach the charge that prostitution should be regarded as the
abuse of women, and attempt to continue with their condemnation of the
Japanese military.
But prostitution and military prostitution have been practiced all over the
world since ancient times. Singling out the Japanese military as a horrible
example would be nothing less than discriminatory. If they truly care about
women’s rights, as they claim to, these activists should focus not on the
past, but on the present, since prostitution exists all over the world, as
does military prostitution.
Furthermore, if their protest is against women whose rights were violated
because they suffered in a battle zone, they should not limit their
attention to the comfort women. People of any occupation may be subject to
unfair treatment, and may suffer in many ways in a battle zone. It is hard
to see the point in dredging up events that allegedly transpired 70 years
ago. Former comfort women’s statements are likely to be unreliable, or even
contrived. One cannot help but conclude that there is a hidden, ulterior
motive to their demanding reparations and apologies from Japan on the basis
of groundless accusations.
Now that the “coercion” accusation has been discredited, one would think
that the comfort women issue would be laid to rest. But then someone
mentions “coercion in the broad sense,” which encourages human rights
activists to continue their railing about the comfort women issue. The only
conclusion possible is that they are hell-bent on vilifying Japan, even
today, by branding the Japanese military as evil incarnate.
The Japanese did not force anyone into sexual slavery. Accusing them of
having done so and calling them the worst violators of human rights in
history does nothing to protect anyone’s human rights. The only outcome is
the sullying of Japan’s national honor. Those who brandish the human rights
banner in this particular case are committing unconscionable, international
fraud.
(This essay originally appeared in the January 2012 issue of Rekishi tsu
(The History Enthusiast), published by WAC Magazines Co., Ltd.)
Moteki Hiromichi was born in Tokyo in 1941. After graduating from Tokyo
University with a degree in economics, he worked for Fuji Electric and the
International Wool Secretariat. In 1990 he established Sekai Shuppan, a
publishing company. The company launched Mangajin, a monthly bilingual
magazine for students of the Japanese language and culture. Mr. Moteki is
secretary-general of the Society for the Dissemination of Historical Fact.