It seems every time some reporter wants to make some point about Japanese historical revisionism they drag out this guy:
A monument to comfort women was erected outside the Japanese embassy in Seoul in 2011
Seventy years after the end of World War Two, the voices of revisionism in Japan are growing stronger and moving into the mainstream, particularly on the issue of comfort women, who were women forced to be sex slaves for Japanese soldiers during the war.
One of the most eloquent voices of revisionism is Toshio Tamogami.
Mr Tamogami is well-educated, knowledgeable and, when I meet him, exquisitely polite. The former chief of staff of Japan’s air force believes in a version of Japanese history that is deeply at odds with much of the rest of the world.
But it is increasingly popular among young Japanese, tired of being told they must keep apologising to China and Korea.
Last year Mr Tamogami ran for governor of Tokyo. He came fourth, with 600,000 votes. Most strikingly, among young voters aged 20 to 30 he got nearly a quarter of the votes cast.
“As a defeated nation we only teach the history forced on us by the victors,” he says. “To be an independent nation again we must move away from the history imposed on us. We should take back our true history that we can be proud of.”
In this “true” history of the 20th Century that Mr Tamogami talks of, Japan was not the aggressor, but the liberator. Japanese soldiers fought valiantly to expel the hated white imperialists who had subjugated Asian peoples for 200 years.
It is a proud history, where Japan, alone in Asia, was capable of taking on and defeating the European oppressors. It is also a version of history that has no room for the Japanese committing atrocities against fellow Asians.
Mr Tamogami believes that Japan did not invade the Korean Peninsula, but rather “invested in Korea and also in Taiwan and Manchuria”.
I ask him about the invasion of China in 1937 and the massacre of civilians in the capital Nanjing. Surely that was naked aggression?
“I can declare that there was no Nanjing Massacre,” he says, claiming there were “no eyewitnesses” of Japanese soldiers slaughtering Chinese civilians.
It is when I ask him about the issue of Korean comfort women that Mr Tamogami’s denials are most indignant.
He declares it “another fabrication”, saying: “If this is true, how many soldiers had to be mobilised to forcibly drag those women away? And those Korean men were just watching their women taken away by force? Were Korean men all cowards?” [BBC via Reddit Korea]
You can read the rest at the link.
First of all in regards to the question of whether Japanese men are cowards, scholars who have looked at the comfort women issue would tell you that most of the women put into the comfort women system were sold by Korean brokers. So Korean men weren’t cowards they were salesmen. Actually kidnapping of Korean women by Japanese soldiers would be a very rare occurrence when the broker system made so many of these women readily available. Women that were kidnapped were likely by Korean brokers. This does not absolve the Imperial Japanese from responsibility since they ran the comfort woman system, but it provides context of what was going on at the time. Likewise this same system was in place to service the US military where women were being sold, often by their families, to become camptown prostitutes.
Secondly I am well aware of Japanese historical revisionism since I have been to the Yushukan Museum which promotes the Asian liberation narrative of people like Tamogami. However, instead of bringing this guy up as a source to confirm pre-conceived narrative, I would like to see a journalist conduct a national poll and see how many Japanese actually believe this narrative? I am willing to bet that a strong majority of the Japanese public believes that what happened during World War II was not liberation and Imperial Japan was in the wrong. At the same time many of them probably believe that the World War II history issue is being exaggerated for political reasons which is what allows voices like Tamogami to have the following that he does have.
Below is an account from a former Japanese pilot during World War II who discusses his love for Korean “comfort woman” while stationed in New Guinea. What I find interesting about the account is that this account sounds just like the love many US soldiers had with juicy girls in modern times:
Lt. Tsunoda (1918–2013) was a fighter pilot in the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II. On Aug. 14, 1945 he was ordered to sortie in a Kamikaze suicide squad. When he was about to take off the next day the suicide squad was told to wait on the ground. When they were informed Japan had surrendered, the warriors shed tears on the tarmac not knowing if they were for joy of survival or mortification.
He wrote his memoir, “The Wings in Pandemonium” in which the old soldier reflected on his blooming love for a Korean girl, a member of the “Women’s Volunteer Corps,” at Rabaul in Papua New Guinea. This love story blossomed in the pandemonium of the battle field.
“After having suffered from the pains of gunshot wounds at the base hospital, I was finally able to stand up when two of my fellow pilots rushed into the room; “You’ve got to come with us! Wakamaru (her Korean name was Kim) refuses to accept other soldiers. She believes you were killed in action and refuses to eat.” The guys carried me to the comfort station. “Hey, Tsunoda is alive!” the boys shouted in the corridor and several girls peeped out of their rooms and clapped their hands. The boys dumped me in Wakamaru’s room. Her face was soiled by tears and uncombed hair. She bumped into me, cried out, “You are alive!” Her cheek and breasts were soft and a tinge of sweet woman’s scent hit me. She was beautiful. [Korea Times]
A congressional delegation led by U.S. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi met with Korean leaders including President Park Geun-hye on Thursday in Seoul, where they discussed regional and bilateral issues, particularly the outstanding historical issues between Korea and Japan.
The bipartisan congressional delegation arrived in Korea for a two-day trip, part of its five-nation Asia tour. The 10-member team included Democratic Reps. Charles Rangel and Sander Levin and Republican Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick.
During their meeting at the Blue House, President Park explained to the delegation the urgency of resolving the issues concerning Korea’s “comfort women,” a term used for the women Japan coerced into sexual slavery during World War II.
Park pointed out that the victims are now elderly – some reaching 90 years old – and that the clock was ticking, a Blue House official said.
Pelosi replied that the issues needed to be resolved for the sake of women’s rights, the official said.
Tokyo’s refusal to officially apologize for forcibly recruiting thousands of young women, mostly Koreans, into military brothels during World War II has long been a key point of contention between Seoul and Tokyo. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
You can read more at the link,but I wonder if these representatives know that the Japanese government has already apologized multiple times in regards to the comfort women issue. Here for example is the apology that Chief Cabinet Secretary Koichi Kato made back in 1992:
The Government again would like to express its sincere apology and remorse to all those who have suffered indescribable hardship as so-called “wartime comfort women”, irrespective of their nationality or place of birth. With profound remorse and determination that such a mistake must never be repeated, Japan will maintain its stance as a pacifist nation and will endeavor to build up new future-oriented relations with the Republic of Korea and with other countries and regions in Asia.
As I listen to many people, I feel truly grieved for this issue. By listening to the opinions of people from various directions, I would like to consider sincerely in what way we can express our feelings to those who suffered such hardship. [Ministry of Foreign Affairs Japan]
I wonder if this Congressional delegation knows that Abe already apologized over the comfort women issue all the way back in 2007 as well in Newsweek magazine:
Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Saturday expressed regrets that his country’s military forced women into sexual slavery during World War II.
The remark, made in an interview with a weekly U.S. news magazine on the eve of his visit to the United States, may have been aimed at mending fences. The premier has been criticized by many countries for claiming there is no evidence that the Japanese military took any part in the forced recruitment of the so-called comfort women to serve its troops who invaded Asian countries.
“As Japan’s prime minister, I’m extremely sorry that they were made to endure such pain,” Abe told Newsweek. The Japanese leader reiterated that his government respected and stood by a statement by former Chief Cabinet Minister Yohei Kono in 1993 that apologized for the Japanese military’s involvement in the use of women as sexual slaves.
There is no argument from me that Prime Minister Abe and some of the people around him have made insensitive comments in the past in regards to the comfort women, but they have maintained all prior apologies made by the government of Japan. Is the standard now that every Prime Minister in Japan has to apologize for World War II crimes when they take office? Even when they take office for a second time like Abe has after already making a prior apology? This is why the Japanese public I think has reached apology fatigue and support Abe on this issue. .
If the people criticizing Japan really cared about women’s right they would instead be directing their outrage towards China which currently maintains a modern day comfort woman system using North Korean refugees who are coerced into becoming prostitutes. Likewise if Abe was serious about resolving the comfort women issue he would make Japan into a champion of women’s rights by advocating for the North Korean refugees currently being used as a modern day comfort women. Instead 10 years from now the same people will probably still be arguing over who needs to apologize for what while the modern day comfort women system continues.
Washington said on Monday that there has been no change in U.S. policy, part of an attempt to rectify controversial remarks made by an American diplomat that seemed to position the United States with Japan on historical issues with its neighboring Asian countries.
On Monday, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf expressed surprise over how Seoul had interpreted comments made by Wendy Sherman, the undersecretary of state for political affairs.
“We were, frankly, a little surprised to see that some interpreted her remarks as being directed at any particular leader in the region,” she said.
On Friday, Sherman stated in an address at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington that, “It’s not hard for a political leader anywhere to earn cheap applause by vilifying a former enemy,” words that seemed to be directed at South Korean President Park Geun-hye or Chinese President Xi Jinping, though the Asian leaders were not specifically identified.
Sherman’s remarks, which appeared to trivialize sensitive historical issues, were met with strong backlash in Seoul over the weekend, namely her claim that Seoul and Beijing “have quarreled with Tokyo over so-called comfort women from World War II.”
“There are disagreements about the content of history books and even the names given to various bodies of water,” she continued, likely referring to the dispute over the name of the body of water between Korea and Japan, designated as the East Sea in Seoul and the Sea of Japan in Tokyo. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
You can read more at the link, but publicly calling out leaders like this is sure to backfire and entrench their positions. Something as sensitive as the comfort women issue I think requires more quiet back room diplomacy. The Chinese government is never going to stop using historical issues to drum up anti-Japanese sentiment to turn attention away from major domestic issues when needed. The South Korean government does this as well, the best example is when former President Lee Myung-bak was plagued by scandals so he took a trip to Dokdo to bash the Japanese and his poll numbers rose. However, if the Japanese right wing would stop making provocative statements in regards to this issue more traction in regards to reconciliation between Korea and Japan could happen.
Displayed in Beijing on Sept. 15, 2014, is the statue of a victim of Japan’s wartime sex slavery. The statue was made by the producer of a Chinese film on those who were forced to serve as sex slaves for front-line Japanese soldiers during World War II. Historians say more than 200,000 women, mostly Koreans, were forced to prostitute during the war. (Yonhap)
I think this is a perfect example of the lack of seriousness many people who advocate for the comfort women actually have towards this issue. Is it really appropriate to dress up, have a gala, and then smile and take pictures with a statue like that representing a horrific issue from World War II? If this girl got heavily criticized for smiling in photo she took while visiting Auschwitz what about these people? You would think that such a statue would be presented at an appropriate location in a solemn ceremony. Instead this appears to be another movie and promotion being pushed by the Chinese government to promote nationalism and anti-Japanese sentiment within the population.
Compared to the comfort women the women who used to work as prostitutes outside of US military bases definitely do not receive the same level of social support:
More than 70 aging women live in a squalid neighborhood between the rear gate of the U.S. Army garrison here and half a dozen seedy nightclubs. Near the front gate, glossy illustrations posted in real-estate offices show the dream homes that may one day replace their one-room shacks.
They once worked as prostitutes for American soldiers in this “camptown” near Camp Humphreys, and they’ve stayed because they have nowhere else to go. Now, the women are being forced out of the Anjeong-ri neighborhood by developers and landlords eager to build on prime real estate around the soon-to-be-expanded garrison.
“My landlord wants me to leave, but my legs hurt, I can’t walk, and South Korean real estate is too expensive,” says Cho Myung-ja, 75, a former prostitute who receives monthly court eviction notices at her home, which she has rarely left over the last five years because of leg pain.
“I feel like I’m suffocating,” she says.
Plagued by disease, poverty and stigma, the women have little to no support from the public or the government.
Their fate contrasts greatly with a group of Korean women forced into sexual slavery by Japanese troops during World War II. Those so-called “comfort women” receive government assistance under a special law, and large crowds demanding that Japan compensate and apologize to the women attend weekly rallies outside the Japanese Embassy.
While the camptown women get social welfare, there’s no similar law for special funds to help them, according to two Pyeongtaek city officials who refused to be named because of office rules. Many people in South Korea don’t even know about the camptown women. [Star & Stripes]
You can read the rest at the link, but what few people realize is that many of these former prostitutes were sold to pimps by their families and forced to become prostitutes. Other were abandoned children or orphans that were taken in by the pimps to become prostitutes. Could it be that the same thing was going on in regards to the World War II comfort women and thus the collective amnesia in regards to the former camptown prostitutes?
A performance is under way in front of a statue at a park of a public library in Glendale, California, on July 28, 2014, in memory of the victims of Japan’s sex slavery during World War II. The statue of a girl was built last year to mourn the victims. It is a replica of the one set up in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul. Despite Japan’s strong protest, the city government provided the land for the statue, which is designed to urge Japan to apologize and compensate the victims of the wartime sex slavery. Japan has so far refused to do so, while denying historic facts. Historians estimate that more than 200,000 Asian women, mostly Koreans, were forced to serve as sex slaves for front-line Japanese soldiers in the war. (Yonhap)
The Chosun Ilbo today has an editorial about a phone call placed between Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and US President George Bush. Here is what the reportedly discussed:
According to Japanese media reports, Abe said in the 20-minute phone call that he had apologized to women forced into sexual slavery during World War II and his remarks on the issue hadn’t been accurately conveyed.
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