Ruling party plans sex slave study (Japan World War II)

Japan's ruling party will conduct a new study on wartime sex slaves and the government will provide documents as needed, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said yesterday, rejecting a call from within his party for the government to commission the research.

Abe has stirred anger with remarks that appeared to question the state's role in forcing women to work in brothels during World War II, although he has also said a 1993 apology acknowledging coercion remained in effect.

"The party will conduct the research," Abe told reporters yesterday. "The government will cooperate as needed by providing materials."

Earlier, Abe was presented with a request for a new government investigation by a group of about 130 ruling party lawmakers whose members argue that the statement went too far in acknowledging coercion by the military and the government.

"For the sake of Japanese honor, and for the honor of those Japanese who sacrificed their lives, we should state the facts," said former Education Minister Nariaki Nakayama, who heads the group denying victims' accounts of being confined and beaten by Japanese soldiers at the brothels.

Reopening the question is likely to spark fresh outrage overseas ahead of an expected visit to Tokyo by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao in April and a trip by Abe to Washington later that month.

Abe said this week that he would not offer a new apology even if US lawmakers adopt a resolution calling for one.

A non-binding resolution introduced by US Congressman Michael Honda, a California Democrat, calls on Japan to unambiguously apologise for the suffering that thousands of Asian women endured at the hands of its Imperial Army.

Analysts say Abe's recent comments were intended to bolster support from conservatives. He has sought to distinguish between a "broad" notion of coercion which he has said may have occurred while rejecting kidnappings by military officers.

China and both Koreas have expressed outrage over his recent remarks and US media have also taken up the topic.

"Abe took office trying to improve relations with China and (South) Korea, but he has now torpedoed them by pandering to the Japanese right wing's most disgusting tendencies toward historical revisionism," the Los Angeles Times said in an editorial.

Western guilt syndrome?

Sex Slaves - Inhuman Sexual Crime

This military Sex Slaves is definitely the worst and only known war crime case of systematic mass violation of women rights against Humanity committed by a country in our modern History.

Nearly all of the 2.5 Million Japanese soldiers who surrended to the Allies in 1945 would have known about the Sex Slaves. However, after the war the Sex Slave issue quickly faded from public consciousness, and for years the issue received little attention.

On Feb 24 2001, in the Hague War Crimes Court, the International Tribunal has convicted the 3 Serb commanders in the Bosnian town of Foca in 1992 and 1993, where hundreds of women were abducted and sexually enslaved by Bosnian Serb soldiers. They received prison terms of 28, 20 and 12 years. The 3-judge panel ruled that Mass Rape is a crime against Humanity, the 2nd most serious category of international Crimes after Genocide.

In 1980s, the outcry of the former Sex Slaves started capturing the world wide attention, and slowly has gained the wide international support.

In 1988, Professor Yun Chung Ok of Ehwa Women's University in Korea began to lead an activist group that conducted and presented research about the Comfort Women.

In 1990, 37 women's groups in Korea formed the Voluntary Service Corps Problem Resolution Council and demanded apology and compensation from Japan.

In the beginning, Japanese Government refused to admit any involvement of the state, as illustrated by Japan's position stated in the house of councilor's Budget Committee Session of June 1990 that "Comfort Women" were recruited by private sector operators.

On 16 Jan. 1992, Japanese history professor Yoshiaki Yashimi of Chuo University unearthed 6 official war documents from the Library of the National Institute for Defense Studies in Tokyo confirmed the involvement of Japanese military authorities in both establishing and operating the comfort stations..

The unrefutable proof forced the Japanese Government to acknowledge the involvement and issued an apology but continues to deny by saying that the women were not forcibly recruited.

Humiliated and ashamed, Sex Slave survivors remained silent for decades before finally speaking out in the early 1990s in response to persistent denials by Japan of its involvement.

August 1991, Kim Hak Sun became the first Korean woman to give public testimony to her life as a Sex Slave. She was one of the 3 Korean former Sex Slaves women filed the first lawsuit against the Japanese government in Dec. 1991. Her lawsuit had attracted worldwide attention. Similar lawsuits followed by South Korea women had finally shed some light to the worst case "Rape Camps" against women's human rights in this century.

Japan did not even admit to the Sexual Salvery until 1993.

Japanese military also in cooperation with the Japanese organized criminal organization Yakuza, ran thousands of brothels for Japanese soldiers, kidnapping and forcing hundreds of thousands of women into "Comfort Women" - Sex Slaves.

Using the Sex Slaves, Japanese Army extorted large sums of money from the women's families in exchange for their Sex Slavery.

The Japan's first wartime "Facility for Sexual Comfort" was opened in Nanjing, China in 1938.

Hundreds of thousands Chinese, Taiwanese, Korean, Filipina, Malaysian, Dutch, East Timorese women were forced into Sex Slavery. In Shanghai alone, the Japanese military set up 90 sex stations, with about 500 women serving soldiers at each station.

Research has shown that the previous estimated 200,000 by U.N. did not take into account of China, because China came into the research picture much later than its Asian neighbors. In Shanghai alone, the Japanese military set up 90 sex stations, with about 500 women serving soldiers at each station.

The total actual number of Sex Slaves could be close to 400,000.

Despite the widespread prevalence of what was essentially institutionalized Rape, the issue of Sex Slaves was ignored by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, set up after the WWII to prosecute Japan's war criminals.

Kim Yoon Shim, a former Sex Slave, now 69 years old, told the cast of Hanako that she was 13 years old when she was abducted by Japanese outside her village in Cholla province. She said it was common for young women to have to offer sexual services 20 to 50 times a day. Many tried to commit suicide; others attempted escape.

During a rainstorm, Kim tried to flee. She sought refuge in a house - only to discover it was occupied by Japanese soldiers. "I was beaten up and tortured," she recounted. "My feet were broken and my spine cracked. They hung me upside down, poured water in my nostrils and stuck pins in me."

As a result of the torture, Kim's hearing is permanently damaged. When she was later reunited with her family, she said her mother suggested that it might have been better if she had died rather than survive with "that kind of past".

Kim's past followed her into her future. She was abandoned by her first husband because she could not have children. She underwent surgery in an attempt to repair the damage to her body. When she married a second time, she gave birth to a daughter with serious handicaps. Gonorrhea and syphilis contracted from Japanese soldiers had been passed to her baby. "To this day, my daughter cannot hear or talk," Kim said. "She doesn't know what happened to me."

In Filippine, Sex Slaves are known as the "Lolas", the Grandmothers. When "Lola Nenita" resisted the first assault, she was severely beaten. During their "rest periods" the women had to cook and do the laundry for their captors -- but they were never allowed to talk. They escaped when the Americans came and "Lola Nenita" returned home only to be thrown out by her husband and ostracized by relatives. She had brought dishonor to the family. Her children were forbidden from calling her Mother.

Many Sex Slaves became sterile from the repeated rapes. Women who became pregnant or infected with a sexually transmitted disease were given a shot of the antibiotic terramycin, which the women referred to as "Number 606", the drug made the women's bodies swell up and would usually induce an abortion." If a girl did get pregnant, soldiers would occasionally sit on the girl’s stomach until the unborn baby came out, then they would kill the baby. The girl who had just given birth was not allowed a recovery period, and she was forced to have sex again right away. If a girl became too ill, a guard would wrap her up in a blanket and carry her away. Kim Yoon-shim, a former comfort woman reported, " I did not see any of the sick girls ever come back.”

Lee Ok Soon, now 76, still suffers from the Sexual Slavery of her teens, "My two sisters feel quite ashamed of me and say that it was all my fault. They won’t visit me at all." Although Lee married later, but she never revealed her past to her husband for fear of rejection, "I got so many injections of 606 that I was unable to have children ..... He didn’t know." she explained.

Jang Jomdol, 83, gave the tearful testimony, "It's so shameful just to think of what had happened to me when I was young serving as a Sex Slave of the colonial Japanese troops. It makes me sick," She said, "At first I felt so ashamed of my humiliating experiences I couldn't come out. It was really agonizing to bring myself up to tell the truth, but I finally decided to let the world know what really happened, contrary to the continued denial of this truth by the Japanese authorities."

She was abducted in 1938 at age 16 and forced to be Sex Slave of 40 to 50 Japanese soldiers daily on average for almost 2 years with repeated pregnancies and miscarriages alternately. She made several futile escape attempts, each time ending in beatings until she fell into unconsciousness. She saw 2 of her Sex Slave friends commit suicide and the memory haunts her even these days. "I won't be able to close my eyes even at my deathbed, unless I hear Japan apologize for its barbarism." she emphasized.

University of Victoria Japanese history professor John Price says that After the war, the Japanese Army went to great lengths to cover up its connection to the Sex Slaves. Thousands of them were killed by the fleeing Imperial soldiers.

Of the approx. 400,000 Sex Slaves, only fraction lived through the ordeal and just about 500 are believed alive today. They were forced to serve up to 40 men a day.

No one knows the true figure.

Most have concealed their past, considering it too shameful.

In Feb. 1992, the "Comfort Women" issue was first taken up at the U.N. by attorney Etsuro Totsuka at the commission of Human Rights adopted a resolution criticizing all form of violence against women in war situation.

In Nov. 1992, the International Commission of Jurists recommended that the Japanese Government should pay state compensation of US $20,000 to each of the victims for their physical and emotional damages.

The Japanese Government insisted that the recommendation from U.N. do not imply any legal binding, therefore, Japan has no obligation to comply with them.

In Aug. 1994, Japanese Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama annonunced a project for "Peace and Friendship Exchanges" tried to solve this issue. The proposal was criticized both at home and aboard that Japan is not taking its responsibility of state compensation to the victims.

In July. 1995, Japanese government established a private sector fund called "Asian Women's Fund" (AWF) tried to settle the "Comfort Women" issue privately. However, the fund has been rejected by most of the victims of military sex slavery by Japan and their support groups.

Victims strongly opposed the "Asian Women Fund" because the private fund covers up the war crime of Japanese government and the systematic sexual violence again women committed by a country.

Most victims have refused it and say, "We want no charity, but dignity".

On Jan. 4 1996, the U.N. Human Rights Commission released an official report, submitted by the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women by Radhika Coomaraswamy, on the wartime Sex Slavery, report by International Commision of Jurists, Geneva Comfort Women : An Unfinished Ordeal, and also another report by Special Rapporteur Ms. Gay J. McDougall in 1998 : Systematic Rape, Sexual Slavery and Slavery-like practices during armed conflict.

The reports are founded on years investigation and recommends that Japanese government should assume state responsibility and

1. Acknowledge its violation of international law.
2. Make a public apology in writing to individual women.
3. Pay compensation to individual women.
4. Amending educational curricula to reflect true historical realities.
5. Full disclosure of related documents
6. Identify and punish, as far as possible, involved perpetrators

In April 1996, the delegate to U.N. from China, for the first time, stated that Japan should pay state compensation to the victims of Sex Slavery by Japan during WWII.

With the financial support from Japanese government, the AWF has been actively exploring its canvassing, large scale advertisement and disunited activities in victimized countries.

In Aug. 1996, 5 Filipino victims became the first group to receive 2 million yen each from AWF, together with a letter from Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto. However, the 5 Filipino victims refused the letter and declared that they will continue their fight to demand official apology and compensation because the money from the private fund was not meant as a redress because Japanese government had not made state compensation.

To encourage victims to accept the "offer of atonement", Japanese government decided in Jan. 1997, to pay out extra money to be used for medical care and welfare through the AWF. Still, most victims have rejected the offer and only few accepted.

But how can one put a dollar amount on a war crime that stigmatised an estimated 400,000 women ? Lured by false promises of employment or violently abducted from their homes in the Phillipines, East Timor, Malaysia, Taiwan, Burma, China, Indonesia, and especially North and South Korea, these women were forced under threat of death to stay in so-called "Comfort Stations" across Asia.

In Sept. 1997, Taipei Women's Rescue Foundation in Taiwan held an unprecedented fund raising with the support of a famous Taiwanese historian and writer Lee Auh. It successfully raised and distributed 500,000 NT (2 million yen) each to 42 victims going against AWF. In Dec. 1997, Taiwan government matched the fund and distributed another 2 million yen each to all victims rejecting AWF.

In May 1998, South Korea paid 34.5 million won (about 3.5 million yen) to 12 victims. In May 8, 1998 the payment made by the Health and Welfare ministry, comprised 31.5 million won from state coffers and 3 million won from an additional 6.5 million won donated by non-government organizaiton. South Korea will continue making payments to the remaining victims through welfare section of Korean local government.

Japan has always denied any official approval of the brothels, arguing they were created by civilians. But according to a recently declassified US report from the National Archives obtained under the US Freedom of Information Act, issued by General Headquarters, Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers on Nov. 15, 1945, the 36-page report offers the most detailed account yet of how the Japanese military brothels were run.

According to the report, Sex Slaves were given room and board but had to split medical expenses for treating their sexually transmitted diseases with the brothel operators, and had to buy clothes and grooming out of a small stipend they were to have received. But the women, abducted or tricked into the brothels by agents for the Japanese government, never received any payment, former Sex Slaves told researchers.

The report is expected to assist human rights activists who have been fighting for reparations for the surviving Sex Slaves of what some scholars refer to as the "Pacific Holocaust".

Last year 2003, a list of Korean victims compulsorily mobilized by the Japanese imperialists was made public display in Seoul for the first time. The list of 413,407 people was the result of the efforts for 30 years of the Investigation Team on the Truth about Forced Korean Laborers in Japan, composed of Korean and Japanese scholars and researchers. Congresswoman Kim stressed, “The number of victims including forced laborers, those drafted for military service, sex slaves, is about 7.5 millions." About 15 % of visitors found their names on the list.

“I do not want money, but just a formal apology. Give back my youth.” said Hwang Gun Ju, now 81. When she was 20 years old, she was forced to be a Sex Slave for about 4 years. There were the names of 147 “Korean Sex Slaves” on the list. Their real names were withheld in consideration of their privacy. " Is the Japanese government waiting for us to die ? I will not die before I win the apology” she added.

"Some Japanese, unofficially, have spoken openly of what they term the "Biological Solution", said Christopher Simpson, an associate professor at American University studied the comfort women issue for years, "In other words, waiting until the women die."

In 1995 Kim Hak Sun, the first former Sex Slave to give public testimony, told the anthropologist that she thought the Japanese tactics would be to stall the legal proceedings until all the litigants were dead. Her words proved tragically prophetic. She died on December 16, 1997.

Her funeral procession was routed to pass in front of the Japanese Embassy, where it halted for a symbolic demonstration of her struggle against the Japanese Government.

15 Sex Slaves tell their story.

Oct. 2005 In a comprehensive report entitled " Still Waiting After 60 years: Justice for Survivors of Japan's Military Sexual Slavery System" by Amnesty International. the report outlines the brutal treatment suffered by Sex Slaves and the excuses given by Japan over the years to deny responsibility for their suffering, called on the Japanese government to accept full responsibility for Sexual Crimes.

The Japanese government has argued that Rape was not a war crime until 1949, when it was incorporated into the 4th Geneva Convention. Amnesty International argues in its report, that there is a wealth of evidence that Rape in the context of armed conflict was a crime under customary international law during the entire period in which the Japanese government operated its system of sexual slavery.

Of the 215 Korean survivors who registered with the Korean Council, only 122 are left.

Since 1992, Korean Sex Slaves have been demonstrating every Wednesday in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul, South Korea, calling for justice.

"Now you want a witness to my rape ? I am a witness. I am my own witness. I was the one Raped. I was the one ruined." said Lola Julia Porras, held captive in a tunnel in the Philippines and Raped by Japanese forces in 1942 when she was 13 years old.

In a statement on Sex Slaves during the 51st session of the U.N. Commission on Human Rights in 1996, Karen Parker said the following :

"Mr. Chairman, How much compensation do you think ought to be paid to a woman who was Raped 7,500 times ???

What would the members of the Commission want for their daughters if their daughters had been Raped even once ??

One victim recounted how she was kidnapped; she was placed in a cubicle, where her hands were tied behind her back, and her legs were spread and tied to posts. They lined themselves outside our cubicles and as soon as one of them had satisfied his sexual desires another would come and have his turn."

Japanese Government earned hundred of millions by forcing hundreds of thousands of girls and women into Sex Slaves as pay service to its soldiers.

U.N. Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, Karen Parker, confirmed victims’ testimonies, and added her findings during the 51st session of the U.N. Commission of Human Rights in 1996, Parker states,

"Our research shows that more than 50 % of the girls and women died as a direct result of the treatment they received"

"There was at least 100,000 Rapes per Day , arranged by the Japanese Government , and carried out by its soldiers , 100,000 Rapists per Day".

"Even assuming only 5 years of program, there were at least 125 Million Rapes , 125 Million Rapes against the women of Korea, Philippines, Burma, China, Taiwan, Indonesia, Netherlands."

Addressing at a public forum held in Tokyo in June, 1999, Ms. Gay J. an American international law specialist who issued a report endorsed at the 50th session of the U.N. Human Rights Subcommission on Aug. 21, 1998 : Systematic Rape, Sexual Slavery and Slavery-like practices during armed conflict, calling for Japan’s reparation to wartime Sex Slaves, denounced the Japanese military abuse of Asian women as “One of the most egregious examples of wartime systematic Rape and Sex Slavery in History.”

McDougall rebuffed Japanese argument and said, “Statute of Limitations are in-applicable to Slavery, Crimes against Humanity and other gross violations of customary international law."

Dec 1, 2004 Women's organisations from Asia, Europe and North America agreed to act together from next year, the 60th anniversary of WWII to made Abducted Sex Slaves By Japan To Become Global Issue In 2005. "We'll launch a million-signature campaign worldwide to demand an apology and compensation from the Japanese government," said Suda Kaori, a Japanese member of the Korea Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sex Slavery by Japan.

Aug 10, 2005 Women's groups rally across Asia, Manila, Seoul, Taipei, Tokyo, Osaka and other Japanese cities, urged Japan to apologize and compensate Sex Slaves. "Japan abducted me and forced me to become a Sex Slave," 76-year-old Korean Lee Yong-soo said, "The Japanese government should have come to my home and kneel down to apologize."

In Seoul, Kim Yun-ok said, " The Japanese soldiers enshrined at the Yasukuni Shrine are the very ones who Raped our grandmothers."

More than 86 % of the enshrined Japanese soldiers were from WWII. Private Tadokoro Kozo of the 114th division said in 1971 interview, " There wasn't . ANY . soldier who didn't Rape. After things were done, usually we killed them ..... We didn't want to leave any trouble behind ....."

Daughter EILEEN: It was a perfectly kept secret. There was some things that didn't make any sense - like, my mother always used to say, when it was her birthday or Mother's Day, and we'd say, "What do you want for a present?" And she'd say, "Just don't give me flowers. They're such a waste of money. Don't give me flowers." And we couldn't understand that. Everybody loves flowers. Every mother loves getting flowers.

Mother JAN: In 1992, 50 years on, I remember hearing on the news that the War in Bosnia had broken out, and women were being Raped. Then I saw on television the Korean comfort women. The South Korean comfort women were the first ones to speak out. And I watched them here in my living room. And they wanted justice and compensation and an apology, more than anything else. They wanted an apology from the Japanese government. And they weren't getting anywhere. They were getting nowhere. And I thought, I must back up these women. Now it's time to speak out...... But before I could do that, of course, I had to tell my family. I had to tell Eileen and Carol. You know, how can you tell your daughters ? The shame was still so great, you know. I knew I had to tell them, but I couldn't tell them face to face.

Daughter EILEEN: One day, my mother came up to my husband's shop and gave him an envelope and just mysteriously said, "Oh, give this to Eileen to read tonight." So I opened the envelope up, and there was two articles from Dutch newspapers with headlines about shocking revelations of Dutch women being used as Sex Slaves during the war. And I....I just couldn't associate...."Why have I been given this to read ? What is this about ? Why has my mother given me this ? And as I read the articles, I just got so angry inside. I can feel it now. Anger just surged up inside me. I could see there was also a large amount of hand written notes by my mother, which was, in fact, 30 pages.

Daughter EILEEN: And as it so turned out, it was exactly what I had feared. And all the time as I was reading, I was saying, "No! Not this! Not this!" And I was throwing the sheets of paper. And I can't believe the anger, because I'm not an angry person. Tears were just streaming down my face. I don't think I've ever cried so much in my whole life.

Daughter CAROL: What I really felt was horror, shock and horror, that these things could have happened to such a beautiful person as my mother.

Daughter EILEEN: All I'm thinking was, "No! Not my...No, this is not my mother. My mother is this beautiful...is this beautiful, strong person. Nobody could do that to her. That's not what's happened. That's not what I've heard. That's not...that's not the story of prison camp that I know."

More .........

However, in defiance to all Sex Slave victims, and the comprehensive report entitled "Still Waiting After 60 years: Justice for Survivors of Japan's Military Sexual Slavery System" compiled by the Amnesty International, and the Human Rights recommendations of Systematic Rape, Sexual Slavery by the United Nations which Japan is now applying for the permanent membership of U.N. Security Council, the

Japan's largest national newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun has called on its readers to celebrate the New History Textbooks of cutting out ALL mentions about the Sex Slaves.

Jun 13, 2005 Japan's Minister of Education and Culture, Nariaki Nakayama praised the recent deletion of Sex Slaves from History Textbooks.

Jul 12, 2005 Japanese Education Minister: "comfort women" have no place in Textbooks.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.