Thursday, June 7, 2012

Forgotten faces: Japan's comfort women By Kyung Lah, CNN

Ahn Sehong 安世鴻안세홍
http://edition.cnn.com/2012/06/05/world/asia/japan-comfort-women/index.html
Forgotten faces: Japan's comfort women
By Kyung Lah, CNN
June 6, 2012 -- Updated 0945 GMT (1745 HKT)












【米CNN】何故、ニコンは慰安婦写真展を中止したの?
Ignoring Japan's comfort women [CNN 6-05-2012]
(mochi thinking)
thank you for uploading the movie. i think US people and Ms.Kyung Lah discriminate against japanese... in the WW2,japanese army had bad war crime, we must analogize deeply. i had donated to foundation for comfort women, but why these women must keep to work as sexual slaves in Korean war 1951 or Mao Zedong's The Great Leap Forward in China??? you should think by your head..
CNN hides the fact,its not fault for Nikon. 安世鴻 photographer Ahn Sehong deceived and worked dirty business. Nikon provides the exhibition space by Free fee, in term of do NOT business,NOT political acting. but he asked people on his homepage, "i need 1283000 yen,$160000 to exhibit in Nikon!!" moreover he has some contravention of a law.

Photographer Ahn Sehong has taken a series of portraits of so-called "comfort women," Korean women who were forcibly taken from their country and used as sex slaves for Japanese soldiers during WWII.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Nikon cancels a photo exhibition by Ahn Sehong on Japan's comfort women in Tokyo
Photographer says he believes it demonstrates discrimination against the women
"Comfort women" is the term given to Korean women used as sex slaves by Japanese soldiers
Now in their 80s and 90s, the women are living their final years in poverty in rural China
Tokyo (CNN) -- Photographer Ahn Sehong walks into the Nikon building in Tokyo with his photos under his arm. They're pictures of elderly women, part of his exhibit that was scheduled to take place at the Nikon gallery. That is, until Nikon canceled it without explanation.
It's not the quality of his work that's the problem, says Sehong, but the content. Sehong's photographs are portraits of the Korean women known as comfort women, victims who were forcibly taken from Korea and used as sex slaves for Japanese soldiers during WWII.
Now 80 to 90 years old, they're the living but dwindling history of the decades-old war crimes. Some Japanese extremists believe the crimes against the comfort women never happened. Others would prefer to stop discussing Japan's ugly war history in modern times.
Sehong knocks on the door of the Nikon gallery manager's office. A middle-aged man opens the door. The gallery manager knows who Sehong is and asks him to wait. He closes the door.
"In the beginning I was angry and frustrated," says Sehong, referring to receiving the notice that his exhibit was canceled, as he waits outside the manager's door. "But this is not a matter of being angry. I believe there is a problem with the Japanese government. They're discriminating against the comfort women."
The letter Sehong received didn't state why the exhibition was canceled, and while Nikon told CNN that public complaints had been lodged before its planned opening, a representatives said that wasn't the reason the exhibition was pulled.
Sehong's pictures are emotional but don't appear to make a political statement about the Japanese. In one portrait, a woman appears to be crying. Her face is deeply lined, her back slouched with age, her hands spotted with freckles. The picture is black and white, carrying a timelessness that betrays the endless grief the woman carries. It is just one of dozens of portraits of the elderly, poverty-stricken Korean women, quietly living out their twilight years in rural China.


"The reason I do this work is for these grandmothers," says Ahn. "The government and some Japanese people just hope these women will die and history will be erased. It's not right."
Korean 'Comfort women' demand justice
Japan has a track record of downplaying its war crimes. Most recently, Japan's government says two delegations met with the mayor of Palisades Park, New Jersey, asking the city to remove a memorial dedicated to comfort women.
These grandmothers were forced into slavery 70 years ago. They lived and survived alone. Afterwards no one remembers them.
Ahn Sehong, photographer
The city says the Japanese officials offered cherry blossom trees if the city would take down the memorial, a small, unremarkable rock that has a single bronze etching on the side. The city says it refused the offer. Japan's government would not confirm it offered Palisades Park any gift in exchange for the removal of the memorial.
The move, widely reported through the Korean American community, reopened old wounds.
"They think it's an anti-Japanese monument, trying to attack Japan, but it's not," says Chejin Park, staff attorney for the Korean American Civic Empowerment, based in New York. "We don't want to repeat that kind of massive, government-organized human trafficking. The only way we can stop that kind of human rights violation is remembering that human rights violation. The best way to remember it is to have a memory of it."
Korean American activists say Japan needs to accept and properly acknowledge its war crimes instead of trying to eradicate its history. The Palisades Park effort backfired on Japan, says Park. "Their request was helpful for our movement. It's helping us to do more things for the comfort women issue. Many more communities now want to have memorials in their communities."
Japan's government has formally apologized on numerous occasions for the atrocities against the women. Japan helped establish the Asian Women's Fund in 1995, which is supported by government funds and provides assistance to comfort women. The AWF has received donations from Japanese people equaling US$7 million.
Japan has resisted direct payments to individual victims, leading to complaints among activists and victims that the country appears to be avoiding officially acknowledging its history.
The lack of direct reparations continues to support a culture of discrimination against the women, say activists. That's why Ahn believes Nikon could so easily cancel his photographic memorial to the women.
Nikon's gallery manager reappears out of his office and tells Ahn his exhibit remains canceled. He won't explain why.
Ahn is disappointed. He had hoped to teach young Japanese people about their history and challenge them to reconcile it.
"These grandmothers were forced into slavery 70 years ago," says Ahn. "They lived and survived alone. Afterwards, no one remembers them."
Ahn gathers his pictures and heads to the gallery's exit. "Will they be blown away in a bleak wind and dispersed and vanished to the back stage of history?"




greengo123
Korean prostitution examined in Australia
Joong Ang Ilbo
Apr 24,2012
Moon Gwang-lip
The Australian state with the largest Korean population in the country is currently investigating prostitution involving Korean women, according to a member of the state’s parliament.

Victor Michael Dominello, a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly, said that the investigation started at the request of the Korean multicultural committee he set up.

More than 1,000 Korean women are estimated to be involved in prostitution in Australia, a number that increased sharply in recent years, according to data from an Australian civic group. Some data say that about one-sixth of all women providing sex for money in Australia are Korean.

As the numbers grew, the prostitution issue emerged as a diplomatic concern between Korea and Australia.

looks koreans have never changed

Like Reply
Just now

jrl1234
I just hope they don't vote.

Like Reply
Just now in reply to northchi

jack_k1
I think Japan has done a much better job owning up to its war crimes than has the United States. It's easy to point fingers. It's much harder to look into the mirror.

Like Reply
2 minutes ago

breed11
America has war crimes?

Like
0 minutes ago in reply to jack_k1

northchi
This comments section is frightening. Our country truly is the home of the utterly stupid.

Like Reply
9 minutes ago 1 Like

biffJohnson
Quite a few Koreans around me area of the country, and the majority drive Japanese cars. It's very rare to spot one driving an American car. Sort of like all the Jews that drive around in German cars. Obviously, the average Korean doesn't dislike the Japanese, any more than the typical Jewish person dislikes the Germans.

Like Reply
9 minutes ago

esoteric1
funny how the Germans have embraced and faced the crimes the nazis committed during WWII and the japanese fight it to this day tooth and nail...like the chinese "medical research" lab that they tortured and murdered 1000sands and have still not owned up to it....japanese culture is built to a great degree on a facade of propriety and self control....great when a sunami hits...but bad when facing mistakes.

Like Reply
10 minutes ago

davedave11
It is amazing that any Germans or Japnaese were allowed to live after WWII. The Romans would have wipred them all out.

Like Reply
12 minutes ago 2 Likes

yappy00
Fortunately civilization has progressed just a little in the last 2000 years.

Well. For some of us, anyway.

Like
2 minutes ago in reply to davedave11

Rika33
Japanese committed heinous war crimes throughout Asia and the Pacific. They murdered, and tortured POWs, and civilians without any remorse. The only regret they have as a culture was that they lost. The culture did not change.

Like Reply
19 minutes ago 2 Likes

esoteric1
that is correct...if they had won they would not be the culture they are today...they would be just as brutal as they were in 1943

Like
8 minutes ago in reply to Rika33

northchi
So you speak for all Japanese? Shut up.

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12 minutes ago in reply to Rika33

greengo123
The best little whorehouse in New Haven
BY JIALU CHEN
CONTRIBUTING REPORTER
Friday, August 27, 2010

Two major activities of Asian organized crime networks are the trafficking of women from Korea into the United States and the operation of massage parlors that offer Korean prostitutes, according to “Modern-Day Comfort Women: The U.S. Military, Transnational Crime, and the Trafficking of Women,” an article published in the book, “International Sex Trafficking of Women & Children: Understanding the Global Epidemic.” The author, Donna Hughes of the University of Rhode Island, explain that these networks are usually able to re-open massage parlors within days or even weeks of police raids.

Like Reply
24 minutes ago

thinkpadfan
few more years - all the victims die off - let the new history begin - cheaper that way

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24 minutes ago

willie12345
The Japanese were heartless in their treatment of these poor women and their treatment of prisoners of war. When you add in the "Rape of Nanking", you see how terrible they really were.

Like Reply
57 minutes ago 3 Likes

ArmyVet83
Flyover,
If you think the US is so bad, I suggest you get out of your chair and travel the rest of the world. America may do and has done some less than honorable things but it's still the best hope of man.

You want to see insensitive treatment of others? Go to Afghanistan, Iran, North Korea, or pretty much anywhere outside of the US and Western Europe.

You live a soft, sheltered, naive life. Get over yourself and your self righteous moral superiority.

Like
7 minutes ago in reply to willie12345

northchi
We're torturing people who we don't even have the guts to label as POWs, and who haven't been proven guilty of anything, to this day at Gitmo. We have no moral high ground.

Like
10 minutes ago in reply to willie12345

Flyover099
Our treatment of German POWs (especially post war) was (way) less than honorable too. But, I suppose we won the war and we can continue our insensitive treatment of others to this very day.

Like
40 minutes ago in reply to willie12345 2 Likes

karek40
What happened is terrible fact and denying it is like denying the holocaust. Having said that - am I responsible for the sins of my father. Should I pay retribution or apologize to the women he had sex with and left (even if he forced them). The Japanese government should admit that their predecessors did wrong and move on (no apology, the current society did not do it). The other side of the coin is had the Japanese of won the war they would be a samurai type society and Korean women would still be serving as would the Japanese women.

Like Reply
57 minutes ago

Rika33
Typical of the Japanese culture - no accountabilty. That has not changed.

Like
17 minutes ago in reply to karek40 1 Like

LeftyRighty
The samurai type society had already been abandoned in the 19th century, I'm with you on everything you said, other than the last sentence which is nonsense.

Like
35 minutes ago in reply to karek40

Lord Jesus
All is fair in war and none of it is good.

Like Reply
1 hour ago 2 Likes

shin07
yes we could forgive if Japanese say sorry. If they don't, we can't. Because they don't know that was bad thing so they could do it again.

Like
39 minutes ago in reply to Lord Jesus

Flyover099
c4spdk - perhaps a little sunday school will provide the answer you seek.

Like
40 minutes ago in reply to Lord Jesus

c4spdk
Yes we want to as soon as they admit the guilt.
How do you forgive when they deny it?

Like
1 hour ago in reply to Lord Jesus

Flyover
And you are absolutely right, Jesus. And we must forgive and move on, too.

Like
1 hour ago in reply to Lord Jesus

huffpuffmost
Collapse
Sure Flyover. Like a Koala is "akin" to a Grizzly.

Like Reply
1 hour ago F


605 名前:<丶`∀´>(´・ω・`)(`ハ´  )さん[] 投稿日:2012/06/07(木) 21:51:05.90 ID:WKPtXUmF
CNNの慰安婦の記事が酷すぎる
http://edition.cnn.com/2012/06/05/world/asia/japan-comfort-women/index.html
内容が全然違う日本語版CNN
http://www.cnn.co.jp/world/30006874.html

忘れられてゆく過去――元慰安婦の東京の写真展が中止に
2012.06.07 Thu posted at: 09:44 JST



写真家の安世鴻さんは、旧日本軍の「慰安婦」だった朝鮮半島出身の女性たちを撮影した

女性たちは現在80~90代。戦後中国の農村部に残され、そこで人生を終えようとしている

新宿のギャラリーで予定されていた安さんの写真展は突然中止された

「政府や一部の日本人は、やがてこの人たちが死んで、歴史が消えることだけを願っている。それは間違っていると思う」と安さん

東京(CNN) 東京の新宿ニコンサロンで予定されていた写真展が、突然中止となった。

韓国人写真家の安世鴻さんが展示する予定だった作品のテーマは、旧日本軍の慰安婦だった女性たち。安さんは中止の理由を尋ねたが、説明を聞くことはできなかったという。

問題は作品のレベルではなく、その内容にあったのだろうと、安さんは話す。写真に登場する朝鮮半島出身の女性たちは、すでに80~90歳だ。

日本国内には慰安婦の存在を否定する意見や、戦争の暗い過去を振り返るのはもうやめようという意見もある。

安さんは写真展中止の通知を受け、責任者に会うためサロンを訪れた。面会を待つ間、安さんはCNNに「最初は怒りといらだちを感じた」と語り始めた。

「だが怒って済むことではない。日本の政府に問題があると、私は思う。慰安婦は差別されているのだ」

ニコン側はCNNに、写真展の計画には抗議の声が寄せられたと述べた。一方で、それは中止の理由ではないとしている。

http://www.cnn.co.jp/world/30006874-2.html


ホームワールド記事
忘れられてゆく過去――元慰安婦の東京の写真展が中止に - (2/2)
2012.06.07 Thu posted at: 09:44 JST

 日本政府は最近、米ニュージャージー州にある慰安婦の碑の撤去を要請。地元当局はこれを拒否した

韓国系米国人の活動団体は、日本は戦争で犯した罪を認めるべきだと主張する

日本政府は何度も謝罪し、元慰安婦を支援する基金も設置した

安さんはこの写真展を通し、日本の若者に歴史を教えたいと考えていた
安さんの写真には感情が込められているものの、政治的な主張が前面に出ているわけではない。

例えば、ある白黒写真の女性は泣いているように見える。深いしわが刻まれた顔、曲がった背中、しみだらけの手。戦後中国に残され、そこで静かに人生を終えようとしている貧しい元慰安婦の姿がそこにある。

「このおばあさんたちのために、私は撮影した。政府や一部の日本人は、やがてこの人たちが死んで、歴史が消えることだけを願っている。それは間違っていると思う」と、安さんは力を込める。

日本政府はこれまで何度も謝罪を繰り返してきた。慰安婦問題の解決を目的に1995年に設置された「アジア女性基金」には、国内外から7億円の募金が寄せられた。

だが活動家らは、政府による直接の賠償がなく、女性差別の風潮も続いていると非難する。

安さんによると、サロンの責任者から理由の説明はなかった。「おばあさんたちは1人で生き抜いてきた。そしてやがては忘れ去られてしまうのか」――安さんはそうつぶやいて写真をまとめ、サロンの出口へ向かった。

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