MAY 30, 2013
THE MAYOR AND THE COMFORT WOMEN
POSTED BY AMY DAVIDSON
A few days ago, two South Korean women, both in their eighties, cancelled a meeting with Toru Hashimoto, the mayor of Osaka. They had asked to speak with him more than a year ago, but now, the timing seemed not only wrong but painful: “We don’t need to be trampled on again,” the women, Kim Bok-dong and Kil Won-ok, said in a statement. When Kim was fifteen and Kil was thirteen, in Japan-occupied Korea, they went to work in factories; then, they were taken and put in what the Japanese called “comfort stations” and what are often referred to as military brothels in China. Even that is a euphemism. Kim and Kil were children—though “comfort women” were many ages—who were, with force, made sexually available to Japanese soldiers. Kim remembers there being fifteen soldiers a day, more on weekends, according to an A.P. report. Tens of thousands of women were trafficked by the Japanese military and its agents; some historians estimate there were as many as two hundred thousand in total.
And that, Hashimoto said in a speech earlier this month, was “necessary”: “When soldiers are risking their lives by running through storms of bullets, and you want to give these emotionally charged soldiers a rest somewhere, it’s clear that you need a comfort-women system,” he told reporters. “Anyone can understand that.” (Not everyone, actually.) Japan’s obligation, he said, is “to politely offer kind words to the comfort women”—as if they are to be pitied, prostitutes for whom politeness would be a prize; as if they had been lowered, rather than the Japanese military debased.
The issue of the comfort women is an open wound between South Korea and Japan—a practical part of the problem aside issues of historical justice and moral reckoning. Japan apologized formally in 1993, but nationalist politicians like Hashimoto, who is a leader in the Japanese Restoration Party, have been increasingly grudging and hedging toward the question of regret. Hashimoto compounded that built-in controversy by suggesting that other countries might not only understand but emulate the Japanese experience—that the United States might do so immediately at its bases in Japan: “We can’t control the sexual energy of these brave Marines … They must make more use of adult entertainers.”
By this week, Hashimoto had been condemned by everyone from the South Korean and Chinese governments to the New York State Assemblyman representing Flushing, Queens. (“When a powerful country like Japan puts out an anti-women’s rights message, it can take us back decades,” the assemblyman, Ron Kim, said. “My community is appalled, horrified, and hurt.”) A State Department spokeswoman called the remarks “outrageous and offensive,” and characterized the trafficking of comfort women as “a grave human-rights violation of enormous proportions.”
And so, on Tuesday, Hashimoto came out to apologize—sort of. He said that he hadn’t quite meant his words to sound as they had; the treatment of the women was “inexcusable”—“I am totally aware that their great pain and deep hurt were beyond description.” But in his remarks to reporters, he continued to depict the experiences of women like Kim and Kil as just one of those things that happens. War was hard on everybody, he argued; there was “no evidence” that the Japanese government had been culpable in an organized way, as though the fog of fighting and the free market had simply lifted teenagers from Korea (as well as from Indonesia and the Philippines) to the battlefields of China. (There is, in fact, ample historical documentation of the military’s role.) The organizing force he described was one of circumstance rather than of political decision-making or command and culpability.
Lots of countries at war acted this way, Hashimoto said: “It is not a fair attitude to blame only Japan, as if the violation of human rights of women by soldiers were a problem unique to the Japanese soldiers.” As for the remarks about Marines, he was sorry if they were insulting, but “my real intention was to prevent a mere handful of U.S. soldiers from committing crimes and strengthen the Japan-U.S. alliance and the relations of trust between the two nations.” On Thursday, Hashimoto survived a censure vote in the municipal legislature largely by threatening to quit if it passed. “If I caused misunderstanding, I’m sorry. But I don’t think what I’m saying is wrong. I still believe what I’m saying is right,” he said, according to the A.P.
Sexual violence in wartime is not unique to Japan. But that is no dispensation, especially when the comfort-women question is bound to concerns of militarism and creeping forgetfulness. Japan does have a special obligation, and Koreans have a complaint that requires an answer. So do individual women like Kim and Kil, who are now very old.
Beyond that, what needs to be challenged is a basic complacency about linking soldiers and sexual violence. This is an issue that afflicts many war zones and militaries, including ours, where there is an unresolved crisis of sexual assault. There is also something telling in Hashimoto’s muddling of wartime sexual servitude, prostitution, peacetime assaults on the streets of Okinawa, and “adult entertainment.” Rape, as should have long been clear, is an act of violence, not desire. The blurring of boundaries in wartime is not an excuse to forget this, but a reason to use peace to remember it.
Photograph by Kyodo/Reuters
@donmaclaren As someone who has worked with these Korean survivors for almost a decade, I appreciate that you've written a post highlighting the dignity of Kim and Gil halmoni in refusing to meet Hashimoto. I also appreciate that you linked Japanese military sexual slavery with all sexual violence that results from militarization. Please note, however, that sexualized violence does not affect "many war zones and militaries," but ALL. There has not been a single war or militarized conflict that has not resulted in sexualized violence. Militarization and sexual violence go hand-in-hand, and directly result from patriarchal societies in which the devaluation and subjugation of women is normative. I think it's also important to note how complicit the US and allied forces were in the cover-up of Japan's WWII atrocities, as the issue of historic denial and responsibility for human rights abuses is a central theme in global affairs today.
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donmaclarenJun 5, 2013
@heevans4uThank you for your comment, but I'm wondering if you have me mistaken for someone else. My comments on this article began with Toru Hashimoto's/'Hashishita's burakumin ancestry - and took several twists and turns from there....But I'm glad you brought up US complicity in the cover-up of Japan's atrocities in WWII.. One example of this complicity is the granting of immunity to physicians in Japan's Unit 731 for their actions during the war (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_731). Also, the role of the emperor in Japan's atrocities has not been fully examined - mostly, I believe, because the US chose not to have him tried as a war criminal. I believe that a man in whose name millions died needlessly should at LEAST have been forced to abdicate by SCAP (or, better yet, by the Japanese people).
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civajanJun 4, 2013
Japanese occupied Taiwan was also a prime kidnapping ground for the comfort women system. This is not a uniquely Korean problem, as several other commenters have pointed out, but extended across East and Southeast Asia.
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hkhkJun 2, 2013
Regardless of whether "many" Japanese people are embarrassed or maybe even ashamed of what their politicians say about WW2, they - - the Japanese voters - - do very little about it. And there's not much they can do, even if they wanted to (although they probably don't).
As implied by what (French President) De Gaulle said way back in 1960 of (then Japan's) Prime Minister Hayato Ikeda, Japanese (and their politicians) are great at selling transistors, cars, and other manufactured goods, but have nothing - - actually seem unable, despite their relative wealth (they are much, much wealthier per citizen than China will be for many years) - - to contribute to the world stage, in terms of leadership, or dialogue, or ... anything.
Unless perhaps Pearl Harbor or WW2 in the Pacific is considered a "contribution".
Or maybe "anime" is an important world contribution. And no, the Japanese did not invent Buddhism. Indian Prince Gautama did, and the Japanese simply appropriated it after it percolated through to China, and "modified" it ... as Japanese are wont to do with almost all their "discoveries" and "contributions".
What's weird about the Japanese is, they're starting to pipe up again, now that they've kidded themselves that they've developed some kind of tremendous "soft power" (again, see: "anime"). Their music bands can't make it across the Pacific, despite their being the # 2 economy in the world for decades - - even little South Korea is sending as much "music" (uhh ... Gangnam style, oh well), recently, as Japan has managed to do since "Sukiyaki" (by Kyu Sakamoto) way back in 1963. And even small Sweden managed to almost conquer the world back in the early- and mid-1970s, via ABBA (again, talking about cultural exports here).
Yes, yes, kimonos and tea ceremonies and chrysanthemums and sushi ... on the top of everybody's list to go out and purchase right now. Japan has been exporting the same old tired "cultural exports" since the early 1900s, just about.
Japan is not only kidding itself that it has any "soft power" at all (just let China poke Japan, and you'll see how FAST the U.S. will abandon the mutual defense treaty, just like Nixon reached detente with China back in the 1970s, without saying a word to Japan beforehand).
Japanese actively alienate non-Japanese ... just by being who they are, just by being themselves. One example is when when a local little Korean group set up a small stone plaque memorial to "comfort women" in Fort Lee, N.J. - - Fort Lee, N.J., for God's sake! - - and the Japanese ... wait for it ... the Japanese FOREIGN MINISTRY sent representatives ... to Ft. Lee ... to lodge a protest. Absolutely inept and incompetent, as a people and a race, at communicating with non-Japanese. But of course, they're very good at "heartfelt telepathic" communication with each other as Japanese ... see: 以 心 伝 心 "ishin-denshin". Well, as long as they're happy, I guess that's good enough ...
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candycgizJun 9, 2013
Not true, he did not do well in national stage, and his popularity in Osaka dropped even more now with these moronic statement. I voted against him and not many I know are supporting him. So to generalized his statement as Japan, is not fair, considering he is the opposition of party in power.
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Chester007Jun 2, 2013
Hashimoto is a jerk and embarrasses many Japanese people, kind of like Sarah Palin embarrassed a lot of Americans. Nobody should take his statements and say "Geez, the Japanese need to wake up."
That said, to learn about Japanese women being "recruited" to prostitute themselves for American soldiers after World War II
, people should read John W. Dower's Pulitzer-winning "Embracing Defeat". The accounts make you sick. Also, they are eerily reminiscent of the Korean sex slaves. More recently, stories of prostitutes for U.S. soldiers emerged from Iraq. So this whole uproar over Hashimoto, although justified, is also hypocritical, including this article. The sad fact is that violence and domination are a part of military occupation.
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coriolanaJun 1, 2013
The media should absolutely stop using the euphemism "comfort women" in favor of the true term: sex slaves. Japan was a nation of pimps in the forties and apparently, they have not changed. Shame!
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hrdefenderJun 1, 2013
In December 2000, the Women's International War Crimes Tribunal considered testimony from comfort women representing all the victimized countries in the region, as well as documentary evidence, and concluded that the Emperor was criminally responsible for the system and that the Japanese government bore state responsibility. A civil society tribunal staffed by experienced lawyers and judges, no binding force to the judgment but moral significance. It should not be forgotten. http://www1.jca.apc.org/vaww-net-japan/english/womenstribunal2000/whatstribunal.html
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FlesymJun 1, 2013
This forced prostitution happened all over SE Asia. Not just the Korean women. AND THE PHRASE "COMFORT WOMEN" KEEPS BEING A CRIME, INJUSTICE AND INSULT to all these ladies. And these monkeys have been shielded from having to pay COMPENSATION. How about it America!? You have been shielding them too. All the Dutch-Indonesian women want to know why you sold them out with the San Franciso Treaty Act to this day. STOP CALLING THESE LADIES "COMFORT WOMEN". They were kidnapped, and used as sex slaves. WHEN WILL THEY HAVE JUSTICE, instead of all this reviling and insulting talk. These ladies, nor the rest of us who are appalled by the crimes, need to be reminded of and exposed to the ever lasting hypocricy fo the nations who have never done anything in the way of justice and compensation, nor do we want to hear any more debates about the subject, nor hear these despicable Japanese dare to even whisper a justification for it. How about it? Make those Japanese pay for all their atrocities like you (UN, US) forced the Germans to do. Not only did Hirohito order and sanction the atrocities, he was welcomed at Disneyland, in the company of John Wayne, to fulfill his dream: To meet Mickey Mouse. And there he stood with his mouse ears on just like all the American children, and welcomed in the midst of them. Now, what would the reaction have been, had that been Hitler? Please, is this insult continuing this day because of a a lack of discrimination? I think not. These ladies and all the rest of the victims of the Japanese Imperial House have had a dream that has been trampled on and used as toilet paper all these decades: THEY WANT JUSTICE. Not more insults that open up all those wounds again. Imagine having those filthy monkeys slither all over you 24/7 and no one ever cared to attain justice for you? Just imagine.
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jessleeJun 1, 2013
So why not then Japanese women? If it is so "necessary" and unavoidable, if it is something that "just happens" in a war, does it mean that if Japan ever gets involved in a war, Hashimoto would not mind his own teenage daughters "comforting" fifteen Japanese soldiers every day? I mean, you need something to control the energy of these men and it is a special situation, right?
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juliakimsmithJun 1, 2013
Thank you for the post. The bottom line for me is the man is a jerk.
http://juliakimsmith.tumblr.com/post/51653564478/toruisajerk
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WingChiMay 31, 2013
These have been actually victims of kidnap, abduction and gang rape!! Don't let the Japanese term on "Comfort Woman" fool up. These victims have never been comfortable at all!
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roarshock44Jun 1, 2013
@WingChi - don't be concerned, wingchi. we read 'comfort' in this use as comfort for the soldiers, not the women.
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JenbennettMay 31, 2013
Excellent post. Thank you for helping spread the message. We are losing these brave women's voices as each day passes. The Japanese government needs to realize that this issue is on a timer, and it will only get worse as fewer and fewer of these grandmothers exist. Best to climb out of that tower of delusion, and sit with these women, hold their hands and cry with them. Then re-issue the apology with deep sincerity.
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donmaclarenMay 31, 2013
I find it ironic that Hashimoto, a member of the historically oppressed burakumin community of Japan, is belittling the plight of the oppressed "comfort women." Hashimoto's father was a yakuza (one of the few jobs burakumin could work at and attain financial success) and after he died Hashimoto's mother changed the reading of the family name from "Hashishita" to "Hashimoto," as "Hashishita" is considered a burakumin name (though his name still retains the same Chinese characters (橋下). The burakumin issue is one few Japanese discuss in public (though I've often heard it discussed in private), and even uttering the word "burakumin" in a public place will invite scorn. However, denigrating comfort women is apparently considered appropriate for both private and public consumption in Japan.
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KTSsonomaMay 31, 2013
@donmaclaren Your post is so interesting...thank you. But when I looked up "yakuza" I found that it's a crime syndicate; was being a gang member Hashimoto's father's "job"?
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donmaclarenJun 1, 2013
@KTSsonoma @donmaclaren Hello KTSsonoma, Yes, from my research I've found that Hashimoto's father was a gang member - a "yakuza" which was his job, or one of his jobs. "Yakuza" is not only the word for the crime syndicate(s) (there are many in Japan, the largest being the Yamaguchi-gumi - a name which you might want to look up as well) but also the word people in Japan use for individual members of the syndicates....If someone refers to a guy and says, "Oh, he's a yakuza," then people will probably be afraid of him...Japan is a fascinatingly disturbing place! But after having lived there 11 years I consider it my second home - - and despite its dark side, I still love it.
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roarshock44Jun 1, 2013
@donmaclaren i agree with ktssonoma that your post is extremely interesting and a major key to looking at this situation. i had not previously been aware of the burakumin. that information very much casts a different pall over this whole sad story. the success hashimoto has enjoyed must have been a beacon of encouragement for these dispossessed peoples, and it is a great pity to see him destroy and debase gains in such a cavalier manner. his comeuppance for his brazen hostility will clearly be borne by many who don't deserve to be tarred with the brush he has loaded up for himself.
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coriolanaJun 1, 2013
So he is the son of a pimp following in daddy's dirty footsteps. He is a complete blot on the face of Japan, along with Abe and the rest of the apologist whoremongers.
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JimHuffJun 2, 2013
@donmaclaren I lived in Ashiya, Japan where burakumin collected trash, slaughtered animals, butchered meat and tanned hides, jobs Japanese are loathe to do and avoid. Burakumin are shunned or avoided and usually Korean whole or partly. Intermarriage is not forbidden but frowned upon and the Japanese spouse becomes burakumin too and social class changed downward.
Yakusa is a criminal organization and hardly violent. During Kobe earthquake of 1995 the Yakusa was more responsive than the central government in helping the suffering and feeding, caring for victims. Their activities include prostitution, pinball parlor gambling, likely extortion but unsure. Yakusa met every Sunday morning at a Hotel in Osaka where we stayed until our furniture arrived and we sat among them. We could not understand the conversation but they were ALL dressed alike in garish clothes and shoes. It was difficult not to laugh and poor idea anyway.
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JimHuffJun 2, 2013
@donmaclaren I lived in Ashiya, Japan where burakumin collected trash, slaughtered animals, butchered meat and tanned hides, jobs Japanese are loathe to do and avoid. Burakumin are shunned or avoided and usually Korean whole or partly. Intermarriage is not forbidden but frowned upon and the Japanese spouse becomes burakumin too and social class changed downward.
Yakusa is a criminal organization and hardly violent. During Kobe earthquake of 1995 the Yakusa was more responsive than the central government in helping the suffering and feeding, caring for victims. Their activities include prostitution, pinball parlor gambling, likely extortion but unsure. Yakusa met every Sunday morning at a Hotel in Osaka where we stayed until our furniture arrived and we sat among them. We could not understand the conversation but they were ALL dressed alike in garish clothes and shoes. It was difficult not to laugh and poor idea anyway.
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hkhkJun 2, 2013
I know Osaka is known for having a somewhat sizable population of "Japanese-Koreans" from the WW2 forced-labor generation ( 在 日 韓 国 人 ) ... in Ikuno Ward especially. And Toru Hashimoto is from Osaka.
But he's buraku-min ... ? (I.e., descendent of families who, 1 and 2 centuries ago, did butcher-work and leather-work which was considered "unclean" in a mainly Buddhist - - mainly vegetarian, fish-eating, non-meat-eating - - society.) I don't keep up with Japan as much as I used to, but I had not come across that tid-bit anywhere.
That would be ironic indeed ... and your kanji explanation certainly holds some weight. Someone at the Foreign Press Club (where Hashimoto just had a 2-hour explanatory meeting) should ask him a pointed question along the lines of, "You're buraku-min, yet you feel comfortable looking down or ignoring the plight of comfort women?"
That would be quite something.
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donmaclarenJun 2, 2013
@hkhk Thank you for the comment. And I wish I could go to a press conference in Tokyo and ask Mr. Hashimoto/Hashishita the question.
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donmaclarenJun 3, 2013
I want to emphasize, again, how sensitive this issue is in Japan. The word "burakumin" is considered taboo in the Japanese language, though I've heard it, or "buraku" or "buraku no hito" (a buraku person/the buraku people) used in private conversation. Most Japanese I've talked with about this (and it's not a subject they are comfortable with a foreigner bringing up...Most conversations I've had about this minority group were started by Japanese) will say something like, “Oh, they used to be discriminated against before, a long time ago, but not anymore.” Then, they might add, later in the conversation something like, “They always complain about discrimination…and want money…and get cheap apartments because the government gives them whatever they want...”
One of the politically correct terms used now in Japan to refer to these people is“dowa/douwa (同和). ”The burakumin, er,“dowa”were historically confined to certain neighborhoods, and the term“burakumin”(部落民) literally translated means “hamlet people.” These districts still exist, though there has been an official policy of "assimilation" with other Japanese people. Many Japanese, however, will choose not to marry a – um – dowa person, and background checks are still done on prospective marriage partners to learn of his or her ancestry.
As for Toru Hashimoto/Hashishita, after his father left the family and committed suicide (over debts he incurred to other yakuza) his mother moved the family from Tokyo to Osaka, where they lived in a dowa district. However, according to research I’ve done, she refused to accept a rent reduction, which people of that district were entitled to. Not only that, but Mr. Hashimoto/Hashishita cut funding for dowa projects while governor of Osaka Prefecture. He has attempted to distance himself from this sensitive issue, probably for political expediency, and has been quoted as saying he doesn't know if he has bura..., ahem, dowa ancestry. All evidence, however, indicates he does.
Another interesting tidbit in all this is the role of the Buraku Liberation League which has been criticized for corruption and links to Japan’s largest yakuza group, the Yamaguchi-gumi.
One thing I learned in my years in Japan is that there’s always more than meets the eye, and once you begin to investigate a story you find it takes many twists and turns. I hope I’m not getting too off the subject of “comfort women” here. BTW, the term “comfort women” is a translation for the euphemistic Japanese term “ianfu" (慰安婦). A more accurate term would be “sex slaves."
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roarshock44May 31, 2013
the galling irony here is that bozo is suggesting our servicemen use their commercial offerings so they won't do a truly horrendous thing like rape japanese women. though, by the way, it was fine for the japanese military to routinely put non-japanese women in rape systems for the benefit of their soldiers, according to that creep.
truly galling. and stupid. that man is blithely thumbing his nose at all of us at this key time when they need all the allies they can muster. china's heavy breath is already in japan's ear.
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jeanvaljeanMay 31, 2013
1937 Nanking photographs anyone?
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JimHuffJun 2, 2013
@jeanvaljean As is typical Nanking either did not happen at all or was not as bad as claimed, this by a Japanese "statesman" in the Diet. Everything Japanese did was either exaggerated, did not happen, else was matched by the enemies they fought. This is the Japanese psyche. They are unfairly sullied and will not admit to a fault but simply reacted to conditions forced upon them. FDR forced intolerable conditions and Pearl Harbor was not an attack but a reaction to imposed conditions. Japan, in my opinion, will never apologize to China and Korea, both being hugely inferior. I do not think Japan is capable, at least in sincerity. I lived there and got along, which is my style, but I detected a smug superiority often enough.
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