Critics cause Fort Lee to reconsider monument honoring Korean WWII prostitutes
Print Dan Ivers/NJ.com By Dan Ivers/NJ.com
on April 06, 2013 at 7:31 AM, updated April 06, 2013 at 7:33 AM
Bergen officials dedicate 'comfort women' memorial
The text of a monument to 'comfort women' outside the Bergen County courthouse in Hackensack. Plans for a similar memorial in Fort Lee were recently scrapped after Korean groups warned it could be perceived as anti-Japanese.
S.P. Sullivan/NJ.com
FORT LEE — Plans for a monument honoring hundreds of thousands of women forced into sexual slavery during World War II have been scrapped after various Korean-American groups voiced concerns it could be insulting to Japan.
According to The Record, the borough council approved the monument, which would honor Korean "comfort women" who worked in Japanese military brothels during the 1940s, last month.
Similar monuments have already been dedicated in New York and elsewhere in Bergen County, which has a burgeoning Korean population. The first of its kind was put up in Palisades Park, and county officials held a ceremony to unveil a memorial outside the courthouse in Hackensack earlier this year.
However, organizations such as the Hackensack-based Korean American Civic Empowerment Group quickly started petitions to nix the new monument, or at least change the wording to take out specific references to the Japanese.
Media organizations such as NJ.com have received dozens of letters and emails from Japanese opponents of the memorials in recent weeks, many of whom call the slavery allegations "propaganda."
An email sent Friday from Nicky Yamazaki claims there is no evidence that Korean women were ever held in Japanese brothels, and that the issue is causing diplomatic tensions between the two countries.
"Japanese are upset about this situation. We do not try to rewrite the history. Also we are not revisionists or right wings," it reads. "As the fabricated history is spreading, we cannot miss damaged our ancestors’ honor, and we want you to know the fact what the real history is."
mikeccrider4 months ago
That finish
Report No. 49: Japanese Prisoners of War Interrogation on Prostitution
UNITED STATES OFFICE OF WAR INFORMATION
Date : Oct 1, 1944
Prisoners: 20 Korean Comfort Girls
This report is based on the information obtained from the interrogation of twenty Korean "comfort girls" captured around the tenth of Aug, 1944 after the fall of Myitkyin a in Burma.
A "comfort girl" is nothing more than a prostitute or "professional camp follower" attached to the Japanese Army for the benefit of the soldiers.
A "comfort girl" is nothing more than a prostitute
A "comfort girl" is nothing more than a prostitute
A "comfort girl" is nothing more than a prostitute
I hope. Korean liar and a foolish Please disappear from this world.
thank you.
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mikeccrider4 months ago
Koreans should not deceive their own people in a textbook of this lie.
Koreans to cause problems in the world, because they believe in the historicity of the distorted.
America was Korean Territory - YouTube
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kittykat554 months ago
First of all, I condemn military brothel system. However it happened everywhere and still there are a bunch of brothels near American military base in S.Korea.
Then I wondered why still Koreans tribute women to foreign soldiers. I think Korean comfort women issue has the cultural background.
1.They Were Getting Paid.
http://www.exordio.com/1939-1945/codex/Documentos/...
The Korean government requested to the Japanese gov't "Secure comfort women's saving money and properties in occupied lands in South"-Japan-Korea negotiations report No3 (1953)
2.Comfort Women Recruitment Ads Exist.
3.There Were Plenty Of Japanese Comfort Women But Never Been Discussed About Them.
That shows the comfort women campain by Korean nationalists has racism.
4.Surviving Korean Comfort Women Change The Stories All The Time.
Changing story is a typical symptoｍ of perjury.
Ref: "A Country of Liars by Kim DaeJoong"-July.3,2005 The Chosun Ilbo
6.Korea Had Comfort Women System During Korean War.
"It was such a degraded situation under the American occupation in the Korean war that a friend of mine who served in the Korean war said on Friday night they would bring in a half ton truck full of 150 women and they would be in a movie house having sex. These undoubtedly included women who were comfort women for the Japanese army." http://www.wnyc.org/news/articles/31050
But The Korean government said they were prostitutes so no problem.
Movie "Field of Honor"(1986) portrays the Korean comfort women in Korean war.
7.The Japanese Police In Those Days Busted Korean Sex Traffickers.
Pleanty of the news paper articles about it remain.
If anybody wants to see them click here http://goo.gl/wjnj6
8.Sex Slave System Was Korean Tradition.
Joseon dynasty Korea had slaves called Nobi. Female Nobi were usually sold as prostitute.
King Sejong to send prostitutes to front line. (Annals of Joseon Sejong 1436)
(The King) sent the following instructions to the Governor of Hangil Province:
“In the past, prostitutes were sent to camps on the frontier to service soldiers without wives. It had a long history. Even now government giseangs are stationed at frontier camps and administrative posts to service travellers. Moreover, on the northern frontier we have large camps, including Gyeongwon, Hoiryeong, and Gyeonseong, which are in your province. Troops guarding the frontier are far from their families and must endure two (years) of cold and heat, making their daily duties even more difficult; therefore, I think it is appropriate to station prostitutes to service the troops.
9.Sex Business And Trafficking In Modern Korea.
According to Han-nara party's survey,total 100000 Korean women are working as prostitutes outside of Korea.
50000 are in Japan, 25000 are in Australia, 250 are in Guam. Oct, 28, 2010
"Ask Mu Yung Shin, presently a prostitute at a Korean massage parlor in Dallas. Abducted at the age of 14 from her village home in South Korea by a group of Korean criminals"
http://www.stanford.edu/group/reflections/Winter19...
Diary of a sex slave by San Francisco Chronicle is good to read.
10.Raping of Japanese refugees by Koreans after WWII.
http://youtu.be/E4g2lsaTPeg
This historical fact is big taboo in Korea so some Koreans are demanding libraries in the states to remove this book "So Far From The Bamboo Grove"
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mikeccrider4 months ago
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mikeccrider4 months ago
to Joe Kim
You are also a sad Korean.
Your claim is not true.
"2 million people were forced entrainment" you said,but fact is a stowaway of 2 million people.
It is same situation that currently Korean American.
Every year several million people had been starved to death in Korea.
Japanese Imperial Army are yearning of the Korean people, the volunteers was a competitive rate of 2000 times.
5th President of South Korea was the officer of the Japanese Imperial Army.
Korean comfort women is also the same.
the Japanese were treated the Koreans as the same Japanese.
http://24.media.tumblr.com/569d1eef9c1d657d209c8bd...
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Pak4 months ago
Thirty nine (39) comfort women and their supporters were arrested in Korea by Korean police for their fraud. They raised about 1.2 million dollars from about 30,000 Korean citizens saying that they can collect a lot of compensation money from Japan and they can give back a lot of money to the citizens. Of course they could not get compensation and could not distribute the "profit" to those people.
They also looked for candidate "comfort women" who just lived the WWII era even though they were NOT comfort women. They said if you lived in the era, you could be a comfort woman to demand compensation to Japan.
Money talks.
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Pak4 months ago
It is well-known in Asia that Koreans make false accusations too often.
Westerners may think all people in all Asian countries are similar but this is not true. Each culture, way of thinking is very different in each country.
Again, Koreans make too many false accusations. Here are some quotes from The Korea Herald.
"In 2007, Koreans indicted for perjury or calumny totaled 1,544 and 2,171, respectively, compared to only nine and 10 in Japan."
"experts said the figures indicate that Koreans commit perjury and make false accusations about 420 times and 540 times the rate of the Japanese."
"Law enforcement officials here also complain they are having difficulties with witnesses giving false testimonies."
Source: "A low-trust society" The Korea Herald Published : 2011-08-02
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chocolate4 months ago
Hi ppl.
The Koreans are trying to build the statues all over the States. What for? I don't know why they do such a thing in the country which has nothing to do with this issue. This is much political one, still in question. Political matters are very sensitive for all nations. Japan and the U.S have been allies and developped a trusting relationship after the war. The Japanese like American cultures and Americans. I'm afraid that the issue could undermine our bilateral relation by granting the one side of the story.
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Jack Frost4 months ago
Them horndogs VOLUNTEERED!
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spanneta4 months ago
"Critics cause Fort Lee to reconsider monument honoring Korean WWII prostitutes"
What a TERRIBLE bit of headline writing! First of all, the plaque plainly memorializes the women of many countries, not just Korea, who were FORCED into prostitution.
From the OFFICIAL Japanese apology issued in 1993:
"Today the Government said it had concluded that the bitter claims of the women were true: many were forced to act as virtual slaves, providing sex for imperial soldiers. ...The report concluded that many women lived as captives of the military beginning in 1932, when Japan invaded China, to the end of the war in 1945. Among the women forced to have sex with soldiers were Japanese, Chinese, Koreans and Filipinos, as well as Dutch women captured in Indonesia, then a Dutch colony.
http://www.nytimes.com/1993/08/05/world/japan-admi...
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Pak4 months ago
The Kono statement was a compromise between Japan and Korea.
Korean government asked Japanese government to admit some level of forced prostitution. And, Korean government said once Japan admits the forced prostitution, Korean government will never bring up the issue again.
Japan kept the promise and Korea broke the promise.
The Kono statement is a typical Japanese, vague statement. Many things are not clearly mentioned. Rape cases are blended in the statement.
>and that, at times, administrative/military personnel directly
> took part in the recruitments.
These statements are mentioning the cases like the one in Indonesia where Netherlands and Australian women were raped repeatedly for 2 months. I am sure some Japanese criminals raped Asian women in China and other countries, also, as all military individuals with any nationality have been doing. Those cases have to be severely criticized.
Because of the vagueness of the statement, many Japanese think that the Kono statement has to be revised.
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spanneta4 months ago
"Even the notorious Kono statement does not say Japanese government/military abducted women/girls . CHEAP SHOT!!!! "
No? Transferring against their will by coercion (especially by an occupying military power) sure sounds like abduction to me!
"The Government study has revealed that in many cases they were recruited against their own will, through coaxing coercion, etc., and that, at times, administrative/military personnel directly took part in the recruitments. They lived in misery at comfort stations under a coercive atmosphere."
"The Korean Peninsula was under Japanese rule in those days, and their recruitment, transfer, control, etc., were conducted generally against their will, through coaxing, coercion, etc."
"Undeniably, this was an act, with the involvement of the military authorities of the day, that severely injured the honor and dignity of many women. The Government of Japan would like to take this opportunity once again to extend its sincere apologies and remorse to all those, irrespective of place of origin, who suffered immeasurable pain and incurable physical and psychological wounds as comfort women."
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Pak4 months ago
>No? Transferring against their will by coercion
>(especially by an occupying military power) sure
>sounds like abduction to me!
Coercion by WHO???
It is coercion by Korean sex brokers/traders.
Don't use your sense of 21st century. Military helped comfort women to move to the brothels because there is no public transportation in the battle field during the war time. Also, military offered medical examination to comfort women because if they transfer sexual disease to soldiers, they can't fight. This is the same practice among military in various nations and not specific to Japan.
You have determined mind to humiliate Japan firsthand, then, you cannot see the bigger picture.
Comfort women existed in all nations.
Again, SINGLING OUT Japan to blame sex in battle field is DISCRIMINATION against Japan/Japanese.
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Joe Kim4 months ago
Japanese police in Korea were no doubt deeply involved in the recruitment of comfort women.
Comfort women weren't the only people who were forcibly recruited by Japanese.
During WWII, Japan forcibly conscripted 6 million Koreans (out of a total population of 24 million) and used them as slave laborers for its war machine. Japanese policemen went door-to-door and rounded people up.
(Up to half a million of them perished due to the harsh working conditions and brutal treatment.)
It's unfortunate that Japan destroyed so much evidence regarding its war crimes (including its military sex slaves) just prior to the end of WWII.
But the fact is that so much Japanese documents from the WWII era, including Japanese colonial police records from Korea and other relevant archives, remain classified and locked up.
Even Japanese researchers of comfort women, such as Yoshimi and Tanaka, have complained that so much Japanese documents are classified and that they only have had access to the "tip of the iceberg".
Japanese apologists who claim that there's no evidence of forced recruitment of comfort women, even when so much Japanese WWII records remain secret and locked up, are really being disingenuous.
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Incogvito4 months ago
...Some Japanese folks are traveling in Egypt...They are in denial
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simkin1684 months ago
How about a memorial for all the slaves white people raped from 1600 to 1865?
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Bob Backlund4 months ago
168,
Way to attempt to hijack a news story for your own personal agenda. If it is so important to you do the research, get evidence this happened with names, fund it and put it up in your irrelevant town. You will get ZERO support for your plight..
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800meterrunner4 months ago
From the accounts that I've read there is no doubt that the Japanese victimized so many Korean women during World War II. These women didn't volunteer to be prostitutes. They were promised jobs in war factories. Most were too embarrassed to return home after the war, though their sexual enslavement was not their fault.
The Japanese have never openly admitted what they have done.
After the war a number of Japanese war criminals weren't prosecuted because the U.S. needed a bulwark in Asia that was anti-Communist. Germany has done a fine job in educating their youth about the horrors of the Third Reich. Japan has dropped the ball on that issue. It's a shame because modern Japan is a far different country than it was in the 1920s and 30s.
Another fact. Japan was given Korea to govern after the Russo-Japanese War in the early 1900s. Koreans were brutally treated for almost the next half century.
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Pak4 months ago
>From the accounts that I've read there is no doubt that the Japanese
> victimized so many Korean women during World War II. These women
>didn't volunteer to be prostitutes. They were promised jobs in war factories.
This is also a typical Korean's and its frinends' statement.
Koreans mix Women's Volunteer Corps and Comfort women. Some Koreans do so intentionally to disgrace Japan and Japanese people.
The system called Women's Volunteer Corps is that Japanese government created. Because all Japanese young men went to war, there was no work force in the factories. So, the government mobilized women to work at factories. They did not offer any sexual service.
Women's Volunteer Corps has nothing to do with comfort women.
There are numerous newspaper advertisements by sex brokers/traders to recruit comfort women. Some of them have a picture of naked woman. Their salary promised on the advertizement is usually 300 yen a month. This is the same/similar amount paid to military colonels and prefecture (equivalent to US State) governors.
When there is a picture of a naked woman on the comfort woman advertisement promising that high salary when women were not supposed to work in the conservative era, what does it mean??
... prostitution!!
Do you think she could not imagine what she was going to do with the high salary???
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Joe Kim4 months ago
@Pak,
>As you said, we liberated Korea's slaves. About 40% of your people was slaves.
And you are lying again.
In late Choson, 40% of the population were commoners.
10% of the population were slaves.
> What will happen to female slaves? They were of course raped.
I don't know where you got this idea, but you are wrong again.
In Choson times, sex criminals were punished very harshly.
Even slave owners could not rape female slaves. If they did, they were punished.
If a man raped an underage girl, it was instant execution.
Traditional Korean culture was a conservative culture.
BTW, you try to make it look like Japan came and rescued Korea from backwardness.
You know? Maybe Koreans would be grateful to Japan if Japanese had treated Koreans nicely.
But you Japanese annexed Korea and treated Koreans like a sub-species.
You tried to eradicate Korean culture, language, and identity.
When Koreans demonstrated peacefully for independence, you brutally killed them by the thousands.
You tortured them and used them for human experimentation.
Then you started WWII Pacific War and dragged Korea into the war as well.
Forcibly conscripting 1/4 of the population (so much so that the only people left in Korean villages were the elderly and children) and forcing them to do slave labor. Treating them so badly that up to 500,000 of them perished.
Forcing tens of thousands of Korean women into sex slavery for the Japanese military.
Apologizing for these heinous war crimes, then trying to take back your apologies.
Calling the comfort women liars.
Do you really think they are liars?
Do you really think that 80-90 year old ex-prostitutes, some of them who can barely walk, would protest every single week in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul, demanding justice?
Do you think they are just whores who want money?
Do you know that in 2011 when Japan was hit by that earthquake and tsunami, even the Korean comfort women sent condolences and donations to Japan?
Koreans are not vindictive people.
They don't like to hold grudges.
Koreans want peace with Japan.
But first the comfort women issue must be resolved.
Japan was properly apologize, and pass laws making it illegal for Japanese to deny the comfort women issue, as well as other WWII war crimes.
They must also properly teach Japanese children about these issues.
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Pak4 months ago
@Joe Kim
＞And you are lying again.
＞In late Choson, 40% of the population were
＞commoners. 10% of the population were slaves.
Quote
Another 30-40% of the population were slaves (nobi), "low borns" (cheonmin) or untouchable outcastes (baekjeong). Slavery was hereditary, as well as a form of legal punishment.
Quote ends.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseon
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jim4 months ago
sorry folks but the Japanese were some of the most brutal occupiers around actullay we should put up a memorial celebrating the end of the pacific war and a tribute to the atom bomb makers
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an7614 months ago
The gross injustice here is that the victims and their families of the Japanese have never been compensated for their pain and suffering while Germany made reparations to those harmed
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Pak4 months ago
This is also a typical statement that Korean and its friends make.
Japan compensated much more than German did.
I am not saying that German was not willing to compensate. German was waved to compensate because of the western culture of forgiveness and because of their reflection from WWI. After WWI neighboring countries demanded too much compensation to Germany and Germany was going into bankruptcy. Then, German people became mad and started to become aggressive.
On the contrary, China and Korea has a culture of grudge. （恨の文化） They tend to grudge almost forever. However, China was great because China waived Japan. Japan, then, legally does not (cannot) compensate for the bad things that Japan did against China. It is settled between the 2 nations.
However, Korea has been demanding compensation too much. Korea was a part of Japan and fought with Japan against allies. Then, legally, we cannot pay compensation. However, we gave all infrastructure to Korea and under the name of "economic cooperation" we gave twice as much as then Korea's national budget to Korea.
Another good example is Indonesia. Netherlands tried to re-colonize Indonesia after the WWII but Japanese soldiers who remained in the country fought against Netherlands with Indonesians. After Indonesia's independence, Netherlands demanded payment for the infrastructure they did in the country as a retaliatory action. Indonesia was not able to pay for it. Then, Japan paid as a part of "compensation" for Indonesia.
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njtomasso4 months ago
Japan's vehement denial of widespread and horrific war atrocities is comparable to those who claim the Holocaust was faked and that films of liberating the death camps were shot on a secret movie set.
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Pak4 months ago
Who said Holocaust was fabricated?
It is a real story that actually happened though it seems to be over-exaggerated.
You should stop humiliating German people who admitted the holocaust. Almost all of the lay German people did know know what was going on back then. Nevertheless, when Korean had a succor game with Germans, you put up Hakenkreuz image with a huge X mark on it.
Koreans even said, "Welcome, war criminals!!"
Also, Japan has been denying ONLY what are NOT true such as the comfort women issue. We have admitted all bad things we did during WWII and paid astronomical compensation to numerous countries.
On the contrary, Korea was a part of Japan during WWII and fought against allies together with Japan but Korea has never paid any compensation to any countries. When majority of Korean was eager to become a part of Japan then and fought bravely against the allies, you are people who lost the war and have to compensate for what you did.
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Joe Kim4 months ago
People like you who call the former comfort women liars are precisely the reason why these comfort women monuments must be built.
By the way, SDH (Society for Dissemination of Historical Fact), whose articles you keep citing, is a Japanese ultra right-wing organization that claims that America started the WWII Pacific War.
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Pak4 months ago
@Joe Kim
>By the way, SDH (Society for Dissemination
>of Historical Fact), whose articles you keep
>citing, is a Japanese ultra right-wing organization
>that claims that America started the WWII Pacific War.
This is always what Koreans say.
Every Japanese activity/everyone that Koreans don't like is labeled "ultra right-wing" by Koreans trying to paint us. Koreans always to impression manipulation.
Even if you WERE correct, SDHF is just translating papers into English.
Poor Joe Kim.
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Barry074 months ago
Would anyone object to a memorial for the millions of German women and children subjected to mass rapes after the second world war. Every people have their sad stories to tell. The victors write the history ensuring only certain peoples, such as the Germans and Japanese, wear the mark of Cain. War brings horror. Why is it we blame entire peoples but never high finance who orchestrate these wars and finance both sides? We should love the Koreans and Japanese, realizing those who created the war were of neither people.
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Pak4 months ago
Again, who denied the holocaust? Why you want to relate the comfort woman issue to the holocaust. Those are totally different issues. Koreans and its friends are desperate to relate the comfort woman issue to holocaust. You are also humiliating German people over-reminding their wrongdoing when you try to relate the comfort woman issue to holocaust.
Why don't you relate the holocaust to what Koreans did during Vietnam War. Koreans killed tens of thousands of Vietnamese women in a most cruel/atrocious/inhumane manner.
Why don't you relate the holocaust to 保導聯盟事件 （보도연맹 사건, Bodo Yeonmaeng Sageon) in which Koreans killed up to 1,200,000 own people?
Those atrocities should be remembered in the USA because the USA seems to be the place to erect a monument with US tax money for whatever the event all over the world even then the event is fabricated.
My personal opinion is,
The USA should not become a melting pot of hatred/controversy/humiliation for all things/events all around the world.
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take_fox4 months ago
If these animations are seen, the annexation time of Japan and South Korea is known well.
1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xauBLG1zZGY
2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1FAClJccVA
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Kohyu Nishimura4 months ago
And i would like to recommend to read an authorized essay by historian professor Ikuhiko Hata.
Professor Hata, the most knowledgeable expert on the “comfort women” issue,illustrates the reality of the comfort women. He even reveals the testimonies of the former “comfort women” are unreliable and also fallacy of Kono Statement. He concludes The truth relating to the “comfort women” need to be discussed to diffuse the prevailing irrational media-induced hysteria.
NO ORGANIZED OR FORCED RECRUITMENT: MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT
COMFORT WOMEN AND THE JAPANESE MILITARY
Hata Ikuhiko
http://www.sdh-fact.com/CL02_1/31_S4.pdf
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Kohyu Nishimura4 months ago
continued・・・
On the contrary, many documents were found warning private brokers not to force women to work against their will
Army memorandum 2197, issued on March 4, 1938, explicitly prohibits recruiting methods that fraudulently employ the army's name or that can be classified as abduction, warning that those employing such methods have been punished. A Home Affairs Ministry directive (number 77) issued on February 18, 1938, states that the recruitment of "comfort women" must be in compliance with international law and prohibits the enslavement of abduction of women. A directive (number 136) issued on November 8 the same year, moreover, orders that only women who are 21 years old or over and are already professionally engaged in the trade may be recruited as "comfort women." It also requires the approval of the woman's family or relatives.
A historian who claims that the number of "comfort women" reached 200,000 - a contention frequently quoted in the US media - believes, on the other hand, that the memorandum offers proof of the army's active involvement.
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Kohyu Nishimura4 months ago
No historical document has ever been found by historians or research organizations that positively demonstrates that women were forced against their will into prostitution by the Japanese army.
A search of the archives at the Japan Center for Asian Historical Records, which houses wartime orders from the government and military leaders, turned up nothing indicating that women were forcibly rounded up to work as ianfu, or comfort women."
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SkepticBob4 months ago
Do you expect a search of the JAPAN Center... archives gives a fair and balanced treatment of the subject? Covering up war crimes is common. All nations do it.
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kittykat554 months ago
What The Japan Center for Asian Historical Records has are actual historical records or official documentations related to Asia and Japan relations from the National Archives. Korean researchers do use the archives too.
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Sizzla4 months ago
The amount of disgusting and downright insulting comments left by Japanese netizens and their army of apologists is disturbing but unfortunately par for the course when it comes to anything related to comfort women published in English.
To those who claim there are no official documents that corroborate the claims made by former comfort women leave out one hugely inconvenient and indisputable fact. The Imperial Japanese Army knew months ahead of their official surrender that they were destined to lose the war. Knowing this, Japan's leaders then implemented a campaign focused on damage control and their main objective was to destroy any official documents or evidences that corroborated their numerous war crimes and atrocities. This is a FACT. Docs relating to comfort women were among those that were destroyed. Despite this systematic destruction of evidence, some documents still exist and a few have been unearthed by Japanese researchers in the last two-three decades (Yoshimi...google him). Some also speculate (with merit) that the Japanese gov. currently still has some of these docs and that these are among the many files that are still closely guarded and highly classified.
Now let's pretend for arguments' sake that there was no documentary evidence (which is absolutely not the case). The most compelling evidence that should be considered is the personal testimony of those surviving women who were victimized as sexual slaves by the IJA. There are women from Korea, China, Taiwan, Philippines, Southeast Asia, Dutch, etc. etc. that have consistently told the same story so it's not some personal vendetta from citizens from one or two countries. This is a multinational group of old women who deserve to be officially recognized by Japan's government and deserve to be memorialized so that these apologists and revisionists don't ever have the opportunity to victimize them again with their lies and accusations of being willing child prostitutes.
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iida4 months ago
>Docs relating to comfort women were among those that were destroyed.
Can you give me evidence other than your imagination?
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Pak4 months ago
>Docs relating to comfort women were among those that
>were destroyed.
Then, why we can find numerous government/military documents that supports our statement: comfort women were well-paid prostitutes?
Would you explain to us before you humiliate, disgrace, and discriminate Japan and Japanese?
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Kohyu Nishimura4 months ago
Questions by member of The House of Representative Nakayama @The House of Representatives on March 8, 2013
"This was not truth that comfort women were yanked forcibly"
8th March 2013
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ausRSDUxKr4
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Kohyu Nishimura4 months ago
I post again.
All American may have to learn the basic first step of the history between Japan and Korea.
If you would be able to find any historical facts, most of all American、rational intellectual prudent, would understand the facts about so-called "comfort woman", as many American always watch many news about the case some Korean women had been forced to return their country by American police now.
So I would like to recommend the my article translated in English for an authoritative Japanese opinion-magazine "WiLL" bellow.
*Summary: http://www.sdh-fact.com/CL02_2/78_S1.pdf
*Full text: http://www.sdh-fact.com/CL02_1/97_S4.pdf
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Sizzla4 months ago
Those laughable pdf files that you've linked to tell us all any informed person should know about you. The organization that you present as a non biased source is notorious for their outrageous attempts of revisionist history and even more hilariously is named the "Society the Dissemination of Historical Fact (sic)". These people claim that America was the aggressor in WW2, that Japan was a victim that was merely trying to liberate their Asian brother from the yoke of Western Imperialism. They deny well established facts and more disturbingly deny any responsibility for Japan's war crimes. In short...they are joke and anyone who cites them as a credible source is even more of a joke.
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Kohyu Nishimura4 months ago
i know you are not only rational and intellectual, but just a coward, mean, anonymous, racist.
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Kohyu Nishimura4 months ago
Yes,there is No historical document has ever been found by historians or research organizations that positively demonstrates that women were forced against their will into prostitution by the Japanese army.
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ja076574 months ago
So you expect the military to keep activity logs on all of it's prostitution events? Interesting...
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iida4 months ago
Were they really "sex slaves" ? doubt it.
"They lived in near-luxury in Burma in comparison to other places."
"While in Burma they amused themselves by participating in sports events with both officers and men, and attended picnics, entertainments, and social dinners. They had a phonograph and in the towns they were allowed to go shopping."
"The girls were allowed the prerogative of refusing a customer. "
"...there were numerous instances of proposals of marriage and in certain cases marriages actually took place."
http://www.exordio.com/1939-1945/codex/Documentos/...
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soupbowl4 months ago
Last year, Nikon cancelled a photo exhibition of wartime sex slaves, and the Japan Visual Journalist Association slammed Nikon's censorship. If the subject matter is "bogus" as claimed by the posters here, then why would the Japanese visual journalists complain? Read the news here on The Japan Times (in English): http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2012/05/29/news/v...
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Kohyu Nishimura4 months ago
you just have only read a biased news paper.
Japan Times is well known to ordinal Japanese people as anti-Japan ultra left wing media.
I know many Japanese journalists protested such a silly propaganda anti-japan event.
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soupbowl4 months ago
Dear Star Ledger, you sounds like you don't know whom to believe, then perhaps you should listen to the Australian: http://www.awm.gov.au/exhibitions/alliesinadversit...
and Amnesty International Australia:
http://www.amnesty.org.au/comfort
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Pak4 months ago
Ａｕｓｔｒａｌｉａｎ/Netherlands women were not comfort women. They are rape victims. Korean/Chinese advocates/lobbyists take advantage of those cases for their propaganda. They mingle those rape cases with the comfort woman issue to disgrace Japan.
They were raped for about 2 months in Indonesia against the Japan's military rule. Just after the rape cases were reported to a Japanese colonel, he immediately shut down the comfort station that the criminals used to rape those women. The criminals were taken to courts and punished already. Some were sentenced to death. Korean/Chinese exaggerate this case and generalize it to the entire comfort woman issue to disgrace Japan/Japanese people.
Amnesty International is connected to Rep Mike Honda who has been humiliating Japan and Japanese people. Though most Amnesty International's jobs are respected, they seem to have been misled to disgrace Japan. Mike Honda gets money from a powerful Chinese lobbyist group.
When we talk about women's right these days, everything, any accusation could be justified. Be careful when you accuse any people, any country. If you don't have sufficient objective evidence, it is highly likely that you will make a false accusation. Isn't it something that Amnesty wants to correct - false accusation??
Amnesty International does not like Japan because we support capital punishment. Then it is easily understandable that they jumped onto the propaganda.
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soupbowl4 months ago
Dear Star Ledger, do not listen to "Pak's" lie. I know the history. Do you suppose the Korean/Chinese/Phillipinos/Taiwanese/Australian/Malaysian...etc. all come together to do a consipiracy?
Those women were forced into sex slavary, and "Pak" insults them even more by discrediting their testimonies.
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Pak4 months ago
@soupbowl
Listen to the testimonies carefully that Chinese/Phillipinos/Taiwanese/Australian/Malaysian make. As far as I read/listened to, assuming that their stories are all true, their testimonies cannot prove that Japanese government/military abducted those women/girls.
If government/military abducted those women systematically, there has to be a written order. Also, again, assuming that all of their stories are true, they were RAPED by Japanese soldiers. On the contrary, we have found so many government orders to protect comfort women from sex brokers/traders. An example was that one order says that the brothel owners have to pay, if I remember correctly, 70% of payment from clients to comfort women. Some brothel owners did not give payments to comfort women, then, the military order was to secure their income they deserved to receive.
You mix up those rape cases with the prostitution system to disgrace, humiliate Japan and Japanese. We, Japanese, are totally upset at your propaganda.
The US military also says that the comfort women were just prostitutes
- A US Military Report: Japanese Prisoner of War Interrogation Report No. 49.
http://www.exordio.com/1939-1945/codex/Documentos/...
Quote: “A "comfort girl" is nothing more than a prostitute or
"professional camp follower" attached to the Japanese Army for the
benefit of the soldiers.”
Why don't Americans believe its own report??
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Pak4 months ago
>If government/military abducted those women systematically, there has
>to be a written order. Also, again, assuming that all of their stories are
>true, they were RAPED by Japanese soldiers.
I mean they were rape victims and not comfort women. Comfort women were paid prostitutes.
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Pak4 months ago
Don't forget to erect a monument for tens of thousands of Vietnamese women who were killed/raped by Korean solders atrociously/brutally during the Vietnam War.
I learned that any monument can be erected in the USA even thought those are not related to the USA.
Ms. Donovan, the Bergen County Executive would love to install a monument for the women who had never received any apology, compensation, and anything from South Korea.
There are about 30,000 children called Lai Đại Hàn (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lai_%C4%90%E1%BA%A1i_... between those women and Korean solders who have been discriminated in Vietnam. They should get sincere apology from South Korean government and alimony or something from South Korea.
Watch this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDQrISRFwmc&fea...
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Pak4 months ago
By the way, the video is subbed with Japanese but he talks in English.
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Pak4 months ago
Oops, because of the parenthesis, the link became unavailable.
Here is the link to Lai Đại Hàn.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lai_%C4%90%E1%BA%A1i_...
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Pak4 months ago
Thank you to some Korean Americans.
I have been personally conducting my counter-propaganda against Koreans but this time I was greatly moved to read this:
>However, organizations such as the Hackensack-based Korean American
>Civic Empowerment Group quickly started petitions to nix the new
>monument, or at least change the wording to take out specific references
>to the Japanese.
and I want to extend my sincere thank you to Korean Americans who raised the voice.
It was really mysterious to me to have had seen that almost no Korean/Korean-American did not question the Korean propaganda. We know that there are China and North Korea behind this controversy/propaganda in an attempt to weaken the tie between Japan and the USA but it is extremely weird that almost no South Korean spoke against the propaganda even considering their extreme anti-Japan education.
I, again, would like to say thank you to those courageous people.
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Tomoko Yamano4 months ago
字幕【テキサス親父】偽慰安婦強制連行問題の原因はこいつだ！: http://youtu.be/Tqffmz7zuWE @youtubeさんから
What is the essence of this problem?
A "comfort-women problem" begins to be made for business.
Probably, American people are going to be used for South Koreans' business.
No less than 50,000 South Korean prostitutes are in Japan.
Americans must not be involved in South Koreans' "comfort-women business", either.
The compensation of a "sex slave" will be charged in several years.
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Kohyu Nishimura4 months ago
What holocaust? are you kidding?
if you said comfort-women is same as holocaust,you would look from a racial discrimination-like viewpoint for a Japanese like Korean people.
Do you know how many Jews Japanese saved and rescued during World War II?
And you have to show the historical evidence that comfort women was same as holocaust.
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speedracer4 months ago
Why would we worry about insulting Japan? We should have nuked the whole country. They were savages. Remember Iwo Jima and the Bataan death march? Remember the atrocities committed against the filipinos? The atrocities committed against US marines, GI's and air force?
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Ma123784 months ago
Other interesting Artikel.(January 7, 2009 )
[Ex-Prostitutes Say South Korea and U.S. Enabled Sex Trade Near Bases ]
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/08/world/asia/08kor...
-------Now, a group of former prostitutes in South Korea have accused some of their country’s former leaders of a different kind of abuse: encouraging them to have sex with the American soldiers who protected South Korea from North Korea. They also accuse past South Korean governments, and the United States military, of taking a direct hand in the sex trade from the 1960s through the 1980s, working together to build a testing and treatment system to ensure that prostitutes were disease-free for American troops.------
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Kohyu Nishimura4 months ago
And also I would like to recommend this contents.
Let us please introduce you a
videoclip which we believe is indispensable to the basic
understanding of this issue.
「Sex, Lies, and Comfort Women」
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLyKJsbw4G4&
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Orangepope4 months ago
The headline needs to be changed. Thye were"prostitute" they were compelled into it. They were slaves.
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DrJitter4 months ago
...by the families who sold them into it. selling off extra daughters into the sex trade has been an economic survival tactic in Asia for centuries, part of the culture and history. why Bergen County has to get its panties up in a knot over it at this point is beyond me. in prostitution there are always at least two willing parties-- buyer and seller. In a patriarchal society like Korea where dad (and Dear Leader Kim) have ultimate decision power it could only have been the fathers doing the selling (and the compelling) if the daughters were not willing parties to the transaction.
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Pak4 months ago
@B.Dear
It is you that seem to be ignorant.
For example, this is totally wrong.
>Perhaps you can ask the Patriarch of the Korean families
> why they where compelled to change their names to
>Japanese ones.
Koreans were not compelled to change their name to Japanese ones. In Korean history books, it is written that way, though. They distort the facts and fabricate their history. It is well-known among Asian countries.
The truth is Korean begged Japan to allow to have Japanese name. At that time Chinese looked down on Korean severely. Then they wanted to have Japanese names so that they won't be discriminated.
Again, we, Japanese, have a lot of objective evidence to support the statement I wrote above.
B.Dear, before you humiliate anyone, you should learn the fact.
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Joe Kim4 months ago
The Japanese government has already admitted that during WWII they forced women from other countries into sexual slavery for the Japanese army, and has apologized for it.
Even PM Shinzo Abe said that he feels "heartbreaking pain" when he thinks of how the comfort women's human rights were violated by Japan.
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avxnj4 months ago
Who is this "Nicky Yamazaki" quoted in the article? Chances are, "Nicky" is as bogus as her claim of no evidence.
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nlewis4 months ago
While these women may have suffered at the hands of a foreign government in a foreign land I see no need to create a memorial here. How about building one in Korea. A simple rule for public memorials in the U.S. should be: did the event we are memorializing happen here? And were the people we are memorializing Americans? Sorry this memorial doesn't meet this simple criteria. I have nothing against Korean Americans and think the same criteria should apply to a Holocaust memorial or a memorial to the Irish Potato Famine (both of which exist on public land in the NY metro area). Why not commemorate the American soldiers of the Revolution, some of whom died in the same town where the memorial is proposed. Not P.C. enough for you, then how about a memorial to the 120 or so Native Americans slaughtered in 1643 by Dutch governor Willem Kieft in the location of today's Jersey City?
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nlewis4 months ago
Oh yeah, and how about a memorial to the African American slaves executed in Hackensack following the alleged New York slave rebellion of 1740. (BTW they were burned at the stake.)
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mikynewark4 months ago
I agree with Nicky Yamazaki, totally bogus. I don't see any monuments to Polish women who were forced to bear Nazi sons.
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DrJitter4 months ago
All these NJ nail salons getting busted fronting for Korean prostitutes. Who "enslaved" these women? The Japanese Imperial Army?
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B.Dear4 months ago
You are an idiot. It's that simple.
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2wm4 months ago
First off, who pays for these stupid monuments? Taxpayers? We the people?
Second, who cares....... why would we waste our hard earned taxpayer money on things such as this when we still have homeless and hungry men, women and children in this country?
Just my curiosity coming out I guess.....
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DrJitter4 months ago
We would do best to stay out of this. Sorry to burst the PC bubble here, but you don't even need to research original sources to know that Asian families have been selling their spare daughters into the sex trade for centuries, and that the prostitution industry closely follows the movement of armies around the globe. Military authorities have long understood the necessity of working with local govts to establish licensed brothels to prevent spread of disease among the troops. Though they will vociferously deny it, the S.Korean govt itself has long been in the business of providing "comfort women" to American soldiers stationed there, and provided the same service to the Japanese, because it was and remains a lucrative trade. The idea that the Japanese Army came marching in and "enslaved" Korean women is a total crock. So where were the fathers and brothers in all this? We don't hear much about that because the records show they were making pretty good money off all this enslavement. Point a finger, and there are three pointing right back at you. Instead of demonizing another community (the Japanese) that has served Bergen county (and our country very well), the Korean community needs hit the pause button on the grudge-mongering & ask itself a few hard questions. If I was the Japanese community I would sue Fort Lee and every one of these towns putting up these memorials as it creates a hostile environment in the community for Japanese based on grievances that they had nothing to do with. That would really put a curb on our politicians' greed for Korean cash once they see that money start flying out of the borough treasuries.
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dk4 months ago
Are you saying that the Japanese did not forcefully occupy other countries?
What was the attack on Pearl Harbor then? The Japanese saw the US as a threat to their expanding empire.
Countries occupied by Japan nearly had their cultures erased, and replaced with revisionist history proclaiming how Japan was bringing these primitive people into the modern age. It is a fact that a significant part of Asia and the Pacific was enslaved by the Japanese.
But I don't think that we should continue to put up plaques that bring up the horrible past. There are already monuments for these women, why do they need more?
The current Japan is not the same as the Japan of WWII.
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dortelere4 months ago
I think some of this discussion is misplaced. Such a memorial should be everlasting. So it is to cause awareness on the part of those who in the future will be too young to remember. The purpose of such memorials has changed. It is not done today for our own consolation but to teach those that come later of an earlier tragedy or injustice.
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IFHTC4 months ago
NJ needs to STOP with these STUPID 'Memorials'.
Kids shot at a school? Give them a memorial.
Kids molested at church? Give them a memorial.
Government flies a few planes into buildings? Blame someone else THEN give them a MEMORIAL.
How about some CLASS? Memorials are not for everything and what we choose to memorialize is just insane. As is calling someone a prostitute who was forced into sex work. That is not a prostitute that is a sex slave. Big difference.
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Mary Beth Jahn4 months ago
Wow, did you wake up on the cranky side of the bed today. What's wrong, no one has changed your soiled Depends yet? If you don't like memorials, don't look at them. They give great comfort to people who have lost loved ones through no fault of their own.
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2wm4 months ago
I'm not against memorials, as long as they are on private property and not paid for with tax dollars.
We really need to get our priorities straight and use our money a little more wisely.
And memorials for people who had problems in the past, in another country?
I May understand if it happened here, but I'm not really into having a Memorial for the plight of the Turkish farmer who had problems in 1462.
We need to draw a line somewhere.....
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trueaccount4 months ago
The City of San Francisco puts up a memorial plaque for every street person found dead in an alley.
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NJNANNA4 months ago
This is nuts, make a memorial to all the women and kids that were left behinh here when their fathers, husbands, brothers, uncles, and many other family men were killed and they were left to fend for themselves here. Many did without and many worked for the WPA and never knew what was going on over there because there was hardly any mail. Let Japan feel guilty about what they did, and lets honor our own unsung warriors .They started this mess, send them the plaque and tell them to hang it. Tax payer money for something so stupid, no wonder we are broke.
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Tradizione4 months ago
Inacurrate and inflammatory headline, shame on you! Nowhere in the text of the article is the word 'prostitute' used; indeed, the article acknowledges the women were enslaved.
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NJCrazyDad4 months ago
Putting aside the reasons for the memorial or the choice of location, this has to be the dumbest reason to re-do the wording. Because the Japanese are going to be offended for something they did? Are we supposed to expunge the name of the guilty everywhere? I guess Pearl Harbor was the result of a meteor. It is healthy for a culture to come to grips with what they've done. And it's healthy for all of us to realize it happened and could happen again. Please stop this PC nonsense!!!
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Mary Beth Jahn4 months ago
Seeing as the Korean-American groups, whose ancestors were victimized by this practice, are asking for a rewording because their relatives in Korea and Japan have come to grips with this particular horror of war, it's absolutely appropriate. Think of it as a lesson learned from the war.
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DINO!4 months ago
Bergen County and Fort Lee you must be kidding us, right?! Wasting tax dollars on plaques and monuments to honor foriegn prostitutes and hookers.
Pathetic!
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ammo17ae4 months ago
the only monuments that should be built in this country is those honoring american citizens,and that goes for the holocaust museums they belong in europe especially in germany and the balkan countries.
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deacon854 months ago
Who at NJ.com signed off on the "prostitutes" headline? These women were not prostitutes, they were forced into sexual slavery. And while I can't fathom the argument that this didn't happen (it's in the history books, folks; a lot of what happened in WW II is open to debate, but this happened), I also don't see the need for a memorial at this location. Why not memorials to victims of Nanking, or Stalingrad, or Dresden or London? The list is limitless.
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justintime734 months ago
i agree with your take on the headline, it struck me the same way. could someone please explain all it to dino?
the reason that this memorial is right for this location is the 23.5% of the fort lee population (2010 census) that is korean-american
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deacon854 months ago
I understand that's the rationale for the memorial in Fort Lee, but it is a good idea to use that as the criteria for locating memorials? I can appreciate the desire for a memorial, but I just don't think it should depend on having a significant portion of the population being of an ancestry of people that were victimized. Just my opinion.
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DINO!4 months ago
Thanks for your post justintime73...but I'm just voicing my opinion in this open forum to the article pally...I don't work for the SL or nj.com, so your issue with the headline is with the media, not me...but if you rationale is correct, why don't we just erect plaques and monuments honoring Italians, Germans, Irish, etc. from foriegn countries that have been mistreated abroad all over the Garden State with the tax payers money. So when your property taxes increase letter arrives in the mail, and you feel your pocket has been picked again, just think about the feel good of your money going to wasteful spending like this.
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Ovaljoe4 months ago
Last time I rode through Palisades Park, I don't remember seeing a Monument to Korean War (Iam sorry "Conflict") G.I. s maybe there, maybe I missed it......
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JenfromNJ4 months ago
Oh, brother. The truth is going to offend someone. Boo hoo.
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bospherus4 months ago
We will never forget what the evil Japanese did during the WWII era. How this respectful and decent society became so twisted is a study in Fascism and its consequences. If it was up to me I would erect statues honoring the ones who suffered in the Philippines, Nanking, and Burma alongside the Korean statue; for surely these horrors must never be forgotten or repeated.
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justintime734 months ago
well said
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justintime734 months ago
propaganda? yeah, right, the nanking massacre never happened either. or the bataan death march. denial don't work. the comfort women, relatively speaking, were lucky. they lived through it
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thedalek4 months ago
Remember Pearl Harbor! Try and re-write that, Hirohito!
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Toshihide Masaki4 months ago
we want you to investigate the fact what the real history is.
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