Is Lee's speeches a cause for concern?

Lee's speeches here a cause for concern

05/26/2007
BY TSUYOSHI NOJIMA, THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
There is nothing wrong with the old guy, Former Taiwan President Lee Tenghui, speaking in public in Japan on whatever he wants to speak.
The freedom of speech is guaranteed to the foreigners.
It is China who cares, and it is also Asahi who cares and maybe some so called China-school government officials are also concerned.
But, Asahi should have made it clear, as it has been doing concerning human rights, that Lee has every right to speak whatever he wants, and China should refrain from interfering the freedom of speech.
That is why many people point out Asahi is politically biased--- biased in favor of China.

A new Japan

Manila, as chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, has assured Tokyo that ASEAN is supporting Japan’s efforts to amend its pacifist constitution. The amendment will allow Japan to create a regular military and take on a greater role in regional and global security.

abc
Keep in mind there are countries in Asia that consider China a threat. It is a matter of power balance.
via Japan probe

Chinese Zoo feeds live cow to tigers during public show"

link
(contains some disturbing scenes )
(Why do I know it ? because Japanese TV news picked it it up.)

Revising the article 9

Just a quick look at the point of disputes on revising the article 9.
Of course this is not a complete list.

Necessity

pros
(1) UN activities
Yomiuri

In areas where it's too dangerous for civilians to be involved in international cooperation activities, the Self-Defense Forces are inevitably expected to be dispatched.Yomiuri

(2)Alliance
(a) The deeper commitment to the allies will ensure more security

Yanai

it is essential to shore up this country's alliance with the United States and play an active role in international peace cooperation activities. Doing so will help to ensure our own peace and security.Yomiuri

(b)Exercise of collective defence is necessary for it.
Nukaga

Should the situation be allowed to persist in which even if our radar detects a missile that may hit the United States, can't we intercept it?Yomiuri

cons

Protecting foreign troops working near Japanese forces during U.N. peacekeeping operations can also be understood in the context of using weapons to ensure security. In addition, the United States would likely be the only country that could trigger a Japanese right to collective self-defense, but the SDF also works with troops from other countries on peacekeeping operations.

Transporting weapons as logistic support for multinational and other forces often comes with use of force, and the Japanese Constitution does not allow this anyway.

Another case proposes using SDF missile defense systems to intercept ballistic missiles fired at the United States. However, current SDF systems are not capable of intercepting missiles to the United States. This may become possible in the future due to technological advances, but it is questionable if such detailed discussion is necessary when the future of missile defense systems is uncertain.Asahi

Supposing there are necessities, is the revision necessary?

pros
You can not stretch the interpretation endlessly.
cons

"The Constitution must be interpreted in a manner that reflects the fundamental changes taking place in our security environment.

Risks
Omae
Depending on the interpretation, it may open the way for Japan to preemptive attack---for, instance, since there is a sign that NK will attack the U.S, we're going to attack N.K.
Nikkei
Ebata/Nikkei

Tawara
There would be more risks for Japan to get involved in the battle fields if we revised the article 9 .:Japan avoided
landing on the battle fields ,for instance, in Afganistan, because of the article 9.

Tawara
Granted the reform is necessessary, we need to impose several strict restrictions.
Tawara
Nikkei

Bragging

The best tourists in the world are the Japanese, followed by Americans and the Swiss, a survey based on views from hoteliers across Europe said.

Japanese tourists stood out for being polite and tidy, securing 35% more votes than the Americans who came second.

Swiss tourists were commended for being quiet and considerate, unlike the Britons who were judged to be the fifth worst tourists because of rude behaviour, noise and a miserly attitude to tipping......Based on responses from 15,000 European hoteliers, the survey carried out on behalf of travel website Expedia showed that the worst tourist nation was France, followed by India, China and Russia. the worst tourist nation was France, followed by India, China and Russia..May 23,Source: Reuters

(^_-)

The moon and comfort women

See also comfort women depicted in the film


The following is the essay by an Asahi journalist in which comfort women were described. The book in which the essay was included was published in 1953 , long before the comfort women drew attention to the public as an international issue. The setting was April 1945 shortly before the war ended..

It was unusual that a rain cloud cleared and the moon appeared---the Burma moon that I saw through the leaves in a jungle----our emotion was too dried up to be sentimental about the moon, but the moon reminded me the day before we pulled out from Rangoon.
That day too, a rain cloud cleared and the moon shined over the golden Shwe Dagon pagoda. The moon was thoroughly blue. A captain and I were sitting on the street, with the legs throwing over on the asphalt road.
Across the street were sitting 4 or 5 comfort women. At first they lured us persistently to stay up , saying "the money does not matter, just stay up, we are lonely."
They didn't know that the military headquarters were pulling out the next day, but it seemed to be certain that they sensed something unusual was going on; there was no customer. And here we were, two military officers turned up at night. They said they didn't care about the money because they felt lonely. It might have been rather me who felt more lonely.

The next to the comfort station stood the branches of Japanese movies company and Japanese movies distribution company. There were a lot of films in the distributive company, so the head of information service had ordered the chief of branch to get rid of them so that British troop might not abuse them; We were there at night to confirm the job was done. The films were thrown into a waterlogged trench, the two branches were tidied up---the job had been well done. And it was on the way home we had this conversation with the women as a reward.

" For free, enjoy till the morning"----The Korea woman almost twenty years old went so far as to say that.
She was in a slip, with thighs showing, slapping a mosquito sometimes.

Why didn't I tell them to get out of Rangoon because the situation was threatening? I asked the question to myself, looking up at the moon---until that time I had been a military officer and I had been too afraid of military regulation--- from this time on I would be be finally a decent man again .

via ステージ風発
..................................................................................

「月と慰安婦たち」

（沢山勇三著の「白旗をかかげて」から）

　珍らしく雨雲が途切れて、月が顔を見せた。ジャングルの葉ごしに見るビルマの月――月に感傷を托すには、われわれの感情線は固渇しすぎていたがそれでも、その月は私に四月前のラングーン撤退前夜を偲ばせた。

　その晩も珍らしく晴れて月がシュエダゴン・パゴダの黄金色の尖端を照らしていた。青い青い月だった。私とも一人大尉は、コンクリートの人道に腰を下して、アスファルトの車道に長々と足を投げ出していた。

向かいあって、四、五人の朝鮮出身の慰安婦がしゃがみ込んでいた。はじめ慰安婦たちは、我々に泊まってゆけとしつこくすすめたのである。「お金なんかどうでもいいんだよ。淋しいから泊っていきなさい」と彼女らは言った。

明日、軍司令部が撤退するというのに、彼女らは何も知らないのである。ただ何か異様な雰囲気だけは感じていたことに間違いはない。客がさっぱりなかった。そこへ夜ふけて将校がふたり現れたのである。金は要らないから泊っていけ。淋しいというのだ。

　私の方がどれだけ淋しかったか知れない。慰安所に隣り合って、日本映画社と日本映画配給社の両支局があった。映配の方には、沢山の映画のフィルムがあった。英軍に見付けられて利用されるといけないという報道部長の考えで、これを処分することを支局長に命令してあったが、これを確認するために、われわれ二人が夜中近くになって行ったのだった。フィルムは壕の中へ投げこんで水浸しにしてあった。そして両支局ともさっぱりと片付けてあった。まずこれでよし――そして帰りがけの駄賃の彼女らとの雑談であった。

「タダでもいいよ、朝まで遊んでいきなさい」

　私の前にいた二十歳にもなるまいと思われる娘はとうとうそんなにまで言った。太股までむき出しにしたシュミーズ一枚の恰好で、時々蚊をぴしゃぴしゃと叩きつけていたっけ――

　あの時、危いから早くラングーンを逃出すようになぜ話してやらなかったか――私はジャングルの月に向って自問自答して見た。そうだ。あのころまでは、私はまだ軍人だった。軍紀がこわかった。――これから俺は人間に返る。――

Where is the" East Sea"?

Ask Chinese people where the East Sea is, probably they will answer it is the East China Sea.

The East China Sea is a marginal sea east of China. It is a part of the Pacific Ocean and covers an area of 1,249,000 km². In China, the sea is called the East Seawiki

Ask Vietnam people where the East Sea is, probably they will answer, it is the South China Sea.

Southern Vietnam has the Mekong River, which originates in China, and flows through Laos and Cambodia before entering Vietnam. In Vietnam, the river splits into nine tributaries before flowing into the East SeaVN Embassy

In Vietnam, it is called the Eastern Sea (Biển Đông)wiki

Ask Korean people where the East Sea is, probably they will answer it is the sea of Japan......No? Or was it the sea of peace, or Corean Sea?

ＨＴ日本の評判

The United Nation Charter article 51

UPDATE
Anpontan
posted a insightful comment on Japan's constitution.

Article 51

Nothing in the present Charter shall impair the inherent right of individual or collective self-defence if an armed attack occurs against a Member of the United Nations, until the Security Council has taken measures necessary to maintain international peace and security. Measures taken by Members in the exercise of this right of self-defence shall be immediately reported to the Security Council and shall not in any way affect the authority and responsibility of the Security Council under the present Charter to take at any time such action as it deems necessary in order to maintain or restore international peace and security.

第51条

　この憲章のいかなる規定も、国際連合加盟国に対して武力攻撃が発生した場合には、安全保障理事会が国際の平和及び安全の維持に必要な措置をとるまでの間、個別的又は集団的自衛の固有の権利を害するものではない。この自衛権の行使に当って加盟国がとった措置は、直ちに安全保障理事会に報告しなければならない。また、この措置は、安全保障理事会が国際の平和及び安全の維持または回復のために必要と認める行動をいつでもとるこの憲章に基く権能及び責任に対しては、いかなる影響も及ぼすものではない。

Japanese government admits that Japan has the right of individual self-defence despite the article 9 of the constitution*, because it is inherent right that can not be deprived of , but she has denied the right to collective self-defence.
This is inconsistent.
If the right of both individual and collective right are inherent right, Japanese constitution as it is can be interpreted as allowing Japan to exercise the right of
collective defence.

Anyway, people are talking about reforming the constitution, in particular the article 9. I think what should be taken into account is which view would contribute to the peace and prosperity of Japan and the world more. Admitting the right to collective self-defence does not necessarily means Japan can not remain peace.


I need to study more.



*

Article 9:
1)
Aspiring sincerely to an international peace based on justice and order, the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes.
2)
In order to accomplish the aim of the preceding paragraph, land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained. The right of belligerency of the state will not be recognized.

Sankei interview with Gerry

There is nothing especially new in the interview. The article reads:
He was fired when he insisted that Dokdo historically belonged to Japan.
He insists that Japan should tell the fact to the world
He was employed by another university in Korea.
The interviewer was warned by Gerry, told that Gerry got investigated by a intelligent service immediately after the interview.
To the question why Gerry has come to the same conclusion without knowledge of Japanese argument, he answered, "The truth is one and can not be bent."

infimum

Anyway it was good Sankei run the article on Gerry. He deserves more attention.

What is more interesting is the article about Dokdo academy in Korea. According to the academy, Japan has 6 step scenario to steal Dokdo.

1 continuous activity for the claim to the territory.
2 preparation to make the issue authentic
3 promote activities to put the issue on the UN meeting
4 create the military crisis to invite the UN intervention
5 file a suit to the ICJ
6 the party who lost the case will initiate military action

http://kukkuri.blog58.fc2.com/blog-entry-156.html#more

I really envy the way they imagine things.

Yuki Tanaka on sexual violence by military(3)

Recreation and Amusement Association


Japanese prepared the comfort stations for GIs for sure, and it is also true that Japanese police was involved. Thus in the official history of police forces is written the following.

The recruitment was carried out mainly through labor brokers, but ....officers checked the names and addresses of former licensed prostitutes from the list held in the police station, visited the villages in the mountains and seacoast areas when these women lived , gave them blankets , socks and sugar and asked their cooperation by persuading the to work again for the sake of the nation and for the safety of the Japanese people. page 135

And

Despite having given the RAA initial verbal permission for "open recruitment," two month later the police issued an instruction warning the RAA and its labor broker not to "unfairly recruit women by using exaggerated or false expressions, or by suppressing the names of employers.(page 147)

but as I blogged before, a Japanese testified that he was requested to set up the stations. Well the governor of Kanagawa has a different story-----he was blackmailed.

The US officer had said,
It is expected that women in our home country would blame us , if we asked you to set up pleasure facilities. Therefore we can not request you to do so.. However if you don not provide us with such facilities voluntarily, many troubles tend to occur. As far as these kinds of facilities are concerned , our MP is prepared to co-operate with you if necessary. I presume that the occupation of japan by our troops will be about three years at maximum if no trouble occurs but if there are many troubles, I am afraid that it might be 10 to 15 years. page 151

How was the situation of comfort women ?

According to a survey conducted in 1949 by Isuhima Tsutomu on 500 prostitutes specializing in services for GIs, 26.8 percent said that they had become prostitutes in order to earn a living ...The second most common reason(22. 8 percent) was the despair that women experienced as a result of rape by GIs page 149

Comfort women were subjected to numerous instances of sexual violence. Foe example, on the evening of September 4, three Australian soldiers visited a comfort station at Higashiyama in Kyoto. ..they insisted on being accompanied by three comfort women to their hotel, where their fellow Australian soldiers were staying. The manager of the station refused the request. However, they forcibly took the women away , shouting at the manager that "Japan lost the war and your police have no power at all !"' page 149

The US is supposed to act on morally high ground, at least that is what we often hear.

Unless VD rates were reduced, the problem would become publicly known and taken up by the media, to the great embarrassment of occupation authorities. This dilemma can be clearly seen in the letter that James Gordon wrote to General MacArthur on January 22, 1946, ... In it, he wrote;
It is reasonable to assume that back-home news accounts of increasing VD rates, licensed prostitution (or perhaps, its abolition), "temporary wives", fraternization and related subjects will create considerable demand from official and domestic sources for special consideration and action on the problem. The probable result will be an increase of critical visitors unless their demands for information are anticipated and forestalled.

As a last resort, on March 25, 1946, GHQ adopted a drastic, nationwide measure. It placed "off-limits" all brothels, comfort station, houses of private prostitution, and "restaurants and bars" that operated prostitution. page 162

Shortly before the introduction of the the nationwide "off limits" the number of reported cases of sexual crimes committed by GIs in Japan was down to about 40 per day. It is said that the number suddenly jumped to about 330 cases per day from late March 1946. The most well known case was an incident that occurred on April 4, 1946, at Nakamura Hospital in Omori district.....three military trucks stopped in front of the hospital, throwing their headlight upon the hospital building. Then , at the signal of a whistle, about 50 US soldiers dashed out of the trucks and invaded the hospital ....They raped all 17 nurses on night duty , about 20 nursing assistants, and more than 40 female patients, including a woman who had just delivered a baby. A two-day-old baby was thrown out of the mother's bed onto the floor and killed .
....Another large scale organized rape occurred in Nagoya...they had come in jeep and truck, they cut off the telephone lines of the entire block and intruded into a number of houses simultaneously, raping many girls and women between the ages of 10 and 55 years.

If Japan had been ruled by CCP, she would have shamelessly had someone write "the rape of Japan" , she would have set up the museum for it, and shot the film as political weapons while ignoring its own wrongs.
If Japan had the leaders like Korean politicians and the media, she would not let this story go and she would shamelessly use it forever to bash whatever countries concerned, how many times she apologized while completely apathetic to the victims of the same kind by their own government and society.
Keep in mind the U.S. congressional research institute used the book to support its article. Surely Mike Honda and Onishi, righteous men, will start campaigning against the former allies, and other human right activists like Debito will work hardest to make the US and Korean government apologize for the first time----No?

Yuki Tanaka on sexual violence by military(2)

[T]he Japanese man asked the soldier to write a letter guaranteeing that he would return the car. The following is what he wrote:

One car(Buick)
Model "1930". To be used by the U.S. Gov. for purpose of transporting high ranking officers on official business. After all who won the war, you or me? This certifies that this car is to be used to pick up any girls who fuck, and further ore who cares what the hell is it to you.
G.I. Johpha(signed)
17-fort[sic} soldiers of the winning army, U.S.A.
on this date 19. Sept. 1945.

Indeed, some of these vehicle were used for kidnapping and raping young women....

Page118
About 6 o'clock, in the afternno of Septemer 1st, two American soldiers, in a truck forced two Japanese to guide them around the Yokohama city. When they came to Shojikiro, at Eirakucho, nakaku, they forced Miss K.Y., aged 24, a maidservant, to boad the truck against her will and absconded to the US Barracks in nogeyama Park. There altogether 27 of the American soldiers violated he in turn and rendered her unconcious page 121

Clifton was a young Australian junior officers of the BCOF(British Commonwealth Occupation Forces) who acted as an interpreter and criminal investigation. The following passages are some extracts from his memoirs.:

I stood besides a bed in a hospital. On it lay a girl, unconscious, her long black hair in wild tumult on the pillow. A doctor and two nurses were working to revive her. An hour before she had been raped by twenty soldiers. ..The girl was Japanese. The soldiers were Australians.
.....
Staying indoors was not sufficient to give women protection. One evening a young married woman was reading a book in bed in a hotel. Her husband was absent for the night on business......She awoke a little later to find a huge Australian soldier kneeling beside her, and another swaying in the doorway, his drunken leer telling more clearly than any speech or gesture what was to follow....The police , having no power , could do no more than inform us, when it was too late.
.......In accordance with army law the court's decision was forwarded to Australian for confirmation. Some time later the documents were returned marked "Conviction quashed because of insufficient evidence."
page 126

Well, Tanaka's documentation goes on.



Competing to have sex with Japanese female employee

....Mieoko decided to go home. An officer named Major Wilson offered to take her home, She accepted this offer and got into his car, Wilson took her to a barely field far from town and raped her in the car. Eventually he left her at a nearby railway station.
Mieko did not go to the office for the following four days, However, she eventually decided to return to work, blaming herself over her carelessness that invited Wilson's misbehaviour. Just a few days after returning to work, GI raped her in the office. It took place when she was working overtime and everyone had gone home. While she was being raped a member of the military police watched through an office window. . Far from trying to stop the rape, he said, "Hey, hey, nice. and disappeared. page 130

....lists of names of officers and junior officer's name appeared lip marks signifying now how many Japanese women that officers had "conquered."page 130

One may question why a woman would return to the office......it must be remembered that economic conditions in immediate postwar Japan was appalling and most Japanese civilians were desperately struggling to survive from day to day. page 131

Japanese police was powerless against GI's crime

Many of the extortion cases involve attempts y GIs to steal sabres and pistols from Japanese policemen. In some cases a small group of GIs surrounded a few police men on patrol in the street or on duty in a police box and forced them to hand over their weapons. It seems that many GIs wanted to take these arms back home as "spoils of war". Some of these extorted pistols were also used later in burglaries of Japanese homes and shops. page 118

... In another abduction case , at about 3, 30 pm on September 2, a policeman and some civilians walking down a street in Isogo ward, Yokohama city , saw a woman in her thirties who was madly crying for help in a car driven by a GI. Another GI was in the car too. Neither the policeman nor the civilians could do anything to rescue her. page 121

There are many other similar cases in Yokosuka and Yokohama, Cases arose in Tokyo, too, as the US troop moved into the metropolitan area from September 8.....
It was not just healthy young woman who fell victim to GIs sexual violence. ....at around 4;00 pm on the same day, these soldiers, then heavily intoxicated , returned and gang-raped K.T.'s sister, a 47-year-old woman, who was in bed suffering from spinal caries. page 121

....according to the testimony of Sugiura Tomoe... one night two drunken GI's barged into her house on the outskirts of Tokyo at around 10;00 pm. They threaten her father with a knife and demanded money. Once they got the money , they bound her father to a pillar and raped her mother. While mother was being attacked. , Tomoe and her 15-year-old sister , Naoko, were too terrified to move or call for help. After soldiers had raped the mother they bound her the same pillar and proceeded to rape Tomoe and Naoko in front of their parents. Naoko died from blood loss. Her father reported Naoko's death to the police station....Two police men and a doctor came to the house and took evidence. but that was the only time that police contacted them about the matter. page 122.

If Japanese police had been powerless, then there would have been no other way but to ask and plead GHQ to stop the crimes.

Almost every day from early September, the Japanese government officially complained to GHQ, thought CLO. about the numerous crimes that the US occupation troops were committing against Japanese civilians and public servants, in particular policemen....GHQ asked the Japanese authorities to provide more detailed information on offenders.....On September 27, GHQ asked the Japanese government to ensure that any report of criminals offences committed by soldiers be accompanied by some clue to identify the criminal. However, it was quite difficult fro ordinary Japanese people to describe the particular features of the US soldiers(who wore the same uniforms), let alone to quickly identify and memorize a should mark while being subjected to physical threat. ....
One GHQ report on crimes committed by US troops in Tokyo....says "of 100 reported cases of rape of Japanese women by US servicemen, only six have been substantiated . As evidence could be provided for only six cases , the author of this report proudly claimed that these figures reflected "the absence of serious crime waves" in Tokyo for this period .page 124

If neither MP nor GHQ had been of no help, the Japanese journalism must have been at work for justice.

yet there is no doubt that the newspaper reports on the increasing number of crimes committed by the occupation forces upset GHQ staff considerably.....On September 19, SCAP issued an memorandum on the "press code for Japan....

(article).4 There shall be no destructive criticism of the Allied Forces of Occupation and nothing which might invite mistrust or resentment of the troop.

....This censorship was introduced not only to suppress any information on crimes committed by the occupation troops, but also for many other purposes , such as information about the effects of the A-bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Comfort women; Yuki Tanaka on sexual violence of military(1)

"At 17;00 I was called to General MacArthur's quarters for a conference concerning some reported rapes cases on the part of Marines, There are also reports of some "acting up" on the part of 11th Airborne troop..."

It is interesting to note that the subject of the very first meeting between the top two military men of the US occupation forces immediately after the surrender ceremony was neither "the democratization of Japan " nor "the future status of Emperor Hirohito" but "rape by Marines"
Page123 Japan's Comfort Women/Yuki Tanaka

Mike Honda of the US representative and Onish of NYT are really righteous men, they want to make Japan to issue further apologies, because the several apologies by Japanese government are not "sincere" enough. He referred to the Congressional research, and the research referred to the book "Japan's comfort women" by Yuki Tanaka. But I think it was ironical the US congressional research cited Tanaka's book.
As far as I read the book, there is nothing new about the part describing Japanese system of comfort station. Sure it emphasizes the coercive aspects of the system,
and the brutal cases of rape, citing testimonies of the former comfort women, and accuse Japan vehemently . (though,for some reason, it does not mention the fact Japanese police regulated illegal brokers.)
However, note the author wrote

From the available testimonies of former comfort women, it is strongly believed that kidnapping and abduction were not widely used methods of procurement. page 44

It is apparent that many young Korean turned to prostitution to provide the essential income for their poverty-stricken families to survive. A series of the articles entitled "Poverty makes prostitutes", that appeared in September 1927 in the Korean newspaper Dongah Ilbo, clearly indicates this situation. It seems many young women were sold to brothels in returned for an advance payment to their families. Many married women also became prostitutes due to financial difficulties that arose while their husband were working away from home page 35

What is new is rather the part accusing the sexual violence's on the part of the US.
Let me cite the part Honda and the research ignored.

5 Sexual violence committed by the Allied occupation forces against Japanese women 1945-1946
Page 111

Soon after the US marine landed, all the women of a village on Motobu Peninsula fell into the hands of these American soldiers. At the time , there were only women, children and old people in the village, as ll the young men had been mobilized for the war, ....Taking advantage of this situation , they started "hunting for women" in broad daylight....It was no different from the "brutal acts on conquerors," committed by the Japanese forces in China.

page 112

US troops landed on Zamami Island , ...and began raping women there in March 1945, shortly after they had landed. They abducted the women, carried them one by one to deserted coastal areas and gang-raped them.......There is also a testimonies that some Okinawan nurses and local women patients who had been admitted to the US Field Hospital were raped by US soldiers. One of the victims, a young girl patient was raped by a GI in front of her father....The rape of Okinawan women by American soldiers continued even after the war officially ended and there are many incidents in which American soldiers took young girls from civilians houses at gunpoint.

"The rape of Okinawa'?

There is a lot more, I'll come back to it later.

Yuki Tanaka (2)
Yuki Tanaka (3)

................................................................................

page 54
The managers f comfort stations were instructed by the military authorities about the "salary" arrangements for their employees." For example,....half of the fee had to be paid to the comfort women and the other half to the manager. Expenses fro meals and bedding for the comfort women were supposed to be the manager's responsibility, while those for closing, hairdressing and cosmetics had to be met by each comfort woman. In case of illness, it was stipulated that 70 percent of medial expenses be paid by the manager. ....in the case of a women for whom more than 1.500 yen had been paid in advance at the time of her recruitment, she would receive at least 40 percent of her taking....

page 55
Obviously the managers took advantage of the lack of education and the naivety of their "employees," and gave them as little information as possible regarding their due payments and expenses that the manager were expected to meet.
Available testimonies from Korean comfort women verify this point. For example, in her testimony, Yi Tungnam, a former comfort woman from Korea, described the "financial arrangement" she had with her manager, Kaneyama, whose Korean name was Kim, while working at a comfort station in Hankou:

Kaneyama said that he would keep 70 percent of our income and we would get 30 percent. He claimed to be keeping a record so that he could give us our money in one lump sum when we left the station. Sometimes, if we asked for money to buy clothes that we needed , he would give us about 20 yen each and say he had deducted it from our respective record. However, he barely gave enough money for new clothes , offering us a little perhaps once every few months. The money I had was given to me by soldiers one in a while. And even if i wanted to buy something, it was never easy to go our. Kaneyaa disapproved of us leaving the station to buy anything for the merchants up the road. He argued that we might miss the customers.

Most former comfort women testify that they received little payment from their managers and the money they did get was mainly pocket money form occasional tips from their "clients". One Korean former comfort women, Mun Okocha claims that she managed to save money given to her as tips by officer....However it seems that her case was exceptional...

infimum Says:
May 9th, 2007 at

Basically, the image of American GIs in Japan is giving out Hershey’s chocolates to children, at least that is what I thought.

Japan Center of Asian Historical Records have relevant reports on such rapes. You can search the archive with the key word “進駐軍ノ不法行為” in their homepage.
http://www.jacar.go.jp/index.html

Also, the grand-daughter of the founder of Mitsubishi built an orphanage called Elizabeth Sanders Home for mixed children. They eventually built a school called St. Stephen’s School for them. The school still exists today.
http://www.stephen-oiso.ed.jp/index.html
Topcat Says:
May 9th, 2007 at

Bender,

You are right, I should have given something credible.

I have to make a correction first:
2,536 murders (not 9,000 sorry!)
29,768 rapes
for 7 years from 1945 to 1952
(both numbers are officially reported and recorded ones as crimes, actual numbers are estimated much larger)

I should have written –

Japanese lawmakers and many Japanese journalists/ historians/ non-fiction writers say that about 2,500 murders and about 30,000 rapes were done by US soldiers during the occupation period.

衆議院議事録
http://www.shugiin.go.jp/itdb_kaigiroku.nsf/html/kaigiroku/000216620070221002.htm
”実は、その調査をしていて、早急に、ペロシ米下院議長、マイク・ホンダ議員に翻訳して差し上げてもらいたいような資料が出てきました。

　資料二を見ていただきたいと思うんですけれども、これは官報号外、昭和二十八年二月二十七日に載った第十五回国会の社会党の藤原道子議員の質問の議事録です。

　二ページ目の上段に線が引いてありますけれども、そこにはこのように書かれてあります。「米軍の暴行事件は、昨年十二月まで独立後」独立後ですよ、「八カ月間におきまして千八百七十八件を数え、なお泣き寝入りになつておりまする件数は厖大な数であろうと想像されております。」

　次に、三段目の線のところを見ていただきたいと思いますけれども、またこうも述べておられます。

　私は、米軍の日本進駐に対し、この尊い母に代つて青年の純潔と健康と堕落から青年を守つた米軍をこそ、信頼し、期待していたのであります。併しこの期待はみごとに裏切られました。基地附近の百鬼夜行の有様は、学童の勉学する所まで荒らされ、幼児さえ米兵の行為の真似をして遊ぶ状態は、ひとり日本の母を悲しませるのみならず、遠く我が子の上を思うアメリカの妻が、母たちが、若しこの実情を知りましたならば、その歎きと、当局に対する不信と憤りは、どのような結果を招くでありましようか。それとも、アメリカの婦人尊重、正義人道とは、アメリカ国内だけであつて、ヨーロッパではそれは紳士道を守るが、アジアの国々においては、その国内法を無視し、何をしてもよい、軍紀も何も通用しないことになつているのでございましようか。

　アメリカの若き兵士の妻、母の立場をもおもんぱかった格調高い日本女性議員の訴えは、読んでいて心を打つものがあると思うんですね。私は、戦後失われたものの一つに、正当な抗議をしなくてはならないときにしてこなかったことがあると思うんです。”

産経新聞阿比留記者のブログ
http://abirur.iza.ne.jp/blog/entry/130519
”(2)アメリカ
　アメリカ軍が日本に進駐したとき、最初の1か月、それも神奈川県下だけで2900件の強姦事件が発生した。7年の占領期間中には2536件の殺人と3万件の強姦事件を起こした。事態を憂慮したGHQは、ついに東京都に慰安所の設置を要求した。これはうわさや誇張ではなくれっきとした事実である。”

ＳＡＰＩＯ　2007年４月11日号　
封印されていた占領下の米兵「日本人婦女子凌辱事件」ファイル／水間政憲
http://skygarden.shogakukan.co.jp/skygarden/owa/solrenew_magcode?
sha=1&neoc=2300204107&keitai=0
ジャーナリストの水間政憲氏が国立公文書館から探し出したというファイル。ファイルは377ページに及ぶ「進駐軍ノ不法行為」(内務省警保局外事課)という手書きの原本。没収され米国に持ち去られていたものを、1973年に日本に返還された資料。
＊国立公文書館
http://www.archives.go.jp/

52-53/Top cat/anpontan/eyes wide shut
米兵による戦後沖縄の女性に対する犯罪cash

Marx's perspective which is still influential

Some of Marx'sperspective is influentical and still useful in analyzing driving factors behind internatioal relations.

In his classics works such as The Communist Manifesto, Grundrisse, and Capital, Marx predicted that the bourgeoisie would continue to create a global market and undermine any local or national barriers to its own expansion. Expansion is a necessary product of the core dynamic of capitalism: overproduction. Competition among producers drives them to cut wages, which in turn leads to a crisis of under-consumption. The only way to prevent economic collapse is to find new markets to absorb excess consumer goods. For a Marxist perspective, some form of imperialism is inevitable. By exporting population to resource rich foreign territories, a nation creates a market for industrial goods and a reliable source of natural resources. Alternately, weaker countries can face the choice of either voluntarily admitting foreign products that will undermine domestic industry or submitting to political domination, which will accomplish the same end.SEP

Comfort women : Atonement as compared with Germany

Atonement for the former comfort women:

(1)apology
Kato hief Cabinet Secretary 1992
The Government again would like to express its sincere apology and remorse to all those who have suffered indescribable hardship as so-called "wartime comfort women", irrespective of their nationality or place of birth.
http://www.mofa.go.jp/policy/postwar/state9207.html

Kono the Chief Cabinet Secretary 1993
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.
http://www.mofa.go.jp/policy/women/fund/state9308.html

Murayama Prime Minister 1995
The problem of the so-called wartime comfort women is one such scar, which, with the involvement of the Japanese military forces of the time, seriously stained the honor and dignity of many women. This is entirely inexcusable. I offer my profound apology to all those who, as wartime comfort women, suffered emotional and physical wounds that can never be closed.
http://www.mofa.go.jp/policy/women/fund/state9507.html

Hashimoto Prime Minister 1998
Recognizing that the issue of comfort women, with an involvement of the Japanese military authorities at that time, was a grave affront to the honor and dignity of large numbers of women, I would like to convey to Your Excellency my most sincere apologies and remorse to all the women who underwent immeasurable and painful experiences and suffered incurable physical and psychological wounds as comfort women.
http://www.mofa.go.jp/policy/women/fund/project0107-3.html

Koizumi Prime Minister 2001
As Prime Minister of Japan, I thus extend anew my most sincere apologies and remorse to all the women who underwent immeasurable and painful experiences and suffered incurable physical and psychological wounds as comfort women.
http://www.mofa.go.jp/policy/women/fund/pmletter.html

Abe Prime Minister 2007
I, as Prime Minister of Japan, expressed my apologizes, and also expressed my apologizes for the fact that they were placed in that sort of circumstance.
http://megalodon.jp/?url=http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/04/20070427-6.html&date=20070428120506

(2) the fund
Asian woman fund
The problems with the fund pointed out.

In case of Germany

Federal compensation act (連邦補償法)
Over 90% people who were compensated were Germans or residents in the former colonized place.
The strict proof of the authenticity for the victims was demanded.
The bureaucratic procedure turned out to be complicated,

So German human right activists recommended to set up the fund to deal with the issue flexibly when Japanese human activists visited German to ask for suggestion..

After the unification, the fund was set up for the victims in Russia and Poland.
And the compensation was handed to the victims with the letter similar to Japanese counterpart.

via Yorozubampovia Let's Blow!　毒吐き＠てっく


Note this is not for the former prostitutes exploited by German troop. . According to Hata, a historian, few German even realise that there were such brothels despite the fact there were 500 brothels just like Japanese counterparts(Franz Seidler).
Let me know if somebody know German apologized to the former prostitutes in the way Japan did.

.............................................................
SYDNEY, March 27 Kyodo

An Australian grandmother who was forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese military during World War II has welcomed Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s apology to so-called ‘’comfort women.'’

Speaking on local television, 84-year-old Jan Ruff O’Herne said Monday night the apology had given all such sexually exploited women their dignity back.

‘’It’s just fantastic news, I could hardly believe it,'’ Ruff O’Herne said.

‘’It means the comfort women, they’ve got their dignity back. We’ve been waiting for this for 60 years,'’ she said.

Abe reiterated Monday afternoon that his administration stands by a 1993 statement admitting that the Imperial Japanese Army was ‘’directly or indirectly'’ involved in setting up and running the brothels and transferring women to them.

Asked if the government has no intention of issuing an official apology, Abe told the parliamentary committee meeting, ‘’As the prime minister, I am apologizing here.'’

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0WDQ/is_2007_April_2/ai_n18771347

“The Korean Wave in Sex Trafficking,

See, as Korean people often say, if you don't face history, you repeat it.

Cho Jin-kyeong has witnessed some of the worst cases of sex trafficking in Korea. As a veteran activist for Dasi Hamkke (Together Again), a support group that offers aid to victims of forced prostitution, she has tried to help former sex slaves repair their lives.
At her office in the quiet working-class neighborhood of Daebang-dong, not far from what used to be the red light district of Yeongdeungpo, she’s counselled a woman who escaped from an island after suffering years of debt bondage in an unlicensed club, earning 300,000 won ($330) a month in return for selling her body to sailors and tourists.
She has also offered aid to a young woman who was forced into a brothel to pay for her abortion, and a woman whose hands were paralyzed after being forced to work endless hours in a massage parlor. Drug addiction, death threats and the endless cycle of servitude are just a few of the themes that fill Cho’s mind on her way to work every morning.
With most of her cases, Cho is very willing to talk. But when the conversation turns to female victims who have returned to Korea after being trafficked to countries like Japan or United States, her words become more restrained.
“These are some of the worst cases I’ve seen,” she says. “Their experience involves the mental distress of migration, guilt and fear.”
Then there is the fear of revenge. The victims constantly suffer from threats during and after their enslavement overseas. They are told that any woman who escapes will be caught by international gangsters; rumors abound that women’s hands have been cut off and their bodies dumped into the sea.”
Then there is the fear of an unknown world ― one that’s poisoned by confusion and oppression.
Once the women are trafficked abroad, the local pimps block social channels that might give the women a chance to reach out for help. As a result, victims rarely know much about the countries where they are trafficked until they are out of a pimp’s hands. And, even if they are freed, the fear of trusting others remains.
“Really, who would you trust, besides yourself, if you had been in a situation like that?” asks Lee Jeong-hye, the director of the International Organization of Migration in Seoul, which monitors human trafficking.
When Korean women are trafficked to countries like Japan or United States, they are often lured into captivity by a desperate desire to pay off accumulated debts.
In a society that maintains a conservative attitude toward sex, young Korean women sometimes see working abroad in another country’s sex industry as a way to earn fast money without shame or prejudice.
The Korean government introduced the Anti Sex-Trafficking Law in 2004. It banned all forms of prostitution in Korea and, in its wake, overseas prostitution has become a promising business alternative for those Koreans who used to control the local the sex trade.
In 2005, the U.S. State Department launched Operation Gilded Cage, a federal investigation of illegal aliens involved in sex trafficking. Almost 150 Koreans were detained as a result. Last year, TVB, the Taiwanese news channel, ran a special report about Korean women who had been trafficked.
The report was called “The Korean Wave in Sex Trafficking,” a term derived from the success of Korean pop entertainers in Southeast Asia, which, in this case, was used to demonstrate a huge increase in the numbers of Korean women forced into prostitution in Taiwan.
Canada, Australia, Guam and even Brazil have also seen new waves of sex trade workers from Korea after the anti-prostitution law was put into effect and it became harder for the industry to survive here.
Women are lured into prostitution through discreet channels like Internet cafes and classified ads in free newspapers. On the Internet, ads for work in the sex industry are easily accessible by typing in phrases like “overseas employment for women,” “work in Guam” or “kurabu,” the Japanese version of a hostess bar. Some kurabu agencies guarantee up to 4 million won ($4,330) a month for pouring drinks for men.

he real issue is that there is a solid network of politicians, government officials and corporate powerhouses in this country who view the sex trade as a territory that cannot be controlled by the state, because the development of Korean industry was virtually built around the sex trade.”May 17, 2007/By Park Soo-mee Staff Writer/JoongAng Daily

Comfort women :Korean comfort women during Korean war

I didn't know Korean institutes had admitted in effect that Korea had exactly same comfort station system as Japanse system during Japanese rule.
JoongAngDaily/Japanese 2002.02.24 Tokyo 東京＝呉デ泳（オ・デヨン)魚拓

A professor insisted that Korea also had military brothels during Korean war.
Asahi shimbun reported that there was a comfort women system during Korean War similar to Japanese one under Japanese troop.
Asahi reported that Kim kiok(金貴玉), a visiting professor at Kyonam(慶南) university in Korea lectured to this effect on 23rd at the symposium of Doushiha university in Kyoto Japan.
The professor Kim has made it clear that she comfirmed the testimonies to the effect
that (soldiers) used the comfort stations, and (women) were abducted for the brothels.
It is als reported that in the official record, 後方戦史(the war history of the rear troop) , "the stable comfort station" is mentioned and 89 comfort women served "comfort acts" 245600 times at four comfort stations in 1956 alone.
A person concerned in the institutes of Defence Forces Editing (国防軍事編纂研究所) said the troop provided the place under the agreement with women, the payment for comfort acts was distributed from the budget for running military. but it is a different from Japanese system in that Japanese forcibly mobilized civilians for the brothels, violation human right.

via Ken/occidentalism

And it is not true that Japanese systematically abducted women, though in some cases in Indonesia , there were cases where military was involved in forcing women for the brothels against policy.

..............................................................................
「韓国戦争中にも軍慰安婦存在」韓国教授が主張

日本軍の慰安婦制度を真似た慰安婦制度が、韓国戦争当時、韓国軍にもあったという主張が提起されたと朝日新聞が２４日報道した。

韓国の慶南（キョンナム）大学の客員教授の金貴玉（キム・キオック、４０）氏は、２３日京都の立命館大学で開かれた国際シンポジウムでこのように発表したと同新聞は伝えた。

金教授は「１９９６年以後、５年間『直接慰安所を利用したことがある』、『軍にら致され、慰安婦になった』など男女８人の証言を聴取した」と明らかにした。

金教授はまた「韓国陸軍本部が１９５６年編さんした公文書『後方戦史』に『固定式慰安所－特殊慰安隊』と記録された部分を発見し、これには４カ所で８９人の慰安婦が１９５２年に限って２０万４５６０回の慰安活動をしたという統計資料が添付されていた」と同新聞は付け加えた。

一方、国防軍事編纂研究所の関係者は『当時、軍は売春婦と合意の下で場所を提供した。また慰安行為の対価は部隊運営費から支給されたと聞いている」とし「しかし、日本の植民地時代に日本軍が人権を無視し、一般庶民を強制に連れてきて運営した従軍慰安所とは違う」と説明している。

東京＝呉デ泳（オ・デヨン）特派員


2002.02.24 1

Chikan disguised as a woman

Chikan is a derogatory word for the type of man who surreptitiously feels women up on the train or molests women in dark spots on the way home at night: It is unforgivable crime.
A guy of 51 years old was arrested on the train in Tokyo for molestering a female university student for 8 minutes.
He wore a wig of long hair, and pretended to be woman.
He said he thought it would be more difficult to be arrested disguised as a woman.
Oh no, whoever did it, it is Chikan.



ANN

....................................................................................
わいせつ行為8分間に及ぶ…山手線の"女装痴漢"逮捕

　東京のJR山手線の電車内で、女子大学生に痴漢をした51歳の男が逮捕されました。この男、ロングヘアーで女装していました。

　強制わいせつの現行犯で逮捕されたのは、東京・練馬区に住む田邊義博容疑者です。田邊容疑者は今月9日の午後6時ごろ、JR新大久保駅から池袋駅の間で、25歳の女子大学生の下半身を8分間にわたって触り、池袋駅で取り押さえられました。調べに対し、田邊容疑者は「女装していれば捕まりにくいと思った」などと話し、容疑を認めているということです。

Comfort women:US document to show girls were sold to brokers.

A JAPANESE ARMY BROTHEL IN THE FORWARD AREA.

Note: The following is derived from interrogation at C.S.D.I.C.(I) of M.739, and from O.W.I. Interrogation at Ledo Base Stockade of 20 Korean “comfort girls”,

Report dated 21 Sept. 1944.



M.739, his wife and sister-in-law had made some money as restaurant keepers

in Keijo, Korea, but their trade declining they looked for an opportunity to make

more money and applied to Army H.Q. in Keijo for permission to take “comfort girls”

from Korea to Burma. According to P.W. the suggestion originated from Army

H.Q. and was passed to a number of similar Japanese “business men” in Korea.

M.739 purchased 22 Korean girls, paying their families from 300 to 1,000

according to the personality , looks and age of the girl. These 22 girls were of ages

from 19—31. They became the sole property of P.W. and the Army made no profits

from them. H.Q. Korea Army gave him a letter addressed to all military H.Q. of the

Japanese Army, requesting them to furnish any assistance he might require,

transport, rations, medical attention, etc.

Leaving his sister-in-law to carry on the restaurant, M.739 and his wife, with

their 22 girls, embarked at Fusan on 10 July 1942 in a group of 703 girls, all Korean,

and some 90 Japanese men and women, all of them of the same base sort as himself.

They sailed on a 4,000 ton passenger ship in a convoy of 7 ships. Free passage

Tickets were provided by Army H.Q., but P.W. paid for all meals during the voyages.

They called at Formosa, where 22 other girls bound for Singapore were taken on

board, and at Singapore where they transferred to another ship, arriving at

Rangoon on 20 Aug 1942.

At Rangoon they were divided into groups of 20—30 girls in each and dispersed

to various parts of Burma, each group being attached to various regiments, units or

formations, so that each had its own brothel (s).

ステージ風発

It was not uncommon in those days that the boys and girls worked for years under the contract that parents got the prepayment. It was a cruel system but keep in mind the debt bondage system lingered on after the liberation in Korea.
See also how was it parents sold their daughters
how has it been that the women were sold in China
Sex among allies

China is the benevolent older brother to Korea?

As to the incident caused by Chinese vessel, an American blogger notes:

Has anyone else noticed how matters are handled more “delicately” and “diplomatically”when it comes to the Chinese?lost nomad

Acute observation.
What if Japanese did that---oh dear.

Iran and North Korea has got what they want.

Iran, North Korea are 'expanding ties'
Nation's described by Bush as 'axis of evil' agree to regular meetings Slide show




Updated: 1:32 p.m. ET May 11, 2007

TEHRAN - Iran and North Korea have agreed to step up bilateral contacts, an Iranian news agency said on Friday, signaling closer ties between two countries that are part of U.S. President Bush's "axis of evil".mesnbc

Iran will get nuclear technology and North Korea will get oil.