Documents show Japan's role in wartime sex slavery
New evidence shows that the Japanese government was involved in forcing Korean women to serve as sex slaves at Japan's military brothels during World War II. On Friday, Kyodo News reported that the Imperial Japanese Army asked the government to provide one "comfort women," a euphemism for wartime sex slaves, for every 70 soldiers.
The report was based on 23 documents collected by the Cabinet Secretariat between April 2017 and March 2019. Kyodo said 13 of the documents were classified dispatches from Japan's consulates in China to the foreign ministry back in Tokyo dated 1938, the year after the Marco Polo Bridge Incident that led to war between the two countries.
According to the Japanese news agency, one dispatch from the consul general of Qingdao in China's Shandong Province to the foreign minister reports that the Imperial Army had asked for one comfort woman to accommodate every 70 soldiers, while the Navy had requested 150 more comfort women and geisha. The documents indicate that the Japanese military played an active role in recruiting sex slaves for its troops.
It is worth noting that Hirofumi Hayashi, a professor at Kanto Gakuin University, told Kyodo that the documents proved that "the military had an active hand in gathering women." The documents could be used to lend support to the Kono Statement acknowledging Japan's wartime sexual enslavement of women.
The statement was issued in 1993 by then Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono. In the statement, the Japanese government acknowledged and apologized for its military's "coercion" of women into sexual slavery for the first time. Japan should reflect on atrocities it inflicted on Koreans and other Asians before and during WWII. Its forcible mobilization of comfort women was unequivocally a crime against humanity.
It is, however, regrettable that Japan has begun to disparage the spirit of the Kono Statement, with then Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi continuing to visit Yasukuni Shrine, where 14 class-A war criminals are enshrined, for five years in a row from 2001. The growing number of history textbooks with revisionist interpretations also help right-wing Japanese deny the facts about sexual enslavement.
Japan's denial of its war crimes has become more explicit under nationalist Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who has refused to acknowledge the sex slavery. The previous Park Geun-hye administration reached a 2015 agreement on the resolution of the issue with Tokyo. But the accord was virtually scrapped by the Moon Jae-in administration last year due to the absence of Japan apologizing and taking legal responsibility.
Only 20 South Korean victims of wartime sex slavery are still alive. Japan should acknowledge and apologize for the issue before it is too late. It also must try to find a negotiated solution to the ongoing trade and diplomatic dispute with Seoul over another thorny issue ― wartime forced labor. Otherwise Japan cannot move toward true reconciliation with its former colony. It must learn a lesson from its disgraceful past to avoid a repetition.
New evidence shows that the Japanese government was involved in forcing Korean women to serve as sex slaves at Japan's military brothels during World War II. On Friday, Kyodo News reported that the Imperial Japanese Army asked the government to provide one "comfort women," a euphemism for wartime sex slaves, for every 70 soldiers.
The report was based on 23 documents collected by the Cabinet Secretariat between April 2017 and March 2019. Kyodo said 13 of the documents were classified dispatches from Japan's consulates in China to the foreign ministry back in Tokyo dated 1938, the year after the Marco Polo Bridge Incident that led to war between the two countries.
According to the Japanese news agency, one dispatch from the consul general of Qingdao in China's Shandong Province to the foreign minister reports that the Imperial Army had asked for one comfort woman to accommodate every 70 soldiers, while the Navy had requested 150 more comfort women and geisha. The documents indicate that the Japanese military played an active role in recruiting sex slaves for its troops.
It is worth noting that Hirofumi Hayashi, a professor at Kanto Gakuin University, told Kyodo that the documents proved that "the military had an active hand in gathering women." The documents could be used to lend support to the Kono Statement acknowledging Japan's wartime sexual enslavement of women.
The statement was issued in 1993 by then Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono. In the statement, the Japanese government acknowledged and apologized for its military's "coercion" of women into sexual slavery for the first time. Japan should reflect on atrocities it inflicted on Koreans and other Asians before and during WWII. Its forcible mobilization of comfort women was unequivocally a crime against humanity.
It is, however, regrettable that Japan has begun to disparage the spirit of the Kono Statement, with then Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi continuing to visit Yasukuni Shrine, where 14 class-A war criminals are enshrined, for five years in a row from 2001. The growing number of history textbooks with revisionist interpretations also help right-wing Japanese deny the facts about sexual enslavement.
Japan's denial of its war crimes has become more explicit under nationalist Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who has refused to acknowledge the sex slavery. The previous Park Geun-hye administration reached a 2015 agreement on the resolution of the issue with Tokyo. But the accord was virtually scrapped by the Moon Jae-in administration last year due to the absence of Japan apologizing and taking legal responsibility.
Only 20 South Korean victims of wartime sex slavery are still alive. Japan should acknowledge and apologize for the issue before it is too late. It also must try to find a negotiated solution to the ongoing trade and diplomatic dispute with Seoul over another thorny issue ― wartime forced labor. Otherwise Japan cannot move toward true reconciliation with its former colony. It must learn a lesson from its disgraceful past to avoid a repetition.
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