-
Japanese activists have been successful in submitting a petition to
the White House demanding the removal of a statue of a comfort woman
from a public park in the United States.The petition, which was backed by more than 100,000 signatures demands the removal of the statue which honors the memory of the thousands of women kidnapped and raped by Japanese soldiers during World War Two.
A flood of pleas to remove a statue of a comfort woman.
More than a 100-thousand people signed a petition to remove what it called the "offensive statue" in Central Park in Glendale, California.
The petition was started by Tony Marano, who claims the statue promotes hatred towards Japan and its people.
Many others however, are of a different view.
"This is a hideous war crime.. the Japanese government has never offered a formal apology." Japanese Civil Rights Representative said.
The memorial in Glendale’s Central Park was erected in June 2012. It honors the memory of some 200-thousand women who were forced into sexual slavery by Japan during World War II.
A similar petition is demanding the removal of another statue at Eisenhower Park in New York. This has triggered the rage of South Koreans.
"Japan should reflect on what it did and ask for forgiveness just as Germany did. Such a move will not bring anything beneficial to the Japanese government and people."
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s visit to Yasukuni Shrine has already invited harsh criticism from other countries.
Even its close ally, the United States showed its disappointment.
"We have encouraged, and will continue to encourage Japan....." Marie Harg, Deputy Spokesperson of US State Department said.
Japan’s reluctance to come to terms with its wartime actions is still the No. 1 irritant in Japan’s relations with its neighbors.
Many experts that are critical of Japan’s handling of the issue say, the petition and its underlying argument are doing great damage to Japan’s ability to move past the events of the war.
cntv.cn
4/1/13
--
-
Related:
GR
FR
DE
ES
IT
RU
EU
Japan not only nation to have military brothels during WWII: NHK chief...
ReplyDeleteTOKYO — Japan should not be singled out for criticism of the use of military brothels during World War II, the new Chairman of Japan’s influential public broadcaster NHK was quoted as saying in remarks that may spark widespread anger.
The comments by Mr Katsuto Momii (picture) are also likely to become an additional diplomatic headache for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
Mr Abe is already faced with deteriorating ties due largely to territorial issues with China and South Korea, nations that suffered from Japanese aggression before and during the war.
Mr Abe’s visit to a controversial shrine last month that honours war criminals along with the war dead has also angered the two countries.
The issue of “comfort women”, as those forced to work in the wartime brothels are euphemistically known in Japan, is a flashpoint in Japan’s relationship with Asian nations, especially South Korea. Many of the women forced to work in the brothels were Korean.
Asked about the issue at his first news conference as NHK Chairman on Saturday, Mr Momii said such things happened in every nation at war during that time, including France and Germany.
“(The issue of) ‘comfort women’ is bad by today’s morals,” Mr Momii was quoted as saying by the Asahi Shimbun daily. “But this was a fact of those times.
“Korea’s statements that Japan is the only nation that forced this are puzzling. Give us money, compensate us, they say, but since all of this was resolved by the Japan-Korea peace treaty, why are they reviving this issue? It’s strange,” he said.
Japan says the matter of compensation was closed under the 1965 treaty that normalised diplomatic ties between them...................http://www.todayonline.com/world/japan-not-only-nation-have-military-brothels-during-wwii-nhk-chief
26/1/14
Japan govt distances itself from NHK head's "comfort women" comments...
DeleteTOKYO: Tokyo on Monday distanced itself from comments by the new head of national broadcaster NHK, who said the Imperial Army's system of wartime sex slavery was not unique to Japan.
Katsuto Momii said Saturday that the practice of forcibly drafting women into military brothels during World War II was "common in any country at war".
"Can we say there were none in Germany or France? It was everywhere in Europe," he told an inaugural press conference, according to local media reports.
His comments came the day before the death in Seoul of Hwang Kum-ja, aged 90, leaving just 55 South Korean former "comfort women" alive.
Hwang Woo-yea, chairman of the ruling Saenuri Party said: "Japan must bear in mind that it will forever go down in history as an unapologetic perpetrator when all the victims pass away."
The Japanese government on Monday moved to insulate itself from Momii's comments, which it said were a personal opinion.
"Our understanding is that chairman Momii made the comment as an individual", not as the head of Japan's public broadcaster, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said.
It declined to comment further on the issue.
Momii, 70, has since apologised for the comments, which he described as a personal opinion.
He conceded they were "extremely inappropriate", and admitted he should not have expressed his personal views publicly, Kyodo News reported Monday.
Momii previously served as a vice chairman of trading house Mitsui, and is rumoured to have been Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's preferred choice as NHK chairman, the news agency said.
During Saturday's press conference, Momii had also said the comfort women issue was "complicated because South Korea says Japan was the only country that forcibly recruited (women)".
During Abe's first stint as prime minister in 2007, he provoked region-wide uproar when he said there was no evidence that Japan directly forced women to work as sex slaves.........................................http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asiapacific/japan-govt-distances/969394.html
27/1/14
Japan upset by South Korean 'comfort women' comics at French show...
ReplyDeleteANGOULEME, France: Japan has expressed its "regret" at a South Korean exhibit at an international comic book festival in France featuring "comfort women" forced into wartime sex slavery in Japanese military brothels.
Japan's ambassador to France, Yoichi Suzuki, said he "deeply regrets that this exhibition is taking place", saying it promoted "a mistaken point of view that further complicates relations between South Korea and Japan".
Up to 200,000 women from Korea, China, the Philippines and elsewhere were forced into brothels catering to the Japanese military in territories occupied by Japan during World War II, according to many mainstream historians.
Franck Bondoux, director of the Angouleme International Comics Festival in western France, told AFP that Japan had not asked for the expo to be cancelled.
South Korea's Gender Equality and Family Minister Cho yoon-sun was present at the opening of the South Korean exhibit, entitled "The Flower That Doesn't Wilt", on Thursday.
"The subject was proposed by the South Korean government but the artists were completely free to evoke the subject independently," Bondoux said...................http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asiapacific/japan-upset-by-south/977266.html
2/2/14
China urges alert for Japanese comments....
ReplyDeleteChina has urged the international community to be on alert for any comments which attempt to vindicate Japan's militarist history and challenge the post-war world order.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying made the statement in response to a question about the recent controversy surrounding the chairman of Japan's public broadcaster NHK. Katsuto Momii has insisted that there was nothing wrong with his earlier remarks on "comfort women", a euphemism for sex slaves during World War Two.
Apart from Momii's comments, an aide to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe also caused a stir by expressing disappointment at U.S. criticism of Abe's visit to the Yasukuni war shrine.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said all of these comments were consistent with other mistakes from Japanese leaders, which attempted to run counter to history.
"These facts reveal that some political forces in Japan are still obstinately clinging to a wrong view of history, with absolutely no repentance for the enormous suffering of the people in countries that fell victim to Japanese militarism," Hua said.
"They are still making great efforts trying to reverse the verdict on their history of invasion and challenge the international order that followed victory in World War Two."
http://english.cntv.cn/program/asiatoday/20140219/105580.shtml
19/2/14
South Korea warns Japan over comfort women review...
ReplyDeleteSouth Korean President Park Geun-hye has warned Japan it will only bring isolation on itself if it reviews a statement acknowledging its wartime use of sex slaves.
She called on Japan to embrace "truth and reconciliation".
Japan apologised in 1993 to survivors of the many thousands of women who were forced into army brothels.
On Friday Tokyo said it would set up a panel to review the evidence on which that apology was based.
Some conservatives in Japan have claimed that the women, known euphemistically as "comfort women", were prostitutes - something fiercely denied by the women and by Japan's neighbours.
President Park's warning came in a speech marking the anniversary of a 1919 uprising in Korea against Japanese colonial rule.
"Historical truth is in testimony from the survivors," she said.
"Japan would only bring isolation on itself if it turns a deaf ear to their testimony and sweeps it under the rug for political benefits."
President Park urged Japan to follow the example of Germany in repenting its past wrongs so that their two countries could "move forward for a new era of co-operation, peace and prosperity".......................http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-26394850
1/3/14
Japan übt erstmals deutlichen Druck aus, um auch in ausländischen Büchern Japans Geschichte von Greueltaten im Weltkrieg weißzuwaschen...
ReplyDeleteWie Außenminister Fumio Kishida am Dienstag in Tokio sagte, richtet sich die Kritik der japanischen Regierung gegen ein amerikanisches Geschichtsbuch der Historiker Jerry Bentley und Herbert Ziegler, in dem es heißt, Japans Militär habe 200.000 Frauen in Ostasien mit Gewalt zur Zwangsprostitution in japanischen Frontbordellen gezwungen.
Das Buch gibt damit zwar lediglich die Erkenntnisse unabhängiger historischer Forschung wider, stößt damit aber auf Kritik bei den japanischen Nationalisten und Geschichtsrevisionisten, die seit dem Amtsantritt von Ministerpräsident Shinzo Abe Oberwasser bekommen haben. Das Außenministerium erklärte, das Lehrbuch stimme nicht mit der offiziellen Position der japanischen Regierung überein. Was konkret ihn stört, sagte Kishida nicht.................http://www.faz.net/aktuell/politik/ausland/asien/geschichtsklitterung-japan-verlangt-korrektur-amerikanischer-lehrbuecher-13272998.html
18/11/14