[...] Now, for the record, I think it’s ridiculous for the U.S. Congress to lecture Japan on historical issues, as I said here. Curzon of Coming Anarchy does an even better job of explaining why the Congressional effort to call Japan out on its understanding of its own history is “batshit crazy.” [...]

Well, it happens all the time – not just Democrats in the US, and not just the US among democracies (as you pointed out with France) – in fact, there is no prerequiste that it has to be a democracy doing the pandering to domestic opinion.

Republicans criticize other countries on issues of purely domestic policy too – countries like Austria for trying to limit Scientologists and Jehova’s Witnesses (which tend to be regarded the way we regard a cult such as Rev. Moon’s), or Romania for banning intercountry adoption. Whatever one thinks about those policies, neither of them could be said to be over-the-top human rights abuses, but when a politician has possible points to score, he or she is bound to try and score them. Romania, by the way, is a serious geopolitical ally to the US, also.

The liberal-left is composed of people whose brains do not work properly. This is why this sort of thing is to be expected from the democrats.

It seems this is (a) a pet cause for prominent libs but more prominently (b) a showcase of Korean-American interest groups showing their power over California liberals in particular? This is no different than the activities of the Armenians and Israelis to protect their interests and pursue their historical grievances.

Congressmen Honda the leader of this resolution does have a Korean-American voting blog he is trying to appease. Also the hypocrisy of this resolution is truly amazing when you consider that Honda is attacking the Japanese for sexual abuses that happened 60 years ago that the chief cabinet secretary apologized for in 1993 and opened a compensation fund that raised 5 million for the effected women, while in China today North Korean women are undergoing modern day sexual slavery and Honda isn’t saying a word, in fact he has been an apologist for the Chinese.

You can read a whole lot more of my thoughts on this here:

http://rokdrop.com/2007/02/12/useful-idiot-michael-honda/

Subadei,

I don’t consider nationalism in the abstract a bad thing. What I meant to say was jingoism—the kind that appears to be on the rise in some sectors of Japan (although it in no way compares to the state-sponsored jingoism thats currently popular in China). Rebuking another country in a ham-handed effort to compel them to dredge up yet another apology is something that will surely backfire. Eddie, that’s an interesting point. Interest politics at its finest.

“You know G.I. Korea, there’s also about 50,000 sex slaves in the U.S.”
I think people are using this word”sex slavery”without any clear definition.If you have a contract that’s simple”sex worker”.

“jingoism””?the kind that appears to be on the rise in some sectors of Japan”

Is this another “Japanese are at it again”theory,A.E.
Maybe because Japan is under continuous suspicion from cynical western eyes and liberal(waaay more liberal than any nation in the region)domestic media and surrounded by the countries who sees Japan’s gains are their losses,you constantly get this kind of news.Look at Abe now.He seems to be just as powerless as any J-politicians apart from what’s been said 6months ago.

Just in case some of you wonder.I’m not against all the criticism from both in and out of the country that Japan goes “right”.But then again what do you expect Japan to do.Go “Wrong”?

“prostitute couldn’t have a contract anywhere in the US except for Nevada”

Never knew,but that was what it was in Japan until brothels were
abolished in 50’s.Usually sold by their own peasant parents.Which make the word “slave”partly correct.

“Their situation is not really very different from the many of the comfort women taken by Japan in WW2.”
Well….I have a different opinion about that.MF.

Hey,You’ve already said what I wanted to say,MF.
Every individuals have different cases.Not all were enforced to work as the comfort women.

“some were kidnapped physically”
I don’t challenge this.
But it is very difficult to keep an employee who do not wish to continue working in the post and any employer would want to avoid that.Besides comfort station was built usually right next to the garrison.If one of them escapes it could potentially damage the security of the troops,therefore officers were very reluctant to hire such women.

People deny this now,but it was not so difficult to hire Asians for Japanese war effort in the 30’s and early 40’s.Lee Kwan Yu was working for the listening post of the Imperial Army in Singapore translating BBC.Casino Tycoon of Macau,Stanley Ho(now owns the biggest casino empire in the world)was also working petty job for Japanese military intelligence.
I don’t think there were such difficulties getting enough numbers of Japanese women for the job.The only reason the army made the contract with the recruiters in the colony was because wages were much cheaper there.

One of the letter that I mentioned in the blog of yours(and that is used as a proof of official intrusion of the military by the focus groups)is warning for choosing the “right”recruiters when they make contract because some were notorious kidnappers (as rightly you’ve mentioned above)So,tricked maybe,kidnapped I highly doubt about that in case of Japanese ,Taiwanese and Korean comfort women.

Don’t know about the Dutch and the Phillipinos and there is a case of using of the Dutch women against their will in Java.The station was closed by the order of the Javan commander shortly and the men in responsible were hanged by the Dutch authority after the war.
There is a long interview of philosopher Tsurumi Shyunsuke by feminist Ueno Chizuko came out 2 years ago called”戦五°Ã£Â?ΎÂ?ºãÂ?—ãÂ?Ÿã”š”šÃ£Â?®”.These two are boardmember of Asia Women Foundation of which were established by PM Murayama Tomiichi in the 90’s to compensate comfort women.In the book,Tsurumi is confessing his role of maintaining one of the comfort station in Java and recruiting local half caste prostitutes for the station.

But like I said challenging the identity of the comfort women require risks and danger of heating up the debate.

“Hey,You’ve already said what I wanted to say,MF.
Every individuals have different cases.Not all were enforced to work as the comfort women.”
I didn’t mean to imply that all or even most of them were physically kidnapped. However, I see that I accidentally typed an extra “the” which make my earlier comment kind of ambiguous, so apologies if you thought that was what I was saying.

“One of the letter that I mentioned in the blog of yours(and that is used as a proof of official intrusion of the military by the focus groups)is warning for choosing the “right”Â?recruiters when they make contract because some were notorious kidnappers (as rightly you’ve mentioned above)So,tricked maybe,kidnapped I highly doubt about that in case of Japanese ,Taiwanese and Korean comfort women.”
I actually think I read a paper by professor 永五¢Ã¥’Å’ from Kyodai analyzing that letter.

The reports of actual kidnapping by Japanese military that I recall were in Indonesia, Philippines, China, maybe Burma. The testimony I’ve heard from Taiwanese and Koreans all tell stories of being tricked in some way and then not being allowed to leave. Maybe they were beaten in the comfort station, but at least they went peacefully in the beginning because they expected to be working some sort of legitimate job. Obviously these were pretty naive girls, from very poor families.

Aceface
I haven’t read your blog (you don’t link to it) so I can’t judge. I can easily see, though, where a forced sex worker probably would get drunk before testifying. If she spent years trying hard to bury those memories so she can get from day to day, getting drunk may be the only way she could stand to unbury them again.

Oops, my apologies. I misread the part about where you wrote about meeting an A bomb victim. As for the part about drinking. . .

“. . .and saw some sort of intoxication in her eyes,I’m a bit reluctant to find these “Meet the Victims”Â? kind testimony at face value.”

You didn’t say drunk, but if one assumes intoxication to mean altered by drugs, then alcohol is the likeliest suspect. My comments about comfort women were also a bit sloppy (my attention is divided right now), but they apply equally to someone who lived through Hiroshima or Nagasaki; if BAREFOOT GEN is accurate, I can easily see a survivor having a drinking problem for decades afterward. I wouldn’t wish those kinds of memories on my worst enemy.

Aceface
I won’t argue the need for consideration of the wider picture when looking at situations like this. Heck, I just got done trying to argue for just that on the Competing for Genocide thread; either I didn’t succeed, or Hellektor doesn’t want to listen.*shrug*

At the end of the day, it’s just as easy to get lost in the little picture as to get lost in the big.

“Right, I wouldn’t expect people to be saying that, but I would expect kidnap victims to be discussing it.”

Yes.And that could be the motivation of these women came out and speak up.But I still expect them to get fund from Asian Women Fund and I don’t want focus group to flame their resentment and turn it into political propaganda and nationalistic cause like in case of Korea.

Kind of skeptical on Burma.That was a real war zone.No time for such “comfort”.But then again ther is always room for new evidence.

I notice on the Frog’s website that the Japanese Government has apologized for Korean sex slavery. And, on “Samil” day, which commemorates the 1 Mar 1919 independence demonstrations that shook Korea and prompted the Japanese to try a gentler approach to colonialism (that abruptly ended in 1937). I’m kind of skeptical about Burma as well, given that the “Burmese” supported the Japanese wholeheartedly, if one is to believe GEN. Slim’s book. (The upland minorities, such as the Kachin, remained loyal to the British.)

Anyway, by apologizing, Japan has essentially accepted the sex slave arguments, however many may have been “kisaeng”.

Weren’t they building the railroad inside Burma also? By the way, I’ve been to bridge on the river Kwai in Thailand. There’s a very strange museum about the forced labor that I need to post photos from some time.

Well, if they don’t get paid they can’t be called prostitutes. Were they given some sort of payment, even if they had been taken against their will?

“Were they given some sort of payment”

A lot more than the prostitute back home.Ever seen the movie
甹¬ç«”¹Ã©Â?Šè»Â?隊ã€Â?西ãÂ?¸by late Okamoto kihachi in the 60’s?There is a sequence that a Korean comfort woman saids” I’m going to start my own shop in Korea with the money I saved here!”Okamoto is a liberal by the way.

Sorry my english sucks.

“a) got their paymens and were working on their own will”

I forgot to add some words.

My mistake Just confirmed .
AP made an another confusing report.

Somebody tell them not to play with food!

Some korean article from newspaper reports about Korean comfort wemans,
who is recruted by Korean goverment for UN army.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/oldernews/