Asahi Shimbun fabricated "comfort women"

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All these things began with a wrong article. "Comfort women" or  "military abduction" weren't discussed before it.

The Asahi Shimbun reported in the front page on 11 January 1992 that the historian Yoshiaki Yoshimi discovered documents that proves the Army's "commitment" to comfort women in the archives of Japan's Defense Agency.



According to the article, the document indicated that the military had been involved in running the brothels, for example by selecting the agents who recruited. Takashi Uemura, Asahi's correspondent in Seoul, reported further that the comfort women had been abducted as part of "Joshi Teishintai" (women volunteer corps). But it was obviously wrong because Teishintai was the labor team in the factories of military equipment.

This article kindled the phantom scandal of "comfort women". It misled the Japanese government because it was scheduled for Japanese Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa to visit South Korea five days after the reporting. Miyazawa apologized to Korean government about the comfort women without confirming the facts. And in 1993, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono addressed a statement to apologize Japanese government's "commitment".

These problems were fabricated by the Asahi that mistook the commercial prostitution as military forced labor. And there is no evidence of "abduction" of women by the Army. Since many historians and commentators attacked the wrong reporting, the Asahi tacitly admitted the error. However, they never apologized it but insists "such minor difference doesn't matter" in the editorial.

Comments

Nariyuki said…
Dr. Ikeda,
>I agree with you Japanese readers are too silent because they are shy and not good at English. If you want to join this blog, e-mail me.

Thank you for your invitation to join your blog. Please let me know where/how to send you the e-mail.

I am not sure what you have discussed with Mr. Ise clearly, but my understanding is that
we, our NFL English production team(隼・英語チーム), will write/translate articles regularly in order to correct the prevailing misunderstanding on Comfort Women issues. And we are hoping that they are to be published on your blog. We are certain that our working relationship will be very effective to achieve our mutual goals.

Sincerely,
Nariyuki
NFL SPOKESMAN
November 18, 2007 at 5:03 PM
Nariyuki said…
Dr. Ikeda,
I must make one correction. I am not a spokesman of NFL. Mr. Isejiro Ise is.


Nariyuki
November 18, 2007 at 5:22 PM
ikedanobuo said…
To e-mail me, click "Ikeda, Nobuo" in "About this site " on the right of this blog, and click "Email". Then your e-mail client will be invoked. So send any message. The address written in the message will be your account.

If your name is shown in "About this site", you can post any message directly to this blog.
November 18, 2007 at 5:43 PM
orandazaka3 said…
Summary of the comfort women issue.
http://orandazaka.blogspot.com/2007/11/summary-of-comfort-women-issue.html
November 21, 2007 at 9:42 PM
Nariyuki said…
The historical records clearly show that the Imperial Japanese Army licensed brothels, which were managed by private citizens. These owners, “house masters”, were largely the “Japanese” with Korean-ethnicity. They managed camp prostitutes attached to the Japanese Army for the benefit of the soldiers. They followed closely the movement of the troops near the battle grounds. The records also show that there was no evidence suggesting the Army’s intention to recruit the prostitutes against their will; however it was also true that the supervision of the privately owned brothels was often inadequate. Given the deteriorating condition of the Army in losing battles, they failed to prevent the criminal acts of private citizens as well as some demoralized soldiers. It is also true that the recruiters (licensed private citizens) often misled and deceived the women and there is good possibility that the families in destitute “sold” their daughters to the recruiters without the women’s knowledge. The prostitution was legal at that time and many of the families were in destitute with limited choices for survival.
It is also a sad state that in Korea today, prostitution and “human trafficking” continue to be the social problem that demand serious attention.
November 25, 2007 at 12:06 PM
Truthjapan said…
hello..
I am very glad to see your blog.
There are not so many Japanese who can even talk about those things.. they think that is "Tarboo" or something.
Including myself, I was too ignorant. Now I know, and studied truth of Japan.. somehow I want to contribute myself to tell the world "The truth of the history"

Gambatte!
September 30, 2008 at 3:20 AM
Truthjapan said…
Here is the origin how the "Comfort women" issue has started.

Yes, a reporter from ASAHI Shimbun

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxSepm1A0lg
October 4, 2008 at 7:42 AM
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