Truth about Japan

Prof. Yoshimi is the main source of "sex slave" stories by foreign media. But he admits that there is no evidence of military coercion in Korea. Japan Times interviewed him and Prof. Hata, who says the comfort women were commercial prostitutes. It's striking their conclusion about the historical fact are not so different. Yoshimi said the military knew private agents sometimes cheated, kidnapped, traded or forcibly took some women to frontline brothels. On the other hand, Hata said no documentary evidence of systematic state or military coercion has been provided, although police and soldiers took it upon themselves to force victims into the brothels.  Their claims are consistent: the Army was involved   in the coercion of private brokers, but never ordered to abduct women. In fact Japanese government admits one case of court-martial offense in Indonesia, which was referred to in Kono Statement. It has nothing to do with Koreans.

Here is the document . It says A "comfort girl" is nothing more than a prostitute or "professional camp follower" attached to the Japanese Army for the benefit of the soldiers.

Washington Post's editorial says PM Abe is right to blame North Korea's refusal of response to Japan's request for more information about abduction but wrong to refuse Japan's responsibility of military abduction during WW2: What's odd -- and offensive -- is his parallel campaign to roll back Japan's acceptance of responsibility for the abduction, rape and sexual enslavement of tens of thousands of women during World War II. [...]Historians say that up to 200,000 women from Korea, China, the Philippines and other Asian countries were enslaved and that Japanese soldiers participated in abductions. Many survivors of the system have described their horrifying experiences, including three who recently testified to Congress. This is, to be sorry, one more false accusation based on the wrong reporting of the Asahi Shimbun and the misleading apology of Japanese government. No historian says "Japanese soldiers participated in abductions". Even Prof. Yosh...

Japan Times reports a story of a Japanese comfort woman: Shirota lived a relatively quiet life until she was 14 and her mother died in 1935. Her family bakery went bankrupt, and her father began gambling. To pay off his debts, he sold her to a brothel. Prostitution was legal then, and Shirota's was a common fate. With no other choice, she accepted it with resignation. At first, Shirota was an assistant, helping the older women with their clothes and makeup. But gradually, she was brought into the reality of the brothel. When she was 18, she was ordered to serve her first customer. Locked in a room, she was raped. She was bedridden for days, and was treated for syphilis. Her father continued to gamble, and took out loans from the brothel. A broker in Yokohama sold her to another brothel in Taiwan. Indeed it was a tragedy, but her case proves that she was not "coerced by a gun" but bought from her father. And the brothel was set up by the broker who sold her to anot...