Yoshida's False
Confession
In 1983, a Japanese writer, Seiji Yoshida, published a
book titled "My War Crime - Forcing Transportation of the Koreans."
It was an alleged confession that he had "transported about 205 Korean
women forcibly under the command of the Japanese military to make them comfort
women for Japanese soldiers." Later, The Asahi Shimbun, radical
anti-Japanese newspaper in Japan, used the materials from the book to spread
this information on the "comfort women" to the mass media.
The comfort women, portrayed by Yoshida, would indeed
have been sex slaves, if all the facts exposed would be confirmed as true
accounts. Later, Yoshida updated his revelations, claiming that the procurement
of comfort women was arranged on direct orders of the Japanese Army
Commandment, instructing him to “mobilize a Korean female volunteer corps.”
On May 15, 1943, a
first lieutenant from Western District Army Headquarters arrived at the
Yamaguchi Prefectural Police Department’s Labor Administration office. The
officer delivered a labor mobilization order addressed to the Yamaguchi Labor
Service Association chairman (also governor of Yamaguchi Prefecture). The head
of the Labor Administration Section was also secretary of the Labor Service
Association.
As head of the
Shimonoseki Branch Mobilization Department, I was asked to be present because I
would be executing the mobilization order. The lieutenant explained that the
mobilization order was issued to National Labor Service Association groups in
prefectures in Japan’s Western District, and in each province in the southern
part of Korea. Two thousand workers were to be mobilized. The order delivered to
the Yamaguchi Prefectural National Labor Service Association contained the
following information.
1. Volunteer corps
of 200 Korean women to serve as entertainers for the Imperial Army
2. Age: 18-29
(married women acceptable; pregnant women not acceptable)
3. Healthy women
(medical examination required, especially tests for venereal diseases)
4. Duration: One
year (renewal possible if desired)
5. Remuneration:
\30 per month
6. Clothing
allowance: \20 (to be paid in advance)
7. Place of
assignment: central China
8. Recruiting
areas: southwestern Korea and Cheju Island
9. Departure date:
12:00 noon, 30 May 1943
10. Meeting place:
Western Army, Unit 74
The women’s Labor
Service unit was renamed the Female Volunteer Corps. Students at girls’ schools
and local girls (members of girls’ youth groups) working in munitions factories
were called “Female Volunteer Corps,” but the female volunteer corps members
who provided entertainment to soldiers of the Imperial Army were actually
comfort women.
This is a sad story on the unfortunate fates of the
Korean women, but later, it became absolutely clear that historical accounts
and documented facts do not support it in many details. Finally, Yoshida
himself admitted the story, posted in the book, was fabricated.
Yoshida's Book
Translated into Korean
In 1989, Yoshida's book was translated into Korean.
However, at Jeju island of Korea where Yoshida said to have moved the women
forcibly, there were Korean people, and several historians, who doubted it from
the first glance. The Jeju Newspaper journalists conducted the investigation
and later posted an article in the newspaper, calling it a historical falsification,
not supported by any facts. One of the prominent Japanese historians, Ikuhiko
Hata, has also visited Jeju Island to perform additional investigation, and
results were aligned with all previous accounts – the told story has never
happened in the real life.
In the Jeju Newspaper from August 14, 1989 in was finally
and openly admitted, that there was neither factual evidence, nor personal testimony
of Japanese Army forcefully kidnapped girls.
Following multiple negative reviews, pressed by the
formal investigations’ outcomes, Yoshida finally confessed that his story was
one big falsification. He never apologized for the created political tensions
and public controversy, but took a "so-what" attitude, saying:
"It is not a profitable approach to write the truth in a book. Newspapers
also do the same thing, don't they?"
One of the possible explanations was that Yoshida was a
communist sympathizer. The main strategy of the Japanese Communist Party was at
the time make all the efforts to portrait Japanese government and political
system as evil, driving the efforts for convert the country to the communist
state. Based on some unverified accounts, Yoshida received substantial monetary
grant from the Soviet government, led by Leonid Brezhnev (before his death in
1982), for this book, which was in line with the USSR interests in Asia.
In spite the fact that the falsification was proven, and
admitted by the perpetrator, there are still people who believe the story of
"forcibly-moved comfort women" is a sad historical reality.
No Forced
Transportation
It is the well-known fact that there were comfort women
for the Japanese military in battlefields. However, in most cases, the comfort
women were doing business, willingly trading their sexual favors for money.
There were also several Korean businessmen, who arranged and mediated the
sexual services arrangements between the military and women. According to some
accounts, there were professional women, who were able to earn 10 times of a
university graduate salary, or 100 times of a soldier paycheck. They could
build house in their homeland after 2-3 years of the job.
At the same time, following the Korean translation of
Yoshida's book publication, several testimonies appeared in Korea from the
women who said, "I was forcibly moved to become a comfort woman for
Japanese soldiers. The Japanese government, compensate!"
In 1993, the Japanese government arranged legal hearings of
the testimonies from 16 ex-comfort women and inquired other 10 ex-comfort
women. Among these 26 cases, there were 8, who testified indeed to have been
forcibly moved. However, none of these testimonies could be positively
validated by the documents, records, and other people reports.
Japanese
Government's Communication
Regardless of the validity of the women testimonies, the
Japanese politicians apologized to the Korean government for the allegedly performed
crimes against forcefully recruited to the prostitution comfort women.
A statement by Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono highlighted
that "the Japanese military was, directly or indirectly, involved in the
establishment and management of the comfort stations, and the transfer of
comfort women.... that, in many cases they were recruited against their own
will."
The government of Japan, it continued, would like to
"extend its sincere apologies and remorse to all those who suffered
immeasurable pain and incurable physical and psychological wounds as comfort
women". A private compensation fund was also set up.
A Japanese politician who had been in charge of making
the draft of the apologizing interview, later said, "We had an agreement
with the Korean government that with this interview, both of us would make past
issues all settled and would intend for the future. But seeing that today's
Korean government is saying about compensation for the past, I am really
disappointed."
The same thing can be said to the Japan-Republic of Korea
Basic Relations Treaty concluded in 1965. Japan and Korea agreed that with this
treaty, all past issues had been settled and that Korea would not require any
compensation for the past anymore. But Korean presidents after that have submitted
several formal inquiries and required substantial monetary compensation from
Japan, disregarding the treaty.
Historic Agreement
South Korea and Japan reached a landmark deal December
28, 2015 to resolve the issue of Korean women forced into sexual slavery for
Japanese soldiers during World War II. Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se and his
Japanese counterpart, Fumio Kishida, announced the agreement after talks at the
Foreign Ministry in Seoul. The meeting focused on Japan’s admission of
responsibility for the wartime crime as well as plans to pay reparations to the
victims.
In a joint press conference, Kishida said the comfort
women issue is an issue where women under the then military’s involvement bore
deep scars to their honor and dignity, adding that from this perspective, the
Japanese government acutely feels responsible. Japan promised to offer 1
billion yen (approximately 9.7 billion won) in compensation for the ‘comfort
women’.
Sources and
Additional Information:
1 comment:
This article is also an "hoax and a prank" Yoshida may have lied about what had happened in his book, but girls were forced to be sex slaves during the WW2 period in real life. Tell me how can girls the age of 13 voluntarily be fucked constantly 40 times a day? These girls were physically and mentally wounded. (I wonder if the author will be to have the guts to face the truth and actually let me comment, seeing that the blog author has enabled the setting to have to approve these comments before they are posted).
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