Crazy Japan

[joft]

Recently Japanese PM Shinzo Abe denied that "comfort women" during WW2 were coerced. this is pretty schizophrenic, because in the past Japan has admitted it and apologized, and then denied, and issued more apologies, etc. (my current avatar is from the cnn story about it a few days ago). i don't know much about this issue, i have been only vaguely aware of it in the past and not done any significant research, but it makes me a little outraged at how unempathic and stupid conservative male politicians tend to be.

they are the biggest advocates of use of force, intimidation, power, etc, and also the ones who understand least how it works. i can easily imagine a myriad of ways that chinese/korean women could have been forced, from their perspective-- some implicit signaling that this was the only way to guarantee the safety of their families, things like that-- which are not outright kidnapping at gunpoint.

Here are some wikipedia articles for background:

List of War Apology Statements Issued by Japan (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_War_Apology_Statements_Issued_by_Japan) (holy apologetic batman)

"Comfort women" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comfort_women) (the japanese euphemism for sex slaves)

Japanese history textbooks controversy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_history_textbooks_controversy) (they're going back to denying that it ever happened)

"Recreation and Amusement Association" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recreation_and_Amusement_Association) (established by Japan after the war to provide a "sexual breakwater for the american troops in order to protect japanese women"-- the wikipedia article says about 40 japanese women were raped daily by american soldiers while the RAA was open, and that increased to about 330 a day when it closed)

I wonder if the wonderful US of A has issued any apologies? I just keep getting more and more radical every day, don't I!

[Ferrus]

Yes, but then they invented karioke and the Sega Megadrive. Thus all was forgiven.

[PonderBee]

Japan previously stated a moral responsibility - not a legal one in the case of comfort women. I'd guess that the denials are in reaction to the hoofbeat of reparation for victims growing ever stronger. So far no legal reparations claim has been successful in these cases. I suppose that the hope is that if the official declaration of guilt can be held off long enough most claims will dead, buried and forgotton before a reparations process can be initiated in Japan.

[mancroft]

Yes, but then they invented karioke and the Sega Megadrive. Thus all was forgiven.

:rofl:

[Cockroach]

All this amounts to is the Koreans asking the Japanese to bend over bckwards for them. The fact is, the Japanese are a nationalistic people, and have been for quite some time. Making demands upon them will go nowhere

[TheGiftofWork]

It is quite sad that many people don't know that Japan was worse on their treatment of individuals then were the Germans in WWII. The Japanese killed over 40 million.

An amazing book on the rescue of George H. W. Bush on Chichi Jima and the horrorific acts commited by the nations in WWII is Flyboys. It is based around a group of US pilots that changed the tide of the war of the Pacific. But don't get me wrong, this is not your normal patriotic "America is the Best and everyone else is bad" book. It exposes the darkest secrets and madness that The United States, Russia and Japan were hiding for so long. The author did a tremendous amount of research and conducted many interviews Japanese and American alike. ANYONE IN SEARCH OF THE TRUTH ABOUT WWII IN THE PACIFIC SHOULD READ THIS BOOK!

Check it out

Flyboys: A True Story of Courage by James Bradley

http://www.amazon.com/Flyboys-Story-Courage-James-Bradley/dp/0316159433/ref=pd_bbs_sr_7/002-0310756-5864800?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1173759875&sr=8-7