Abe’s turn to get SLAMMED

I wanted to go back to ignoring the recent flap over a House resolution to condemn Japan’s supposed failure to adequately deal with the “comfort women” issue. But how can I sit quietly when the Prime Minister himself is getting SLAMMED?

Growing Chorus Slams War-Brothel Remarks Japanese P.M. Under Fire For Comfort Women Remarks
AP

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – March 3, 2007 – South Korea again criticized Japan’s prime minister Saturday for disavowing his country’s responsibility for using Asian women as sex slaves for Japanese troops in World War II.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Thursday there was no proof that so-called “comfort women” were forced into sexual slavery during the war.

The remark triggered outrage throughout Asia.

Abe’s statement is “aimed at glossing over the historical truth and our government expresses strong regret,” said a statement from South Korea’s Foreign Ministry.

55 thoughts on “Abe’s turn to get SLAMMED”

  1. “The remark triggered outrage throughout Asia.”

    No news of outrage from Mongolia that I knew!

  2. This is such a beat up! As I have already mentioned, the translation of Abe’s comments in the western media was inaccurate to the point of farce and the usual suspects are overreacting.

    https://www.mutantfrog.com/2007/02/27/mext-minister-bunmei-ibuki-should-know-hes-said-something-really-dumb-when/#comment-149634

    I won’t repeat myself. Instead I’ll quote at length Ambassador Togo Kazuhiko over at NBR whose views I share. Note, however, that the Asahi, a newspaper that would normally run wild with this story was silent for three whole days and when it did report the story presented much more balance than either the Western media or the Sankei. Perhaps this shows that the Japanese media (whose readers tend to read Japanese) have a better understanding of the (Japanese) comments of their PM.

    Anyway, here’s Togo:

    “Abe’s statement to the press on 1 March turned out to be confusing. The
    situation in which it was pronounced was unclear and the statement made was
    not easy for clear interpretation. I am sure it is thoroughly reviewed now
    in Tokyo and in our Embassies in Washington, Seoul and Beijing, but let me
    offer my reaction at this point.

    “1. On the same day March 1, Shiozakki stated in an on-the-record press
    conference that Abe’s position on inheriting Konos’s statement was
    unchanged.

    “2. New York Times was the first major media reporting about the change of
    policy based on an AP report as of March 1. No Japanese newspaper reported
    before AP’s report to my knowledge.

    “3. Sankei, as expected, more or less confirmed Abe’s intention for
    reexamination of Kono’s statement on 2 March article.

    “4. Asahi in its article dated 4 March suggested an entirely different
    interpretation. Rough line of this article is as follows: Abe’s thinking
    should boil down to the following: (1) there was serious debates on the
    definition of “coercion”; (2) “coercion” based on original “narrow”
    definition could not be proven; (3) but “coercion” based on “wider”
    definition existed, (4) and since the gist of Kono’s statement was based on
    “wider” definition, Abe’s cabinet inherited Kono’s statement.

    “As such, there is nothing to indicate, at this point, a change of policy in
    Abe’s position in Asahi’s article. I am not too familiar with the legal
    definition of “narrow” and “wider” “coercion”. To me the central issue
    debated in Japan was views articulated by some politicians and opinion
    leaders that “comfort women place” was not a “rape center” or “sexual
    slavery center” but was intended to satisfy soldiers’ sexual desire which
    could lead them to rape under war time mental pressure: the system at a time
    when “public brothels” was accepted social phenomena in Japan and
    elsewhere, “military brothel” was an acceptable system about which Japan
    does not merit moral or criminal blasphemy retrospectively. Intention to
    assemble girls against their will to “enforced sexual service” was not GOJ’s intention and this may be the gist of “narrow” definition about which
    Abe is saying that he could not find proof.

    “According to Asahi article Kono himself made basically the same distinction
    and explanation to Asahi in 1997. If that is the essence of the discourse,
    position expressed by Kono and Abe does not make me uncomfortable. As I
    tried to write carefully, it is the “coercion” used in what Tokyo lawyers
    probably call in a “narrow” definition, that girls were put in an enforced
    environment of sexual activities “against their will” that matters.
    Acknowledging that this happened within the whole system, apologizing and
    atoning, that is the essence of what Japan has been doing from 1993.”

    Oh well. Bring out the dogs and sharpen the knives.

  3. From BBC:

    The Japanese have never been able to accept what they do not like as the truth. When it is something they don’t want to hear, then the best way to deal with it, is deny it ever happened.
    The Japanese treatment of dolphins, explains as much about the Japanese make-up, as we ever need to know.

    Gillian Thornton, cirencester

    Hey,When did we say dolphins are not tasty!

  4. hahaha,

    The association of war crimes with the snuffing of cetaceans has always fascinated me. Whenever the Japanese are hunting whale, you can predict that there will be a letter in the NZ herald saying something along the lines of “those bastards are evil. look at what they did in WWII.”

  5. You mean those experiments on whales in Unit 731?

    What is more disturbing is that in this age of the internet, possibly the greatest revolution in communication technology since Gutenberg, you no longer need to go through any kind of peer review to make your opinions known – no editors, no publishers to judge the quality of your work. And yet as the standards for getting your ideas out there crumble, the range is vastly increased. How many people here regularly read the Letters to the Editor of the NZ Herald? I know I don’t. And at the same time that every uneducated moron with internet access is busy spouting his opinions to the world at large, we do not seem to make enough allowances for this change: comments like Gillian Thornton and others are taken more seriously than they deserve. Sure, in an ideal world we would be able to educate people about things, but there are so many things and so many people it is almost impossible. The internet legitimises the mumblings of morons that used to be confined to bars, a few letters to the editor, and the like (reminds me of the students in the Borat movie complaining about how they were portrayed: ironic, when so many people go out of their way to make provocative statements like that).

  6. I didn’t know who Gillian Thornton is, so I looked up her profile. This is charming and probably proves your point:

    “Gillian specialises in France and the UK but will write about anywhere anybody will send her.”

  7. Not much to add Mr.Togo.Although he may not be an appropriate man to deffend Abe for two reasons.
    1)His grand father,Togo Shigenori was an A class war criminal for being foreign minister of Tojo’s war cabinet and died in Sugamo prison,while Abe’s grandpa,Kishi wasn’t convicted.
    2)Mr.Togo didn’t turn himself to the law when Suzuki Muneo’s Norther territorial aid related scandal pops out.Togo who was at the time the head of Eurasian department of MOFA and responsible for the Russian policies havn’t returned to Japan for this reason,While his man Sato Masaru spend his time in prison for twi years.

    More post later.My wife just came back!

  8. Bryce:
    I just read NBR posts.Love this Robyn Lim Character. Always translate the matter into geopolitics!One of the commenter at the forum Mindy Kotler of Asian Policy Point(formerly called Japan Information Access Project!wondering what sort of information she’s been access to..)

    Guessing everybody’s question why Abe reffered to the matter in the first place,
    well….Japanese PM has to meet the press club guys at least once a day(Koizumi met twince a day,and our man reduced it and there’s a fuss about it)
    Probably one of the reporters asked Abe about the Roh’s speech on March 1st reffering the capitol hill’s attempt for a House resolution on comfort women.Since Abe is no supporter of Kono statement before, it was natural for any reporter to ask him questions if they have a chance.

    Gaijins say a lot about Kisha clubs like a device to impose self censorship or turning journalist into a mouthpiece of the system and there’s also the famous Van Wolfren clincher of the revisionst days that “J-politicians lacking accountability”thing,but this seems to be a good counterexample that journalism is live and well inside the club and PM practice some sort of accountability….

    If Abe neither dump the Kono statement nor make some new doctrine on this issue,there will be more trouble in the future.
    I mean nobody give a rats ass about Kono statements or simply ignored the series of apologies in the 90’s until now,it’s revealing that the critics are not capable of understanding all the aspect of the issue nor simply don’t care as long as the issue serves their political purposes of which is beyond me.

    I hate to repeat something all of you already know,but Asian Women Fund,which has been criticized as a private donation and not governmental money.It’s organizational running expenses were coming from the government budget,and GOJ had guaranteed publicly that if nationwide donation would not meet the proposed amount,then GPJ would pay the remaining bill by tax.The first chairman of the fund was the speaker of the house Hara and the second was ex-prime minister Murayama,is that really sounds “private” to you all?This is as much public
    fund as highly praised German fund”Memory,Resposibility and the Future”made by
    German company who took advantage of the Jewish slave labor in the consentration camp,if not better(for AWF guaranntee more governmental financial support)
    GOJ simply do not wish AWF,contradicting the ’64 treaty with Seoul which I believe is the bottom line of everything.The comfort women are not the only victim of the war.And we do not wish this case to be the forerunner of the collapse of the post-war reconciliation scheme with EVERYBODY.

  9. correction:
    One of the commenter at the forum Mindy Kotler of Asian Policy Point(formerly called Japan Information Access Project!wondering what sort of information she’s been access to..)is absent from the discussions probably due to the fact that she is one of the behind the scene manipulator

  10. It is funny to me how you so many westerners become SO UPSET over Abe’s (as well as other Japanese’s) lack of apology. At least Japan made some form of apology and restitution. Where is the western apology for the African holocaust? Where are the reparations that Africans rightly deserve? Westerners (read white people) seem to think that the very thought of doing such is absurd. Until westerners can issue a public an unequivocal apology to Africans they should shut up about the Japanese. Yes Japan deserves condemnation but the west deserves it far more!!!

  11. “Gaijins say a lot about Kisha clubs like a device to impose self censorship or turning journalist into a mouthpiece of the system”
    I know this is getting off topic, but isn’t the kisha club system more worthy of criticism as an instrument of market control than information control? Not that there isn’t an element of information control as well, but I can’t for the life of me see how this system is any different from the (also somewhat lousy) Whitehouse Press Club or whatever it’s called.

  12. “isn’t the kisha club system more worthy of criticism as an instrument of market control than information control? ”

    Yes.And you must make a post entirely devoted on this topic,MF.
    I think nothing would change even if we have all kisha clubs dismantled for we still have cartels of big paper-TV-media complex.

  13. I feel like Abe’s answer to the kisha club’s questions reflect Abe’s own mistake (why did he answer the reporter’s question rather than simply repeat a canned talking point?) rather than any success or failure of the system itself.

    “I think nothing would change even if we have all kisha clubs dismantled for we still have cartels of big paper-TV-media complex.”

    That’s the problem I have with foreign correspondents’ constant harping on this system, since the correspondents stand to directly benefit from its abolition, both in terms of access to the press conferences and the media companies loss of privileges (use of govt office space etc). The public may enjoy some slight benefit with more sources covering press conferences, but abolishing the kisha club system by itself wouldn’t necessarily give the public more information (many of the govt press conferences are available to read/watch on the Internet anyway). If the kisha club system is abolished then you might simply see less of the off the record information control going on at those press conferences and more in other points of contact between the big domestic media companies and the government (the morning/night beats in front of officials’ houses etc that foreign correspondents are highly unlikely to take part in due to the uncomfortable working conditions).

    Post on this topic is forthcoming of course.

  14. I don’t see what being able to see the entire press conference in all it’s excruciating detail has to do with it, when the most common criticism of the kisha clubs (and similar organizations in other countries) is that the club members avoid asking the tough questions because they want to avoid embarrassing their buddies on the other side. I’ll wait for a thread on that topic to talk more about it. And Adam will probably write that post because he knows several times as much about the media market in Japan as I do.

  15. It’s not true that the most common criticism is a lack of “tough questions,” it’s mostly the lack of access. The problem of “the system encourag[ing] over-reliance on a single source of information and a lack of cross-checking” comes in second. The EU’s public excoriation of the system was probably the most prominent public flogging Japan has received for this. Here’s what they had to say:

    2.3. Journalism: freedom and equality of access to information

    Access to press conferences, briefings and other media events in Japan organised by official bodies (from central government ministries through prefectural governments to local police headquarters) is generally restricted to the membership of that body’s kisha club. There are innumerable kisha clubs in Japan at national and local level. The club usually consists of a room provided by the body concerned on its own premises, which is shared by the journalists belonging to the club and functions in practice both as their office and as a briefing venue.

    With the exception of a limited number of wire services (which, if they are members at all, often have only associate membership and therefore can listen but have no right to ask questions), membership is denied to journalists from foreign media organisations. It is worth noting that shukan-shi, or mass circulation weekly magazines, as well as other weekly, monthly or bi-monthly magazines are also excluded, as well as specialised press covering sectors other than those directly relating to the host body.

    Membership matters, while ostensibly in the hands of the hierarchy of the club in
    question, are in fact closely controlled by the host body, with which the club has a
    symbiotic relationship. Club members are in constant physical proximity to their
    briefers and thus also enjoy privileged access to off-the-record information.

    There have been numerous instances where restrictions on foreign journalists’ access, including the kisha club system, have impeded reporting outside Japan of events of widespread international interest and significance. Examples include the Lucie Blackman murder case and the recent visit to North Korea by PM Koizumi. By
    denying foreign correspondents first-hand access to briefings, the system acts as a de facto competitive hindrance to foreign media organisations. It unfairly makes them slower to bring information to their audience than domestic organisations, and, unable to put questions on the spot, forces them to rely on second-hand information. In effect, the system works as a restraint on free trade in information.

    The system also has broader negative consequences for both the domestic and
    international consumer of information about Japan:

    • Officials and the hierarchy of the kisha club have the means to prevent the
    spread of information they may consider disadvantageous, on pain of exclusion
    of the offending journalist from the club. The system thus acts against the
    public interest, since it may deny or delay access to important information,
    including for example information of direct relevance to public health and
    safety. Reporting on the discovery of BSE in Japan was a case in point.

    • By giving both officials and journalists a vested interest in maintaining the
    exclusivity of a story, the system encourages over-reliance on a single source
    of information and a lack of cross-checking, thus diminishing the quality of
    information available to the wider public.

    The system encourages the widespread and undesirable practice of split
    briefings for domestic and foreign journalists, increasing the potential for
    information to be tailored to one or the other audience by the briefing party,
    and exacerbating the risk of spreading inaccurate and biased information about
    Japan.

    The disservice being done to consumers of information by the kisha club system can only be addressed by its abolition in the interests of fair and equal access to media events for all media organisations, domestic and foreign. In any case, all holders of a Ministry of Foreign Affairs press card should have the right to attend media events organised by official bodies on an equal footing with domestic journalists.

    Legitimate problems with numbers of attendees can easily be dealt with through the existing pool structure – the FPIJ, or Foreign Press in Japan – which was itself created at the behest of the Japanese government to deal with just such situations.

    Priority reform proposals:

    a. Accept the Ministry of Foreign Affairs press card issued to correspondents of foreign media organisations as accreditation for all media events held by Japan’s official bodies, to enable access on an equal footing with all domestic journalists.

    b. Remove the restraint on free trade in information by abolishing the kisha
    club system.

  16. Should put that as a post instead of a comment.Adamu.

    “tough questions,”
    This matters in some case like Ishihara Shintaro’s daily press conference.My boss used to get really mad at the guys at Tokyo Met Gov kisha club because sometimes Ishihara act really really rude,and reporters were seemingly too tame as if their attitude is letting Ishihara continue to act like a hood,and my boss felt that was a disgrace.Although according to one of the guys at the clubs the audience like attitudes of reporters give them unintended fruit that Ishihara tends to slip his mouth during his Rummy talk like one man speech contest and expecting that to happen.

    “Membership matters, while ostensibly in the hands of the hierarchy of the club in
    question, are in fact closely controlled by the host body, with which the club has a
    symbiotic relationship. Club members are in constant physical proximity to their
    briefers and thus also enjoy privileged access to off-the-record information.”
    This happens especially local police kisha club because reporters are usually yellow beaked freshman But then again these could happen without kisha club.The case I know is Narita land owners who refused to sell the land to the airport authority literary controlled reporters by selecting reporter who are sympathetic then the others.this also happens when you want to get informations relating faction politics of LDP.

    “membership is denied to journalists from foreign media organisations. It is worth noting that shukan-shi, or mass circulation weekly magazines, as well as other weekly, monthly or bi-monthly magazines are also excluded, as well as specialised press covering sectors other than those directly relating to the host body.”
    THE REAL PROBLEM!

    “The system encourages the widespread and undesirable practice of split
    briefings for domestic and foreign journalists, increasing the potential for
    information to be tailored to one or the other audience by the briefing party,
    and exacerbating the risk of spreading inaccurate and biased information about Japan”
    This is what’s happening now with Abe and Kono statement, isn’t it.But I don’t think club alone is the real matter here.

    “By giving both officials and journalists a vested interest in maintaining the
    exclusivity of a story, the system encourages over-reliance on a single source
    of information and a lack of cross-checking, thus diminishing the quality of
    information available to the wider public.”
    Again happening right now.Not because of the club.But because Foreign correspondents do not have literacy of either the Japanese language or the GOJ’s resolution(or the lack of)on the issue .And bandwagoned”reliable”NYT and AP article.And that caused stampede.

  17. Continuing from the last post

    I find MOFA issues press card that is valid to all the clubs in the country seems to work for all,but in reality the connection between reporter and informant would destined to become more informal than what is now.As long as the relation is built upon the encounter at the clubs,there are constant change of the players due to the fact that reporters get transferred once in a few years.

    Even if the club open it’s door to wider participants,I doubt foreign correspondents would never come and visit the clubs.For most of the case correspondents pick up stories through wires and local English speaking newspapers and reading translated articles by local deputy researchers,like Adamu was doing for Nishi-Nihon Shimbun.
    Although I admit that alone would never justified the restriction of newcomers.But What I’m trying to say here is as you can see on the above EU statement there is a confusion of business interest (honne)and freedom of speech debate(tatemae)regarding Gaijin accusations of the kisha club.

    Besides I seriously doubt whether foreign reporters are interested to do any serious work on Japan reporting considering all the cliche they’ve been writing(you all know what I feel about BBC)Related to this topic at hand,some of you should read Japanese translation of Korean media,It’s a mess.

  18. 腹がたって腹がたってもういられない。
    82年の教科書が歴史を歪曲したとメディアが誤報したときとおんなじだ。

  19. Adamu, could you elaborate on how a kisha club is different from, say, white house press briefings in terms of participation criteria.

  20. The big difference is that only a closed list of the major media institutions are allowed into most kisha clubs (major newspapers, wire services, and TV stations only), whereas the White House has a press accreditation system that includes weekly magazines, columnists, and other publications (I can’t find the criteria offhand but there’s a list of them here)

    I’m trying not to procrastinate right now (not doing so well) so don’t expect many blog posts for the time being.

  21. 頭に来る!いったい日本のマスコミは何をやっているんだ!NYTの誤報を、批判すべきでしょう!!なんで誰も何も言わないで阿部首相のスキャンダルとして面白半分に取り上げるんだ!!

    I HATE TO SIDE WITH ABE!! and now i am deffending him! FXXX!!!!

  22. Although the progress of the issue at hand is heading to dire straits.I’m a bit worried about the silence dominating here.Is everyone alright?I want to hear some opinion from foreign friends.

  23. I can’t get the motivation to take time to post on this right now. How is this getting dire? I noticed Abe got the kangaeru kai to quiet down and then announced some kind of reinvestigation. Will that have any positive effect?

  24. I was kind of wondering whether you got ill or something,Adamu.Worried.

    I’m actually surprised you see this optimistically.reinvestigation would probably come up with same conclusion.And what do we get.more words needed for the post but duty called.later.

  25. “Reinvestigations” in Japan tend to be a way of acknowledging some sort of nutty view exists among certain members within the governing elite, while avoiding the issue in any concrete fashion. This is kind of how the LDP has handled constitutional revision for the past 50 years and I don’t know if it will be any different here. Mind you, this isn’t a “Japanese” thing. All governments tend to shove controversial issues into the “investigative commission” box when it is convenient to do so.

    The difference here is that this issue doesn’t appear to be making as many waves in Japan as it is overseas. So establishing an investigative committee, or whatever, probably won’t mollify liberals elsewhere.

    Either that or everybody will have forgotten about this in about two week’s time.

  26. “The difference here is that this issue doesn’t appear to be making as many waves in Japan as it is overseas. ”

    a) We’ve done all the hustle in ’93 and Korean side betrayed.
    b) medias regardless the political stance feel NHK vs VAWNET-JAPAN case was an overkill.For the court decision was NHK had not met the “expectation” of the VAWNET-JAPAN,which was a bizzare judgement for it threatens the freedom of editorship.
    c)everyone know there is no new evidence.
    “Either that or everybody will have forgotten about this in about two week’s time.”
    No.It is getting bigger and bigger.It’s not just about Abe now.
    duty calls.later.

  27. Hasn’t there been SOME new evidence since 1993? I’m fairly sure I’ve read there were a couple of documents uncovered more recently that add weight to claims that the military was well aware girls were being tricked into working as comfort women, and not just being hired as prostitutes like some people claim. Of course, this is what the Kono statement was fundamentally acknowledging anyway. At best, a new study would probably just come to the same conclusion, but have more evidence cited in the footnotes.

    I’d love to spend some time looking through all the papers about comfort women I have bookmarked, but I’m afraid I just have too much work to do, and a friend suddenly emailed yesterday saying he was coming from Korea to Kansai for the weekend.

  28. “Hasn’t there been SOME new evidence since 1993? I’m fairly sure I’ve read there were a couple of documents uncovered more recently that add weight to claims that the military was well aware girls were being tricked into working as comfort women”
    Not that I know of.Besides if there were any we would’ve known this week.

    Looks like the House resolution got green lighted according to Yomiuri.
    And NYT gave front page for Norimitsu Onishi’s comfort women demonstration piece in Sydney today.He has been planning to have this article for the international women’s day.All the series of reports are no mistranslation or biased quotes. They were all intentional.Smart guy.With all the politicians in D.C start moving and every major media in America covering the issue who needs evidence.
    All the news that fits to print is there.No one wants “fact “now.

    What will happen if Abe and the whole nation say “we have other opinion in this issue”.Will we get bombed by stealth jets?Better make some fox holes in the our tiny yard.

  29. There has been more first hand testimony from former comfort women since 1993. A lot more. However, some people will never accept this and others will never question it so, as in the case of Nanking, the first hand accounts are usually pushed into the background of debate.

    In any case, I think that Abe is foolish to bring these issues up at this point — does he really need to satisfy the 2% of Japanese who are against expressing contrition toward China and Korea? That’s not going to help him in the coming election….

    However, it is good to see that some of the news sources outside of Japan are starting to entertain suggestions that not ALL of the comfort women were forced into prostitution. Some are also being critical with the numbers.

  30. As you know testimony is testimony,Not an evidence that makes everybody satisfied in a disputed case like this one.M-Bone.
    What I’m concerning now is that Washington people are pushing our PM to kowtow (again)and thinks that would make something good out of it.Mike Honda is friend of Iris Chang and he has more interest in Nanjing massacre,This december happens to be the 70th anniversaries and we will have at least six movies on the event coming to the theater everywhere in China.So the thing just won’t end with another insincere apology to confort women.The case in Nanjing is way more vague and difficult to make fact out of it.But then again facts are no importance now hence all you need is some article on NYTand some political leverage in D.C and that will open any locked door in Tokyo.
    Abe-Honda-Onishi show will likely to continue until the end of the year or even beyond.Although we may not have Abe with us as PM at that time.

  31. “In any case, I think that Abe is foolish to bring these issues up at this point—does he really need to satisfy the 2% of Japanese who are against expressing contrition toward China and Korea? That’s not going to help him in the coming election….”

    The problem is and what I am really angry is that HE DIDN’T this thing up. If he had said anything controversial, said something inappropriate, then I would agree to critcize.

    But they (NYT) and other medias, and maybe some activitists just lit the fire where even no source for fire. It’s like an arson. But it is realy too late. The some media around the world are now even anouncing that Abe has denyied Nanjing or Unit 731. It’s horrible.

    And I am sure that nationalism in Japan will continure to rise during this year.

  32. Dismissing the testimony completely is pretty absurd. Of course we can’t expect old women to remember details of 60 years ago perfectly enough for, say, a criminal trial but the idea that only evidence that was written down on paper at the time is eligible for consideration is pretty absurd.

    As for documentary evidence, look at this paper (PDF format) from 2000 that references some documents from police archives only first examined in 1997. I think are some others, but I don’t have time to dig them up now. Still, between extra documents only uncovered due to increased interest in the topic AFTER the Kano statement, as well as the women who only had the courage to provide testimony after the government statement, I think it is definitely fair to say that there is more evidence today than there was when the first government commission made their report.

    最後に、これらの警察資料が公開されるにいたった経緯を簡単に紹介しておく。これらの資料は元内務省職員種村一雄氏の寄贈にかかるもので、警察大学校に保存されていた。1992年と93年の政府調査報告の際にはその所在がつかめなかったと言われている。ところが、1996年12月19日に参議院議員吉川春子氏(共産党)の求めに応じて、警察庁がこの資料を提出したため、その存在が明るみに出ることになった16)。本稿では分析の対象外としたが、一連の内務省文書には、慰安所で働かされた女性の徴募と輸送に軍と警察が深く関与したことを示す動かぬ証拠ともいうべき、1938年11月に第21軍と陸軍省の要請を受けて、内務省警保局が決定・指示した、慰安婦400名の調達および輸送に関する警保局長通牒の起案書類が含まれている。これについては吉見義明の研究がすでにあるので、そちらを参照されたい17)。

    http://www.bun.kyoto-u.ac.jp/~knagai/works/iansho.pdf

    “The some media around the world are now even anouncing that Abe has denyied Nanjing or Unit 731. ”

    I haven’t seen anything like that. Do you have any links?

  33. MT
    The whole document was posted on marmot’s hole or Occidentalism by ponta. I will search for links later.

  34. I just glanced at the recent posts on both of those blogs and there was nothing about either Nanjing or Unit 731.

  35. The difference between historians and the general public / general readers on the issue of testimony is that historians do not expect to get to the bottom of a problem. There is no solving the comfort women issue. Testimony can be one side of our understanding, however. I think that considering testimony is much wiser than the numbers game that dominates most of the Nanking debates.

    As for Abe — I think that he is a jackass for butting into this issue. Surely it is a matter for debate among historians. Hata thinks one thing and a lot of other scholars think another. The NYT mistranslation was disgusting, but why does Abe feel the need to save Japans story from the liberals?

  36. Wasn’t that the same mistranslation that was originally in the AP article? Regardless, Onishi should be able to see that it was wrong and correct it.

  37. I saw mistranslations in a few sources. I bought it before I looked at the Japanese. I was a bit concerned that the Japanese press was not jumping on it…. until I saw that there was little to jump on. Abe`s opinions on the comfort women have been pretty well known for a while now. In any case, I don`t think that Hata (good historian, really) needs the PM to stick up for him in this debate.

  38. Conspiracy theorist in me suggests that Onishi must have been planning to fly to Sydney from his supposed turf of Tokyo and the editors in NY had gave him a go sign for this assgnment for front page article on International Women’s day at least a few days in advance.Or that sort of the planning is the way it is in my office.
    So I don’t believe in no mistranslation.Could be the AP guy have mistaken(the very institution that reported PM Miyazawa’s word that”American workers are lazy”which was completely cutted out of context).

    Oh well,Maybe Abe and I are heavily relied on Hata on this.But the documentary called “Harumoni in Okinawa”(I’ve only read the book written by the director,mind you)has this interview of Korean ex-comfort woman living in Okinawa in the 70’s,
    that she was proud in the service and felt sad when Imperial Army was surrendered.This of course is from woman who spends her life away from her homeland and probably lived as prostitute for AmericanGIs after the war(for living in U.S controled Okinawa which had the biggest concentration of prostitutes in the 60’s and 70’s)But nevertheless it is important because it is a testimony collected long before all the issue become politicized and director(a left wing Japanese)was trying to reveal the forgotten war victim without the influence of the Korean nationalism and current victim politics.Testimony like her’s would be very difficult to
    obtained in the current situation which the focus group literary control all the discource surrounding the issue and give vicious character assasination or even a law suits to anything that could potentially undermine their political cause.So we are now dealing with groups who renounce themselves as the guardianangels of the comfortwomen but has their own agendas.

    Off topic but what do you(MF and M-Bone) think of David Askew of Ritsumeikan APU?He’s been writing for SHOKUN!(yeah,I read SHOKUN!)on current Chinese academics work on Nanjing atrocities.Interesting reading.And Bungeishyunjyu is coming out with has-been-unknown-to-the-public personal note of Hirohito on war of Showa, tommorow.Understandably a must read for those interested in the subject.

  39. David Askew is a solid academic. I think that his articles are good. He is one of the individuals who has made the point that the Nanking deniers are a fringe element in Japan. I think that this is an idea that should be spread around more. However, he has not been that productive lately. I would like to see some follow up stuff (Tendensha, the outfit that put out some of the more extreme denial books has come out with a few new titles lately after a nearly 5 year hiatus) on some of the more recent shifts in the Japanese right.

    I will check out Bungei when I get a chance. However, I am not really intersted in Imperial war responsibility – much prefer popular cultural representations of ordinary soldiers, etc.

  40. That Bungei article could be interesting, and especially if a full version is ever published, which is likely. Although I wonder how much the diary has been edited in later days, had bits expurgated, and so on. While I am not too into postwar looks at Imperial War Responsibility either, I am interested in how they viewed the war and Empire at the time.

    How many more diaries and records are going to surface, I wonder?

  41. I see a need for some tasteful Nanking films from the Chinese perspective. If they reduced the scale to, say, a single family, they could avoid all of the numbers debates and look at some serious issues. I also think that such a film should try to convince the audience that organized violence is bad, not that Japan is bad. That, however, is probably too much to ask….

  42. Hey,We’ve got some press coverage from UK Guardian,even before we knew it.
    The title is Japanese PM unapologetic over “comfort women”.It’s in News Blog section on March 5 2007.titling
    “Sorry seems to be the hardest word for Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe.”

    Here’s us.
    “A post by Mutant Frog, meanwhile, sets off an exchange that manages to draw in dolphins, whales and one of Japan’s other dirty wartime “secrets”: Unit 731.”

    It’s from Tokyo correpondent Justin McCurry,the dude who wrote a piece based on Debito’s blog.Should I accuse him of writing a piece from some chit-chat in blogs,or for completely curving our discussions…..
    Anyway this is a perfect example of the way “Japan stories”are made in English media…..

  43. I’m waiting for a student of mine to misquote something that I’ve written in Mutantfrog comments and submit it to me in an essay.

    Also, I think that it would be interesting to go back and see what was the farthest that we ever got off topic.

    One that comes to mind now is Bryce and I talking about troop figures in the Louis Vuitton thread….

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