Two of the dwindling number of former ‘comfort women – non-
Japanese woman coerced by the Japanese Imperial Army to have
sex with Japanese troops - after erecting a statue outside the
Japanese Embassy in Seoul. The women were holding their 1,000th
meeting to demand that Japan formally apologize and compensate
them. Japan says it has apologized, and that all monetary claims
are invalid, having been settled under a 1965 treaty.
Why Further
Humiliate 'Comfort Women' by Calling them 'Sex Slaves'? (J-Cast, Japan)
"Japanese Web
users have trouble understanding what the intention is of changing the
terminology to something that is far more humiliating. Reactions have been cool
... 'How will parents explain when their children ask what a sex slave is?'
...'What can one make of a nation that seeks
to strongly emphasize that their grandmothers, mothers, and sisters were sex
slaves? ... I feel sorry for the comfort women. I can only conclude that
Koreans are discriminating against them.”
Erected outside the Japan Embassy in Seoul, a statue of a Korean woman coerced by the Japanese Imperial Army to be a prostitute for its troops: The thorny debate about this unpleasant piece of World War II history recently erupted again, when Secretary of State Clinton was reported to have directed State Department staff to end use of the euphemism 'comfort women' and instead refer to such individuals as 'forced sex slaves.' Now South Korea is considering folowing suit.
South Korea media have reported that their government is prepared
to replace the term “comfort women” - the term used for women who were forced
into prostitution by the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II - with “sex
slaves.” Some South Korea media report that U.S. Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton has issued a similar directive.
However, what Secretary Clinton has done in regard to sex
slaves has not been verified. Furthermore, some cast doubt about whether there were “comfort
women forcibly coerced into prostitution,” and Japanese Web sites featured a
number of cynical responses. One user commented that “choosing an even more
humiliating phrase doesn't make sense.”
Posted
by Worldmeets.US
According to the Japanese online edition of South Korea's
influential JoongAngIlbo,
Trade and Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan told a parliamentary committee on July 13 that he
was “ready to change the wording to ‘sex slaves.’” Reportedly, he felt that a description
more in accord with reality was preferable. Unconfirmed reports say that Secretary
Clinton told State Department staff to use the phrase "enforced sex
slaves" rather than the euphemistic “comfort women.”
Mrs. Clinton’s reported “remarks” have captured a lot of
attention on the Internet. On July 9th, the Japanese online edition of the ChosunIlbo reported
that she had given orders in her department to refer to “comfort women” as
“enforced sex slaves” following a briefing from a senior diplomat on outstanding
historical issues between Japan and South Korea. The newspaper claimed that
this indicates Secretary Clinton's belief that the United States should change
its posture toward the Japanese government.
On the other hand, Web users pointed out that Mrs. Clinton
was speaking of the completely unrelated issue of human trafficking of Asians
in the United States. On July 10th, the SankeiShimbun and
some American media reported that U.S. State Department Spokesman Patrick Ventrell said that he could not confirm that Secretary
Clinton made such a statement, and wouldn't comment on what may or may not have
been said in a private meeting.
While there is sympathy for the comfort women, Japanese Web
users have trouble understanding what the intention is of changing the
terminology to something that is far more humiliating. Reactions have been
cool:
“How will parents explain when their children ask what a sex
slave is?”
“What can one make of a nation that seeks to strongly
emphasize that their grandmothers, mothers, and sisters were sex slaves?”
“I feel sorry for the comfort women. I can only conclude
that Koreans are discriminating against them.”
The Japanese government has stuck to its position that the
comfort women issue was “fully and finally resolved” in 1965 when it signed a
treaty with South Korea normalizing relations. In December 2011, a South Korean
civic group [of former "comfort women" and their supporters] erected
a bronze statue of a girl modeled on a former comfort woman in front of the
Japanese Embassy in Seoul. At budget meeting of the House of Councillors on March 26, when asked about the
inscription on the monument, “The Issue of Japanese Army Sex Slaves,” Prime
Minister Yoshihiko Noda answered that “it widely deviates from the truth,” and
added that he had requested its swift removal.
[Editor’s Note: According to historians, up to 200,000
females, mostly Koreans, were forced into sexual slavery at frontline Japanese
brothels during the war. Japan has refused to pay individual compensation for
wrongs committed during its 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula,
including issues that emerged later such as that of the sex slaves, claiming
that the 1965 South Korea-Japan treaty normalizing bilateral relations exempts
it from that responsibility, including individual claims for redress. Nevertheless,
Japan insists that
it has repeatedly apologized and has paid significant compensation.]
