Comments | zarq: Comfort Women

zarq

Comfort Women

Sep 14, 2006 15:37

Yesterday, the US House of Representatives' Committee on International Relations adopted a bipartisan resolution to ask the Japanese government to formally, publicly apologize for sexually enslaving up to 200,000 "comfort women," (a large pecentage of them Korean,) during its colonial occupation of Asia from the 1930's through the end of World War ( Read more... )

japan, comfort women, culture, justice, sex, history, politics, sexcrime

Comments 16

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zarq September 14 2006, 19:53:40 UTC

And an historically common practice. :(

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fengi September 14 2006, 21:05:55 UTC

Yeah, cause *we* never did anything like that...oh wait...

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matopa September 14 2006, 20:13:11 UTC

This is completely random, and has nothing to do with your post ... but I find it fascinating to look at your tags list (directly on your journal) and how it highlights your major themes. That's so neat (to me)...yeah, I'm a total geek! :D

zarq September 14 2006, 22:05:28 UTC

You mean, I'm not the only one? :-D

I really really want to go back and tag the several thousand archived posts that never had tags now. Make it more accurate.... ;-)

geekjul September 14 2006, 21:03:09 UTC

Wow, that's unbelievable. I'm amazed also that I didn't know anything about this, never heard about it. Not to ego trip but I thought I knew at least a tiny bit about damn near everything, especially history... Thanks for the links as always.

zarq September 14 2006, 22:21:56 UTC

You're welcome. The HR story seems to be passing under the mainstream media's radar. CNN isn't even covering it. I wish they were. The wider the audience, the more likely it is to have an effect.

Some form of POW "Comfort Women" has popped up in most of the major wars of this century. :( There are even rumors of Nazi "Joy Divisions."

fengi September 14 2006, 21:05:00 UTC

I think Japan should say, "Tell ya what House of Reps, when you formally apologize for slavery (which you blocked when Clinton attempted it), come anyway NEAR discussing reparations, finally resolve and repay the systematic looting of Indian land funds, remove all govermentally funded displays of the rebel flag, admit that second nuke you dropped on us was a bit much and formally deplore the plethora of rape cases involving US military at the Osaka base, we'll take your little statement under advisement. Until then shut your fucking piehole, you sanctimonious double-standard asshats."

zarq September 14 2006, 21:40:09 UTC

Excellent point.

But our own screwups and racism shouldn't diminish the very real atrocities Japan committed, either. Those women were tortured and repeatedly raped and abused on a daily basis for years. They deserve acknowledgement of what was done to them and to see a little justice.

anonymous September 15 2006, 03:23:41 UTC

Would such an admission also imply admitting responsibility for (and, indeed, the mere occurrence of) the Rape of Nanjing? I believe, though I'm not absolutely sure, that the brothels were established as a result of that incident.

talvalin September 15 2006, 12:24:09 UTC

I doubt it. I believe the government has admitted that something happened in Nanjing (Nanking?) but not the actual extent. Reports from China are usually dismissed as propaganda to stir up Chinese nationalism.

Also I'm not sure that I follow how the incident led to the creation of comfort women brothels. Can you elaborate?

zarq September 15 2006, 13:46:51 UTC

Also I'm not sure that I follow how the incident led to the creation of comfort women brothels. Can you elaborate?

It didn't. http://zarq.livejournal.com/517786.html?thread=2549658#t2549658

Reports from China are usually dismissed as propaganda to stir up Chinese nationalism.

That was one of the major arguments against the evidence presented in the Japanese War Crime Court, wasn't it? Didn't they claim that the presented evidence was fabricated?

A movie based on Iris Chang's bestseller is due to be released next year. I hope it has an even wider, international impact than her book did.

anonymous September 15 2006, 15:19:42 UTC

Didn't they claim that the presented evidence was fabricated?

I don't honestly know. My sources are mainly random things I've read on the Japan Times website and Wikipedia and my Google-fu skills are poor today. Have you got a link? :)

A movie based on Iris Chang's bestseller is due to be released next year. I hope it has an even wider, international impact than her book did.

I read about half of that book and had to stop because it was graphic, tragic and depressing (though not at all badly written, just brutally direct), and because it made me distraught to to read about a series of barely acknowledged atrocities committed by a country that I deeply love. :(

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