뉴스레터

Although the sun was still hot enough to remind me that summer was not over, the cool breeze grazing against the back of my neck was an unmistakable sign of a fall evening. Professor Yoshimi Yoshiaki (吉見義明), getting off the taxi ten minutes before the appointed time at six and wearing his signature big smile, walked toward me at the front gate of the hotel across the NAHF office building. I hadn't seen him in years, which made my rendezvous with him doubly pleasant. He was coming back, as he told me, from 'The WWHR (War and the Women's Human Rights) Museum Seoul' for interviews with 'comfort women.' He may have squeezed it in during the couple of hours he had before our dinner appointment. Our dinner was simple as our minds were set on the colloquium coming up all day the next day.

The colloquium had to be scheduled on Sunday (October 14) because the three of four participants from Japan were teaching in university on weekdays. The four participants from Japan were: Professor Yoshimi; Professor Kim Bu-ja (金富子) of Tokyo University of Foreign Studies and Professor Yang Jing-ga (梁澄子) of Hitotsubashi University, Korean-Japanese scholars and 'comfort women' activists; and Watanabe Mina the Secretary-General of the Women's Active Museum on War and Peace (WAM). The participants from Korea were: 'comfort women' experts including professors Kang Jeong-sook (Ewha Woman's University), Yoon Myeong-sook (Kangwon National University), Ha Jong-mun (Hanshin University); lawyer Choi Bong-taei; and all the members of the NAHF Department of History Research Division 1 working on projects related to Japan.

During the afternoon session, the victim Lee Yong-su visited the venue, like welcome fuel to the furnace of heated debate. And all the participants were also moved by the presence of attorney Choi, who had won the first trial for 'the disclosure of the Japanese documentation on the ROK-Japan Treaty' just two days before the colloquium (October 12), knowing that he must have been exhausted from numberous flights back and forth across the Korea Strait like a ping-pong ball travelling back and forth across the net, but he was still there by KTX 'Early Morning' train from his office in Taegu.

"The 'Comfort Women' Issue: Status and Quest for Resolution" had been selected as the theme of the colloquium to find out what challenges are facing the 'comfort women' issue and to find the answer as to how they should be addressed. While the outspoken rightist Hashimoto Toru (橋下 徹), the mayor of Osaka, was making outrageous comments like "There is no proof that the 'comfort women' were taken in by force," the Korean and Japanese researchers and activities had gathered together to have a candid and serious discussion on how they could band together efficiently to cope with the issue effectively.

There was a general consensus that the real 'problems' with the 'comfort women' issue were the rightist politicians of Japan in question, the extremely unhealthy nationalism promoted by Japan's 'yellow journalism' with the ultra-chauvinistic' media Senkei (産經) at its center, and the pathetic ordinary citizens of Japan who are taken in by it. "Sankei is not alone! There are no media in Japan that report the fact as it is! The backwardness of Japanese politics and the shallowness of the Japanese people's political awareness are simply indescribable!"

For the majority of Japanese people left in low spirits in the aftermath of the March 11 Great Earthquake, tsunami, and the explosion of the Fukushima nuclear power plant that caused massive radiation damage last year, Japanese politicians are frantic to cover up 'a single (no, there can't be just one!) blemish,' known as the forcible mobilization of Koreans as 'comfort women,' found in the 'military achievements' of the pre-War 'Great Empire of Japan.' Reportedly, they have taken interest in taking advantage of nationalism as fuel to the recently raised 'territorial issue' in order to keep their people turning rightist faster. They allegedly claim that this is part of their levelling effort of amending the 'Peace Constitution' into the 'War Constitution.' But isn't it said that if the 'ordinary Japanese people' turned left or looked back, they would see the falsehood of the Japanese Emperor-centered view of history and the brutality of the Japanese Empire?

It is said that if you enter the Japanese search term 'Ianfu (=comfort women)' on the Web, it will most likely direct you to sites run by rightists as web masters. Even if you want to teach students the truths about 'comfort women,' it is said, there is not a single decent textbook written about them in Japanese. Even in today's video generation, there is not a single decent video made in Japanese. The increasingly clever rightist propaganda through SMS like Wikipedia is bringing serious consequences, but it is said there are no needed 'agents' in place who will constantly monitor the online propaganda and make corrections in sophisticated sentences and illustrations. It is also said that pamphlets or brochures written in Japanese, not in English, and visual media through YouTube, for example, are also needed.

"I am a living witness. What other evidence do they need?" said the victim Kim Bok-dong. To the insane Hashimoto who refuses to even have an interview, the president of the Liberal Democratic Party Abe Shinzo (安倍晋三) who is a strong candidate for the next Prime Minister of Japan or other politicians who are devoid of a sense of direction and biased toward the right. and the 'ordinary Japanese people,' I highly recommend reading the following 'evidence' written in Japanese by Yoshimi Yoshiaki: What is Military Sexual Slavery by Japan?
(日本軍「慰安婦」制度とは何か, 岩波書店, 2010).