뉴스레터

Respond to Historical Revisionism

On May 27, 1997, a committee on accounts meeting was held at the House of Representatives of the Japanese Parliament. Shinzo Abe, a novice politician in his 40s, talked about the Kono Statement at the meeting: The Kono Statement, which officially recognized the forced mobilization of the sexual slave victims for the Japanese imperial army and expressed apology and reflection, included contents about 'sexual slave victims' in the textbook, which led to middle school students learning about 'sexual slave victims' wrongly.

However, in 1997, Abe’s remarks did not have a significant impact on diplomacy between Korea and Japan. But when Abe became head of the cabinet, the situation changed dramatically. With the birth of Abe’s first cabinet in 2007, the Japanese government has blatantly distorted the truth about the comfort women. Abe’s second cabinet, which has been in power since 2012, tried to revise the Statement in 2014 under the guise of verifying the Kono Statement. And they argued that the Japanese government and the military were not responsible for the 'sexual slave victims' issue in connection with the conservative right-wing media.

In July, NAHF published a source book containing 70 official documents that could reveal the full extent of the 'sexual slave victims' issue. The publication of this source book is to make sure that everyone understands historical facts accurately. In the meantime, it has been difficult for even experts to access the 'sexual slave victims' data, so it is true that it was not easy for the public to access this issue.

The Japanese government and the military led the forced mobilization

The forced mobilization of 'sexual slave victims' can be classified into Japan, colonies, and occupied areas. In Japan and colonies, 'sexual slave victims' were recruited through private contractors, and in occupied areas such as China, the military recruited them directly. But even if the Japanese government claims it was recruited by private contractors, it was only conducted in accordance with the military recruitment plan. The Kono Statement has the following expression: “the Japanese military was directly or indirectly involved in the installation and management of 'the comfort station', and the transfer of 'sexual slave victims'.” However, if you look at the documents in this source book, you can see that the Japanese army did not stop at the level of involvement but led the act directly. The documents in the first volume of the source book show all the processes from request for recruitment of 'sexual slave victims', selection of the leader, recruitment, and departure requested by the Japanese military dispatched overseas. Through these documents, we can see that the Japanese War Department, the Ministry of Home Affairs, the intendance, and the Japanese troops dispatched overseas cooperated closely and systematically mobilized 'sexual slave victims'.

Japanese military systematically set up a ‘comfort station’, and their violent operation

Those who claim that the mobilization of 'sexual slave victims' is not a crime say that there is no document to prove that the Japanese military and the government have forced the 'sexual slave victims'. However, the documents in the first volume of the source book show the background of installing 'comfort station', the specific installation process, and the operating regulations in detail. The purpose of 'comfort station' is to prevent the Japanese military venereal infection, to prevent rape, to weaken the anti-Japanese sentiment of local residents, and to establish a disordered military discipline such as assaulting their bosses. The 'sexual slave victims' regulations were strictly for soldiers, and there is no measure for the safety and protection of 'sexual slave victims'. People who were drunk and injured or assaulted 'sexual slave victims', soldiers and operators who abused 'sexual slave victims' were also very common. However, most of the perpetrators were lightly punished by the military police command. The Japanese right-wing argues that the comfort station is only a licensed prostitution in the battle area, not a military facility. The authority to manage and regulate the licensed prostitution was given to police. However, the comfort station was operated by a private contractor, or the military was responsible for installation and management.

Documents in the source book are held by Shanghai and Heilongjiang Archives in China. Han Hye-in, who roughly explains the authors, contents, and publication dates of these, says, 'These documents show the connection between the comfort station of the occupied area and the local administrative organization'. Among them, the Heilongjiang document was first published by NAHF in the source book, proving that the Japanese military was directly involved in the installation and operation of the comfort station. That is, when the constabulary of each regional border collects and reports information, the consulate opened a comfort station, and the military police managed the comfort station. All the processes that the Japanese military has carried out by sharing the tasks of installation, operation and management of the comfort station are clear.

The second volume of the source book contains a document stating that cheating women to send them abroad is in violation of domestic law and international law at the time. The Japanese government and the military have connived human traffic, plunder, and kidnapping during the mobilization process. The source book also included the Dutch war criminal Aoji Wasio, who was convicted in a war crimes trial for sexual slave victims-related cases, reports of forced prostitution in Borneo, submitted to the Tokyo trial, documents and judgments that were evidence of the Guilin case. If you look closely at these contents, you can see that the Japanese Ministry of Justice obtained and reported documents related to the war crimes trial and made preliminary questions and answers. Japanese historical revisionists and politicians know the war criminal trial or the result. Nevertheless, they still say there is no evidence to prove forced mobilization.

Hopefully it will help to inform the historic facts related to the damage suffered by sexual slave victims

I pay tribute to civic groups and researchers who have been working to find data related to sexual slave victims. The source book, published by NAHF, was joined by Yoo Ji-a, Choi Jong-gil, Shin Gyeong-ran and Han Hye-in. I am also grateful to the efforts of researchers around the world to uncover the data and reveal the actual situation of this issue. I sincerely hope that this source book will contribute to informing the historical facts of the damage suffered by sexual slave victims for the Japanese imperial army.