TOKYO — The Japanese government has asked for the partial retraction of a nearly two-decade-old United Nations report on women forced to work in Japanese military brothels, but the report’s author has refused the request, a Japanese government spokesman said on Thursday.
The spokesman, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, said his government sent a top diplomat to make the request personally to Radhika Coomaraswamy, a former United Nations special rapporteur on violence against women. Ms. Coomaraswamy, a Sri Lankan lawyer, wrote the 1996 report that called on Japan to apologize and pay compensation to women who the report said had been coerced into serving as sexual slaves for the Japanese Army during World War II.
Mr. Suga did not specify exactly which part of the report his government had asked to be retracted, but he said that Ms. Coomaraswamy had declined the request.
In making the request, the government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe appeared to be heeding longstanding demands by supporters of Mr. Abe on the political right that Japan challenge the internationally accepted view that the women, known euphemistically in Japan as “comfort women,” were forced to provide sex to Japanese soldiers.
Those calls have increased sharply since August, when a major Japanese newspaper, the liberal Asahi Shimbun, printed a front-page retraction of several stories that it published on the issue in the 1980s and 1990s. Those stories were based on the testimony of a former Japanese soldier, Seiji Yoshida, who said he had helped kidnap Korean women to work in the brothels.
Mr. Yoshida’s claims were later shown by scholars to have been fabricated. In its retraction, the Asahi also admitted that it could not find evidence backing up the testimony of Mr. Yoshida, who died in 2000.
Conservatives have seized on the Asahi’s retraction to assert that the entire sex slaves issue itself is a fabrication, and that the women were no more than common prostitutes who worked in the brothels of their own accord.
However, many Japanese mainstream scholars and most non-Japanese researchers reject those claims, saying that Mr. Yoshida’s testimony was never a major piece of historical evidence that women were coerced. They cite other evidence, including the testimonies of many of the women themselves, who in the 1990s broke decades of silence to begin speaking out about their experiences.
Based largely on these testimonies, many mainstream scholars have concluded that tens of thousands of mostly Asian but also Dutch women worked in Japanese wartime brothels, many against their will. Japanese conservatives dispute that, calling the women’s testimony biased and unreliable, and citing what they call a lack of corroborating evidence.
In an interview published earlier this month with a top Japanese conservative newspaper, Yomiuri Shimbun, Ms. Coomaraswamy said that the Asahi’s retraction did not convince her of a need to amend the United Nations report. She was quoted as saying that the report was based mostly on the testimonies of “a large number of ‘comfort women.’ ” She was also quoted as saying that the testimony of Mr. Yoshida, which was cited in her United Nations report, did not play a big role in its conclusions.
Mr. Suga did not say if the Japanese government would take additional steps following her rejection of its request. Japan’s Kyodo News agency said the Japanese diplomat, Kuni Sato, Japan’s ambassador in charge of human rights issues, met with Ms. Coomaraswamy on Tuesday in New York to make the request.
Committee
on Reevaluation of Global Information Strategy
Headquarters
for Regional Diplomatic and Economic Partnership
Liberal
Democratic Party
September 19, 2014
Resolution
The Asahi Shimbun has acknowledged to have made falsified reports on the ‘comfort women’ issue. The falsified
reports communicated by the Asahi Shimbun have become the basis of global media
coverage that have distorted the global perception of our history and as a result
have seriously impaired our nation’s reputation and our national interest.
Although the public apology made by Asahi Shimbun
is far from redeeming the honor of our people and serving our national interest, the
facts about the so-called “forcible recruitment” of comfort women have now been refuted, along with the alleged sexual abuses. So the ongoing installment of comfort women statues around the world has now completely lost their ground.
In the international community Japan has consistently
aspired and acted out for peace and democracy. Thus, we must act resolutely to rectify these wrongful global perceptions.
What we must do is to consistently voice
our rightful position as a nation, in an all-out effort, in the
seat of UN and other venues of foreign diplomacy as well as in places of international dialogue. This voice is meaningless unless it is heard
adequately and accurately by the global audience.
Despite our ongoing effort to strengthen disclosure
of information and outreach in the international arena, rather
than taking a 'neutral' or 'defensive' position we must take a more proactive role
in communicating our information so as to protect our sovereignty and our
interest. We must therefore establish a solid national information strategy and
at the same time be vigilant against information and developments overseas so
as to respond with agility. As a nation, we must firmly aim towards establishing an aggressive policy to that end.
Translation by Office BALÉS
SIDENOTE:
The interim report leading up to the "Resolution" was officially delivered to the Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga on 23 June 2014 and the Committee members met with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe as well. So the government had full knowledge of the report which led up to the adoption of the September committee resolution. However, this was of course before the Asahi revelation was made.
The work of the new committee set up on 27 March 2014 was not only welcome by the member of Cabinet on 19 June 2014, including Prime Minister Abe himself and Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida, but were "encouraged to bolster their activities" by PM Abe and appreciated "for the party's strong support" on areas of concern--information warfare--by FM Kishida. Chief Cabinet Secretary Suga also commented with deep appreciation on 23 June saying, "Further effort will be most welcome!".
"No country in the world can yet say they have achieved gender equality." 「世界中のどこにも、男女平等を確立したと胸を張って言える国などありません。」
というワトソン親善大使の言葉は事実だ。
また、
" if we do nothing it will take 75 years, or for me to be nearly a hundred before women can expect to be paid the same as men for the same work" 「もし私たちが何もしなければ、今後何十年か先、私が100歳近くになっても、女性が男性と同じ仕事をして同じ報酬を得る時代なんて、来ないかもしれません」
"All that is needed for the forces of evil to triumph is for enough good men and women to do nothing." 「善良なる"男女"が行動しなければ、必ずや悪に打ち負かされる」
ならば、行動しないではいられない。
早速、今から世界の"大勢の中の一人"に加わろう。
ENGLISH
Declaration of support for Emma Watson's UN #HeForShe Campaign
For those who are believers of male-dominated society, the name of this campaign itself may appear to be insulting or even provoking. But I for one think it is a well thought-out name which has an 'inclusive' purpose to leave no 'he' or 'she' behind.
Those who tend to think in simple terms, in both English and Japanese translation ('kanojo no tameni karega'), may resent the sheer sound of male being 'beneath' the female, but I think we don't need to seek their appreciation for the value or the significance of this campaign.
The "4 Channeller's"--as we call in Japan for the same for the "2Chan" users--who are threatening H.E. Amb. Emma Watson, the promoter of this campaign, to expose her with nudity, can be called in Japan's popular (but wrongly used) phrase as 'gesu no kiwami' or 'scums of the earth' in its truest sense. What they are doing, or intend to do, has no social justification whatsoever. It is a criminal act.
If there are any in Japan who resonate and follow their footsteps, then theirs shall be regarded the same. It is an unforgiveable act.
The acts perpetrated by the "4 Channellers" have gone too far and they can only be regarded a criminal act. However, this does not presuppose that those who oppose this movement shall be condemned in the same light.
This movement is about a socio-economic reform (awareness raising) of a global scale. Those who cannot appreciate the significance of it, or who resist any kind of reform, or who want to cling on to the 'traditional values' are free to do so.
However, if the 'reformists' were to hold the lion's share of the global opinion (and given the obvious global demographic advantage of women versus men in terms of market power), one day those people will find their way of thinking become isolated and detached from the society.
Of course, these isolated individuals can then form a group or something and resist the movement. They should still be free to do so.
Nevertheless, Ms. Watson's words, saying:
"No country in the world can yet say they have achieved gender equality,"
is a universal fact, as much as her other words stating:
"... if we do nothing it will take 75 years, or for me to be nearly a hundred before women can expect to be paid the same as men for the same work."
At the current rate, we will never be able to achieve a true equal society for all men and women. Not in 100 years.
No matter how aggressively an ambitious political leader taunts "opportunities for women" either for higher ratings or as lip service to the most potential future American Presidential candidate or how much the Big Companies in agreement invest in the superficial internal ‘reforms’, it is NOT equivalent to what Ms. Watson refer to as having "afforded the same respect as men" to all women.
We can no longer rely on politics or corporate interests to define social reform.
Even though this campaign is initiated through the UN--a body of states, this global social movement is emanating from a single voice of one Ms. Emma Watson, an individual, who is a world-renowned actress and activist that enables "everyone" who is willing to participate in this endeavor.
I'll gladly sign in as part of one of those "everyone".
So does that make me an "inadvertent feminist"?
It appears I have always been.
Embarrassingly though, if not for Amb. Watson's speech, I would have never known the clear definition of the term "feminism".
So should I be ashamed that I AM an "inadvertent feminist"?
I despised extreme feminism as much as I despised extreme sexism in the same light. So I never was really interested or intrigued by feminism itself at all.
But given that the balance between men and women has been so disproportionate for such a long time--perhaps since the dawn of mankind, it needs to be rectified.
And if what is needed for this rectification of balance is "the belief that men and women should have equal rights and opportunities" and a "theory of the political, economic and social equality of the sexes," as feminism is defined for, then I will with delight uphold that belief as the 'same kind'.
Edmund Burke's re-interpreted words by H.E. Ambassador Emma Watson now have a more universal tone to me, thanks to her original tweak.
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men 'and women’ to do nothing."
Then I shall not stand doing nothing.
I shall count myself in with the global "everyone". Now!
【原文】 40. The Special Rapporteur noted that historian Dr. Ikuhiko Hata of Chiba University, Tokyo, refuted certain historical studies made on the issue of "comfort women", in particular Yoshida Seiji’s book, which describes the plight of "comfort women" on Cheju-do island.
【AWF訳】 40. 千葉大学の歴史学者秦郁彦彦博士は「慰安婦」問題に関するある種の歴史研究とりわけ韓国の済州島の「慰安婦」がいかに苦境に置かれたかを書いた吉田清治の著書に異議を唱える。
【私の改訳】 40. 特別報告者は、千葉大学の歴史学者である秦郁彦彦博士が、「慰安婦」問題に関する一部の歴史研究、とりわけ韓国の済州島の「慰安婦」の苦境について書かれた吉田清治の著書に対する反証を展開していることに留意する。
【原文】 Moreover, the wartime experiences of one raider, Yoshida Seiji, are recorded in his book, in which he confesses to having been part of slave raids in which, among other Koreans, as many as 1,000 women were obtained for "comfort women" duties under the National Labour Service Association as part of the National General Mobilization Law.
【Wiki/AWF訳】 強制連行を行った一人である吉田清治は戦時中の体験を書いた中で、国家総動員法の一部である国民勤労報告会の下で、ほかの朝鮮人とともに1000人もの女性を「慰安婦」として連行した奴隷狩りに加わっていたことを告白している。
【私の改訳】 さらに、強制連行を行った一人である吉田清治は、国家総動員法制下の国民勤労報告会の任務として、ほかの朝鮮人とともに1000人もの女性を「慰安婦」として連行した奴隷狩りに加わっていたことを戦時中の体験を綴った自著の中で告白している。
【原文】 Dr. Hata explained that he had visited Cheju-do, Republic of Korea, in 1991/92 seeking evidence and had come to the conclusion that the major perpetrators of the "comfort women crime" were in fact Korean district chiefs, brothel owners and even parents of the girls themselves who, he alleged, were aware of the purpose of the recruitmentof their daughters.
【AWF訳】 秦博士によれば、1991年から92年にかけて証拠集めるために済州島を訪れ、「慰安婦犯罪」の主たる加害者は朝鮮人の地域の首長、売春宿の所有者、さらに少女の両親たちであったという結論に達した。親たちは娘が連行される目的を知っていたと、泰博士は主張する。
【私の改訳】 秦博士は、1991年から92年にかけて証拠集めのため自ら済州島を訪れ、「慰安婦犯罪」の主たる加害者は朝鮮人の各首長、売春宿の各所有者、さらに少女の両親らそれ自体であったと結論付け、また両親らは娘が連行される目的を承知していたと主張した。
3センテンス目
【原文】 To substantiate his arguments, Dr. Hata presented the Special Rapporteur with two prototype systems of recruitment of Korean women for comfort houses in the years 1937 to 1945.
【AWF訳】 その主張を裏付けるために、博士は本特別報告者に、1937年から1945年までの慰安所のための朝鮮人女性のリクルートは基本的に二つの方法で行われたと説明した。
【私の改訳】 博士はこの主張の裏付けとして、1937年から1945年までの間、慰安所が朝鮮人女性を徴用する方法については基本的に二つのモデルが存在していたことを本特別報告者に説明した。
4センテンス目
【原文】 Both models provide that Korean parents, Korean village chiefs and Korean brokers, that is to say private individuals, were knowing collaborators and instrumental in the recruitment of women to serve as sex slaves for the Japanese military.
【AWF訳】 いずれの方法も、両親や朝鮮人の村長、朝鮮人ブローカーすなわち民間の個人がすべてを承知で協力し、日本軍の性奴隷として働く女性をリクルートする手先となったというのである。
【私の改訳】 このいずれのモデルも、朝鮮人の両親や朝鮮人の村長、朝鮮人ブローカー、すなわち民間の個人が、すべてを承知で協力し、日本軍の性奴隷として奉仕する女性を徴用する役割を担ったことを指し示していた。
5センテンス目
【原文】 Dr. Hata also believed that most "comfort women" were under contract with the Japanese army and received up to 110 times more income per month (1,000-2,000 yen) than the average soldier (15-20 yen).
【AWF訳】 同博士はまた、ほとんどの「慰安婦」は日本軍の契約を交わし、平均的な兵隊の給料（一か月15-20円）よりも110倍も受け取っていたと考えている。
【私の改訳】 秦博士はまた、ほとんどの「慰安婦」は日本軍との契約下にあり、平均的な兵隊の給料（月15～20円）の最大110倍もの収入を得ていたと考えられるとした。
③At 100 meters away it (the helicopter) was reading 4 sieverts per hour. That is an astronomical number and it told me, what that number means to me, a trained person, is there is no water on the reactor cores and they are just melting down, there is nothing containing the release of radioactivity. It is an unmitigated, unshielded number. (Confidential communication, September 17, 2012).11
この通信にはさらに続きがある。
④「約10時間以内に、甲状腺の問題が起きる」というのである。
In transcribed telephone conversations between U.S. based federal government officials, nuclear authorities, U.S. embassy officials in Tokyo and military staff in the Pacific Command (PACOM) made available through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), the U.S. government response to the nuclear crisis can be seen in real-time as it played out over the course of the first month of the crisis:
ADMIRAL DONALD: (...) Earlier this evening, as the USS Ronald Reagan was operating off the coast of Japan, we - the ship just arrived. We had given the ship some guidance as far as positioning was concerned to stay clear of the area of the potential plume, basically told her to stay 50 miles outside of the radius of the -- 100 miles -- excuse me -- 50 miles radius outside of the plant and then 100 miles along the plume with a vector of 45 degrees. The ship was adhering to that requirement and detected some activity about two and a half times above normal airborne activity using on-board sensors on the aircraft carriers. So that indicated that they had found the plume and it was probably more significant than what we had originally thought. The second thing that has happened is we have had some helicopters conducting operations from the aircraft carrier and one of the helicopters came back from having stopped on board the Japanese command ship in the area, and people who had been on -- were on the helicopter who had walked on the deck of the ship, were monitored and had elevated counts on their feet, 2500 counts per minute. But I wanted to get you guys on the line and my expert on the line so we can get the data and then the proper people notified.
MR. PONEMAN: Okay, I have a couple of questions. Number one, in terms of the level of radiation that you are picking up, what's the delta between that and any information we have from the Japanese or other sources of what the level of radiation would be, given the venting and so forth that we know has occurred?
MR. MUELLER: So -- this is Mueller -- the sample that was taken and then what we detected, we were 100 nautical miles away and it's -- in our terms it's -- ①compared to just normal background it's about 30 times what you would detect just on a normal air sample out at sea. And so we thought -- we thought based on what we had heard on the reactors that we wouldn't detect that level even at 25 miles. So it's much greater than what we had thought. We didn't think we would detect anything at 100 miles.
MR.. PONEMAN: You didn't think you'd detect anything at 100 miles. Okay, and then in terms of the regulations and so forth of people operating in these kinds of areas, I forget some you know, acronym for it, PAG (Protective Action Guidelines) or something, how do the levels detected compare with what is permissible?
MR. MUELLER: If it were a member of the general public, it would take -- well, it would take about 10 hours to reach a limit, a PAG limit.
MUELLER: Right. For a member of the public.
PONEMAN: Right. You mean, at the level you detected?
MR. MUELLER: Yes sir. ④But 10 hours, it's a thyroid dose issue.
MR. PONEMAN: Okay, but the net of all this is that the amount of release that is detected by these two episodes whatever you would call them, is significantly higher than anything you would have expected what you have been reading from all sources?
MR. MUELLER: Yes sir. The number specific number we detected was 2.5 the times 10 to the 88 minus nine microcuries per milliliter, airborne, and that's particulate airborne. It is -- we did not take radioiodide samples so I don't know that value, but this is particulate airborne...
MR. PONEMAN: Tell me again exactly how you picked up these two forms of samples.
MR. MUELLER: We have automatic detectors in the plant that picked up -- picked up the airborne, ②and all of our continuous monitors alarmed at the same level, at this value. And then we took portable air samples on the flight desk and got the same value.
ADMIRAL DONALD: These are normally running continuous detectors, continuous monitors that run in the engine room all the time, monitoring our equipment.
MR. PONEMAN: These are detectors on the Reagan?
ADMIRAL DONALD: On the Ronald Reagan, correct.
MR. MUELLER: Yes sir.
MR. PONEMAN: On the Ronald Reagan. They are there because you have got equipment there that you know, it could emit stuff and while you were there, you picked up stuff that was ambient which indicated that you actually were in the plume?
MR. MUELLER: That's correct.
MR. PONEMAN: And this was -- this was 30 times higher than what you would have expected?
