Two days ago was International Women’s Day, and I came across a video on YouTube posted two years ago about comfort women. It reminds me of the fact that even though it’s been sixty six years since the end of the Second World War, there’s been no official apology for women who were forced to be sex slaves for the invading Japanese armies. There was a whole lot of furor about this a couple of years back, but it’s since then died down.
That’s what’s most disturbing. I think that it’s still there at the back of our consciousness, but no one is talking about it. No one is talking about Japan’s refusal to take responsibility and apologize for what was done sixty six years ago. As we all know, anti-semitism and holocaust denial brings in a lot of backlash, but what about denying this other holocaust that happened in the east, in China, Taiwan, Korea, the Philippines and other places in South East Asia? What about those women in these countries that were forced to serve Japanese soldiers as sex slaves? They occasionally make the news, but it’s more like once every three years. Whenever the Chinese complain about this injustice, some people argue that we have no right to complain because the Communist regime killed a lot more Chinese than the Japanese did.
Although it’s true, it’s completely beside the point. Does the fact that someone else killed more people negate the fact that the Japanese murdered millions in cold blood and treated these women in an unspeakable manner? Of course it doesn’t.
I don’t want to hate Japan. Hate is such a tiring emotion. I don’t want to punish them either. I’ll leave the punishing to God (gods, whatever), and at any rate, most of the individuals who deserve punishment are already dead. However, these women deserve justice. The fact that they’re being denied an apology is an outrage and an insult towards women everywhere, because by doing so, the Japanese government is condoning rape as an appropriate weapon and activity in war, which is most definitely is not. I just want them to admit that what was done was wrong, and stop honouring their war criminals, which they still do. It’s like the equivalent of the German government honouring Hitler, which it does not do. Should this be tolerated? I can’t decide for you, but I certainly won’t stand for it.
As an individual, there is not much I can do except speak out, both with my words and with my wallet. I am boycotting Japanese goods, and I have been since 2005. I refuse to buy Japanese cars and I won’t watch Japanese shows. I would rather pay more for a European or American car than let my money help fund a government that refuses to admit that mass gang rapes are atrocities.
Video by koreanblog.
An update:
For those of you who are longtime readers of my blog, I guess you’d know that I’m one of those people who have to debate. I left a comment on the video under TelcontarRulz, and here’s the ensuing discussion:
Needless to say, I am beyond disgusted by the attitude of this other person.
Ross
April 6, 2011 at 6:38 pm
Tragically, I don’t think the Japanese government will ever apologies for atrocities such as Comfort Woman, the Nanking Massacre, the death marches, human experimentation etc. From what little I know of Japanese politics it is political sucide to mention the Japanese as anything else other than victims when it comes to WWII. For example, Fumio Kyuma was essentially forced to resign when he said that order to end the war, the nuclear bombings could not have be helped. I can’t imgaine the scandel if a politician apologised for Comfort Woman. Further more, some politicians such as Shintarō Ishihara, the present Governor of Tokyo say that the Nanking Massacre is fiction/propaganda. To be fair though this man is clearly insane and every country has its own share of lunetics in power. I doubt there will be an apology for anything unitl there is a radical change in Japanese politics, and considering that one political party had power in Japan for nearly 54 years I doubt this change will happen any time soon, if it ever does.