Since I know a couple of you are contributing from Japan, I thought it would be interesting to get your take on the United States slapping Japan’s wrist for the use of “comfort women” during WWII:
It has been historically documented in Japan and elsewhere that before and during World War II, the Japanese government established many military brothels. While the government initially tried to hire prostitutes from within Japan, they soon decided more women were needed.
With this goal in mind, women from China, Taiwan, Indonesia, the Philippines and especially Korea were often tricked or forced into becoming sex slaves. Most estimates put the number of comfort women as high as 200,000, 80 percent of whom are thought to be Koreans, making this “one of the largest cases of human trafficking in the 20th century,” according to the resolution.
Curzon at the Coming Anarchy has a post with his opinion, which seems to make a lot of sense to me:
I personally think it’s batshit crazy for another country to criticize another country’s history for no other apparent reason than to 1.) appeal to domestic interest groups, and 2.) pat themselves on the back for being so self-righteous, especially when, such as in this case, the result will be nothing other than piss off Washington’s only remaining major geopolitical ally, and reward a country (ROK) whose people loathe America.
He also points out that perhaps the US should hesitate before giving other countries shit for institutionalized slave-rape.
But anyways, I figure several of you are probably more informed on this than me…
February 26, 2007 at 11:33 pm
Well, Capy, this isn’t really about being informed (you have put down the situation in your post), its just a matter of opinion. Should the US stay out of places and arguments that it has no right to butt into to?
Japan has had to deal with a lot due to their role in the WWII (for good reason). They have made it a lot way in these last 60 years.
Years ago, Japan already made a public appology for their actions durring the war, speciffically including sex-slaves. What a few groups in Japan want is for the government to provide monetary reparations to the victems and their familiesl The U.S. has come forward to critisise Japan for not shelling out the money. My question for the US is, where is the monetary compensation for all those decended from slaves? I know there was an official appology, but where is the money?
That is the real problem with this whole thing. The US is coming down on Japan for something it was never willing to do either. Bad form US.
February 27, 2007 at 1:52 am
Japan institutionalized slave-rape in an attempt to win the Pacific War. The US dropped two nuclear bombs on Japan in an attempt to do the same thing.
Culture allows human beings to survive while doing a minimum of bad things. When cultures become sick, war happens. War is when human beings do bad things to each other to survive. After it is over, it takes a long time for cultures to heal. Once they are healed, it takes a long time for them reestablish friendships with the culture they harmed.
The US doesn’t understand culture or war. It sees only politics. In fact, it sees culture as an enabler of immorality and weakness rather than as the customs that keep people from overwhelming the legal system with silly, yet legally ligitimate complaints.
My take, while very poorly informed, is that slow progress is being made between the two cultures.
Everything takes place too slowly for the US. It wants to rush things and in doing so, it will probably kill the progress that has been made.
In all such matters of sick cultures, be it US slavery, or atomic bombings, or institutionalized slave-rape, the reparations must be cultural, not monetary or political.
If the US doesn’t understand that, I believe it will do more harm than good by getting involved.
February 28, 2007 at 4:28 am
To quote Ced the Entertainer from Barbershop:
“We got welfare and affirmative action, is that not reparations? What do you think [reparations] gone do? Ain’t gone do nothin’ but make Cadillac the No. 1 dealership in the country!”
July 31, 2007 at 12:12 am
[...] had a small debate several months ago about whether the US should become involved in this debate in which I argued that the timing was off [...]