The decision by Japan to re-examine the apology it made to women who were forced to work in the Japanese military comfort zones in World War II could further upset South Korea and the former "comfort women" across Korea, on the Chinese Mainland, in Taiwan, Hong Kong and the Philippines.
The Japanese chief cabinet secretary, Yoshihide Suga, gave an indication in February 2014 that a team of scholars would be formed to re-examine the historical evidence and testimony by some former South Korean comfort women, which formed the basis for the 1993 statement of apology from the Japanese government.
We know how hard Japan is trying to get away from the war crimes it committed during World War II. The decision for re-examination seems to be a political attempt by the present government to whitewash its dirty doings of the past and try to show its cleanliness. If there was no evidence then, on what basis did the Japanese government earlier decide to offer monetary compensation of $20,000 to these ladies.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is desperately trying to scrap the "Kono Statement," which admits the Japan's imperial Army involvement in forcing between 200,000 and 400,000 girls and women into sexual slavery in the countries it occupied during the war. He is trying hard to prove Japan clean by calling a former official who helped draft the statement. It is an attempt to prove the 16 former comfort women wrong due to lack of documentary evidence available to corroborate their stories.
Scrapping the statement would be another attempt to mock the women involved in such a heinous crime done by the Japanese military in the so-called comfort zones.
The re-examination of the known facts of comfort zones will be another rape attempt by the Japanese prime minister for these old ladies as they near the end of their lives. If we cannot do anything better for them, let us leave them alone to live in comfort and peace, if any, with their present and forget the painful past.
Shashi Bhasin
Calgary, Canada
bhasinshashi@gmail.com
The Japanese chief cabinet secretary, Yoshihide Suga, gave an indication in February 2014 that a team of scholars would be formed to re-examine the historical evidence and testimony by some former South Korean comfort women, which formed the basis for the 1993 statement of apology from the Japanese government.
We know how hard Japan is trying to get away from the war crimes it committed during World War II. The decision for re-examination seems to be a political attempt by the present government to whitewash its dirty doings of the past and try to show its cleanliness. If there was no evidence then, on what basis did the Japanese government earlier decide to offer monetary compensation of $20,000 to these ladies.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is desperately trying to scrap the "Kono Statement," which admits the Japan's imperial Army involvement in forcing between 200,000 and 400,000 girls and women into sexual slavery in the countries it occupied during the war. He is trying hard to prove Japan clean by calling a former official who helped draft the statement. It is an attempt to prove the 16 former comfort women wrong due to lack of documentary evidence available to corroborate their stories.
Scrapping the statement would be another attempt to mock the women involved in such a heinous crime done by the Japanese military in the so-called comfort zones.
The re-examination of the known facts of comfort zones will be another rape attempt by the Japanese prime minister for these old ladies as they near the end of their lives. If we cannot do anything better for them, let us leave them alone to live in comfort and peace, if any, with their present and forget the painful past.
Shashi Bhasin
Calgary, Canada
bhasinshashi@gmail.com
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