Comfort Women, prostitutes, and an apology
Recently Mayor Toru Hashimoto of Osaka, Japan made a few
comments that caused a commotion on both sides of the Sea of Japan (in Korea
and Japan).
He mentioned “comfort women” were necessary to maintain
discipline within an advancing army. The
term “comfort women” in this reference is interchangeable with “camp
followers.” Camp Followers have been a
part of organized armies since their inception.
Camp Followers provided food, laundry services, and prostitutes for the
armies they followed. In some incidents
the camp followers outnumbered the army they were following.
Camp Followers were attached to armies in the American
Revolution, and both Northern and Southern armies in the American Civil
War. During World War Two the U.S. Army
inspected and approved concubines (houses of ill-repute, prostitutes).
The “Comfort Women” issue in Asia is contentious because
South Koreans claim South Korean women were forced by the Japanese Imperial
Army to serve as sex slaves as comfort women.
Japan maintains the women were recruited prostitutes. For many years Korea kept insisting Japan
needs to admit and apologize for “sex slaves.”
After Mr. Hashimoto made his statement about comfort women
he continued by stating it was wrong to force women into sexual slavery. Basically here was a Japanese official
claiming comfort women were forced into service. This part of his statement should have satisfied
those in Korea concerning this issue.
Not so fast! The
still complained and criticized him further.
Huh? The South Korean national
government canceled a planned trip to meeting with Japanese national government
officials because of the Mayor of Osaka.
Now how silly is that? He is a
mayor not a member of the national government.
Mr. Hashimoto also suggested U.S. military personal
stationed in Japan should employ the services of prostitutes to help reduce the
number of sexual assaults committed by a few U.S. military personal behaving
like barbarians.
The furor over his comments worked up into a historical
frenzy causing Mr. Hashimoto to issue an apology and holding a press conference
in Tokyo at the Foreign Correspondence Club.
As expected the news media in Asia and the West has
lambasted the mayor without any analysis of what he said or placing any of it
in an historical context.
Mayor Toru Hashimoto’s press conference:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAicqg59ca4
Related articles:
http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_news/politics/AJ201305270012
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