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© (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015.Abe's WW2 remarks likely to reflect that comfort women's rights violated
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Disillusioned
If it's not broken don't fix it! And and many other cronies have been squirming around this apology for decades. Now, he comes out and says he stands by it, but wants to change it? The Asian nations effected by the war time slavery and occupation were quite comfortable with the '96 apology. Why does Abe have to change it if he agrees with it? Shouldn't he just reiterate its contents and move on?
nath
Japan has done more than enough. Korea has to get over it.
CH3CHO
DisillusionedJun. 18, 2015 - 03:52PM JST
I have never known South Korea was comfortable with 96 apology. Why do they say Japan has not apologized and demand an apology? If South Korea is satisfied, Foreign Ministers of the two countries do not need to meet next Monday. Case closed. No more discussion.
Thunderbird2
I don't see anything wrong with the report above. He's not denying it.
Nessie
"Japan has apologized and I stand firmly by those apologies." That's all any Japanese politician should have to say.
CH3CHO
NessieJun. 18, 2015 - 04:31PM JST
I agree. By the way, Abe has said so a number of times.
CrazyJoe
Modern Japan has apologized enough already and if Asian leaders cannot accept that then it is their loss. Japanese leaders today were not even born in the period where Imperial Japan existed and committed these atrocities. I respect today's Japanese leaders who have at least made an effort of apologizing to the victims of Imperial Japan aggression which they had no responsibility whatsoever.
Disillusioned
CH3CHO - Please do not blight my posts with your own ignorance. The original '96 apology was fine until the likes of Ishihara, Hashimoto and a few other right-wing twits started to downplay and denounce the events listed in the apology. South Korea in particular was quite pleased with the apology.
CH3CHO
DisillusionedJun. 18, 2015 - 05:16PM JST
That is great. But why do they have "Wednesday Demonstration" demanding an apology every Wednesday ever since 1992. It seems it never stopped in 1993 or 1996.
Peter Payne
I've thought about this at length and I finally do want Japan to apologize and offer some monetary compensation. While the brothel system was likely an actual system, with money paid to professional women in many cases around the start of the war, it clearly was not functioning this way by the final years of the war. Hence, Japan should apologize and show contrition, nevermind that Korea/China/Taiwan will just find something else to whine about next week.
Mizuame
A number of such half true statements are in evidence above. The problem is that in making such statements about comfort women, Abe always without fail inserts the words "zentai to shite", meaning "in an overall way". This is a serious qualification. It means he does not accept the specifics.
smithinjapan
“The prime minister has repeatedly said that the comfort women system was a violation of the women’s human rights and that it was extremely regrettable,”
He, you, and other deniers also say that the 'system' was composed of 'willing prostitutes' and no one was coerced or forced into it, so the "extremely regrettable" catch-phrase means nothing, and nothing short of an apology for forcing the women into sexual slavery will suffice. Period.
CH3CHO: "That is great."
Good. So you won't deny, nor will you ever again ask why Koreans were 'not happy with the '96 apology. Good on you.
Thunderbird2: " He's not denying it."
If he changes the apology to not include it, he's not only NOT admitting it either, but he's flat out ceasing to acknowledge the problem altogether, which is the same as denial.
CrazyJoe: "Japanese leaders today were not even born in the period where Imperial Japan existed and committed these atrocities"
And yet they are perfectly comfortable saying the ACTUAL victims, and in many cases of former imperial soldiers, the perpetrators, are liars and their personal revisions are the true history. You don't seem to have a problem with that, nor the fact that THAT is why Asian leaders, and the rest of the world for that matter, including many in Japan (in case you missed all the law makers and historians here and in the US protesting Abe), won't accept simply a speech that may 'reflect what is regrettable'. And that IS a problem for Japan, too.
Christopher Glen
Ah, you mean the minority of women who signed on as prostitutes? Perhaps their "contracts" weren't strictly followed. For a moment I thought you meant the sex slaves, whose basic rights as humans were violated, as well as their bodies
CH3CHO
smithinjapanJun. 18, 2015 - 05:44PM JST
Good. So, if Korean former ianfu say they are not happy with the past apologies, smith, you should take care of them. I have gotten you guarantee that Koreans are satisfied with the past apologies and I will never need to wonder if they were really satisfied.
By the way, what are Korean former ianfu doing at "Wednesday Demonstration" in front of Japanese Embassy in Seoul every Wednesday?
Christopher Glen
Nothing to do with Korean sex slaves alone, but the widespread program of abduction that covered several nationalities. You've been called on this several times. I've lost count
gokai_wo_maneku
I don't understand the headline: "comfort women's rights violated". Did comfort women have rights? I'd say ALL women have the right not to be forced into sexual slavery. Then there wouldn't be "comfort women" to begin with.
BertieWooster
gokai_wo_maneku,
Good comment.
Actually "relief woman," or "woman who gives relief" might be a closer translation than "comfort."
"Comfort woman" brings up the image of a kindly, matronly lady offering a nice cup of tea to a poor soldier and inviting him to "Tell auntie all about it."
From accounts on the internet, it wasn't like that. There was the "boudoir" and a line of guys outside, waiting their turn.
I wonder what changed Abe's mind. From denial to calling it a "violation of comfort women's rights."
CH3CHO
DisillusionedJun. 18, 2015 - 05:16PM JST
http://archives.republicans.foreignaffairs.house.gov/110/33317.pdf
US Congressional Hearing, FEBRUARY 15, 2007
Thank you disillusioned. I am so glad to know "South Korea in particular was quite pleased with the apology."
As to Ok Cha Soh's testimony, there is no evidence of slavery, kidnapping, and execution of ianfu by Japanese military, except incoherent testimonies as far as Koreans are concerned. She does not cite any such evidence, either.
Christopher Glen
"Gaiatsu" did, that's what
Yubaru
Japanese conservatives could be shown the proof and they would still find a way to dispute the information. No one should even be paying attention to them in the first place. With so many things related to the war the conservatives here get collective amnesia and think that the Emperor is still a god.
And then turn around and go to Yasukuni to pay their respects, and force all the textbook writers to eliminate any references to the problem and go on like nothing ever happened.
Apologies mean squat when they are not backed up by meaningful responses, for one, educating the citizens of Japan about what happened and to ensure it never happens again.
The Japanese collective does not allow that type of thinking, because to admit one wrongdoing would lead to a plethora of others and put everyone in the position of having to question their education and leadership.
Control would be lost, plain and simple.
Christopher Glen
If so, they would be paying closer attention to recent comments by the crown prince and the emperor against revising war apologies
jerseyboy
It wasn't simply "regrettable", which means "undesirable or unfortunate". It was SHAMEFUL., which means "disgraceful, deplorable, despicable, contemptible or dishonorable". And until Abe and Japan realize the difference, and stop parsing words to say the least acceptable thing", they have no "honor".
WatchingStuff
Anyone want to take bets on how quickly Abe and his right wing cronies will put their foot in their mouth and contradict this "apology"?
I'd predict it will take less than 1 week. These people still live in the stone age and don't realize just how quickly information(dishonesty) spreads.
Kobe White Bar Owner
Its the run up to "foot in our mouth season on a national level.
Yubaru
With collective amnesia comes collective hearing failure as well. "They" still seem to think that Hirohito is the Emperor and/or the current Emperor has been brainwashed by western (American) education and values and have just lost their way. (Easy to talk their way out of anything they are!)
Christopher Glen
A fair point, but then the crown prince thinks much the same. If the right-wingers think the sensible reasoning of the imperial family is about to change they are mistaken. I fear, like most of us, that Mr Abe will disappoint on August 15th
itsonlyrocknroll
'The prime minister has repeatedly said that the comfort women system was a violation of the women’s human rights and that it was extremely regrettable, I think the (anniversary statement) will be formulated based on that premise'
Tomomi Inada, a close Abe ally, head of the Policy Research Council of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Liberal Democratic Party......
Sermo argenteus sed silentium aureum....Speech is silver, silence is golden, a proverb that's meaning seems lost on Tomomi Inada, who sees fit to drip feed the media with crass and asinine speculative innuendo regarding the 70th anniversary statement.
It would have been more appropriate for Tomomi Inada to have read the 1993, 1995 statements formally out loud , follow by every Parliamentarian before taking office. This poisonous hand wringing has gone on long enough.
ThePBot
Translation: "Yeah, they might have been willing and well paid prostitutes, but we shouldn't have overworked them. They deserved a lunch break or something.
These extreme right-wingers are disgusting.
sf2k
If they all head out to Yasukuni afterwards it means nothing
slowguy2
Words are cheap. As has been said before more times than I can remember, apologies -- or Abe-style "expressions of regret" -- are worth nothing in the absence of concrete actions that prove the sincerity of those words.
Until permanent, real-world changes are obtained as a result of these apologies -- until Japan's history textbooks fully document uncomfortable and embarrassing facts without glossing over them; until museums are built to educate the Japanese public; until memorials are erected to ensure that history will not be forgotten -- so that Japan's politicians will no longer be able to lie and deny, and future generations of Japanese citizens will never be duped and blinded again, until then words mean nothing.
gokai_wo_maneku
He can't say too much because then right-wingers will bring up the extensive use of prostitution, including sexual slavery (including some Korean and Chinese women), by US military during the Occupation. Especially during the first year before McArthur made prostitution "illegal".
Christopher Glen
Yes, but those were largely willing and paid prostitutes. In Japan. Irrelevant to the widespread system of coercion Japan employed throughout Asia
BertieWooster
By "repeatedly" does Mr Inada mean that Abe said the above more than once?
When you google Abe and Comfort Women, you just get pages of reports where he denied that the women were coerced.
Perhaps he said that in private.
shallots
@crazyjoe
When you become a leader, you take responsibility (as the representative of the country). Part of the job.
toshiko
Abe and Inada etc got sick and tired to be pushed by brainless self claimed conservatives? They need to control other LDP members beside 70 years anniversary speech. I am sure he never forgot his mother's side grandfather was almost assassinated when his grandfather came back from USA. This speech will reflect his apologize for Japan as Japanese PM. Not only LDP members but other lawmakers in Japan with new young voters.