Comfort Women Photography

gr82bart · Dec 19, 2017

In memorium of the of latest comfort woman dying today, Song Shin-do at 95, here are links to comfort women photography. Those of you that don't know what comfort women are....they were women who were enslaved into providing sexual gratification to Japanese soldiers. Japanese conservatives claim these women were already prostitutes or drug addicts or mental patients, as if that argument makes it ok. No Japanese has ever been tried for these war crimes, or any other for that matter. There are officially 32 of them left in world. Anyway here some links:

Picture archives:
http://www.oldpicsarchive.com/chinese-comfort-women/

Articles recently:
http://www.yunghikim.com/comfort-women/
https://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/27/a-wars-cold-comfort-in-china/
http://www.janbanning.com/gallery/comfort-women/
https://qz.com/479542/photos-women-...y-by-the-japanese-in-wwii-tell-their-stories/

I like this protest:
https://www.npr.org/sections/parall...-thorn-in-japans-side-now-sit-on-korean-buses

Regards, Art

crumpet8 · Dec 19, 2017

Interesting reading, thanks.

jtk · Dec 24, 2017

Consider what US military occupation intentionally did to women in Philippines and in South Vietnam.

Two23 · Dec 24, 2017

jtk said:
Consider what US military occupation intentionally did to women in Philippines and in South Vietnam.

Ridiculous comparison.

Kent in SD

gr82bart · Dec 24, 2017

Two23 said:
Ridiculous comparison.

Agreed

Rick A · Dec 25, 2017

jtk said:
Consider what US military occupation intentionally did to women in Philippines and in South Vietnam.

What an asinine remark.

jtk · Dec 25, 2017

Rick A said:
What an asinine remark.

Perhaps you don't like the comparison, but it's true that "comfort women" were registered, tested regularly, and virtually provided for military R&R from WWII until the respective governments at least attempted to put an end to it, very recently.

gr82bart · Dec 25, 2017

jtk said:
Perhaps you don't like the comparison, but it's true that "comfort women" were registered, tested regularly, and virtually provided for military R&R from WWII until the respective governments at least attempted to put an end to it, very recently.

Proof and references please.

philosli · Dec 25, 2017

jtk said:
Perhaps you don't like the comparison, but it's true that "comfort women" were registered, tested regularly, and virtually provided for military R&R from WWII until the respective governments at least attempted to put an end to it, very recently.

I don't understand your logic. Maybe you can enlighten us. Questions for you to answer:

1. You wrote, "...comfort women were registered, tested regularly, and virtually provided for military R&R from WWII". Do you mean by doing this it is moral ok for imperial Japan to enslave women to provide sexual gratification to Japanese soldiers? So enslaving women as prostitutes is ok as long as you feed them, and make sure they don't have STDs?

2. "Consider what US military occupation intentionally did to women in Philippines and in South Vietnam." Whatever US militarily occupation did (and citation please), why does US's actions make imperial Japan's forcing women to become prostitution acceptable? What's the justification behind that one's wrong doing can be exonerated by another's?

btaylor · Dec 25, 2017

Up to 410,000 women continually raped day after day. 75% of them died in captivity according to the article. That scale of cruelty is notable in my opinion.

jtk · Dec 26, 2017

btaylor said:
Up to 410,000 women continually raped day after day. 75% of them died in captivity according to the article. That scale of cruelty is notable in my opinion.

Yes, of course. "Up to" does of course raise questions, but that doesn't cut Imperial Japan any slack.

Re documentation about Vietnam and Philippines... That was regularly in the news beginning with US invasion of VN up until about 10 years ago with Philippines, Google is your friend. The Japanese women were kidnapped by the state whereas the Vietnamese and Philippine women were essentially subsidized by our occupying military. I doubt anybody's attempted to quantify today's sex tourism.

Sirius Glass · Dec 26, 2017

Japan never admitted to its war crimes. They should have faced the same scrutiny the Germany did after World War II.

Andrew O'Neill · Dec 26, 2017

Sirius Glass said:
Japan never admitted to its war crimes. They should have faced the same scrutiny the Germany did after World War II.

Japan apologised and pledged a billion yen for the creation of a foundation to support comfort women survivors. It appeared as more of a political move than a real apology, however, to many of the survivors.

Mick Fagan · Dec 26, 2017

Try this, scroll down and see and hear one of the women.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-02-...oman-wwii-japanese-government-apology/7174174

Mick.

Pioneer · Dec 26, 2017

Prostitution and military personnel kind of go hand in hand.

In addition, other cultures have different perspectives regarding the rights of women.

Forced prostitution and rape within male dominated societies has a very long and ignominious tradition in our world.

Sirius Glass · Dec 26, 2017

Andrew O'Neill said:
Japan apologised and pledged a billion yen for the creation of a foundation to support comfort women survivors. It appeared as more of a political move than a real apology, however, to many of the survivors.

Only recently and the parts of the legislature are still objecting. General MacAuthur was against prosecuting after the war while General Eisenhower insisted on it. General MacAuthur was in awe of the Emperor and did not want to antagonize him. Some posture for a general on the victor's side.

Rick A · Dec 26, 2017

Sirius Glass said:
Only recently and the parts of the legislature are still objecting. General MacAuthur was against prosecuting after the war while General Eisenhower insisted on it. General MacAuthur was in awe of the Emperor and did not want to antagonize him. Some posture for a general on the victor's side.

http://www.pacificwar.org.au/JapWarCrimes/USWarCrime_Coverup.html

Sirius Glass · Dec 26, 2017

Rick A said:
http://www.pacificwar.org.au/JapWarCrimes/USWarCrime_Coverup.html

Exactly and now we live with the problem.

barzune · Dec 29, 2017

Sirius Glass said:
Japan never admitted to its war crimes.

Gee, did the U.S. ever apologise for the destruction of Viet Nam, Cambodia or Laos? Not "war crimes", obviously, because they never declared war.

Sirius Glass · Dec 29, 2017

barzune said:
Gee, did the U.S. ever apologise for the destruction of Viet Nam, Cambodia or Laos? Not "war crimes", obviously, because they never declared war.

On the death marches the Japanese officers on horse back just lopped of heads of captured soldiers, a violation of Geneva convents. Japan also tortured, enslaved and staved captured solders which was a violation of the Geneva conventions. The Japanese army also committed mass rape in China which is a violation of the Geneva conventions. Those are war crimes. And the list is quite long. What you are talking about is a war that the US should not have entered, but that is not a war crime. You need to do a little research before you post.

jtk · Dec 30, 2017

What flavor of fanatic theology entitles some folks to define "apology" for everyone else?

America has even more innocent blood on its hands as a result of mass genocide of Native Americans than Japan has for its Philippine atrocities. Interestingly, many of those who curse Japan for its atrocities pretend that America's "Confederacy" was somehow morally superior to ISIS. Some politicians go so far as to praise Andrew Jackson and Robert E Lee today.

As well, Japan's atrocities in Northern China were far worse than those in Philippines ... poor education is politically useful when hate is the game.

The beat goes on.

Jim Jones · Dec 30, 2017

jtk said:
Perhaps you don't like the comparison, but it's true that "comfort women" were registered, tested regularly, and virtually provided for military R&R from WWII until the respective governments at least attempted to put an end to it, very recently.

I was there. The indigenous free enterprise system, not the allied military, provided the women in Japan. Yes, they were registered and regularly tested. We were supposed to check their ID card and remember their name should medical problems develope. This provided protection for both parties. If this sounds barbaric, compare it to the rape of Nanking a decade earlier. We should also consider that maybe two million Japanese men were killed in WWII. This meant fathers and sons, often the providers for their families, were dead. In Japan the economy and the infrastructure were in ruins. People had to do whatever it took to survive. They not only survived, but through much sacrifice and hard work they rebuilt Japan to become a major power. It helped that Gen. McArthur, despite his mistakes as a WWII military leader, was an enlightened civil administrator. The money GIs spent in Japan was a valuable contribution to the early postwar economy. As a junior U. S. sailor, my pay was about $100, much greater than many working people. In the early fifties, a live-in maid might cost a military family $30 a month. In 1952 a Japanese friend was paid less than $12 a month for about 40 hours a week in a souvenir shop while commuting an hour each way to attend college full time (six days a week, not five as in America). A prostitute might earn a few hundred when the fleet was in, but she might be supporting a large family and perhaps a madam or pimp. What seems sordid today was necessary then and there. One moral to this: Don't go to war. If you must fight, be prepared to win.

removed account4 · Dec 30, 2017

a lot of countries that do things never acknowledge what they did and claim it never happened, nothing new.
look at the "armenian problem" in the old ottoman empire. 1.5 million - gone... then a massive land grab.

its surpising humans still exist with all the terribe things they have done to eachother over the centuries .. rape and pillage, plunder murder .. ... even the iceman of the alps was murdered .. thousands of years ago ..

jtk · Dec 30, 2017

jtk said:
Yes, of course. "Up to" does of course raise questions, but that doesn't cut Imperial Japan any slack.

Re The Japanese women were kidnapped by the state whereas the Vietnamese and Philippine women were essentially subsidized by our occupying military. I doubt anybody's attempted to quantify today's sex tourism.

I erred. I meant to say that Japan's "comfort women" (the original subjects of this thread) were Koreans (and perhaps other Japanese) who were kidnapped by the state of Japan. Government slaves. Contrast to slaves so beloved by America's "confederacy" and the US subsidized (health care & registration) "free enterprise" women in Japan.

Sirius Glass · Dec 30, 2017

jtk said:
What flavor of fanatic theology entitles some folks to define "apology" for everyone else?

America has even more innocent blood on its hands as a result of mass genocide of Native Americans than Japan has for its Philippine atrocities. Interestingly, many of those who curse Japan for its atrocities pretend that America's "Confederacy" was somehow morally superior to ISIS. Some politicians go so far as to praise Andrew Jackson and Robert E Lee today.

As well, Japan's atrocities in Northern China were far worse than those in Philippines ... poor education is politically useful when hate is the game.

The beat goes on.

Those are "what about arguments" which are a strong sign that the poster is out of logical material. The subject is the Japanese use of Comfort Women, the rape of Nanking, the decapitation of captured solders, force marches, torture, starvation, ... were ordered and commanded by the Japanese military as a standard practice and Japan was not made to face those mass crimes against humanity while General Eisenhower made the Polish and German people in the towns walk through the death camps to see the bodies so that they could not deny what happened.

Comfort Women Photography

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