The Comfort Women of Nanking - Essay Example

Thesis ment: The hardships experienced by the comfort women in Nanking were natural atrocities of war and the distress they went through duringthis time should not be compensated. Controversy of the subject is debated upon whether compensation to comfort women is justified under the terms of war. It is argued that the plights of the comfort women were justified under the terms of war, and that no compensation is needed. The arguments are based on the reasons that there are no definite evidences that link the Japanese government to the maintenance of brothels of comfort women during WWII. Aside from this, prostitutions and sex slaves were considered legal during that time. Although it is admitted based on records that there were about 200,000 comfort women and that they went through pains, disease, and humiliations, the Japanese were not solely to be blamed. Some of the women were prostitutes who volunteered and others were sold by their families. The concern of the government at that time was the needs of the military soldiers that prompted them to act accordingly. The comfort women kept silent about this for a while, but recently, there is a renewed interest globally of justifying the wrongdoings committed to them. Some groups ask for compensation, others ask for public apologies. Governments, more specifically Japan, responsible groups and politicians look at the issue, and weigh things whether to compensate or not. Cover Page The Comfort Women of Nanking Your name Subject Professor Date The comfort women of Nanking Introduction There has been great interest on the issue of compensation for comfort women for supposed rapes and hardships they went through during World War II. International women’s group as well as the affected countries pressure Japan to apologize and issue just compensation for these women as it is argued that this is the least thing that they could do to correct the damage on these women. These comfort women who are now on their eighties still believe that they deserve to be paid because of the agony they had experienced The Second World War is long been over, but the traces of wounds it has created to the lives of 200,000 women recruited to serve as comfort women still remain. It is intact as controversies and debates continue to arise and Japan is still firm in its resolve in not admitting the crimes against comfort women. It took long, or about fifty years, before evidences and testimonies sprung which today are still being validated. However, under the circumstances that existed during the war, Japan insisted that they have no liabilities to compensate these women, more so, to issue an apology as they insist they have not committed a crime. This paper looks at the justifications of the Japanese Government in denying the claims of the comfort women, at the same time, the study will see if there are enough reasons why they should not be compensated. Demands for compensation. The sentiments of the WWII comfort women have recently gained momentum of international status as they pursued their interest for compensation and human rights treatment. Korea in particular, through the Korean Council is asking the Japanese Government for a public apology in behalf of these women and a direct compensation to victims (Choi 2010). Choi in her study, cited that Koreans also demands that “all facts about military sexual slavery by Japan be recorded in history textbooks; that a memorial and a museum are built, and those responsible for the crime are punished”. Other countries became interested and have developed a cooperative alliance to pressure the Japanese government to compensate the comfort women and to issue an official apology. It turned out to be an international level issue that happens to be significant in the discussion of diplomatic relations. For instance, the U.S. House of Representatives had asked the European Parliament and the Council of Europe to take a similar stand against Japan. Similarly, the lower house of the Dutch Parliament and the Canada’s lower house drafted a resolution to the same effect. (“Comfort women: Facts..”) There was little discussion about comfort women in Korea during Park’s Regime in 1963-1972. The topic became a hot issue from governments, women’s organization, as well as the United Nations when Sheiji Yoshida, an ex-soldier published a book in 1983, My War Crimes – the impressments of Koreans. This was followed by a series of articles published in 1991 by Asahi Shimbun, one of the major newspapers in Japan. However, the stories in the book were disputed by the Japanese government and were denied. The Comfort Women’s ordeal. The number of comfort women, as per report of “Voice…” varied from 80,000 to as many as 200,000. These girls and women came from Taiwan, China, Burma, the Philippines, Indonesia, the Netherlands, and about 80% came from Korea. The ages of these girls and women when they were recruited ranged from 15 to 19, while some were as young as 11 years old and eldest were 19. At these ages, most were virgins, thus it was called “virgin recruitment”. During the early stages of war, according to the report of “Comfort Women”, the Japanese authorities used conventional method of recruitment for prostitutes using advertising. Those who responded in these advertisements offered their services voluntarily and were already in the prostitution trade. Other reason was economic hardship that prompted their families to sell the girls to the military. When sources of Japanese women dried up, Japanese authorities sourced them from China and Korea. This time, the methods used were that of trickery and fraud when women were brought to the brothels. There were also reported incidences of kidnapping and forced recruitment. Report said that many who volunteered believed they were going to work in factories, hospitals or to attend school. (“Voices..”) Several reports and articles that appeared in publications and news narrated the nightmares of the comfort women in WWII. According to “Voices…” comfort women suffered humiliation, sickness and even death in the brothels. Women were heavily guarded in the brothels and there was no chance to escape. Report said that these women were raped many times, and most often between 10 to 50 times in a day. Women also claimed that they were beaten and physically tortured, and because of being raped repeatedly, injuries to their genitals were common. Women in the brothels were divided into class or length of service. The newest ones who were not yet contaminated with STDS were placed in the highest categories, and the virgins were given to officers for the first rape. As women stayed long in the service, acquiring STDs became more certain and when they were considered to be too diseased to be of further use, they were abandoned, sent far from home, or in a different country. Women complained, as this “Voices…” wrote, that their uterus got rotten because of being raped a thousand times by men. Testimonies of women were also presented to the U.S. House of Representatives who is conducting a hearing on the matter. A former comfort woman, Jan Ruff-O-Hearn, told the U.S. House of Representatives of her own experience as quoted below: In the so-called “Comfort Station” I was systematically beaten and raped day and night. Even the Japanese doctor raped me each time he visited the brothel to examine us for venereal disease." (“Comfort women: Facts”) Other women also came forward and gave their own testimonies. For example, Mrs. O’Herne, a former-sex slave, gathered from an ex-soldier that comfort women were compared to “a pack of cigarettes to consume” (Choi) Maria Rosa Henson, now in her late 80s, described in her autobiography, published by the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, 1996, in 156 pages, the pains she suffered as a comfort woman during the war (Distor, 1996). In this book, she narrated the following: "At two, the soldiers came. My work began, and I lay down as one by one the soldiers raped me. Every day, anywhere from 12 to over 20 soldiers assaulted me. There were times when there were as many as 30; they came to the garrison in truckloads." The cruelty towards Rosa and the other girls was unending especially in times when the soldiers were not satisfied after raping them. "Once there was a soldier who was in such a hurry to come that he ejaculated even before he had entered me. He was very angry and he grabbed my hand and forced me to fondle his genitals. Another soldier was waiting for his turn outside the room and started banging on the wall. The man had no choice but to leave, but before going out, he hit my breast and pulled my hair." (Distor) Justifications of the Japanese Government Several studies showed justifications for disagreement of the Japanese Government to pay the comfort women and to issue an apology. For instance hardships are one of the multiple perspectives of the war (“Korean lesson…” n.d.), such that war rapes are not common only during the Japanese war. It was also seen in other countries like Berlin wherein there were more than 100,000 rapes following World War II. It also occurred during the Jewish ghettos wherein Nazi officers habitually raped vulnerable women and girls. (Choi) Another thing that justifies denial of the Japanese Government is that the military policies at that time approved establishment of brothels. According to the “Comfort Women” (n.d.), the military believed that the morale and efficiency of the soldiers will be improved if they had an easy access to prostitutes and sexual slaves. Aside from this, is that by institutionalizing the system, the government hoped to have a control of sexually transmitted diseases. The military justified the establishment of comfort houses in order “to satisfy the sexual desires of the Japanese soldiers and to prevent them for raping the women of the local populations.” (“Voices of Comfort Women”) In addition, it was governmental in nature because the establishment of comfort houses in front of the Japanese regiments would lessen the need of soldiers to go on leave from work or from the battle. This allowed comfort houses to be set up everywhere the army was assigned, from the border of Siberia to equatorial New Guinea. Some of the articles reviewed showed that the Japanese government at that time had no moral responsibility and simply took advantage of the local practice, thus absolving them from guilt. According to “Comfort Women: Facts” prostitution and bonded labor were considered legal during at the time of WWII. This article (Comfort Women: Facts) also said that the blame should be shifted to middlemen, to their parents because of poverty, and to many local community leaders who used trickery and coercion to send local women to Japanese brothels. In another instance, the article of “Voices…” said that soldiers paid the services of women in the brothels by coupons which was charged on a scale, dependent on rank. The biggest justification here is the lack of evidence that directly link the Japanese government to the comfort women. According to the article “Comfort women: Facts”, historians had a difficult time in obtaining evidences that would connect the government to the comfort women because the Japanese soldiers destroyed all documents for fear of war crimes prosecutions. Brown (1993) said that notwithstanding evidences and testimonies presented, the Japanese government still denies the accusation and refuses to pay compensation because of lack of evidences women. Brown stated that as far as Japan is concerned, all claims about World War II are already settled completely and that both Korea and Japan have confirmed this in a treaty signed in 1965. In the Japanese government’s view as presented by Brown, the treaty had settled all claims on government to government basis but had excluded settlement to private and corporations. The Settlement Several apologies were made by the Japanese government, but did not admit legal responsibility on comfort women. In 1965, Choi stated that Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama apologized on Japanese military’s involvement against comfort women. In 1992, Secretary Kato made a public apology on behalf of the Japanese Government and instead of monetary compensation offered “unspecified measures” to be approved by the Cabinet. (Brown). Sec. Kato issued the following statement in a news conference: “I would like to express the sincere apology and remorse of the Government of Japan to all those, irrespective of nationality or place of origin, who underwent indescribable pain and suffering as comfort women,” he said, using the common term for the women. “My heart really aches when I listen to those who speak of this matter.” (Brown) This apology was carried in a news article that was published in the New York Times on July 7, 1992, wherein David E. Sanger said that “Japan admits set up of army brothels”. The news said that along with this admission, Japan produced a host of documents that showed how their comfort stations were run. The controversy did not end with the apology of Secretary Kato as later, lawmakers wanted to rescind this apology. Finally, to end the controversy, Japan’s Supreme Court ruled “that the PRC people do not have the right to seek war reparations, in two verdicts, rejecting compensation to World War II sex slaves and forced laborers” (Agence-France Press 2007) . As form of repatriation, but not necessarily treated as compensation to comfort women, the Japanese Government contributed yearly to the Asian Women’s Fund that was established in 1995. Accordingly, the establishment of this fund should be enough to erase crimes of Japan in the past. The Japanese Government contributed US$4.5 to the fund yearly until was disbanded on March 2007 (“Comfort Women: Facts…”). Conclusion Based on the studies reviewed, there are sufficient rationalizations to support the Japanese opposition to pay the comfort women of WWII compensations primarily because of lack of evidences and second; hardships are atrocities natural to war. Women of other countries suffered the same experience during and after the war, but one could wonder why it is only the case of Japan that has been escalated to international level and has generated wide interest. A definition of what is a proper apology should be given as in the study, the Japanese Government has issued several apology statements, but these seem to be insufficient to affected parties. As to compensation, a portion of the study showed that women have been paid for their services during the war, and a claim for this today is doubted. In this concern, what will be the measurement of payment, if any, is to be done. No definition for this has been mentioned in the studies reviewed, as it seems another study on terms of payment is needed. As it is, the Japanese Government claimed it has paid all war repatriations and have committed to the Asian Women’s Fund that is intended to erase all women’s claims. A verdict from the Japan’s Supreme Court denying the request for compensation has been arrived at, and unless more forceful evidences are presented, this case has reached finality. Although it has reached finality, the case remains unsolved for the women who still feel a rebuttal is necessary. But for now, it is still up to the Japanese government alone; on how they would like to finish this controversy, on how they will put back the strained relations, on how they will bring back the dignity of these forlorn women, and how they will work towards the atonement of peace and unity without necessarily committing their national dignity. List of References Agence-France Press, 30 April, 2007. “Japan’s Supreme Courts Rejects Compensation”. Comfort Women & Other Legacies of War. 13 Sept. 2010. Brown, Robert-Lamont. Feb. 1993. “No Compensation for the Comfort Women”. A Contemporary Review. bNet Resources. 13 September 2010. Choi, Jeeyoung. “Comfort Women: Japan’s Unpaid Reparations”. Comfort Women: at Bologna Center Journal of International Affairs. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Oct. 2010 . “Comfort Women” n.d. Encyclopedia: All Experts. 13 September 2010. “Comfort Women: Facts, Discussions, Forum & Encyclopedia”. n.d. 13 September 2010 http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Comfort_women Distor, Emere, 1996. “Comfort Woman, Slave of Destiny, the autobiography of Maria Rosa Henson, illustrated by the author and edited by Sheila S. Coronel”. A Book Review KASAMA, Vol. No. 10, No. 4, October-November-December, 1996. Solidarity Philippine Australia Network. 13 September 2010 http://cpcabrisbane.org/Kasama/1996/V10n4/Henson.htm. Sanger, David E. 27 January 1992. “ Wako Journal, History Scholar in Japan exposes a Brutal Chapter”. Published in New York Times. Comfort Women & Other Legacies of War. 13 Sept. 2010 from http://comfortwomen.wordpress.com/archived-news-articles/ > “Voices of Comfort Women”. 2010. American University Library. 13 September 2010 < http://www.library.american.edu/about/exhibits/comfort_women.html> “Korean Lesson Multiple Textbook Perspectives of the Korean War” (n.d.). 30 September 2010 http://www.tahg.org/lessonPlansHtml.php?ID=121 Read More