BEIJING, July 12 (Xinhuanet) -- China expressed indignation and strongly condemns the act of a Japanese cabinet member who once again made utterly shameless comments on the "comfort women" issue, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Liu Jianchao said here Tuesday.

Liu made the remarks when answering a question about the Chinese government's response to the wrongful comments made by Japanese Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Minister Nariaki Nakayama.

Nakayama said in a recent public address that he is very moved and excited by the E-mail message from a female Japanese studying in Canada. The E-mail says "the victimized women in Asia should be proud of being comfort women." He said the message is a rare and "encouraging" comment to him.

Liu said such comments have hurt the feelings of people in countries victimized by Japan's war of aggression.

"The Japanese government should be held responsible to keep the acts and comments of relevant persons within certain bounds of discipline," Liu said.

Liu said the act of forcing women to become "comfort women" was one of the serious crimes that militarist Japan committed against the people of all victimized countries, including China,in the World War II. This historical fact cannot be denied by any persons, Liu said.

Nakayama had repeatedly made wrongful comments on the issue of "comfort women". He said in a public address in June that there were originally no such words as "comfort women," so it was good that the "incorrect" description was removed from school textbooks.

In November 2004, Nakayama said it was very pleasing to see the self-abusing description of "comfort women" disappearing from history textbooks in Japan.

"Comfort women" is a euphemism used in Japan to describe women forced into sexual slaves by the Imperial Japanese Army in Japan's invasion in its Asian neighbors before and during the World War II.

This year marked the 60th anniversary of the victory of world anti-Fascist war. Liu said the Japanese side should face squarely,with an honest attitude,its aggressive past and have profound retrospection on it. Japan should properly handle all the issues left over by history, including the issue of "comfort women."

Whoa, newsflash everybody! Im not surprised since some japanese political figures tend to talk without thinking about wheather or not what there saying is appropriate. Im pretty sure that if japan had any class they would release the indidvidual that made this remark because Im still hopeful that this idiot does not represent the japanese viewpoints on comfort women(Hopefully).

if he thinks being a comforting woman is a proud thing, the japanese soldiers back then should have reserve this honour to the japanese women, better than giving it to foreigners.

"the victimized women in Asia should be proud of being comfort women."

Not surprised. Japanese politicians are notorious for making insensitive remarks. I doubt a backlash would happen, since the press is kept on a tight political leash...

Even I have to admit that the comment was tasteless.

For shame for shame. There needs to be public outlash against this. National concensus people!! When you elect these tards into office, it just shows you how educated the people of japan are. For SHAME!!

I've heard his actual comments, and he didn't say he thought being a comforting woman was a proud thing. He said that the "term" of comfort women didn't exist during WW2. Seems like Chinese press has twisted his words.

Hmmm, I really doubt that! If you ask me it seems more of a typical japanese person downplaying there misdeeds again is what it seems like!

Wow...

Even Shintaro Ishihara would be proud of Nakayama.

well, according to the japanese cabinet member, the actual comment comes from a japanese oversea student. if the guy think her comment is encouraging, this means he admits that comfort women did exist.

Yeah. That's kind of odd. First he says they don't exist, then he implicity shows he thinks they do by agreeing with that kind of comment. I can't believe a student would say that....

I think I would have made a reasonably good comfort man.

i can't believe an oversea student actually made that comment either.....she reminds me of this saying from a chinese drama, "there're 3 groups of people who shouldn't study....one of this is the people who are educated but then go on to do immoral things that hurt other people."

Yea then the person wouldn't be educated because she obviously doesn't know the correct morals, or does she?

hmm... 80-90% comfort women were korean . and this is the response of this man.... well even though this is only one man sayin it, i am still saddened

A Korean professor 金貴玉 reported that the South Korean army had a comfort woman set up during Korean war. http://web.archive.org/web/20020226021647/...e/0223/028.html How much outrage in Korea over this report?

im not denying there might have been something like this. japan also had some japanese women as comfort women. but the numbers of japan enslaving koreans and killing the women right after is alarming. i heard many stories of witnesses. and i ask, what is your point placing this up after i made the comment previously? its not to justify any wrongdoings of japan is it? because this article (even though i cant read it) may be true in some ways im not sure. but we're talkin about specifically on japan. this is quite similar to another conversation i had with another japanese person and they tried to place some of that blame on someone else and redirect the specific conversation

Nakayama sounds basically crazy....how else can he say someone should be proud to be the victim of consitent rape?

The only thing he got right is about the use of the word comfort women.....that really is far too a mild a description for something that was a horrific crime.....

The crime of turning someone into a sex slave...and the women who were forced to endure this, really need a name that better discribes their suffering and plight...than something as mild sounding as comfort women.....!

As for that stupid student...I wonder if she would still hold such a crazy view if she herself were forced to become the victim of constant sexual assult and rape?

How do you even know so-called stories of witnesses are true? I'm all for truthful stories, but what happened to those women has been elevated to whatever story of the day people felt like claiming. And people who do research into the events and return with summaries saying that what people want to believe is true simply isn't, they get generally ignored or condemned. Lee Yong Hun, a professor of Soeul University, even had to quit his job after he expressed his objective opinion on comfort women. http://japanese.chosun.com/site/data/html_...0903000051.html


Koreans keep accusing Japan of whitewashing history, but where are protests against their own government for not teaching about wrongdoings of past Korean military? If you look beyond blind prejudice, you can't help but see the hypocrisy.

did you know, a chinese was beating up (again) by police, for expressing his thoughts about the government.

ironically, the whole "elevation" theory you have said about the accounts of these comfort women is what i have heard when i went to japan concerning this matter. thus why korea and china has been all up about japan that japanese text books only claim it was "all exaggerations and all fabricated".

i remember seeing pictures of bays of dead bodies of comfort women in korea. and listening to the personal testimony of this woman who was a former sex slave taken away at a young age. during these times she kept artwork of her memories all which were detailed and vivid. she never saw her family again (i believe).

unlike some people, yes, i do believe in the power of personal testimony because credited sources only can tell the statistics (numbers and dates, etc) but only testimonies can tell the emotions of the situation. i think some people are looking too much at the numbers and not enough at the emotions thus why i think some people find it hard to come to terms on these issues.

i havent been through it myself but known many that has that suffered.

now i never did say that korea is all innocent by any means. but we are specifically talkin about japan's use of comfort women. i just find it boggling that WWII, the greatest world in the world, isnt even mentioned in many warbooks in japan and even when i looked at japanese textbooks there was not mention of even some sufferings that japan went through themselves.

not only korean sources take a look at comfort women issues that come to similar pointS:


A book reviewer for Amazon.com stated: "This system resulted in the largest, most methodical and most deadly mass rape of women in recorded history. Japan's Kem pei tai political police and their collaborators tricked or abducted females as young as eleven years old and imprisoned them in military rape camps known as 'comfort stations,' situated throughout Asia. These 'comfort women' were forced to service as many as fifty Japanese soldiers a day. They were often beaten, starved, and made to endure abortions or injections with sterilizing drugs. Only a few of the women survived, and those that did suffered permanent physical and emotional damage." 2
--------------------------------------------------------

im not only saddened for the korean comfort women, but all of them, and this includes the japanese women also taken as comfort women. i dont believe that the accounts of japanese were ALL fabricated as some will say.

i will post more later. im not hating on japanese, i just dont want the ideal to go out that sufferings of all comfort women (japanese women included) is exaggerations, thats all

Which Japanese textbook are you talking about?

When historians use the pictures as evidence, it is necessary to mention when, where, and who took the picｔures. I've seen anti-Japanese websites, books using pictures which are proven to be fake, combined photographs and with false explanations. Unfortunately, people are quite likely to believe what they want to believe without any doubt.

I've read story of a South Korean woman named Kim Hak Soon who was the first former comfort woman to give public testimony. In 1991, she claimed that her step-father took her to a camp in 1940 where she was put to work for a year. Then in 1993 she changed her claim and said that she was kidnapped by Japanese soldiers in 1940 and forced to work for a year. Which version is the truth? The problem of those testimonies is the lack of evidence or contradictory claims made before by the same people. And it is only based on the assumption that no one is lying.
I think it's dangerous if many Koreans are only concerned emotionally with “justice” instead of a rational, legal thinking. In fact, there are reports saying that perjury, libel and fraud are rampant in Korea.
http://japanese.donga.com/srv/k2srv.php3?biid=2002080859758
http://japan.donga.com/srv/k2srv.php3?bico...d=2003122902698
http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/new...0302130023.html
http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/new...0507030027.html

The Korean Government, based on goverment written history textbooks and sources of learning, encourages teaching based on biased information(I've read it and it didn't mention what Korean soldiers did in Vietnam war http://www.ahrchk.net/ua/mainfile.php/2000/366)
But I believe that we have the right to present a dissenting viewpoint of history. The whole point of academic freedom is to give room so that ideas can be debated and judged on their merits. Intellectual freedom is a very important part of any advanced society. If all you get are a bunch of yes men (or women) you end up with intellectual paralysis.

so you believe that japan was right and that all the suffering that not only korea went through but also other asian nations including japanese women themselves is all falsified? thousands of survivors and not only just koreans had similar stories and NOT just koreans. go to japan and look at any textbook, they also claim the sufferings of others caused by japan were "exagerated".


youre not denying that japan didn't use comfort women are you? how do explain nanking incident in china? prostitution was illegal in korea until the japanese came in. korean girls had JangDo which is a dagger for suicide. most of them killed themselves if they were not killed in teh first place so of course there arent many korean women survivors.

were talkin specifically about japan use of comfort women, nothing else. people wonder why china and korea are mad over japan. its not only from the past but how japan is viewing the situation today.

this was in japan times:
"Historians say Japan sent as many as 200,000 women -- many from the Korean Peninsula, which was then under Japanese rule -- to frontline brothels that served Japanese soldiers. Japan called the sex slaves "comfort women."
source

however yes i do tend to believe personal testimonies than stats. my american friend is in iraq and says that whats portrayed is totally different from teh actual thing. its a whole lot worse. and my grandfather's cousins (both around 13-14) were taken away by the japanese also.

"
(II) Former Japanese Imperial Army requested many brothel dealers to establish brothels for Japanese soldiers. Some of brothels for the former Japanese soldiers abducted women and forced them into prostitute. The former Japanese Army have known that fact. The former Japanese army is responsible for such an evil conduct. The former Japanese Army had to supervise and regulate these evil conducts. Did Japanese army supervise and regulate the evil conduct of brothels? The former Japanese army must have known the evil conduct. However, did the former Japanese Army let the evil conduct of brothel's dealers alone? "

japanese source

im also assuming since i think you are japanese that you dont know what it was like for the koreans on the receiving end of this situation. we're gonna have two totally different stories because of that.

i respect that youre trying to stick up for your country. however to deny the fact that these women suffered and japanese women included is...

dont you see? im not just sticking up for korea. this is mainly an issue for those women forced into prostitution not just koreans.

Did the article say where in Canada is this girl from? I'll make her into a comfort women if she likes it so much.

Is this true?

but that doesn't mean all evidences are false. that doesn't mean there weren't any comfort women in the world. just admit it.

i know this recent news of Japanese response to the horrible act of raping fellow Asian is unforgivable! However, I like to remind people that most Japanese today do not feel that it is right to hold woman as sex slave and most Japanese are good people! The Japanese government is evil and is controled by the filth dirty USA! White people that is!

I hope he didn't get too excited and come all over the computer screen

Did you know another groper from Tokyo was let go recently because the judge said that groping females in trains is natural for japanese men to do?

No one is denying sufferings of those women. What we are claiming is there is no clear evidence that show those Korean women were kidnapped and forced to be "sex slaves" by the Japanese government. It's sad but people were much more poor at that time and many women were sold to brokers by their parents or sold themselves voluntarily to save their families' living. This happened in Japan and many other countries as well. Don't you know that women from poorer countries (especially Russia and Southeast Asia) are being victimized by Korean pimps even now?

As for textbooks, I've read some of them and there is no sentence stating something like "the sufferings of others caused by Japan were exaggerated". I have to say that Japan and Korea have different way of history research. We prefer to seek scientific analysis and credible record more than theories. There was a NYTimes article saying the textbooks in Japan are perhaps more balanced and objective in the region.

You are wrong, according to this site http://marmot.blog-city.com/whores_koreans...orea_herald.htm
"Like in most societies, prostitution has been a fact of Korean life for as long as there have been Koreans. Granted, Korean academics and media executives whitewash the nation's past to such an extent that you might actually believe that kisaeng (Korean geisha) were just highly educated female artists / entertainers, but in case you need a dose of reality, take a look through these painting from Seoul's Dado Museum"

I don't understand why Koreans always focus on only Japan when their own government whitewash history and don't even recognize Korea's use of comfort women. Can't you see the hypocrisy? We are sorry for people who suffered by the past Japanese military, but we are getting tired of people throwing it in our face at every opportunity. What is the agenda of people that are trying to keep people stirred up and angry against present day Japanese that had nothing to do with it? Japan has already made apologies and the minutes of the 1965 normalization treaty clearly states that she offered reparations( Including the portion that was earmarked for North Korea) to Korea. It's not Japan's fault that your government chose to use money for economic development instead of compensating victims.

yes korean women volunteered to work for the japanese. but not to be fu-king.
prostitutes.

200,000 korean women volunteer to get fu-ked 40+ times a day by 40+ different japanese soldiers?

Many people were in severe poverty at that time and many parents often sold their daughters to the brokers. It still happens in poor countries.


The 200,000 is generally viewed as being manufactured. There were also many Japanese comfort women and they served Korean soldiers too. Most people seem to forget that Korean men formed a large part of the Japanese Imperial force in WWII. Park Chung Hee and many of the founders of the ROK were officers in the Japanese Imperial army. If they opposed to a comfort women set up why did they have it in Korean war?

Only 18 schools are approving this history book out of thousands in the education system. I don't remember exactly where I got the source from, but I'll try to find it later.

this seriously isnt about a korea vs japan issue. and of course prostitution is in every country. the kisaengs were for mostly royals and the wealthy in which many were corrupted individuals who bended the law. which is in every society. that site is mostly talkin about current day prostitution among korea. korean women are still seen as second class citizens so it is inevitable however does not mean teh law was in place to encourage it.

and about the different ways of research between korea and japan that you claim: in general, lets take a breakdown of japanese history textbooks. you claim its all scientific however if you actually studied one and compared it with many other sources and versions of those topics, "japan came out of the sea", "wwII wasn't even mentioned in the textbooks i read " and we're specifically talkin about history textbooks in japan. not scientific ones.

please breakdown nanking for me then in a japanese perspective

and yes i am sorry if it feels like its been thrown into your face about this issue. because i know your generation wasn't responsible for this. when korea brought over about 13 teenagers from japan and started asking them questions about WWII , they were totally clueless and when they found out the truth of what happened to japan inevitably and what they did also. they cried in shame.
i will find the documentary on it.
i was vvery skeptical to believe myself and thats why i went off when i was in japan to study books in the libraries. i couldnt believe myself when i saw no mentions of WWII. i dont blame the younger generations at all.

and i guess other asian nations will judge the apologies made by japan as not being "sincere". i was neutral on the apologies myself because i truly dont know if it was sincere or not. and if anything, when a person gets victimized, its the one victimizing who should compensate. and korea supported its comfort women survivors.

however this reminds me of when i watched some documentary on the history channel about historians claiming that the halocaust was also exagerrated. but people still believes of the atrocities that happened through the survivors and witnesses. american soldiers didn't see it happen but relied on the stories and what they saw afterwards: dead bodies, camps. in japan, the brothels set up near the japanese soldiers camps, and 13 year old girls being taken away..

my grandfather's two 13-14 yr girl cousins were taken away too in a load full of young women around their age. they weren't sold away. i trust in my grandfather's testimony even though it doesnt have "proof" as you say.
some things just cannot be seen or heard but must be felt with the heart also.

now since this is a comfort women issue and not a korea vs. japan issue, i state this: all the soldiers including possible korean men who used comfort women in such a way should be punished. by this, its a personal statement not a statement for the behalf of all korea. i just think its wrong for anyone to justify a situation. but when it boils down, japan did not treat these women well, and whatever the numbers are, even one woman is too much.

no action such as this is justifiable. whatever the numbers may be. this applies to all.

and im sorry for turning this into a big issue. its just that members of my family were strongly affected by the japanese occupation. and when i think of those stories of people suffering i think of some of my relatives.
and it hurts to say that their suffering can be reargued in any way.

Is Mika Barkerintokyo in disguise? He/she sounds very very suspiciously like barker. It's not unheard of for some people to change his/her name after getting destroyed in arguments.

My testimony is this: Japanese came into my grean-grandfathers village, rounded up the elderly and some children, shot them all, and then lit the village on fire. To this day, my family on the paternal side live in a neighboring village.

yeah its horrible. so horrible my grandfather wouldn't even tell me what happened. To this day, he hates japanese.

^ My dad hates the Japanese more than how much your Grandfather hates the Japanese.

ooooooo big man big man!!

Kuno, if you were sitting by me, I'd so turn off your computer.

it's called being forced by poverty.

Few may have volunteered, but many were forces and tricked into it.

hay guz letz drop sum nooks from space K?

^ will they be covered with delicious fillings of candy?

Maybe.

lets all volunteer to be comfort men.

Will we be tricked into becoming sex slaves to a bevy of Japanese idols?

Yes!!!!

you dont really know if that is true or not. you dont know his grandfathers story bbut anyways. yeah i heard a lot of stories from my grandparents since they were born under the colonization of japan at the time.

Oh $hit, I just realized I made a mockery of the whole affair.