Japan WWII 'comfort women' were 'necessary' - Hashimoto
13 May 2013 Last updated at 18:06 ET
See below for my comment and the BBC News account of Hashimoto's view.
In article <
df7a4fce-0e6f-4504...@d8g2000pbe.googlegroups.com>,
rst9 <
rst9...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>Osaka Mayor: Japan must admit invasion and apologize
>2013-05-13 09:34:52 GMT2013-05-13 17:34:52(Beijing Time) SINA English
>
http://english.sina.com/world/p/2013/0513/589993.html
>Toru Hashimoto
>
>Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto, who co-heads the opposition Japan
>Restoration Party, told reporters Monday that Japan must admit
>invasion of Asian countries as a result of its WWII defeat and
>introspection and apology is a must given the fact that it had
>brought so much pain to its neighbors.
>
>However, speaking of the issue of comfort women, also known as sex
>slaves, the mayor made a shocking statement defending the practice
>as "necessary" back then, if the soldiers wanted to have good rests
>between intervals of fighting.
The guy is rational. The "comfort women" are necessary just as
mercenaries for American foreign wars today are necessary.
Too bad for the women, especially when they were not the
How could the Japanese emperor have waged a multi-decade long war in
China to get Japan's Lebensraum if his soldiers were discontented?
So, if it made his soldiers happier to sleep with a woman before he
was going to die the next morning, then of course for the sake of the
emperor's battle of aggression, he would do his "best".
And had Japan been made to face its war crimes the same way Germany
was made to face its own, then everything would have been ok except
for the fact that what was done could not be undone.
But since the U.S. foreign policy chose to nurture a vassal state in
the Far East of Asia to help it to weaken the USSR and China in the
long term, Japan's wartime emperor were spared and remained an emperor
and was allowed to live to old age in the same palatial comfort he had
always enjoyed, having to acknowledge only that from now on the United
States would always be Japan's boss and to provide Okinawa as a huge
collection of forward operating bases for the U.S. military.
Japan's post-war attitude cannot be dissociated from the U.S. foreign
policy.
You might ask why the U.S. has so many troops in Japan in the name of
defending it instead of having Japan to defend itself.
The wording in number 2 of its National Defesen Basic Policy
(established under US occupation) as shown below:
"To avoid becoming a major military power that might pose a threat
to the world"
must be seen as a U.S. requirement to enable the victorious country's
permanent garrisoning in Japan. It is also the biggest prize of the
U.S. military effort in WWII.
Japan's Basic Policy for National Defense stipulates the following
policies:[17]
1. Maintaining an exclusive defense-oriented policy.
2. To avoid becoming a major military power that might pose a
threat to the world.
3. Refraining from the development of nuclear weapons, and to
refuse to allow nuclear weapons inside Japanese territory. (Three
Non-Nuclear Principles)
4. Ensuring civilian control of the military.
5. Maintaining security arrangements with the United States.
6. Building up defensive capabilities within moderate limits.
7. Strict limits on arms exports.(Three Principles on Arms
Exports)
The U.S. foreign policy since WWII or even shortly before that has
always been to achieve hegemony over the entire globe, allowing no one
else to disobey its dictates.
Therefore, the New American Century's wars have to be viewed in that
light. And likewise, US Congress' massive funding of the NED and
vocal support of the Dalai Lama in hope of shaking Tibet loose from
China so that American military can have bases in Tibet must also be
viewed in that light.
Hashimoto's and Abe's viewpoint-dependence view of "invasion" is also
compatible with our esteemed poster rst's "might makes right" view of
military conflicts. The only difference in opinion between Hashimoto
and Abe is in the fact that Abe is in power and thus Abe's job is to
do Uncle Sam's bidding while Hashimoto's job is to try to shake him
loose from his hold of political power. Wait until Hashimoto becomes
PM of Japan and you will see that he will do the same bidding for the
US as Abe is doing right now to fight China over Diaoyu Islands.
And no matter who is the PM of Japan, he or she will always tolerate
rapes of Okinawan women, as those rapes are necessary for a certain
percentage of the US military personnel stationed over there, having
nothing to do except staring at those boring military barracks day
after day.
lo yeeOn
Japan WWII 'comfort women' were 'necessary' - Hashimoto
13 May 2013 Last updated at 18:06 ET
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-22519384
A prominent Japanese politician has described as "necessary" the
system by which women were forced to become prostitutes for World War
II troops.
Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto said the "comfort women" gave soldiers
putting their lives at risk a chance "to rest".
He acknowledged that the women had been acting "against their will".
Some 200,000 women in territories occupied by Japan during WWII are
estimated to have been forced into becoming sex slaves for troops.
Many of the women came from China and South Korea, but also from the
Philippines, Indonesia and Taiwan.
Japan's treatment of its wartime role has been a frequent source of
tension with its neighbours.
Mr Hashimoto, the co-founder of the nationalist Japanese Restoration
Party, was the youngest governor in Japanese history before becoming
mayor of Osaka.
He said last year that Japan needed "a dictatorship".
In his latest controversial comments, quoted by Japanese media, he
said: "In the circumstances in which bullets are flying like rain and
wind, the soldiers are running around at the risk of losing their
lives,"
"If you want them to have a rest in such a situation, a comfort women
system is necessary. Anyone can understand that."
He also claimed that Japan was not the only country to use the system,
though it was responsible for its actions.
He said he backed a 1995 statement by Japan's then-PM Tomiichi
Murayama, in which he apologised for its wartime actions in Asia.
"It is a result of the tragedy of the war that they became comfort
women against their will. The responsibility for the war also lies
with Japan. We have to politely offer kind words to [former] comfort
women."
>
>He also indicated that he backs Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's view on
>Japan's wartime aggression, saying academically, there is no exact
>definition of "invasion".
>
>Hashimoto endorsed the prime minister's opinion last month that what
>constitutes an "invasion" really depends on the point of view of each
>country. Abe's remarks angered China and South Korea, which suffered
>from Japan's wartime aggression in the 20th century.