International, Military, Politics

Japanese Mayor Calls World War II “Comfort Women” A Wartime Necessity

osaka_hashimotocomfort-womenJapan has long been criticized for school books that fail to acknowledge atrocities committed by Japanese troops in World War II as well as continued ceremonies that honor war criminals. For that reason, many felt that the recent acknowledgment of forced prostitution of thousands of Asian women — called Comfort Women — was a step forward. Then Toru Hashimoto, the mayor of Osaka, stepped forward. Hashimoto has gone public to defend the forced prostitution as necessary to “maintain discipline” in the ranks and provide rest for soldiers who risked their lives in battle. So much for progress.

Hashimoto seemed to strive to show that fascist values had not been lost on the island: “To maintain discipline in the military, it must have been necessary at that time. For soldiers who risked their lives in circumstances where bullets are flying around like rain and wind, if you want them to get some rest, a comfort women system was necessary. That’s clear to anyone.” Well, not everyone. There are those 200,0000 women who were forced into prostitution, particularly from Korea and China. Then there are those human beings who can still be found around the world.

To make matters worse, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s conservative government is reportedly considering revising Japan’s past apologies for wartime atrocities. Abe has questioned whether “comfort women” were truly forced into prostitution. Rather he suggests that 200,000 Korean and Chinese women may have simply asked to be used a prostitutes without pay or humane treatment.

Source: NY Times

45 thoughts on “Japanese Mayor Calls World War II “Comfort Women” A Wartime Necessity”

  1. Darrell C Carlson, Please..please don’t think that I am saying Nazi’s were not despicable. Absent the “Lost Airmen of Buchenwald” which thanks to Otteray Scribe, myself and others learned of that atrocity, the Nazi’s did abide the Geneva Convention FOR POW’S.

  2. Thanks Darrel C.
    I did not tell everything I knew when I wrote the story of Kirby Cowan. Some things are just too awful to share. For those that did not watch the trailer for the documentary, here it is again. BTW, thanks for the material you sent. I plan to revisit the story in a few weeks.

  3. “Japan has long been criticized for school books that fail to acknowledge atrocities committed by Japanese troops in World War II as well as continued ceremonies that honor war criminals. ”

    Change Japan to US and the statement is just as true.

    BettyKath is correct. However change ‘Japan’ to any other country/group and World War II to just war and you’d be just as true.

    no group is innocent.

    1. Several things. Whatever side is an illusion on this space ship. Each so called side thinks they are right. Better to forgive whoever with all knowing war is wrong period. Know that war is wrong refusing to war saving the same thing Jesus came to save,and that is the soul. Jesus kept infinite power under-control.

  4. Nick….

    Were not the German Death Camp Victims “POW’s” of Adolph-the-horrible’s war against non-Aryans? Bone up on “The Lost Airmen of Buchenwald” and it’s reference material, and please avoid inferences that the Nazi’s were materially nicer to prisoners than any other known varmits of that ilk.

  6. Keep in mind too that he may be pandering to an extremist base (or segment of his base) much like our own are known to do. The Japanese have more than a bit of xenophobia in their political discourse.

  7. A pol not learning the appropriate lessons from history again.

    How . . . totally expected.

  8. Darren, I’m assuming you mean a “comfort man” in a male prison?

  9. Maybe Mr. Hashimoto might change his beliefs if he was subjected to being a Comfort Man.

    At the very least this is certainly going to perpetuate the animosity between Korea and Japan, stirring up anger with a new generation.

    1. People need to mind their own business. It is amazing how badly people disobey Gods word. 1 Thessalonians 4:11: King James Bible (Cambridge Ed.)
      And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you;

  10. Let us forgive. Forgiving is godly. Digging up past is not. Forgiving is healing. People accusing the women of a crime to have sex with them is not a crime. War all by its self is a crime. People fidget and complain about sex saying nothing about war. Why the immballance? Why does Hashimoto have to defend himself for allowing sex to occur? The sexualities of many names seems to be bad mouthed any way they can be bad mouthed. We need to let God himself be the discerner of the heart not warring against people with accusing words. That will bring peace. That is what we need.

  11. The practice of “sacred prostitution” happened in some of the societies democracies look back to as founders of democratic principles:

    According to the contemporary Christian writer Eusebius temple prostitution was still being practised in the Phoenician cities of Aphaca and Heliopolis (Baalbek) until closed down by the emperor Constantine in the 4th century.
    …
    In the Greek-influenced and -colonized world, “sacred prostitution” was known in Cyprus (Greek-settled since 1100 BC), Sicily (hellenized since 750 BCE), in the Kingdom of Pontus (8th century BC) and in Cappadocia (ca. 330 BC hellenized).

    In 2 Maccabees 6:1-4 the ‘Greek’ rulers of Jerusalem (king Antiochus IV Epiphanes of the Seleucid Empire in Anatolia, Syria and eastward) are accused of desecrating the Jerusalem Temple and calling it the temple of Olympian Zeus and bringing prostitutes (hetairai) into that Jerusalem Temple and having sex with them there:

    The Gentiles filled the temple with debauchery and revelry; they amused themselves with prostitutes and had intercourse with women even in the sacred court.

    (Wikipedia, “Sacred Prostitution”). As some of you will know, the Phoenicians were at times friends of King David and King Solomon of Israel and Judah, and were hired to build the first Temple (Temple of Solomon):

    During Hiram’s reign, Tyre grew from a satellite of Sidon into the most important of Phoenician cities, and the holder of a large trading empire. He suppressed the rebellion of the first Tyrean colony at Utica, near the later site of Carthage (Against Apion i:18).

    The Hebrew Bible says that he allied himself with King David of the United Kingdom of Israel as well as that the status of both Kings was equal and that the treaty between them was a parity treaty (2 Samuel 5:11, 1 Kings 5:1, 1 Chronicles 14:1). After the death of King David, Solomon, a son of David, succeeded to David’s throne and Hiram continued the relation with Israel through King Solomon, the upcoming power of the region. They were also equal (“אחי”, meaning “brothers” 1 Kings 9:13, Amos 1:9)[2] Through the alliance with Solomon, Hiram ensured himself access to the major trade routes to Egypt, Arabia and Mesopotamia. The two kings also joined forces in starting a trade route over the Red Sea, connecting the Israelite harbour of Ezion-Geber with a land called Ophir (2 Chronicles 8:16,17).

    According to the Bible, both kings grew rich through this trade and Hiram sent Solomon architects, workmen, cedar wood and gold to build the First Temple in Jerusalem.

    (Wikipedia, “King Hiram”, emphasis added). I doubt that the Japanese practice is outside many practices of history.

    Prostitution is still legal in one state in certain temples brothels in the United States to this very day.

  12. It appears that we have the good ole “hoof in Mouth” disease…. a sword could take care of the problem quite easily…..

  13. bettykath, We did not treat our prisoners in WW2 like the Japanese did. The Germans didn’t either. Read Unbroken and report back on the subject. I have a close friend of my father who was in a Japnese POW camp. He returned weighing 112 lbs.[5’10”]. He had neurological damage that caused his body to shake ala Parkinsons. Another good friend of my father spent time in a German POW camp..no comparison. I coached a kid who has a German grandfather who was in a U.S. POW camp here in Wi. I’ve spoken @ length w/ him.He was treated humanely, and helped local farmers on a work release program. He joked, “Eating those farm meals I gained weight!” He was allowed to stay in the U.S. after the war which made him very happy. He was a stone mason and his grandson is running that 60 year old biz w/ his father today.

  14. War aside, societies of empire class and culture had “prostitute religions” where once a year women were required to go to the temple and prostitute themselves to at least one male.

    Of course it was not called prostitution, it was called the state religion:

    The foulest Babylonian custom is that which compels every woman of the land to sit in the temple of Aphrodite and have intercourse with some stranger once in her life. Many women who are rich and proud and disdain to mingle with the rest, drive to the temple in covered carriages drawn by teams, and stand there with a great retinue of attendants. But most sit down in the sacred plot of Aphrodite, with crowns of cord on their heads; there is a great multitude of women coming and going; passages marked by line run every way through the crowd, by which the men pass and make their choice. Once a woman has taken her place there, she does not go away to her home before some stranger has cast money into her lap, and had intercourse with her outside the temple; but while he casts the money, he must say, “I invite you in the name of Mylitta” (that is the Assyrian name for Aphrodite). It does not matter what sum the money is; the woman will never refuse, for that would be a sin, the money being by this act made sacred. So she follows the first man who casts it and rejects no one. After their intercourse, having discharged her sacred duty to the goddess, she goes away to her home; and thereafter there is no bribe however great that will get her. So then the women that are fair and tall are soon free to depart, but the uncomely have long to wait because they cannot fulfil the law; for some of them remain for three years, or four. There is a custom like this in some parts of Cyprus.
    …

    (Wikipedia, “Sacred Prostitution”).

  15. Rape, prostitution, and war fit hand in glove.

    The old saying “your mother wears combat boots” is taken from the activity of prostitutes who followed the soldiers around to “give them comfort.”

    A pair of boots was required to follow the soldiers, so that was the first paycheck:

    Armys in the field used to have “camp followers” who were , in essence, prostitutes for the soldiers. The first thing they would bargain for was a good pair of boots because following an army involves walking through a lot of muck, as you can imagine!

    So the insult evolved among soldiers and is like saying “You son of a whore!”

    (A Dictionary of Catch Phrases, Second Edition, by Eric Partridge & Paul Beale).

  16. “Japan has long been criticized for school books that fail to acknowledge atrocities committed by Japanese troops in World War II as well as continued ceremonies that honor war criminals. ”

    Change Japan to US and the statement is just as true.

    Pretty boy mayor needs a serious update from the women he insults.

  18. I’ve read a couple books on this topic. We gave Japanese a big pass for their atrocities, both to civilains and prisoners. Unbroken is a tough, but must read. I think many of the people of that generation in Japan understood this. They were literally starving when the war ended and we fed them. This pretty boy needs to read these aforementioned books and stop talking out of his ass.

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