Nakasone: Board Games, not Rape

[Here's a piece that got bumped from Saturday's piece, about Nakasone and his wartime relationship, or lack ofn one. with the "Comfort Women'. There's a lot more to say on this subject, and I hope I'll be able to add to this soon.]

Saturday 26th March 2007

Richard Lloyd Parry, Tokyo

Japan’s most respected elder statesmen was forced yesterday [Friday] to contradict an autobiographical account suggesting that as a young officer during the second world war he forced women to serve as military sex slaves.

Yasuhiro Nakasone, one of Japan’s most distinguished former prime ministers, is the latest politician to be drawn into a bitter controversy about the so-called “comfort women”, which boiled over this month after years of simmering resentment.

At a press conference in Tokyo yesterday [Friday], he admitted that Japanese forces did force women to serve on “comfort stations”, the euphemism for military brothels where many Koreans and Chinese claim to have been enslaved and raped. But he denied allegations, based on an account he himself wrote 29 years ago, that he organised brothels as a military logistics officer in the Imperial Navy in the island of Borneo.

“They were civilian engineers, not military people, and they just wanted a place for rest or entertainment,” he told a press conference in Tokyo. “They wanted entertainment such as [the board game] go or Japanese chess. We simply established facilities where such [diversions] could be offered.”

But this account of innocent games centres seems to contradict a written memoir by Mr Nakasone published in 1978, before the existence of the “comfort women” had become controversial.

In the essay, published in a volume entitled ‘The Eternal Navy’, he describes setting up a “comfort station” in present day Indonesia, formerly the Dutch East Indies.

“Before long some [people] started attacking local women and indulging in gambling,” he wrote. “I took great pains to set up a comfort station for such people.”

When questioned about the memoir ten years ago, a spokesman for Mr Nakasone told a different story, acknowledging that there were brothels, but claiming that they were commercial establishments which were merely supervised by the future prime minister. “It had absolutely nothing to do with forcing women into sexual slavery,” said Shigeru Tanaka in 1997. “It was the sort of thing that happened everywhere.”

Mr Nakasone, a contemporary of Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan, was Japan’s prime minister between 1982 and 1987. In his time, he had a reputation as a right wing conservative, but he has been eclipsed in his nationalist views by a younger generation of nationalist politicians including the current prime minister, Shinzo Abe.

This month, Mr Abe provoked an uproar by appearing to question an official apology, issued on behalf the Japanese cabinet in 1993, which admitted the Japanese military’s role in coercing women into military prostitution and offered a deep apology. Mr Abe, and historical revisionists who are among his most fervent supporters, point out that a 1993 government investigation found no documentary evidence that the Japanese military systematically forced women to serve in the comfort stations.

But this enquiry ignored the verbal testimony of scores of elderly comfort women who over the past 15 years have spoken of the brutality they endured. The controversy is poised to flare up again when the US Congress considers a resolution demanding a full apology for the comfort women from the Japanese government, even as Mr Abe himself is preparing for a trip to Washington next month.

Comments

[moji]

I find many factual and logical errors in your post.

"Mr Abe, and historical revisionists who are among his most fervent supporters, point out that a 1993 government investigation found no documentary evidence that the Japanese military systematically forced women to serve in the comfort stations."

This is not the theory that so-called "revisionists" support. Even the leftist historians, for example, Mr. Yoshimi admit that there were no systematic kidnapping of young women. "the coersion in broder sense" is not the term invented by Abe, but by Yoshimi and Asahi.

If you think that you are "journalist", You should investigate this issue in details. You can read the japanese texts, can t you? At least, Yoshimi s book, Hata s book and the collections of testimonies.

I recommend you the following link.
He is ex-NHK producer. He is neither right winger nor nationalist.
http://ianfu.blogspot.com/

This is not all-or-nothing problem.
I m tired of the storm of the media sensationalism.
And I add that many liberals around me got really upset.

[Tim Footman]

Was Nakasone the one who said that the USA's economic problems were a result of having too many black and Hispanic people?

[Rick Deckard]

I'm sorry Moji, but the blog you suggested is slightly amusing at best. I have seen Uni freshmen weave more unbiased and convincing arguments. Believe me, i hate ungrounded badmouthing of countries as much as the next chap (and, having lived in many states, i do experience such badmouthing more often than most).

However, in the case of Japanese deeds in World War II the badmouthing seems to be warranted; though not because what the Japanese did was unprecedented among Allies or Axis, but rather because Japanese government (unlike German) refuses to acknowledge that part of the history of Japanese nation and to firmly commit to that acknowledgement.

P.S. Please, don't make a mistake of saying that US committed war crimes (many times) and very seldom admitted them, let alone punished; hence Japan shouldn't either. Admitting one's own mistakes has little to do with the mistakes of others.

[Ken]

Mr Parry,

I was wondering what you thought of that translation from 終わりなき海軍. It seems to be an English standard that's going around. I grabbed the book to get the original, and this is it:

「３千人からの大部隊だ。やがて原住民の女を襲うものやバクチに
ふけるものも出てきた。そんな彼らのために私は苦心して慰安所を
つくってやった」

I would put it this way:

“It was a battalion of 3,000 men. Before long, soldiers were assaulting native women and were absorbed in gambling. For the sake of the men, I heavy-heartedly built a comfort station.”

The part about 'taking pains' in that English translation gets me, since from 苦心 I get the sense that one is doing something that one wishes not to do (I hope that makes sense). At any rate, I'm not sure how relevant it really is.

I think Nakasone played it very well in front of the reporters. He was very careful not to say anything concrete and not give a direct answer. If only Abe could learn not to be baited so easily.

[Gilman]

Seriously, would those Japanese out their who still doubt that many (perhaps the vast majority) of the so-called 'comfort women' were kidnapped and forced into prostitution just ask yourselves these questions -

1) Why would elderly Indian, Phillipino, Korean, mainland Chinese, Taiwanese, Hong Kong, Thai, Vietnamese and Burmese women conspire together to dirty the name of Japan through claims of systemised abduction and rape?

2) If such a conspiracy were taking place, why have none of these women (and there were thousands of them) ever come forward to refute their stories, especially given the personal shame associated with making such allegations?

3) Why would thousands of allied soldiers, as well as Japanese soldiers, give evidence supporting such claims, even until their death beds?

4)Do you really think that the Japanese army and navy of the 30's and 40's was incapable of this kind of thing when there is so much material evidence to the contrary?

I dislike the anti-Japanese sentiment which has become so much a part of Asian culture, but this sentiment can only be defeated by the Japanese public coming to accept the historical fact of Japanese war crimes. Denials do nothing but inspire more hatred.

Ken - I agree, it does seem that he wrote 'with a heavy/bitter heart', this suggests that there was an unpleasantness in setting up such a comfort station which had little to do with board games.

[Liv]

"The part about 'taking pains' in that English translation gets me, since from 苦心 I get the sense that one is doing something that one wishes not to do (I hope that makes sense). At any rate, I'm not sure how relevant it really is."

Ken - 苦心 is perhaps meant to suggest his devotion/ his careful effort; as opposed to his unwillingness.