Only objective probe by South Korea and Japan can lay bitter issue to rest, he says
Anthony Rowley in Tokyo
Osaka’s controversial and embattled mayor Toru Hashimoto called yesterday for a factual investigation by Japan and South Korea into the war-time “comfort women” issue that has landed him in political hot water internationally, and which he claims is at the root of bilateral tensions between the two countries.
He also said that he expects the Group of Eight (G8) summit meeting due in Ireland next month to be “an important occasion” where G-8 leaders will examine how soldiers from nations of the world, not just those from Japan, have used women for sexual purposes.
The 44-year-old Mr Hashimoto, a co-leader of the Japan Restoration Party with Shintaro Ishihara, touched off a firestorm of criticism in South Korea with his remarks this month on war-time comfort women; he also incensed the US by suggesting recently that its troops should turn to Okinawa’s “adult entertainment” industry to lower the number of rapes against the island’s residents.
For what he said, he went from being hailed as potential future prime minister of Japan to something of a pariah almost overnight; Japanese and other commentators have suggested that he had committed “political suicide”.
Former “comfort women” from South Korea cancelled a meeting with him over his refusal to withdraw his remarks, and a trip that he is due to make to the US is now in doubt.
But Mr Hashimoto has continued to defend most of his statements.
At a marathon press conference at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan in Tokyo yesterday, he claimed that only an objective investigation into the facts can lay the bitter and long-simmering issue to rest.
“Comfort women” were women and girls said to have been forced by wartime Japan to join a “prostitution corps” to serve Japanese soldiers in “comfort stations” across South-east Asia, Indochina and in Hong Kong, with women from these places serving at the stations.
Mr Hashimoto’s suggestion that Japan was not alone in establishing such facilities, along with his questioning of the extent to which these comfort women were actually forced to work as prostitutes, has triggered outrage in South Korea.
Mr Hashimoto said yesterday that he did not deny that comfort women suffered greatly from their experiences, and acknowledged that most of them worked there “against their will”.
However, he challenged the view that the Japanese state was involved in “abducting” and coercing such women into prostitution.
He argued that brokers and businessmen played a part in procuring the comfort women, and although the military provided the women with “health checks” and marine “transportation” to the comfort stations, this did not amount to official state involvement.
He said Japan owed the comfort women an “apology” for the way they were treated, but added that it was of “tremendous importance” to establish whether Japan was involved at an official level in “abducting the women and engaging in human trafficking” or whether this activity was largely outside of the control of the state.
He recommended that the investigation be done by “academics” and others from Japan and South Korea to establish the truth: “I believe that a closer relationship based on greater trust between Japan and South Korea would contribute to the stability and prosperity of East Asia and the world.”
Mr Hashimoto also suggested that “only the International Court of Justice” in the Hague in Holland can resolve a South Korean government claim of the existence of “interpretive disputes” over the rights of individual comfort women to financial compensation from Japan.
He said he did not expect the G-8 meeting next month to “absolve” Japan from blame over the comfort women issue, but that it could throw light on the wider issue of how women have been abused and their rights trampled upon in other “battlefield situations” involving many nations.
The politician did, however, climb down on his remarks concerning the sex trade in Okinawa. He said: “My real intention was to prevent a mere handful of US soldiers from committing crimes, but in attempting to solve the problem, I made an inappropriate remark.”
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Osaka mayor: Probe comfort women issue
Only objective probe by South Korea and Japan can lay bitter issue to rest, he says
Anthony Rowley in Tokyo
Osaka’s controversial and embattled mayor Toru Hashimoto called yesterday for a factual investigation by Japan and South Korea into the war-time “comfort women” issue that has landed him in political hot water internationally, and which he claims is at the root of bilateral tensions between the two countries.
He also said that he expects the Group of Eight (G8) summit meeting due in Ireland next month to be “an important occasion” where G-8 leaders will examine how soldiers from nations of the world, not just those from Japan, have used women for sexual purposes.
The 44-year-old Mr Hashimoto, a co-leader of the Japan Restoration Party with Shintaro Ishihara, touched off a firestorm of criticism in South Korea with his remarks this month on war-time comfort women; he also incensed the US by suggesting recently that its troops should turn to Okinawa’s “adult entertainment” industry to lower the number of rapes against the island’s residents.
For what he said, he went from being hailed as potential future prime minister of Japan to something of a pariah almost overnight; Japanese and other commentators have suggested that he had committed “political suicide”.
Former “comfort women” from South Korea cancelled a meeting with him over his refusal to withdraw his remarks, and a trip that he is due to make to the US is now in doubt.
But Mr Hashimoto has continued to defend most of his statements.
At a marathon press conference at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan in Tokyo yesterday, he claimed that only an objective investigation into the facts can lay the bitter and long-simmering issue to rest.
“Comfort women” were women and girls said to have been forced by wartime Japan to join a “prostitution corps” to serve Japanese soldiers in “comfort stations” across South-east Asia, Indochina and in Hong Kong, with women from these places serving at the stations.
Mr Hashimoto’s suggestion that Japan was not alone in establishing such facilities, along with his questioning of the extent to which these comfort women were actually forced to work as prostitutes, has triggered outrage in South Korea.
Mr Hashimoto said yesterday that he did not deny that comfort women suffered greatly from their experiences, and acknowledged that most of them worked there “against their will”.
However, he challenged the view that the Japanese state was involved in “abducting” and coercing such women into prostitution.
He argued that brokers and businessmen played a part in procuring the comfort women, and although the military provided the women with “health checks” and marine “transportation” to the comfort stations, this did not amount to official state involvement.
He said Japan owed the comfort women an “apology” for the way they were treated, but added that it was of “tremendous importance” to establish whether Japan was involved at an official level in “abducting the women and engaging in human trafficking” or whether this activity was largely outside of the control of the state.
He recommended that the investigation be done by “academics” and others from Japan and South Korea to establish the truth: “I believe that a closer relationship based on greater trust between Japan and South Korea would contribute to the stability and prosperity of East Asia and the world.”
Mr Hashimoto also suggested that “only the International Court of Justice” in the Hague in Holland can resolve a South Korean government claim of the existence of “interpretive disputes” over the rights of individual comfort women to financial compensation from Japan.
He said he did not expect the G-8 meeting next month to “absolve” Japan from blame over the comfort women issue, but that it could throw light on the wider issue of how women have been abused and their rights trampled upon in other “battlefield situations” involving many nations.
The politician did, however, climb down on his remarks concerning the sex trade in Okinawa. He said: “My real intention was to prevent a mere handful of US soldiers from committing crimes, but in attempting to solve the problem, I made an inappropriate remark.”
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