US House urges Japan to apologize over comfort women

It was by the voice vote that the resolution was passed, therefore no written record who voted it was kept.
I am looking for media coverages about the 10, but unfortunately my poor English search skill prevents it.
MSNBC shows a bit different point of views, but no follow-up coverage about the 10.
CONGRESS TAKES UP CONTROVERSIAL MEASURE
From NBC's Mike Viqueira
Many of us view the goings on here in your US House with bemusement or even disdain. The rap is that the "people's House" occupies itself with naming post offices and passing "sense of Congress" resolutions that are sops to one special interest or another and have no real impact. Everything else -- the important stuff -- gets mired in partisanship.
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The comment from someone in Niigata is interesting to read.

Interesting enough, the Akahata, the paper of Japan Communist Party, also covered the news. JCP has been anti-US, but in this time they like the 10.

Plus these type of resolutions are passed by many different countries
Sukotto, right. I know the US passed resolutions against Chinese human right issues so many times. My concern is that some nationalistic Korean posters will claim the resolution would be the only and clear-cut evidence of this issue in years later.

It seems the thank you Japan resolution also passed, but the US greatness of political balance is not the stupid resolution (the thank you one), but the absence of majority of members.
 
In fact , as far as I know , many Comfort Women have serve for the new host of Japan - U.S.

I just saw the film about the Japanese woman of Japan in 1950 , many of them have selled the body to the U.S. army .

also you can see the film :"Memoirs of a Geisha" it also shows that many Japanese woman which so called comfort women being used by the U.S. army.

so if the US House what blame Japan , may it also punish the army of itself?
 
In fact , as far as I know , many Comfort Women have serve for the new host of Japan - U.S.
I just saw the film about the Japanese woman of Japan in 1950 , many of them have selled the body to the U.S. army .
also you can see the film :"Memoirs of a Geisha" it also shows that many Japanese woman which so called comfort women being used by the U.S. army.
so if the US House what blame Japan , may it also punish the army of itself?

This topic is about comfort women used/abused by the japanese army. If you want to discus the issue regarding the comfort women used by the U.S. army, please go to this thread: U.S. troops used 'comfort women' after WWII

"Memoirs of a Geisha" was written by an american man and can rather be seen as an american mans fantasy about geishas, :giggle:than an account of actual events!

Anyhow look at the thread and you will find plenty information about the issue.:-)
 
In fact , as far as I know , many Comfort Women have serve for the new host of Japan - U.S.
First I agree with Han Chan, there is another thread here discussing that issue.
I would like to clarify one thing, the term Comfort Women, is a euphemism refering to the women that serviced the Japanese Imperial Army during WWII in Asia.

euphemism The act or an example of substituting a mild, indirect, or vague term for one considered harsh, blunt, or offensive:

To use the term to identify other women in other situations is incorrect, unless you want to start calling all women of the willow world , throughout the world, even today, "comfort women". Which they are most definitely not, even though in some cases similarities may exist, in regards to the manner in which they have been forced into their line of work, it still is something totally different.

Let's keep the terminology accurate here as not to create an impression or misunderstanding about whom we are discussing. Thank you.
 
About the accusation against Japan on comfort women: H.RES.121

I am angry at the arrogance of the US House of Representatives for blaming Japan on a historic issue irrelevant to US directly.
American should acknowledge their miserable history and the present atrocity in Iraq. American has no eligibility to accuse Japan for comfort women problem in the world war two, which was fabricated by false testimonies.

We Japanese blame America for slaughtering good citizens in Hiroshima and Nagasaki with atomic bomb. American should recognize yourself as the most atrocious rascal in the history. Your criminal deeds were not only the atomic bombings, but also enslavement of African people, blood shedding in Vietnam and Iraq, the discrimination of colored races at the present day in your own country and boosting the cycle of bloodshed with arms export in the whole world.
American are the pack of hyena, which had tore up the resources of Native American.

American have justified yourself by saying that the atomic bombs were used for sparing the lives of millions people.
Needless to say, your paradoxical excuse was the absolute bullshit added after the ending of the war.
The truth was that the atomic bombings had been conducted mainly for the experimental purpose to assess the destructive capability of the atomic bombs, and the experiment had been conducted on the ground of the racial prejudice. (Richard Rhodes. 1986. The Making of the Atomic Bomb. Simon and Schuster.)
 
I am angry at the arrogance of the US House of Representatives for blaming Japan on a historic issue irrelevant to US directly.
Fair enough, yet it has revelance in that the US, rightfully so or not, did not force Japan to admit to this and other atrocities committed by the Army during WWII after the US occupied Japan. Unlike what happened in Germany.

The US should have, using 20/20 hindsight here, openly pursured this and other issues then, but due to the politics of the time they were overlooked.

American should acknowledge their miserable history and the present atrocity in Iraq.
Different subject but often used by you and others here to justify the actions of the Japanese in the past, key word here is the past. We are not discussing the war in Iraq or Afganistan. Do not confuse the two please.

Also if you take a look at the politics in the US now there are probably a majority of American's that are 100% against the war. Things dont change by just snapping one's fingers and hoping that change occurs.

Wishing something to happen and having it actually occur are two different things, you can wish all you want but making it a reality is something that takes time. And BELIEVE me times are changing.

American has no eligibility to accuse Japan for comfort women problem in the world war two, which was fabricated by false testimonies.
You know I have yet to hear of anyone other than a Japanese person claim that these women were liars. There is just too much circumstantial evidence against Japan to believe otherwise.

It's kind of funny you know most Japanese people through their culture will often think of a person as guilty just by being present at the location of a crime, whether or not they were a part of it or otherwise. Yet in this situation many, not all mind you as there are many Japanese that believe these women as well. Including the former PM Koizumi.

The circumstances of their "employment" being the issue. Noone deny that there were comfort women, I find that ironic as well, that noone of you doubting Thomases, ever deny the fact that this actually occured.

We Japanese blame America for slaughtering good citizens in Hiroshima and Nagasaki with atomic bomb
Geez and how many good citizens of China, Burma, The Phillipines, Singapore, Korea, Great Britian, New Zealand, Canada and the USA did the Japanese slaughter? Quit hiding behind a curtain of denial, if Japan hadn't wanted to colonize all of SE Asia into it's Greater Sphere of Prosperity (?) things would have been quite a bit different. Once again 20/20 hindsight.

Of course looking back at it, Hiroshima and Nagasaki are regretable to say the least, yet dont kid yourself for one second into believing that Japan wouldn't have used the same weapons if it had the chance. Everyone pays the price during war, particularly the loosers, in this case Japan.

Both Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 100% preventable, if you know anything about WWII you have to conceed that Japan was on the doorstep of defeat. The government could have surrendered, but choose to fight to the end. The Japanese Government at the time also is to blame for not attempting to find a peaceful solution to the end of the war.

Your criminal deeds were not only the atomic bombings, but also enslavement of African people, blood shedding in Vietnam and Iraq, the discrimination of colored races at the present day in your own country and boosting the cycle of bloodshed with arms export in the whole world.
American are the pack of hyena, which had tore up the resources of Native American.
Of course America has much in its history that is shameful, at least over time, it has taken measures to admit and correct it's wrongs. Yet for you to use these examples from history to justify the comfort women issue is ludicrous at best.

Two wrongs do not make a right, once again stop trying to justify your own country's actions by pointing fingers at someone else. It just makes your arguments sound like a child in trouble pointing at a friend and saying "well he did it too!"

American have justified yourself by saying that the atomic bombs were used for sparing the lives of millions people.
Needless to say, your paradoxical excuse was the absolute bullshit added after the ending of the war.
You must have read a different history book than I did. The war wasnt over until after the bombs were dropped not before. Dont get confused with the facts here.

Oh and whether you can admit it or not, it did save lives, both Japanese and from the US side more importantly at the time, again key word here at the time in question, more US lives were saved. If the US was truly interested in causing more pain and suffering on Japan at the time it could have easily dropped the bombs on Tokyo. Think about that for a moment, the US dropped the two bombs on strategically important military targets, that is something many naysayers conveniently forget to remember. It could have been worse. Sad as it was.

The truth was that the atomic bombings had been conducted mainly for the experimental purpose to assess the destructive capability of the atomic bombs, and the experiment had been conducted on the ground of the racial prejudice
At the time that probably was true, and at the time there was unfortunately racial discrimination throughout the entire world, even today.

And dont for one second think that Japan was blameless either in regards to racial discrimination it wasnt and isnt today as well.

There is plenty of blame to go around for all. Yet can Japan stand up and honorably admit to the faults of it's predecessors, that is one of the questions that remains today.
 
To Obeika:
I have never heard the American apology for the atomic bombing.
You have no right to press for Japanese apology on the comfort women matter until you apology to Japan for the atomic bombings.
You blame others by shelving your own crime.
It should be called "the American arrogances."
I predict Japan-US relationships will breakdown at dizzying speed because of US arrogances.
 
Obeika wrote: Fair enough, yet it has revelance in that the US, rightfully so or not, did not force Japan to admit to this and other atrocities committed by the Army during WWII after the US occupied Japan. Unlike what happened in Germany.
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Yes, yes yes! You are right, it all comes far too late. It should have all been done between 1945 and 1949. Japan started a war, just like Germany, so I have never really understood why there should have been such a difference in treatment after WWII. Japan was poor and bombed, that is a fact.
But have you seen Germany after the war? I did, in 1948! The Germans were also poor and bombed all over their country. Thousands of German women and girls were raped by the Russians.
I am still angry about the difference the world has made between Germany and Japan when World War Two was over.
Japan: apologizes, compensations or whatever?? It all comes far too late, the words sound hollow, meaningless.

Japan lost their war in many ways!
 
I have never heard the American apology for the atomic bombing.
Well then let me take your logic, one step further, Japan has to apologize for Pearl Harbor, Nanking, the invasion/annexation of Korea, China, Singapore, Taiwan and the Phillipines, basically for starting the war in the Pacific before the US apologizes for Hiroshima and Nagasaki.:eek:

Do you see where the finger pointing ends, nowhere.

Btw the US need not apologize for winning, it isnt going to happen, and you know very well why. Did you even read my reply to you?

So if I take your logic one step further than if, for arguments only now, the US did apologize for Hiroshima and Nagasaki then the Japanese government will finally admit to the part it played in the coercion of the "comfort women"?

You know if you actually read what you wrote you are admitting that Japan is in fact guilty of the issues surrounding the comfort women.

You argue that one has to be apologized for before the other, dont you see the flaws in your logic?

Japan: apologizes, compensations or whatever?? It all comes far too late, the words sound hollow, meaningless.
Yet to the women involved in this issue, time does not heal the wounds that they suffered. I dont think any woman truly forgets being raped and abused as these women were.

Better yet would be an official recognition that this happened and that future generations of people all around the world not least Japan keep this as a part of history education in school's.

There is no need for animosity if openess and honesty is acheived. This wound will never heal, even after we are all dead and gone from here, purely because there will be those that will never allow it to be forgotten.

Japan lost their war in many ways
And still is today, and will for the future until these and other issues are finally settled.
It is sad.
 
To Obeika:
The atomic bombings can't compare with other offenses.
They are special, the crimes to the whole humankind, and a Christian may say "the sin against God," and still US government and you justify them.
 
To Obeika:
The atomic bombings can't compare with other offenses.
They are special, the crimes to the whole humankind, and a Christian may say ツ"the sin against God,ツ" and still US government and you justify them.
Then you are way off topic and should quit commenting about this issue on this thread. And btw I dont agree with you on this one either from the point of history that they happened. AND it has nothing to do with religion. Your God and my God are probably two very different dieties.

If you want to talk about crimes against humanity start your own thread and post your views there instead of on this thread.

Last edited to add; if you want to discuss the comfort women issue there is another thread here directly related to that issue do it there. If you want to discuss the house resolution some more great.

Otherwise I have no other comments to make to you on this thread. In my opinion you went one step too far in trying to talk about it from a "religious" point of view. You lost me there, bye!
 
To Obeika:
There exist relations between comfort women and atomic bombings.
You have no right to press for Japanese apology on the comfort women matter until you apology to Japan for the atomic bombings.
You should not blame others by shelving your own crimes.
 
Yesterday on the Dutch TV:

A Dutch lady of 82 years old, is one of the Dutch women who were abused in Semarang, Indonesia, as comfort women said the following;

"Those Japanese military who abused me during WWII have spoiled my life forever and it is far too late to apolize now."
I know this lady quite well, I also have her book.

Once my generation has left this world, there will be no longer eyewitnesses who can tell exactly what happened during WWII in Asia.

For my generation everything comes too late, also those meaningless apologizes, because there is no feeling behind those words. Empty phrases
that is what they are and the Japanese government knows that very well.

But if a Japanese lady or man tells me that she/he is sorry for what happened to my generation, or my family, I shal aways be pleased and happy and most certainly shake hands. Luckily for me, I have met several very nice Japanese people in my life. This is how it should be, that is real life.
 
Elizabeth van Kampen, did the woman also say that the brothel was quickly closed soon after higher ranked officials, of course Japanese ones, came to know it before the end of the war and the military officers were persecuted by the post-war trials?
 
Hi Popokun,

The lady who spoke yesterday on TV, doesn't have to tell us such, because that is well known in Holland. The brothel was closed after 2½ month since that was ordered from higher officers in Japan in those days.

I know that you tell me that each time, but that does not change the fact that an innocent girls were daily raped by Japanese officers.
What Japan did with with those quilty officers is of course a matter that only concerns Japan.

Well, this is exactly why I don't believe in Japanese apologizes, you don't feel sorry for the Dutch lady who was raped as a young girl, but you do feel sorry for the Japanese officers who committed this crime.

Anyhow this lady is not waiting for apologizes from Japan, she knows just as I know that they don't mean anything at all. Besides a Japanese government will never apologize for the war crimes commited during WWII. Only a Japanese Minister might apologize but only as an individual and in those cases I believe that some of your Ministers were absolutely honest.

Not America, not any other country will be able to tell Japan that it is time to apologize towards all those poor "Comfort women".

Japanese goverments? "It didn't happen, just hallucinations, phantasy from all those women."

That is why that huge advertisement appeared in the Washington Post, it was one big denying, Japan told the world a "Not guilty!!" 62 years after World War Two.

Not only sad, but also a pity and a loss of face.
 
Japanese goverments? "It didn't happen, just hallucinations, phantasy from all those women."

Elizabeth, people like Caster, Pipokun, Hanbei and a few others, live in a different world and unfortunately are unwilling to accept the facts that the rest of the civilized world view as true.

No matter what we say or write here there really isnt anything that we can say that will change how they feel or think.

They will continue to live in a cloud of doubt and desperation about what their country is and has been found guilty of in the world.

No matter how many red herrings they attempt to throw our way, or how many different "stories" that they create to attempt to draw attention away from the facts, there will always be people like you and me, among a host of others will never let this issue die.

The "comfort women" will never go away, their legacy to history will never be forgotten, and as long as Japan continues to deny it's history nothing will change, no matter how much these people try to twist history to their own conclusion.
 
On the subject of apologies I have to ask this one question.

Did Japan ever apologise to Great Britain over the deaths of the captured British forces that held in camps in Burma and such places, and were used as slave labour in the building of the Burma railway.

And sorry for being slightly off topic, but Im just curious, thats all.
 
Thank you Obeika,

I am very grateful for your answer. It is wonderful to know that young people like you and many other here on this Forum do understand so well what happened to my generation and my parents generation.
True history is very important for all of us, we all learn from it.

Twisted history is good for the wastepaperbasket.
 
On the subject of apologies I have to ask this one question.
Did Japan ever apologise to Great Britain over the deaths of the captured British forces that held in camps in Burma and such places, and were used as slave labour in the building of the Burma railway.
And sorry for being slightly off topic, but Im just curious, thats all.

Do you know many solders, Japanese, Taiwanese or Korean, were persecuted by the war-criminal trials?ツ And in 1960, your country and Japan agreed the reparation treaty. Of course, Japan also paid money to British colonies. Tell me how much money your govenment paid to your colonies like Japan paid to Korea.
Japan Foundation has invited many ex-British solders to Japan and explained the above. They did not know the persecution.

After the Japan's surrender, your army requested Japanese women to treat British soldiers.
 
EmperorHirohito,

That is a very good question. I don't really know, but I quess they didn't.

Maybe nor Great Britain nort the Netherlands did ask Japan for a apology.
Don't forget that our countries were very busy with Germany because that was European business. Japan was more American busines.

Maybe we are all beginning to wake up right now, because Japan gets in the news lately in a more unpleasant way than before. Not so?

Only we must not forget that there are also many fine Japanese.
 
Hi Popokun,
The lady who spoke yesterday on TV, doesn't have to tell us such, because that is well known in Holland. The brothel was closed after 2ツス month since that was ordered from higher officers in Japan in those days...

Really? I heard that the Dutch colony issue is the extremely touchy issue in your country even now.
I don't know why the independence day in Indonesia is still controversial in your country. What did your country did to Indonesian people?

And of course, Japan paid reparation to your country.
 
Elizabeth, people like Caster, Pipokun, Hanbei and a few others, live in a different world and unfortunately are unwilling to accept the facts that the rest of the civilized world view as true.

It was just the military brothel and nobody denys the confort woman.
And you should also face the fact that the great political balance showed just 10 members were there.
 
Pipokun,

Do you know how much Germany has paid for its war crimes?
Do you know how much Germany is still paying today towards their victims in pensions every month again.

Question: Were the British soldiers also in Japan? Were the Japanese girls sent to England?
I ask this, because you wrote: After Japan's surrender, your army requested Japanese women to treat British soldiers.

Maybe you mean the British and Australians during the Trial? These countries didn't occupy Japan. British and Australian soldiers, POWs wanted only one thing and that was going HOME as soon as possible. At least as far as I know.
 
Pipokun wrote:
Really? I heard that the Dutch colony issue is the extremely touchy issue in your country even now.
I don't know why the independence day in Indonesia is still controversial in your country. What did your country did to Indonesian people?

And of course, Japan paid reparation to your country.
---------------------------------------------------

And of course the Dutch never had a KEMPEITAI !!

And of course The Netherlands has openly accepted the Independence day, the 17th of August 1945. Our then foreign Minister Mr. Ben Bot did this in name of the Dutch government on the 17th of August in 2005 while he went celebrating the Indonesian Independece together with the Indonesians.
 
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