I am still not qualified to paste URLs here, I quote good entries of good blogs authored by foreigners.
The following is March 3 entry of the blog "Occidentalism" by Matt (an Australian who lives in Sydney, he can write/read Hangul, Chinese, Japanese, too)
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Comfort woman gives contradictionary testimony
Recently there have been hearings in the US house of representatives to condemn Japan for its involvement in the comfort women system. A Korean woman that claims to be a former comfort woman appeared before the house of representatives to give testimony. The woman, Lee Yong-soo, gave testimony that in the house of representatives that contradicts her earlier testimony.
Excerpt of testimony in the house of representatives -
In the autumn of 1944, when I was 16 years old, my friend, Kim Punsun, and I were collecting shellfish at the riverside when we noticed an elderly man and a Japanese man looking down at us form the hillside. The older man pointed at us with his finger, and the Japanese man started to walk towards us. The older man disappeared, and the Japanese beckoned to us to follow him. I was scared and ran away, not caring about what happened to my friend. A few days later, Punsun knocked on my window early in the morning, and whispered to me to follow her quietly. I tip-toed out of the house after her. I lift without telling my mother. I was wearing a dark skirt, a long cotton blouse buttoned up at the front and slippers on my feet. I followed my friend until we met the same man who had tried to approach us on the riverbank. He looked as if he was in his late thirties and he wore a sort of People's Army uniform with a combat cap. Altogether, there were five girls with him, including myself.
Testimony given previously -
Lee Yong-soo, 78, a South Korean who was interviewed during a recent trip to Tokyo, said she was 14 when Japanese soldiers took her from her home in 1944 to work as a sex slave in Taiwan.
ﾂ"The Japanese government must not run from its responsibilities,ﾂ" said Lee, who has long campaigned for Japanese compensation. ﾂ"I want them to apologize. To admit that they took me away, when I was a little girl, to be a sex slave. To admit that history.ﾂ"
ﾂ"I was so young. I did not understand what had happened to me,ﾂ" she said. ﾂ"My cries then still ring in my years. Even now, I can't sleep.ﾂ"
Obviously these testimonies contradict each other, and in normal circumstances would call into doubt the validity of the claim of being forced to be a sex slave. However, in the comfort woman controversy, anyone that even dares to doubt the testimony of a self described former comfort woman is an evil beast that supports the sexual slavery of women. Truly examining the testimonies the comfort woman has reached level of an untouchable taboo.
Lee Yong-soo is not the only person claiming to be a former comfort woman to give contradictory testimony. There are many. From what I have read from comfort woman supporters, the contradictory testimonies can be accounted for by -
*The interviewers of the comfort women are injecting their own words into the testimony
*The women suffer from a ﾂ"fragmentationﾂ" of memory, and thus unable to give a consistent chronological account of their experiences
Which testimony are we supposed to believe? Since questioning the factual validity of womens testimonies is taboo, we are expected to believe every single testimony, even those that contradict each other. I think there is some truth to some of the testimony, but I do not think that testimony should be the only way of determining what happened. Testimony should be cross referenced with existing documents to determine what really happened.
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Friends, I do recommend you to get an access directly to the blog "Occidentalism" yourself.
Another entry of "Occcidentalism" March 6 by Matt, an Australian blogger.
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More contradictory comfort woman testimony
Previously I introduced the contradictory testimony of Lee Yong-Soo, who appeared before a Congressional committee considering House Resolution 121, a resolution demanding that Japan unconditionally apologise to all of the 200,000 women it is claimed were kidnapped by the Japanese army or their agents.
Apparently Lee Yong-Soo has given other, different testimonies as well.
Here is some testimony by Lee Yong-Soo from an organisation called Unerasable Memory: Making reality a formal apology and compensation by the Japanese government for the female comfort women victims of the Japanese army! , that held a national meeting in Japan in 2004, there is another, different testimony from Lee Yong-Soo. Here are the relevant quotes -
1928窶扼ﾅ?ﾃ伉坂?倪?堙娯?佚･ﾃｧﾂｷ(ﾆ弾ﾆ丹)ﾂ青ｶ窶堙懌?堙ｪﾂ。1944窶扼ﾂ、16ﾂ催寂?堙固ｽﾅｾ窶堙可「ﾅ坦窶｢ﾅｾ窶堙昶?堋ｽ窶堋｢窶堙遺?｢ﾅｾ窶堙ｰ窶吮?ｦ窶堋ｽ窶冕ﾂ」窶堙架廣ﾂ行窶堋ｳ窶堙ｪﾂ、窶佚､ﾋ徘窶堙鳴。
窶堋ｻ窶堙固津｣ﾂ、ﾋ廣窶堙ｪ窶堙?行窶堋ｩ窶堙ｪ窶堋ｽﾂ静ｦ窶堙娯?佚､ﾋ徘窶堙?、窶愿ｺ窶怒ﾅ坦ﾂ「ﾋ?
藩??窶｢wﾂ」窶堙??堋ｵ窶堙??堙個青ｶﾅ?ﾋ??堙ｰ3窶扼ﾅ?ﾃ披?ｹﾂｭﾂ青ｧ窶堋ｳ窶堙ｪ窶堋ｽﾂ。
In 1928 I was born in Daegu, Korea. In 1944, at 16 years old I was forcibly taken away by a man wearing a something like a military uniform to Taiwan.
After that, in Taiwan, the place I was sent I was forced to work for 3 years as a comfort woman for the Japanese army.
The war ended in 1945. How could she work for 3 years? Furthermore, during the war virtually all men wore a military style uniform.
Here is another testimony from the site of the Japanese Communist Party. The Japanese Communist Party supports the comfort women.
ﾅ?ﾃ伉坂?倪?堙娯?披?ｺ窶覇ﾅｸﾂｪ窶堋ｳ窶堙ｱﾂ（窶啖窶售ﾂ）窶堙債、ﾂ十ﾅｽlﾂ催寂?堙?銃ﾅ停?｢窶堙ｰ窶堙や?堋ｫ窶｢t窶堋ｯ窶堙ｧ窶堙ｪ窶堙?廣窶堙ｪ窶堙??堋ｱ窶堙ｧ窶堙ｪ窶堋ｽ窶堋ｱ窶堙?、窶ｹ窶倪?堙樞?堙??ｰﾂ｣窶堙ｧ窶堙ｪﾂ、窶彭窶ｹC窶堙俄?堙ｦ窶堙ｩﾂ坂?ｰ窶禿｢窶堙ｰﾅｽﾃｳ窶堋ｯ窶堙?ｽ竄ｬ窶堙俄?堋ｩ窶堋ｯ窶堋ｽ窶堋ｱ窶堙??堙遺?堙??堙ｰﾋ彙窶堋ｵﾂ、ﾂ「ﾅｽ窶樞?堙坂?氾ｰﾅｽj窶堙個青ｶ窶堋ｫﾂ湘伉人窶堙??堋ｵ窶堙?債｡ﾂ、ﾂ青ｶ窶堋ｫ窶堙??堋｢窶堙ｩﾂ。
74 year old Korean, Lee Yong-Soo talked about how she was taken at gun point when she was 14 years old, and when she resisted, she was beaten and tortured through electrocution to near death. Lee Yong-Soo told us ﾂ"I am a living as a living witness to historyﾂ".
I can now count four different stories, all from the same person. If she is a living witness to history, then which story are we supposed to believe? What does Mike Honda, the sponsor of Congressional House Resolution 121 condemning the current Japanese government for the comfort women controversy, think of this? I do not think he cares, since all we have seen at the Congressional hearings has been one sided arguments and verbal testimony, without any sincere historical investigation.
HT to James at JapanProbe, and Tonchamon.
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