Faithless
06-23-2007, 07:06 AM
Not that Moon, but someone named Katharine H.S. Moon, an associate professor ...
On the one hand she says, The Japanese system of sexual slavery was first and foremost an atrocity perpetrated on women, not nations.
But then she also says: Often, these were women of lower classes or women underprotected in some way by their own people. And whether they were Korean or Dutch or South Pacific Islander, their bodies, minds and souls hurt equally. This applies also to the tens of thousands of Japanese women who were forced or deceived into the military sex system. Their silence -- and the lack of international advocacy on their behalf -- is most striking.
Is she saying that the US is spending too much time on its comfort women legislation. Granted, you'll have to read the whole article for context.
So, what point is she trying to make about the whole issue?
Article (http://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=3007091&page=1). Main excerpt:
Critics of Abe and other Japanese conservatives blame Tokyo for playing a disingenuous round of "apology diplomacy," which amounts to a decade or so of various Japanese leaders bowing deeply and stating soberly that Japan had indeed made mistakes in the recent past and hurt a lot of people with its imperialistic ambitions around Asia.
But if disingenuousness were a sin, Americans, Koreans, Chinese and others should not turn a blind eye to their own misdeeds. Who here hath no sin that he should cast the first stone? Although Korean and other Asian women suffered the abuses of the comfort system most severely, Japanese government officials weren't the only ones who had a hand in it.
Korean civilians served as human traffickers, pimps and overseers for the system of sexual slavery instituted by the Japanese military. One could argue that such people were also coerced, but we do not have good evidence that individual Asians, except the Japanese, bear no guilt. Also, Korean men fought as soldiers in the Japanese military, and some of them certainly knew about the plight of their female compatriots. Yet, that did not stop them from regarding the women as mere prostitutes and soiled goods.
Rep. Eni Faleomavaega, chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, may be correct that "nowhere in recorded history has the U.S. military as a matter of policy issued a directive for the coercion of young women in to sexual slavery." But records of Americans in uniform who regularly oversaw and maintained numerous versions of the sex industry for U.S. troops in Korea, Okinawa, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam certainly do exist. I have seen some with my own eyes.
On the one hand she says, The Japanese system of sexual slavery was first and foremost an atrocity perpetrated on women, not nations.
But then she also says: Often, these were women of lower classes or women underprotected in some way by their own people. And whether they were Korean or Dutch or South Pacific Islander, their bodies, minds and souls hurt equally. This applies also to the tens of thousands of Japanese women who were forced or deceived into the military sex system. Their silence -- and the lack of international advocacy on their behalf -- is most striking.
Is she saying that the US is spending too much time on its comfort women legislation. Granted, you'll have to read the whole article for context.
So, what point is she trying to make about the whole issue?
Article (http://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=3007091&page=1). Main excerpt:
Critics of Abe and other Japanese conservatives blame Tokyo for playing a disingenuous round of "apology diplomacy," which amounts to a decade or so of various Japanese leaders bowing deeply and stating soberly that Japan had indeed made mistakes in the recent past and hurt a lot of people with its imperialistic ambitions around Asia.
But if disingenuousness were a sin, Americans, Koreans, Chinese and others should not turn a blind eye to their own misdeeds. Who here hath no sin that he should cast the first stone? Although Korean and other Asian women suffered the abuses of the comfort system most severely, Japanese government officials weren't the only ones who had a hand in it.
Korean civilians served as human traffickers, pimps and overseers for the system of sexual slavery instituted by the Japanese military. One could argue that such people were also coerced, but we do not have good evidence that individual Asians, except the Japanese, bear no guilt. Also, Korean men fought as soldiers in the Japanese military, and some of them certainly knew about the plight of their female compatriots. Yet, that did not stop them from regarding the women as mere prostitutes and soiled goods.
Rep. Eni Faleomavaega, chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, may be correct that "nowhere in recorded history has the U.S. military as a matter of policy issued a directive for the coercion of young women in to sexual slavery." But records of Americans in uniform who regularly oversaw and maintained numerous versions of the sex industry for U.S. troops in Korea, Okinawa, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam certainly do exist. I have seen some with my own eyes.