Essay Uncomfortable thinking By Scott Hards	フレームで見る  英文をプリントする  脚注をプリントする
厄介な考え方 2月下旬、アメリカの下院で従軍慰安婦問題をめぐる対日非難決議案が提出された。 日本政府がその問題にかんする歴史的責任を正式に認め、謝罪し、受け入れることを求めたものだ。 当初、安倍総理の対応のまずさが目立つ形になっていたが、筆者は2つの理由で日本の立場に同情的だ。

Since early March, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has tried (poorly) to deal with that old issue of the comfort women. A touchy subject since the early 1990s, it seemed settled in 1993 when Japan issued a statement that admitted their military had used such women, and apologized for the crime. Japan also set up the Asia Women's Fund in 1995, a private organization that collected funds to offer payments of up to 30,000 dollar (¥3.5 million) to former victims.

But despite such steps, the issue has resurfaced due to the efforts of Representative Mike Honda, a U.S. congressman. He recently introduced a bill that states "the Government of Japan should formally acknowledge, apologize, and accept historical responsibility in a clear and unequivocal manner for its Imperial armed force's coercion of young women into sexual slavery."

To read Rep. Honda's bill, one might think Japan has never acknowledged or done anything about this issue. It is, after all, an extremely unusual step for one country's government to attempt to force that of another country to accept a certain interpretation of history.

Clearly Rep. Honda and some former victims feel that Japan's efforts to date have been insufficient. Some former comfort women have rejected the funds offered by the Asia Women's Fund because the money is coming from an unofficial organization instead of directly from Japan's government. Apparently they feel this makes the payments "insincere." The major reason, of course, for structuring the fund that way was because all of Japan's international obligations for damages related to World War II had already been settled by the 1951 San Francisco "Treaty of Peace with Japan," signed by all the major powers. Ignoring that treaty's provisions and making new payments could have created a legal nightmare for Japan.

On this issue, I'll side with Japan for two major reasons. First, while the comfort women suffered terribly, so did millions of other people during World War II, and few of them are getting special treatment. How is it fair that a former comfort woman gets a payment, while someone who had their limbs blown off, or was enslaved in Siberia does not?

World War II was basically one giant atrocity. Sixty million people perished and millions more suffered injuries and other horrors. Trying to micro-divide that gargantuan mess into little victims groups and hand out money to achieve "justice" is simply impossible to achieve fairly, I believe.

Second, it has been 65 years since these crimes were committed. None of Japan's current leaders bear any responsibility for what took place in World War II. Demanding that somebody who is not responsible for something apologize for it anyway is perverse to my thinking about justice.

Assigning responsibility for past crimes to the present generation of a country causes much of the prejudice and strife in the world today. If people would only focus on the actions of the one in front of them — and leave the crimes of their dead ancestors behind — the whole world could be a much happier place.

Shukan ST: April 6, 2007

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