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Critical Response
By DOUGLAS LUMMIS
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批判的な反応
前回、筆者が『耐え難い歴史に目を背けてはいけない』と題して従軍慰安婦問題を取り上げたところ、兵庫県に住む読者から、筆者とは見解を異にする手紙が届いた。その内容は…。
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The editors of Shukan ST have
forwarded a letter to me from Mr. Shigeo Ohmae, 54, an assemblyman in the Hyogo
Prefectural Assembly for more than 18 years. He writes that he likes the Shukan ST,
except for my column. Especially he is dissatisfied with my last column, which reported testimony of former sex
slaves (or, as Assemblyman Ohmae prefers to call
them, comfort women).
He writes, "Everybody in the
generation older than mine knows that the comfort
women were licensed prostitutes. In my neighborhood
all the elderly people ["hitotachi"; I believe he means men] who had acted as soldiers
say they were receiving a monthly wage of ¥5. They
would charge each customer ¥2, from which the trader would take close
to half in kickback, which means the women must have been earning more than ¥1 at
least. It is said that in a day each might entertain
as many as several tens of soldiers, or at least
several, so while one can say it was severe ["kakoku na"] labor, their income, for women
at that time, was exceptional.
"As proof, I have never heard of a Japanese comfort
woman claiming she was forced, giving her name, and demanding compensation. The elderly people [i.e. the ex-soldiers] all say that of course the Taiwanese and
Korean women were given exactly the same treatment as
the Japanese."
Assemblyman Ohmae argues that there were many Korean and Taiwanese comfort women because
the prostitution industry existed there (until recently) more openly than in
Japan, and therefore was in a stronger position to answer the demand of the Japanese
military.
He also states that one of the well-known Korean
comfort women [I omit her name, though he gives it]
"is a woman who was sold to become a kisaeng for ¥40. (The Japanese newspapers never mention this vital
point, writing instead that she was taken to the front as a member of the Women's Volunteers)."
The Assemblyman continues that
the United Nations report, which I quoted in my last column, is based on pure fabrication.
Changing the subject somewhat, the Assemblyman says
that if I seriously believe there was such a thing as the Rape of Nanking, I must be a person of no common
sense. How, he asks, could 300,000 people have been
massacred, when the population of Nanking was only 200,000? He points out that 300,000 would be three-quarters of the
population of Nishinomiya City. Of course, he says, many soldiers and civilian-clothed guerillas were killed at Nanking, but
that is unavoidable in war. "Perhaps it may have been justifiable in comparison with the atomic bombings of
Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the air bombardment of
cities, and the indiscriminate machine-gunning of
women and children carried out by the U.S. military."
There is more, but I'm out of space. I hope I have
quoted Assemblyman Ohmae's views accurately.
Shukan ST: March 28, 1997
(C) All rights reserved
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