Japans Wartime Brothels Were Wrong, Says 91-Year-Old Veteran

[News_Editor]

Ninety-one-year-old former Japanese army medic Masayoshi Matsumoto speaks during an interview with Reuters at his daughter’s house in Sagamihara, south of Tokyo, on May 22, 2013. (Photo: Reuters / Issei Kato)

SAGAMIHARA, Japan — When Masayoshi Matsumoto joined the Japanese army in 1943 and was sent to occupied China as a medic, he thought he was taking part in a righteous war to free Asia from the yoke of Western imperialism.

Seven decades later, the 91-year-old retired Christian pastor says it’s his mission to speak out about the injustice of the war and the sufferings of women, mostly Asian and many Korean, forced to work in Japanese wartime military brothels.

“I feel like a war criminal. It is painful to speak of such things and I would rather cover it up. It is painful, but I must speak,†the slender, white-haired Matsumoto told Reuters in an interview at his daughter’s home about 40 km from Tokyo.

“I think that to speak out is the meaning of my being alive,†added Matsumoto, who returned to Japan in 1946 and later became the pastor of a Christian church. He is one of a dwindling number of veterans with experience of the brothels.

Outspoken Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto sparked a firestorm of criticism at home and abroad when he said last week that the military brothel system was “necessary†at the time and that Japan has been unfairly singled out for practices common among other militaries during wartime.

The remarks outraged China, where many suffered under Japan’s military occupation, and South Koreans, where bitter memories of Japan’s 1910-1945 colonial rule run deep.

They also sparked a backlash in Japan. Support for Hashimoto’s right-leaning Japan Restoration Party, already sliding, has fallen further ahead of an upper house election just two months away and another small party has broken off ties with it.

As a medic stationed in Yu County in China’s Shanxi Province during the war, Matsumoto helped doctors examine a half dozen Korean women who provided sexual services for officers and non-commissioned officers, part of an effort to stem the spread of venereal disease among soldiers.

Whatever the rationale at the time, Matsumoto said, the system and the treatment of the women—known euphemistically as “comfort womenâ€â€”were inexcusable.

‘No Excuse’

“It is not just Japan that did something wrong. But Japan also did something wrong. … Just because someone else is a thief, is it all right to be a thief? Because someone else kills people, is it all right to be a murderer? That is no excuse,†Matsumoto said.

“The prime minister of Japan should apologize properly as the representative of the nation and compensate those who should be compensated.â€

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe caused controversy during his first 2006-07 term by saying there was no proof that Japan’s military had kidnapped women for the brothels. Such doubts are common among Japanese ultra-conservatives.

But Abe has sought to distance himself from Hashimoto’s remarks, saying his government’s stance is different.

“The stance of the government on this issue is that, as we stated previously, we are deeply pained when thinking of the women who experienced immeasurable pain and suffering. On this point, the Abe cabinet has the same position as prior cabinets,†Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a news conference last week, although he declined direct comment on Hashimoto’s remarks.

The issue has often frayed ties between Tokyo and Seoul. Japan says the matter of compensation was settled under a 1965 treaty establishing diplomatic ties. In 1995, Japan set up a fund to make payments to the women from private contributions, but South Korea says that was not official and so not enough.

Matsumoto said the women had no means of escape from the walled town where his military unit was headquartered and were in fact sex slaves. “No matter if they wanted to flee, there was no way to escape,†he said.

Recalling the conditions in which the women lived, Matsumoto said soldiers lining up for sex would unfasten their leg wrappings and lower their trousers so as to waste no time when their turns came. “It was like they were going to the toilet,†he said.

Only years later did Matsumoto come to believe his country had done something wrong. “We were taught that it was the mission of Japan, the mission of the Japanese people, to liberate Asian countries from European colonialism,†he said.

“So we went to war gladly then. When I think of it now, it was monstrous, but I didn’t think so then.â€

Source: Irrawaddy.org

[Ulysses G.]

I don't see how anyone can dispute the fact that enslaving women for any reason is not justified.

[GentlemanJim]

Well, for what it is ultimately worth it is good to see one man say it happened and it is wrong. In a country where many children and young adults know nothing of Japans true participation and conduct in the second world war, this is something that is rarely heard from the Japanese.

[krisb]

Well I for one don't forgive you Matsumoto. Nor do all the POWs your army tortured.

[Mosha]

There was a programme on last year about the Korean "Comfort" Women. BBC or Discovery, I forget. IIRC The soldiers had to pay. One soldier was proud of his alternative plan. He was going in to the villages and raping women who were not "Comfort" women.

[Payboy]

Only years later did Matsumoto come to believe his country had done something wrong.

Yeah right.

[cup-O-coffee]

Nearly 30 million civilians killed between 1937 and 1945, including their slaughter of the Chinese; but they were just following order's and also they chose to believe; contrary to what their human senses were telling them and showing them at that time, right?

And to think people are interested in brothels and what one criminal thinks about it, after years of peaceful living, warm baths and composing his thoughts on his shaded front porch with his iced-tea and imported cigarettes.

Disgraceful.

Edited May 26, 2013 by cup-O-coffee

[chooka]

Australian nurses taken as POW's and australian girls as young as 14 were also forced into the japanese brothels as comfort women.

[Robby nz]

Not the only thing Japan did wrong in WW 2, take a trip up to Kanchanaburi, look at the cemeteries and you will see another.

We are now supposed to forget and forgive, welcome them into the world as neighbors.

Not many who were there left now to remember but the offspring of those who suffered are still about to remember, might be the next generation will be the ones to forget.

But should we forget?

Or is forgetting what happened in the past and not learning from it an invitation for it to happen again.

Japan may not be tomorrows enemy but look in world news and you might just find another who has as little regard for human life.

[Payboy]

Nearly 30 million civilians killed between 1937 and 1945, including their slaughter of the Chinese; but they were just following order's and also they chose to believe; contrary to what their human senses were telling them and showing them at that time, right?

And to think people are interested in brothels and what one criminal thinks about it, after years of peaceful living, warm baths and composing his thoughts on his shaded front porch with his iced-tea and imported cigarettes.

Disgraceful.

Exactly, these war criminals in Japan are getting govt. handouts and made to look like they're the real victims.

[Mosha]

Nearly 30 million civilians killed between 1937 and 1945, including their slaughter of the Chinese; but they were just following order's and also they chose to believe; contrary to what their human senses were telling them and showing them at that time, right?

And to think people are interested in brothels and what one criminal thinks about it, after years of peaceful living, warm baths and composing his thoughts on his shaded front porch with his iced-tea and imported cigarettes.

Disgraceful.

Exactly, these war criminals in Japan are getting govt. handouts and made to look like they're the real victims.

Unfortunately. the surrender terms excluded the rights of the Korean women to take legal action, by the use of some sneaky small print.

[geriatrickid]

Well I for one don't forgive you Matsumoto. Nor do all the POWs your army tortured.

It is not my place to offer forgiveness. However, based upon my knowledge of family members who lived under the horrific Japanese occupation and who liberated Japanese POW camps after the war, I believe that they would.

This is apparently a man that has accepted responsibility and has broken with the Japanese culture of denial to speak out.

I would suspect that his Christian faith has had a large part in his position.

[Sing_Sling]

Undoubtedly and without reservation wrong, wrong, wrong and disgraceful . . . and having said that . . .

Well, for what it is ultimately worth it is good to see one man say it happened and it is wrong. In a country where many children and young adults know nothing of Japans true participation and conduct in the second world war, this is something that is rarely heard from the Japanese.

There are more Japanese who acknowledge this as a crime, but who reports on it? The western media? It wouldn't sell as much as someone saying it was a casualty of war

Well I for one don't forgive you Matsumoto. Nor do all the POWs your army tortured.

Thankfully your government/country never placed a foot wrong

Australian nurses taken as POW's and australian girls as young as 14 were also forced into the japanese brothels as comfort women.

Terrible - simply terrible . . . my eldest daughter's godmother was a nurse taken as POW, luckily she wasn't harmed . . . but are we as disgusted about what we did to the Aborigines? Do we practice this self-flagellation to the same degree as we heap our hatred upon the Japanese?

Glass houses

[Mosha]

Well I for one don't forgive you Matsumoto. Nor do all the POWs your army tortured.

It is not my place to offer forgiveness. However, based upon my knowledge of family members who lived under the horrific Japanese occupation and who liberated Japanese POW camps after the war, I believe that they would.

This is apparently a man that has accepted responsibility and has broken with the Japanese culture of denial to speak out.

I would suspect that his Christian faith has had a large part in his position.

The still surviving Korean women don't share your point of view GK. All the Japanese do is say they should talk to their government as we were allies.

[Sing_Sling]

Nearly 30 million civilians killed between 1937 and 1945, including their slaughter of the Chinese; but they were just following order's and also they chose to believe; contrary to what their human senses were telling them and showing them at that time, right?

And to think people are interested in brothels and what one criminal thinks about it, after years of peaceful living, warm baths and composing his thoughts on his shaded front porch with his iced-tea and imported cigarettes.

Disgraceful.

Exactly, these war criminals in Japan are getting govt. handouts and made to look like they're the real victims.

Unfortunately. the surrender terms excluded the rights of the Korean women to take legal action, by the use of some sneaky small print.

Those sneaky Japanese and their small print . . . Oh, who set up the surrender terms?

[geriatrickid]

Well I for one don't forgive you Matsumoto. Nor do all the POWs your army tortured.

It is not my place to offer forgiveness. However, based upon my knowledge of family members who lived under the horrific Japanese occupation and who liberated Japanese POW camps after the war, I believe that they would.

This is apparently a man that has accepted responsibility and has broken with the Japanese culture of denial to speak out.

I would suspect that his Christian faith has had a large part in his position.

The still surviving Korean women don't share your point of view GK. All the Japanese do is say they should talk to their government as we were allies.

I think you have failed to differentiate between a country as a whole and the expression of responsibility and of atonement by the individual.

The Koreans have been asking for less than what this man has done. The man accepts responsibility and is apologetic. He knows a terrible wrong was done and he admits to it. He goes further when he asks that the Korean PM "beg for forgiveness" and pay additional compensation. This is quite different from the position of his country.

I believe that if the Korean victims were asked, they would accept his apology and forgive him because he goes much further than what the victims have requested. The Korean victims say that they cannot heal without an acknowledgement of the injustice and a sincere apology. This man has done that. This is why his Reuters interview was well received in South Korea.

[Sing_Sling]

Well I for one don't forgive you Matsumoto. Nor do all the POWs your army tortured.

It is not my place to offer forgiveness. However, based upon my knowledge of family members who lived under the horrific Japanese occupation and who liberated Japanese POW camps after the war, I believe that they would.

This is apparently a man that has accepted responsibility and has broken with the Japanese culture of denial to speak out.

I would suspect that his Christian faith has had a large part in his position.

The still surviving Korean women don't share your point of view GK. All the Japanese do is say they should talk to their government as we were allies.

I think you have failed to differentiate between a country as a whole and the expression of responsibility and of atonement by the individual.

The Koreans have been asking for less than what this man has done. The man accepts responsibility and is apologetic. He knows a terrible wrong was done and he admits to it. He goes further when he asks that the Korean PM "beg for forgiveness" and pay additional compensation. This is quite different from the position of his country.

I believe that if the Korean victims were asked, they would accept his apology and forgive him because he goes much further than what the victims have requested. The Korean victims say that they cannot heal without an acknowledgement of the injustice and a sincere apology. This man has done that. This is why his Reuters interview was well received in South Korea.

The problem lies, partially, in both Korea and China obfuscating Japanese apologies to their own ends . . .

[Publicus]

This is old news, maybe not even news.

Apologies have been made.The victim countries are never satisfied by any single apology or by the collective body of apologies that have been made over decades of time.

It's characteristic of Old World peoples to forever hold a grudge, never to be forgiving, routinely to be vengeful. As a previous poster pointed out, there's no tradition of Christianity in this part of the Old World. The perpetual complainers live in a moral vacuum of indignant, ego-centered self-righteousness.

These people whose trait is to constantly complain never give up the ghost.

Speaking of never giving up the ghost, this story anyway is perhaps suitable for a Fleet Street tabloid or, conversely, as a minor part of an obscure seminar at a small liberal arts college.

Edited May 28, 2013 by Publicus

[Mosha]

I'm not sure how you apologise to a woman who raped several times a day, day in day out.

[Sing_Sling]

I'm not sure how you apologise to a woman who raped several times a day, day in day out.

Are you shifting the goalposts of the discussion again? What do you suggest? What would be good enough for YOU, seeing as you seem particularly indignant of and condemn a whole country, a whole people for something that happened 70years ago.

You write nonsense about the nasty Japanese and the terms of surrender which included 'sneaky small print' - thise devlsih Japs, eh!

Oh, not to forget that Korea and Japan were allies . . . in some parallel universe

[Publicus]

Not the only thing Japan did wrong in WW 2, take a trip up to Kanchanaburi, look at the cemeteries and you will see another.

We are now supposed to forget and forgive, welcome them into the world as neighbors.

Not many who were there left now to remember but the offspring of those who suffered are still about to remember, might be the next generation will be the ones to forget.

But should we forget?

Or is forgetting what happened in the past and not learning from it an invitation for it to happen again.

Japan may not be tomorrows enemy but look in world news and you might just find another who has as little regard for human life.

As to your final sentence, the PRChinese have become what the early Showa Japanese were (1926-45). However, the PRChinese have no idea they have become the same as the people who once brutalized them and the rest of East Asia, to include the Western allies fighting in the region. The PRChinese are a frightening bunch, the fenqing especially.

Forgive and forget? That would be ideal.

However, if one can't forget, one can at least try to forgive. The power of forgiveness is the true power in this context. It is the wise man's course of action. The period in Europe established by the Treaty of Versailles, 1919-45 taught us that hate, resentment, vengeance, retribution are among our worse attributes and that they lead only to holocaust and utter destruction and ruin.

The Japanese have made many apologies, in many different ways. Yet it never seems enough to the Old World mentality.

Well, case closed, finally - at long last.

[Sing_Sling]

The Japanese have made many apologies, in many different ways. Yet it never seems enough to the Old World mentality.

That's because it suits the leadership's aims to continue painting Japan as an enemy - if not only to defmect from their own shortcomings

[Publicus]

Japan has taken many actions to account for its horrendous actions during World War 2, to include financial compensation to the "comfort women" and several apologies at several different times, in several different ways.

Importantly, the "comfort womens' fund" was comprised of donations from individual Japanese citizens and also involved government money directly.

However, as has been pointed out by a previous poster, some governments of victim countries have their own agenda in the present world concerning Japan. The PRChina for instance declined to allow the Japanese fund to compensate Chinese "comfort women." Beijing has its own uncooperative reasons to turn a cold shoulder to Japan, the comfort women issue being but one of them. In the PRChina, Japan remains the number one enemy, the United States number two.

Japan's divisive 'comfort women' fund

565m yen ($4.7m) was raised in donations from the Japanese people, and given to 285 comfort women from Korea, Taiwan and the Philippines, each of whom received about 2m yen ($16,700)

• 770m yen ($6.5m) in taxpayers' money was provided to pay for medical fees for these women, and for 79 other women from the Netherlands

• 370 million yen ($3.1m) was spent building medical facilities and old peoples' homes in Indonesia, rather than compensating individuals there, and the rest was used for the fund's running costs and other smaller projects

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6530197.stm