Stories are the spoils of war: the after-effects of Comfort Women

On January 8th a Chinese man was arrested for throwing 2 Molotov cocktails at the Japanese Embassy in South Korea, he was charged with attempted arson last week. Why you ask? Well to be frank the answer to that is quite complicated. During WWII the Japanese Army instituted had a policy known as the Comfort Women which was a form of sexual slavery imposed upon Chinese and Korean women.

it is as upsetting as it sounds

Along with Unit 731 (which I will not discuss here, it is too horrific), Comfort Women are among a large group of WWII topics that are generally speaking not discussed outside of Asia. But within that region of the world, the memory of it still runs raw to the point that the film Memoirs of a Geisha was not allowed into mainland China because of the incorrect association between Geisha and Comfort Women. The Comfort Women were placed in Japanese military bases throughout the Empire in an attempt, according to the High Command at least, to reduce disease and prevent rape, it failed.

After the war the Japanese stopped talking about it and didn't apologize until 1992 and in 1998 the government paid each of the women affected 2,300 USD. Which brings us to now and the attack. 

The man identified only by Liu, his family's name, decided to take action because his grandmother had been forced into the Comfort Women Program. He also targeted the Yasukuni shrine (an extremely controversial Shrine dedicated to the Empire of Japan's 2 million plus military dead 1,000 of were executed for War Crimes) in December.

The US has a similar response about Truman and George W. Bush

Which is what made this article peak my interest. I have been aware that Chinese and Korean citizens still feel that Japan has not fully paid its debt from the damaged wrought during the war and that there was much ire raised by Yasukuni, but this is the first protest I've heard of in the news recently. As mentioned above the shrine is Shinto but it, along with all other Shinto institutions, is no longer under the sway of the government since their separation at the end of WWII. So the head priests of the temple were fully aware of what they were doing when they enshrined the names of those who committed the crimes which begs the question of why, which is something I may explore later. And while it could be considered troubling, I'm sure that there veterans memorialized in the US who may committed similar crimes that go unrecorded because we won WWI and II and to the victor goes the power of story.

Which is why the lack of reporting and education on issues such as the Comfort Women and other Japanese War Crimes in the US is so interesting. Because you learn all about the Holocaust but, at least when it came to my education about the War in the Pacific, you learn very little when it comes to what happened in Japan, Korea, and China during the War. 

So in terms what I'd like to learn next I guess my question would be why this is. In the back of my mind its because the States became allied with Japan to such an intense degree after the War but the same is true of Germany and US history text books aren't shy when it comes to the Holocaust, so that couldn't be it. But then again the US has never had many friends in the Pacific so perhaps that is part of it. So because perhaps it could be the lingering effects of colonialism, after all Japan defeating the Great Powers of Europe, and out pacing them economically after the War, sent shock waves throughout Europe (as was China going Communist) so perhaps the silence comes from resentment and embarrassment. But then again knowning how my research has been the past few times I'm probably completely wrong. 

Till next time 

Jacob 

Further Reading:

Article 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-16754073 

Background on Comfort Women (yes I use Wikipedia to refresh my memory of facts) 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comfort_women

and if you're interested Unit 731 (prepare to cry)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_731

P.S.