Japan had annexed Korea for 35 years from 1910 to 1945 by request from international society. Japan spent lots of capital to modernize Korea in those days. It was not what you call a colonial rule. However, Japan has been accused of its policy over Korea to this day.
One of their side of stories is that; Japan abducted lots of Korean women to let them work as sex slaves. Some Koreans insist that the Japanese army abducted Korean women and sent them to the war front for Japanese soldiers. It was backed by the Japanese government.
Several old ladies came forward as victims recently, but there is no documented evidence for them, and they request Japan compensation. Some poor parents reluctantly sold their daughters into prostitution to survive hardships in those days not only in Korea but Japan. The above ladies would be victims of the era. It was a sad fact of history.
On these conditions, a book which tears their arguments completely to shreds was published in the U.S. last year and I got the Japanese translation of "The Comfort Women HOAX" by J. Mark Ramseyer today.
The professor doesn't stand on either side of Korea and Japan. Simply from the standpoint as the bystander, his book was compiled. I hoped that Japan would be able to get rid of the pointless conflict, but a monument to accuse Japan of this issue was built on a public space of Stintino city on the island of Sardinia in Italy. There's no remedy for idiots.
(Vocabulary)
annexation (領土などの) 併合
tear one's argument completely to shreds ～の議論をズタズタに論破する
Sardinia イタリア西部サルデーニャ島
Stintino スティンティーノ市
Comments