Breaking News
UNCOVERED U.S. MILITARY RECORDS REVEAL TRUE STATUS OF KOREAN COMFORT WOMEN
Archived official military reports were written during World War II by American soldiers, who interrogated captured Korean civilians, clearly confirm that Korean women were NOT conscripted, coerced, or abducted by the Japanese military to serve as comfort women.
One of these reports (Ref. 1), written by Lt. Wilson, dated 24 April 1945, based on testimonials of three captured Korean civilians, states (under Item 18):
“All Korean prostitutes that POWs [2] have seen in the Pacific were volunteers or had been sold by their parents into prostitution.”
This view was consistent among these Koreans, all of whom voiced strong anti-Japanese sentiment and thus were unlikely to vindicate Japan on any topic. Moreover, their statements also affirm that if Japanese authorities had attempted to conscript women, it would have led to insurrection:
“This is proper in the Korean way of thinking but direct conscription of women by the Japanese would be an outrage that the old and young would not tolerate. Men would rise up in a rage, killing the Japanese no matter what consequences they might suffer.”
This report corroborates another U.S. report (Ref. 3) that also confirms that Korean women were not dragooned en masse by the Japanese military to serve as comfort women. Moreover, research by Korean-born scholars, such as Professors Yu-ha Park (Ref. 4), C. Sarah Soh (Ref. 5), Byongjik Ahn (Ref. 6), and many others (Ref. 7), also verify that the Japanese military did not, as a policy, forcibly procure Korean women to serve as comfort women.
As such, it becomes apparent that anti-Japanese groups are attempting to re-write history to foment animosity and prejudice toward Japan.
References:
(1) “Composite Report on Three Korean Navy Civilians, List No. 78, Dated 28 Mar 45, RE “Special Questions on Koreans.” By Lt. Wilson, dated 24 April 1945, based the interrogation of three Korean civilians; date of interrogation: 11 April 1945. Military Intelligence Service, Captured Personnel & Material Branch. (http://goo.gl/Ele0ZI)
This recently unearthed U.S. military report appeared in an article by The Mainichi on June 10, 2016. (http://bit.ly/1XMPiNp)
[2] POWs = Prisoners of War. In the original document, prisoners of war is abbreviated “PsW.” Lt. Wilson had interrogated “some 100 Korean PsW.”
(1) Thus, the statement that “All Korean prostitutes that POWs have seen in the Pacific were volunteers or had been sold by their parents into prostitution” was most likely consistent among all or most Korean POWs interrogated, not just the three.
(3) United States Office of War Information, Japanese Prisoner of War Interrogation Report No. 49, 1944. (http://goo.gl/WF15t)
(4)(a) Park, Yu-ha. “Comfort Women of the Empire.” (2014) Asahi Shimbun Publishing. (https://goo.gl/ZcIKOB)
Prof. Parks’ book is loosely summarized at http://goo.gl/uSWM44.
(4)(b) “It wasn’t the Japanese government [that did human trafficking; Korean agents were part of human trafficking].” An audio recording of a former comfort woman recorded by Prof. Park (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bT2q6uSP4s4) (at time: 37:31 min. – 38:03 min. [Translated 38:04 – 38:24]).
(5) Soh, C. Sarah. “The Comfort Women” (2008) Chicago Press. (http://goo.gl/C83b8C)
(6) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUmBRlBhc34 (At 7 min. 21 seconds, Prof. Ahn states that comfort women were not abducted by Japanese military.)
(7) http://goo.gl/uSWM44.
(8) Another U.S. military report details a Korean man getting involved in the prostitution business in early 1940s. He moved from Korea to Manchuria with five women he had recruited for greater opportunity. (https://bit.ly/3VYz70Z)
(9) NY Times reports on the South Korean comfort women system implicating its government in the post-WWII era. (https://bit.ly/41tG9fo)