The testimony of Lee Yong-soo (former comfort woman) is full of contradictions - an ethical leap by a Korean civil society group to make this an international issue.
2022-06-01
Category:Japanese comfort woman problem
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Testimony of a former comfort woman who has changed over and over again
What follows is the evolution of the testimony of Lee Yong-soo, a leading figure and activist for South Korea's former comfort women. In the trial in which Professor Ryu of Yonsei University, who lectured on the idea that ``comfort women are prostitutes,'' was sued by the Justice League (comfort women's organization), Professor Ryu pointed out the ambiguity of Lee Young-soo's testimony, and as a witness. is requested to appear in court.
Let alone the credibility of her testimony, neither the Justice League nor Lee Yong-soo, the woman herself, could even present any evidence that she was a comfort woman. . As you can see in the image at the beginning, comfort women were recruited through public recruitment in newspapers, and were paid a salary that was unprecedented in terms of monetary value at the time.
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Japanese Military comfort woman recruited through a newspaper contest. There are many questions about forced arrests from a necessity point of view.
The most questionable point is whether forced arrest of Japanese Military comfort woman was necessary.Lee Yong-soo, who is said to be a former Japanese Military comfort woman, said that the sex industry exists in modern countries and Japan, and that the balance between supply and demand seems to be balanced.In other words, the percentage of men who seek this and women who provide services as a profession.How about in Korea?It is not a situation where people should be forcibly taken away even if they omit ethical issues related to sexual morals.By the way, Japan's unemployment rate stood at 2.8 percent in September.
At that time, many people on the Korean Peninsula were too poor to find jobs, but the unemployment rate dropped dramatically due to Japanese investment, and Joseon itself was surprisingly modernized and developed.Japan was never rich during the war, but men would have to hire them first to get a job.Are there more women who need jobs financially than now?The proportion of men and women after birth or in nature is about 1:1 .It's a simple arithmetic problem.
Japanese Military comfort woman is open to the public through newspaper advertisements, as left as data from that time.And prostitution itself was legal under the laws of the time.In addition, they are paid several times as much as college-graduated men.That seems to have gathered enough people.There are many questions as to why 300,000 people were forcibly taken away.
At that time, Japanese Military comfort woman was paid a lot of money, and when I returned to Korea, I got enough money to buy a house in just about two years.
Lee Yong-soo's testimony
1992 Testimony Even though I was 16 years old at that time, I was almost naked and couldn't eat or wear clothes, but someone brought me a dress and a pair of shoes. He gave it to me. I wonder how good it must have looked in my young mind when I was told that I would give it to you and let's go. At that time, I thought I didn't need to know anything about that, so I followed him. 1993 Testimony A friend of my age had a child named Kim Boon-soon, whose mother was in the liquor business. One day, when I went to visit his house, his mother said, ``What kind of child are you, you can't even put your shoes on properly? You should go over there with my shoes. "You'll have everything you need. You'll eat a lot of food, and your family will be able to live comfortably." 2004 Testimony I lived in Goseong-dong, Daegu until I was 16 years old.One summer in 1943, when I was 16 years old, I put on a hat that only showed my nose and mouth. A Japanese military official forcibly took me along with my four older sisters from the town. I didn't know where I was going or how I was going to take it. They put us on a windowless train, but when we said we weren't going, they called us Koreans and stepped on us with their shoes and hit us. When I said I was going home, he hit me again. He was beaten so much that he couldn't even walk. 2006 Testimony Around 1942, when I was 15 years old and sleeping at home, I was taken to Taiwan by the Japanese military. Testimony, July 2014 One day in the year I turned 15, a Japanese military officer gestured to me to come. I was scared and ran away, but another Japanese soldier caught me and took me on a train to a Japanese military unit in Taiwan. Testimony, September 2014 A 16-year-old Japanese woman showing off her dress and red leather shoes said, ``I'll feed you to the fullest, and I'll make sure your family can live happily.'' Deceived by the man's words, I followed my friend out. He was forcibly mobilized to a comfort station in Taiwan via China. He was the owner of the comfort station. He was also subjected to electrical torture by this master. 2017 Testimony At the age of 15, he was sleeping at home when he was taken away by the Japanese military.
<Translation excerpt: Korean wiki>
Lee Yong-soo took the stand as a witness in America
Lee Yong-soo also participated in the comfort women movement in the United States, and in 2007, she attended the U.S. House of Representatives as a witness and gave testimony when the House of Representatives adopted a resolution calling for an apology from the Japanese government. There is. The comfort women issue is precisely what Lee Yong-soo's testimony and the comfort women's organization Chongdaehyup (currently known as Justice League) are promoting not only in Korea but around the world under the guise of a human rights movement.
Human trafficking broker arrested many times
According to newspaper articles from the time (during Japan's annexation of South Korea), Japanese police had busted numerous crimes in which Korean human trafficking brokers abducted girls and sold them. During the Joseon Dynasty, when a class system existed, slaves were exchanged for items such as cow heads through human trafficking brokers.
35 years is too short for social change
The period of Japan and Korea's annexation lasted only about 35 years, and of course that was not enough time for cultural customs and social customs that had lasted for more than 500 years to disappear. The human trafficking brokers who supported the slavery system would have no income if they did not work, and although slaves did not exist under the family registration system, it was clear that many people living in similar conditions were left behind. It is thought that At that time, deceiving and buying and selling girls from poor families from rural villages was a common practice on the Korean Peninsula.
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A Korean Peninsula man kidnapped a woman and ran a Japanese Military comfort woman mediation business.
On June 30, 1933, a woman (41 years old at the time) with a husband and children was arrested in addition to a 35-year-old Korean Peninsula man who kidnapped a girl on the street and sold her to China.One of the kidnapped girls was sold to a 35-year-old man for 20 won and killed.
On April 5, 1933, Oh Cho-woong, a broker on the Korean Peninsula operating under the pseudonym Hannam, was arrested for counterfeiting his family register and obtaining permission to do business in South Gyeongsang Province bought a 16-year-old girl for 350 yen.
Kim Bok-soon, a female broker disguised as a lady, has been arrested.Kim Bok-soon led a group of four men and women, including Lee Jin-ok, who kidnapped 28 girls on the Korean Peninsula on December 31, 1935.Kim Bok-soon sold the girls to Joo Sung-ok in the primary and received a brokerage fee of 15 to 150 yen.
Daughter Kidnapping: Chun Doo-hwan (58 years old at the time) of Gaifuku Village in Gunsan, Busan, was arrested on November 15, 1938 for preparing a power of attorney to sell to a 19-year-old and 17-year-old woman in Manchuria.
Ha Yoon-myung's case: He is also a man of considerable wealth in Gyeongseong.He cleverly persuaded his parents, "I have children and daughters, so how about your daughter?" and paid 10 yen in advance to take over the family daughter (18 years old at the time).After that, I took my daughter to Tianjin, Republic of China, not Gyeongseong, and sold it for 1,000 yen.
On March 28, 1939, the Asahi Shimbun reported that Kim Oh-man and his family were arrested in Roh Moo Hyun Mountain, Gyeonggi Province.Since 1935, the Kim Oman family has been working as adopted daughters in rural areas across the Korean Peninsula and trafficked women in Manchuria.
Tan Jang-yeon case: Tan Jang-yeon, who was arrested after Ha Yoon-myung and his wife, sold more than 100 rural women to North China and Manchuria from 1935 to 1939.It was also revealed that lower-ranking civil servants cooperated in forging family registers.
The Japanese government's response strengthened the crackdown on sex traffickers from 1937 to 1938, and issued an order of caution against the crackdown on intermediaries.
Choi Myung-ho's case: On May 13, 1939, the Korean Peninsula edition of the Osaka Asahi Shimbun reported the girl's testimony.Choi Myeong-ho was hired as a maid, and Choi Myeong-ho became 16 entrepreneurs, including department store guides, nurses, and female clerks in Gyeongseong.The girl was found by Choi Myung-ho and his gang while trying to escape from the business contact book.After that, he was imprisoned and kicked with his foot day and night .
Busan Otome Trading Incident: Yoo In-ma, who was engaged in Otome Trading, was arrested in August 1939.The Dong-A Ilbo reported on August 31, 1939, that 45 brokers in Busan kidnapped more than 100 women.Companies cleverly said, "Manchuria is doing well."
Fraud Kidnapping: According to the Asahi Shimbun's Namseon edition on November 21, 1939, Kim Dong-yoon, a former temporary employee of Busan Prefecture, kidnapped a woman and a woman through official seal forgery.There were 28 victims, many of whom were kidnapped in the direction of Namyang.
What is the Japanese Military confort woman problem?Human trafficking was frequent on the Korean Peninsula, and people on the Korean Peninsula at that time were responsible for it.The Japanese police were cracking down on these.
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[related article]
Agreement Japanese Military comfort woman without the letter coercion. The two governments of Japan and South Korea do not recognize coercion.
In Japan, politics does not recognize or evaluate history.This is because politicians do not have no such authority.Historical data stored in government agencies will be accepted by Congress after confirming the facts.Starting with Yoshida's testimony, Kono's discourse was about compulsion.The biggest flaw in Kono's speech was that he was a government minister who spoke without historical information.In other words, history is recognized arbitrarily.
In 2007, the Cabinet decided that no evidence of compulsory Japanese Military comfort woman recruitment was found under the Abe administration.This means that some of the amendments were made to the Kono Statement in accordance with a Cabinet decision higher than the Kono Statement.Former Prime Minister Abe did not say that there was no forced arrest.He's just saying there was no evidence.
The 2015 Japanese Military comfort woman Agreement did not include the word coercion.This compulsory part of the Korea-Japan issue is the most important issue.In other words, Japan followed the Cabinet decision and held talks, and South Korea agreed to omit the statement because it failed to provide evidence of compulsion.An important part of the Japanese Military comfort woman agreement is that the two countries did not recognize the compulsion rather than that the issue was finally and irreversibly resolved.If enforcement cannot be confirmed, the Japanese Military comfort woman problem does not exist from the beginning.
The Japanese and South Korean governments did not approve of evidence of coercion.Japanese Military Sexual Slavery The problem itself is no longer valid.
Japanese Military comfort woman A major flaw in the scrapping of the agreement is President Moon Jae In's dissolution of the Reconciliation and Healing Foundation.
The comfort women agreement is an official agreement
South Korea does not understand the agreement
2015 Comfort Women Agreement
The claim date is from 1965. Comfort women agreement establishes foundation
With the dissolution of the foundation, former comfort women cannot negotiate with Japan
In 2021, Moon Jae-in recognized the comfort women agreement as an official agreement between the governments. I wonder if these words were uttered out of a feeling that further deterioration of Japan-Korea relations would be a problem because it would affect the economy, regarding the lawsuit filed by former comfort women against the Japanese government. The problem is that the South Korean side doesn't fully understand the contents of the 2015 agreement.
Reading the comfort women agreement, it is clear that the main purpose of the agreement is for the South Korean government to establish a ``foundation'' to support former comfort women. Based on this assumption, the comfort women issue between the two countries will be finally and irreversibly resolved. In addition, we will refrain from blaming or criticizing each other regarding this issue in the international community. The Korean government will strive to resolve the issue of the girl statue in front of the Japanese Embassy in South Korea appropriately through consultations with related organizations. The order is as follows.
2015 comfort women agreement
Japanese side:
(2) The Japanese government has been sincerely addressing this issue, and based on its experience, it has recently decided to use the Japanese government's budget to heal the emotional wounds of all former comfort women. Take measures to ease the situation. Specifically, the South Korean government established a foundation for the purpose of supporting former comfort women, provided a lump sum of funds from the Japanese government's budget, and the Japanese and South Korean governments cooperated to provide support for all former comfort women. We will carry out projects to restore the honor and dignity of comfort women and heal their emotional wounds.
2. South Korean side:
(1) The Korean government evaluates the Japanese government's statements and efforts leading up to this announcement, and the Japanese government has confirmed the above 1. On the premise that the measures stated in (2) are steadily implemented, through this announcement we confirm that, together with the Japanese government, this issue will be finally and irreversibly resolved. The Government of the Republic of Korea will cooperate with the measures taken by the Government of Japan.
The comfort women agreement states that the South Korean government will establish a foundation and work through its activities to resolve issues with former comfort women.
In other words, the entire premise of this comfort women agreement was the establishment of a foundation, and as expected, Moon Jae-in dissolved this foundation. If this is recognized as an official agreement, there is an obligation to rebuild the ``Foundation for Reconciliation and Healing.'' Since this has not been done, even if South Korea says something, it will simply be bringing up a topic unrelated to the comfort women agreement. The issue of claims was resolved in 1965.
The purpose of establishing the foundation is to carry out projects to restore the honor and dignity of former comfort women and to heal their emotional wounds. Nowhere does it say that Japan should simply distribute the 1 billion yen it contributed. In other words, South Korea has abandoned its efforts to establish a foundation and restore the honor and dignity of former comfort women.
Looking at this from a different angle, with this agreement, the comfort women issue is no longer an issue between the governments of the two countries, but an issue between the foundation and the individual former comfort women. The former comfort women are demanding that Japan's prime minister meet in person and apologize, which is an unlikely request, but let's assume it happened. That can only be the result of negotiations conducted through the Reconciliation and Healing Foundation. Without the Foundation, no one can negotiate with Japan. This is not an issue of claims or human rights, but rather an issue of default by the South Korean government, which has abandoned its efforts to establish a foundation and resolve the issue.
If you confuse the claim rights issue with the comfort women agreement, you will lose sight of the essence. The major flaw in the cancellation of this agreement is that it dissolves the Foundation.
Professor Ramseyer's negative statement [There is no evidence of forced abduction of comfort women] is a complete lie. [Translated excerpt of Yonhap News article]
On January 5th, Mark Ramseyer, a professor at Harvard Law School in the United States, who defined South Korean comfort women as "prostitutes" and received international backlash, has now proven that "comfort women were forced to be recruited." It is expected that there will be a stir by asserting that there are no contemporary documents that do so.
Professor Ramseyer made this clear on the 5th in his article ``Sexual Contracts in the Pacific War: Responses to Criticism'' posted on the Harvard Law School website.
In this paper, which is a rebuttal of previous criticisms directed at her, Professor Ramseyer argues that ``Korean women were drawn into [comfort women] by the Japanese military who fought against their will, regardless of their will.'' I will respond to the allegation,'' and declared, ``This allegation is false.''
At the same time, he asserted, `` Korean women were not forced to serve as comfort stations due to planned coercion by the Japanese military.''
He specifically argued that the 1983 book ``My War Crimes'' by Japanese author and activist Seiji Yoshida was the de facto basis for the forced recruitment of comfort women.
For 35 years after the end of the war, there was no evidence (proving forced conscription). It was only in the late 1980s that some Korean women began to advocate this."
He added, ``The comfort women debate started with Yoshida's 'fraud'''' and ``Most of the experts who criticized me were from Japan and South Korea, but even though they knew about this book, no one He also didn't mention this book."
Regarding the paper in question, Professor Ramseyer said, ``The core of the paper was about the contract, such as why the comfort women received advance payment and what conditions under the contract determined the women's working hours.'' ``However, none of the criticisms leveled at me were aimed at this kind of economic analysis.''
In a paper published that day, Professor Ramseyer cited a study last year by Lee Yuken, a co-author of ``Anti-Japanese Tribalism'' and a research committee member at the University of Economics Research Institute, which received support from far-right groups in Japan.
Professor Ramseyer also claimed that comfort women victims, who remained silent for a considerable period after the war, changed their words after they began demanding reparations from Japan.
In a situation where there is no document proving forced recruitment, the only evidence, the testimonies of victims, lacks credibility..
In particular, he referred to comfort woman victim Lee Yong-soo as ``the most notorious (of all the people who changed their words)''.
[Excerpt above]
Professor Ramseyer says that no evidence of her forced abduction or her contract has been found anywhere. Similarly, the Japanese government has made a cabinet decision under the Abe administration that there is no evidence of forced recruitment.
Are comfort women women's volunteer corps? If you read the ``Women's Volunteer Labor Ordinance,'' you will see that it is a clear lie.
Below is an excerpt from the Women's Volunteer Corps Labor Order. Only those certified by the National Vocational Ability Declaration Ordinance could join the volunteer corps (Article 3).
Excerpts from the National Vocational Ability Declaration Order, which is the basis for Article 3, are also posted thereafter.
It was a proud profession in which only the most talented women could join the volunteer corps. In South Korea, it is believed that women who were sleeping at train stations were taken away and forced to become comfort women. Apparently they think volunteer corps and comfort women are the same thing. The women's volunteer corps is not such a funny story, but it is a group of female workers who were brought together by imperial edict.
The detailed application details and the local commissioner will check your skills. When people confuse comfort women with the volunteer corps, they have no idea what the volunteer corps is. Incidentally, the Women's Volunteer Corps Labor Order has not been issued on the Korean Peninsula.
[Women's Volunteer Corps Labor Order] Imperial Ordinance No. 519 of 1944
Article 3 Persons who are to engage in volunteer work (hereinafter referred to as volunteers) are women who are registered citizens according to the National Vocational Ability Declaration Ordinance.
Girls other than those falling under the preceding paragraph will only be allowed to serve as members if they volunteer.
Article 4: The period of continued volunteer labor shall be approximately one year, unless there are special circumstances.
If you wish to continue working as a volunteer for more than one year, you must obtain the consent of the volunteer.
Article 5 A person who wishes to receive volunteer labor shall request or apply to the local commissioner as prescribed by the order.
Article 6 Local Commissioner If there is a request or application pursuant to the provisions of the preceding article and it is deemed necessary to dispatch the women's volunteer corps, the municipal mayor (municipal mayor) Heads of other organizations or school principals, including those equivalent to the head of the ward (in the areas where the wards of Tokyo exist, as well as Kyoto City, Osaka City, Nagoya City, Yokohama City, and Kanda City, the ward head, and the same shall apply hereinafter); We will order the members to select those who will serve as members.
Article 7: Persons who receive the orders set forth in the preceding article should select those who should become members of the group, taking into account the person's age, physical condition, family situation, etc., and report this to the local chief.
Article 8: The local commissioner shall select members from among those who have submitted a report pursuant to the provisions of the preceding article, notify the person accordingly in a volunteer labor order, and give instructions on necessary matters regarding volunteer labor. I agree.
[National Vocational Ability Declaration Order] Royal Ordinance No. 5 of 1949
Article 2 The following persons shall be required to report (hereinafter referred to as persons required to report):
A person who has been continuously engaged in an occupation designated by the Minister of Health and Welfare for three months or more in the current place of residence.
A person who has been continuously engaged in the occupation listed in the previous item for more than one year, and who has retired for less than five years.
Those who have graduated from a university, vocational school, vocational school, or any other equivalent school designated by the Minister of Health and Welfare by completing a course designated by the Minister of Health and Welfare.
A person who has completed the prescribed course at a technician training facility designated by the Minister of Health and Welfare.
A person who has passed a certification or examination designated by the Minister of Health and Welfare or a person who has obtained a license designated by the Minister of Health and Welfare.
Other persons designated by the Minister of Health and Welfare.
Article 4 When a citizen becomes a person who is required to file a return, or when a person who is required to file under Article 11 and has not yet filed a return no longer falls under the provisions of the same article, the person who is required to file a return shall report the following matters within 14 days to the employment agency in the place of employment if the person requiring the report is employed, and to the employment agency in the place of residence for other persons. After filing the declaration, if the person requiring the declaration moves to another area, the declaration shall be made in the same manner.
One name
Date of birth
Three domicile
Place of residence
Military service related
Academic background
Employed person is his/her occupation name
Place of employment (for those who have two or more places of employment, this is the main place of employment)
If a person is engaged in or has engaged in the occupation set forth in Article 2, paragraph 1, his or her employment history and skill level
For those who fall under Article 2, Item 4, information regarding the course they have completed.
For those who fall under Article 2, item 5, matters related to the examination, certification, or license that they have taken.
Those receiving salary or wages, the amount
Other matters specified by the order.
Article 8: The local commissioner (governor) or director of an employment agency may test the skills and other vocational abilities of the applicant.
Korean group trying to stop the comfort women movement in South Korea The method is to stay up all night and reserve a space first.
Preemption of space for South Korean far-right groups began in May 2020. In the wake of allegations of misappropriation of sponsorship funds by Rep. Yoon Mi-hyang, who served as the president of the Justice and Remembrance Solidarity (a core organization in the comfort women litigation movement), far-right civic groups held a rally in front of the Statue of the Girl of Peace. They began filing reports ahead of the Justice League.
Meeting notifications can be submitted 30 days (720 hours) in advance, but members of far-right and conservative groups are staying up all night taking turns at the waiting area at Jongno Police Station, where meeting notifications are accepted. , the place is taken away every time.
Although it is a primitive method, it is amazing that they are trying to stop the comfort women movement even by staying up all night.
Kang Kyung-ran, head of the Solidarity Movement for Justice League, said, ``Far-right groups are claiming to ``end the Wednesday demonstrations forever'' and have filed a gathering at the same location. She is a prostitute () on a daily basis, and she does not hesitate to say things that insult us.
I have decided to petition the National Human Rights Commission to take urgent remedial measures and investigate the human rights violations occurring at the rally site, as well as to investigate the police who ignore these acts."
The anti-comfort women movement in South Korea is led by far-right political parties and carried out by civil society groups.