"Comfort Women" and Wartime Abuse of Japanese Military Personnel

You are right about Japanese assimilation of others. Every territory they conquered in the past, they immediately force the entire local population not only to learn (only) Japanese, but they also force entire local population to abandon their own names and take on Japanese names instead.

It is quite the opposite in China, where the government fund schools to teach native languages and writing as primary languages for each minority groups, and in fact the minority groups in China hold more "privileges" and social benefits over the majority Han Chinese.
That is why in China they've got hundreds different languages and local dialects, some of those languages are completely different.

You are mistaken about Japanese military capability. They have always had the second largest military expenditure in the world until a few years ago when China exceeded them. Today, Japanese navy has twice the capability of China's. Their air force are also much better than Chinese counterpart. Their only shortcoming is the U.S. is still limiting their long range capability because after all Japan is a defeated country in WWII and it is still under U.S. occupation regardless the fact the U.S. call them an 'ally'. The cap put on their long range capability by the U.S. resulted in the Japanese military not only can't project force far away from their home, but they also in fact can't even hit North Korea with air force without abandon the air craft on the returning due to their air craft aren't long range capable...

 

The total strength of the Japan Self-Defense Forces is less than 250,000. And this figure is likely to decline even more in the future. Also, defense expenditure accounts for just 0.9% of the Japanese GDP.

 

You do realize Japan's GDP is $5.73 trillion in 2001? That's according to CIA.gov, an official American government source.
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ja.html
Even with 0.9%, Japan spent $51.5 billion on their military last year.
For comparison,
UK spends $64.5 billion on military,
France spends $71 billion.
Both UK and France had to maintenance their nuclear forces which cost a fortune. Japan, as a defeated country in WWII is doing well with such large military expenditure which exceeded most of the world.

I have seen a detailed documentary about Japanese military of today. Their navy is top ranked, much more capable than Chinese counterparts, and both sides know it. I could only smile each time someone say China was "bullying" Japan in the island dispute, which in fact Japan has the upper hand in both navy and air force in the area, as well as the big brother United States standing right behind them.

 

I am surprised to hear this. I haven't heard much about the Japanese Navy, but I have heard a lot recently about the PLAN, especially the recent induction of the aircraft carrier.

 

Yeah, 77 years after WWII, China finally got their first air craft carrier which was in fact built by the Russians... China spent a decade to refit it with all the equipments now it is finally in the service. I can hardly call that a "naval power". Just last week, the first batch of J-15 landed and took off from this carrier. So? It will take years before this carrier is truly combat ready. Even by then, a single carrier is hardly a challenge for the United States or even current Japanese naval forces if the battle take place in East China Sea.

China might have large amount of ships, but most of them are outdated. They have only a dozen or two modern ships, and most of the modern electronics/missiles, etc. were in fact bought from Russia or other sources.

Until China have 3 or more combat ready nuclear powered carriers, they will not even be a threat to Japan's self-"defense" force. Let alone the American fleet in the area. That will probably take two more decades. Even so, it will hardly be a challenge if the U.S. simply move more of its carrier groups to Far East.

China "threat" is nothing but a hyper by the mass media propaganda. China is always the underdog and still will be one for the foreseen future.

 

How can any young girl volunteer something that after the war would make her less desirable to men in her country? Now if these "comfort women" in Japan had been "of age" this would be different. As i see it not only was it sexual slavery it was child rape. There is no excuse for this. Whether they "volunteered" or not. I am sure if they hadn't they would have been punished. I mean the choice of volunteer to have sex with these men or they might rape you..kinda sounds like the same choice to me.

 

I don't think any of them volunteered willingly. Even expressing the doubt that some of them might have volunteered for the Japanese is extremely insulting for the victims. Remember that the vast majority of the victims were under-age.

Nazis considered Slavs subhuman. The Japanese considered their neighbors subhuman. See the similarity in the ideology.

 

I have read reports of how some comfort women were "recruited". A Korean girl was basically kidnapped right off the street in Korea. One night, she was walking on the street, someone from behind put a black bag around her head and grabbed her. By the time she could see, she was already in a brothel. That's how it all started. At least all the girls there with her were in similar situation. Then they were "trained" by watching Japanese raping kidnapped Chinese girls.

Of course she fought her first "customer", an older Japanese army officer. She was beaten severally for it and she was tied up before being raped. Of course eventually she had to "get used to it" after having to serve several dozens Japanese soldiers each day...

 

The current Japanese PM has repeatedly denied and questioned China and South Korea's claim on the issue of "comfort women". It's just to show you how they still deny everything. If give a chance, they might deny Pearl Harbor too. In fact, they are playing "victim" of WWII in their own books. They are also changing their history text book at school little by little. Their own people have no idea about what they have done in WWII.

Today, Japan has island dispute with all of its neighbors. (all four of them). It is clearly Japan is at fault with all four of them too. Their attitude toward recognition of their WWII crimes is a direct result on the current dispute. They never thought they were wrong, and they will keep doing it.

Yes, the U.S. is occupying Japan. It might sound like "invitation", that's how the two governments announced, yes. Is it the truth? Nope! The U.S. military base isn't going anywhere even if Japan ask them to leave. It is a strategic location in Far East. Japanese government is just playing along and had to tell the public it was "an invitation" while in fact they are still under occupation.

 

The Japanese public are not concerned that much since most of the bases are in Okinawa. The Japanese consider Okinawans as inferior, and therefore they will not react even if some of the Okinawans are killed / raped by the US marines.

 

It is true that many Japanese consider all other races "inferior" from the bottom of their heart even though they might act polite on the outside. Yes, those who they looked down upon including Okinawans whose land was stolen by Japan not so long ago and now it is considered a part of Japan.

However, you have to consider the "face" fact. It is the very reason the U.S. allowed the Japanese government to announce the U.S. base there is "by invitation". As Japanese are re-establishing their status in the world as a power, they will soon want more and more respect. (They are slowly changing their constitution of limiting their military power and not to sending troops oversea to avoid repeat history... but looked at them now... they started to send troops into other countries such as Iraq...) Eventually, they will want the U.S. base off "their land". They consider Okinawa theirs so even though they might not care about the locals live there, they care about their own "face".

 

Japan and Philippines are in totally different situations.

Philippines was a colony of the U.S. The U.S. occupation there would be deemed as imperialism and illegal. It was no good for U.S. image if the U.S. troops had stayed.

Japan on the other hand, was one of the aggressors of WWII. They are under occupation because they were defeated and unconditionally surrendered.
The U.S. government would not get any objection from domestic and international community for occupying Japan. Americans still remember Pearl Harbor, and Japan's neighbors still remember Japan's war crimes. In other word, serve them right.

 

When war crimes such as these happen, its kinda hard to seek compensation for what they've done especially now that a generation has already passed. The victims can petition for some sort of repayment, but having the Japanese punished now would be too late. If they were to pay up, it should've been directly after the war. It's kinda like digging up past grudges. Plus, the topic of "comfort women" is a gray area for many countries so the exact ways to deal with it are always debatable and disagreeable from country to country.

 

I disagree. Just because it has been a while, doesn't mean those women should not be compensated. Japan has been playing dragging it as long as possible game since the beginning. Their current PM still deny it ever happened. It's not called a grudge when these women seek compensation, since Japan had not done what they should have done after the war.

It is not disagreeable from country to country. Every victim country of Japan had wanted compensation from Japan. Yet Japan had never paid a cent, unlike Germany. It is only Japan who is disagreeing. Whether or not a criminal is disagreeing, he/she has to pay for what he/she had done...especially when he/she is still denying it ever happened.