I just started my study on the Asia-Pacific nations. I’ll definitely try the government sources from Japan. Hopefully, the MOFA will respond.

I would need to quote the actual documents/publications that provided the figures in the two tables.

I don’t know what you would use the actual documents for.
But the followings are from MOFA
http://www.mofa.go.jp/mofaj/gaiko/oda/shiryo/hakusyo/04_hakusho/ODA2004/html/zuhyo/zu010091.htm

So you might want to ask MOFA for the actual documents.

ponta Says:
Tuesday, December 11, 2007 at

日本の戦争賠償と戦後補償　(Wikipedia)
Treaty of San Francisco (Wikipedia)
List of war apology statements issued by Japan (Wikipedia)

http://www.us.emb-japan.go.jp/english/html/cw1.htm

Thanks for links. However, “Treaty of San Francisco (Wikipedia)” did not provide any sources beyond the opening section. I would need to quote the actual documents/publications that provided the figures in the two tables. Preferably publications in English.

Thanks again.

Could someone please post an URL or such to any information entailing the war reparations?

日本の戦争賠償と戦後補償　(Wikipedia)
Treaty of San Francisco (Wikipedia)
List of war apology statements issued by Japan (Wikipedia)

http://www.us.emb-japan.go.jp/english/html/cw1.htm

izanami Says:
Sunday, June 17, 2007 at

Japan has “officially” kept its mouth shut, occasionally voicing apologies, while paying extensive reparations. Who has appreciated Japan’s apologies, or even acknowledged them??

Could someone please post an URL or such to any information entailing the war reparations?

Thanks.

Anybody want to know what Mindy Kotler had said and think about many things.
I suggest you all to go to National Bureau of Asian Research’s U.S-Japan relation online discussion threads.Kotler seems to me nobody but a firestarter with Washington speak.

It’s quite strange why this is never used in arguments against Japan or even for Japan.

One may argue that the comfort women were not included in the treaty, but unless the above term of the treaty can be interpreted as such (I’d bet both governments intended to inlcude all damages known at the time and any future damages that may be uncovered in the future, unless it wouldn’t make much sense as a treaty, would it?), don’t be so sure about it.

The fund was not to evade responsibility, but to compensate as much as possible under the treaty. The same kind of reparations was done by the Germans, who had bilateral treaties that settled the issue of reparations but paid to the individuals anyways by way of setting up funds. When the Germans do it, they’re praised for it, but when the Japanese do the same, it’s shameful. That’s how international politics move now.

Not sure what this is supposed to mean. Elaborating the word “sex slave” to be some legal term/jargon seems quite like a cheap trick to me.

The resolution, far from being anti-Japanese, is quite pro-Japanese. It simply suggests (a resolution is not a demand) that Japan start to align itself with the 21st Century and other great powers.

And I think Hata has made a good point too.

It occurred to me that having compared the various sources, it might be useful to distribute a few pages from Brownmiller’s book to the supporters of H. Res. 121. Then we can question Mike Honda and his colleagues about the wisdom of their resolution and ask them to withdraw it. Or we could have them replace “the Japanese government” with the “Japanese and U.S. governments.”

I want to add the south Korea on the list.

recruitement
Japan

The majority of the young females recruited as comfort women came from lower classes. Many were deceived by “human traders” who lured them with promises of well-paying jobs only to deliver them to brothels and military comfort stations. Some, however, chose to leave home, not out of economic necessity but in search of independence and freedom from domestic violence against and gendered mistreatment of daughters
(Chung-Hee
Women’s Sexual Labor and State in Korean History)

Korea

Poverty, together with low class status, has remained the primary reason for women’s entry into camptown prostitution from the 1950s to the mid-1980s….Still others were physically forced into prostitution by flesh-traffickers or pimps who waited at train and bus stations, greeted young girls arriving from the countryside with promises of employment or room and board, then”initiated” them–through rape–into sex work or sold them to brothels.Women also fell into prostitution by responding to fraudulent advertisements which offered appealing calls for employment as waitresses, storekeepers, singers, and entertainers. Some ads even promised”education” (kyoyuk) without specifying what the women would be expected to learn.(Sex Among Allies
by Katharine H. S. Moon)

contract

Japan

page 54
The managers of comfort stations were instructed by the military authorities about the “salary” arrangements for their employees.” For example,….half of the fee had to be paid to the comfort women and the other half to the manager. Expenses fro meals and bedding for the comfort women were supposed to be the manager’s responsibility, while those for closing, hairdressing and cosmetics had to be met by each comfort woman. In case of illness, it was stipulated that 70 percent of medial expenses be paid by the manager. ….in the case of a women for whom more than 1.500 yen had been paid in advance at the time of her recruitment, she would receive at least 40 percent of her taking….

page 55
Obviously the managers took advantage of the lack of education and the naivety of their “employees,” and gave them as little information as possible regarding their due payments and expenses that the manager were expected to meet.(Japan’s Comfort Women/Yuki Tanaka)

Korea

The”debt bondage system” is the most prominent manifestation of exploitation. …A woman’s debt increases each time she borrows money from the owner–to get medical treatment, to send money to her family, to cover an emergency, to bribe police officers and VD clinic workers….women cannot leave prostitution at will.(Sex Among Allies
by Katharine H. S. Moon)

scale
Japan

Hata has estimated there were up to 20,000 “comfort women,” while Yoshimi says the figure was between 50,000 and over 200,000.(Japtan Times March 20, 2007/

Korea

From the interview with the women, it was made clear that there were cases where Korean women were raped and made prostitutes by military officers.
In October 1947 before the US military abolished the official system of prositutute, the number of “official prostitutes” were 2124.
In October 1948, the number of prositutes had increased as much as 50000 or more .
After Korean War, the number of prositutes was more than 300000.(OhmyNews(2002-02-26)

Government involvement
Japan

the inquiry has revealed that the Government had been involved in the establishment of comfort stations, the control of those who recruited comfort women, the construction and reinforcement of comfort facilities, the management and surveillance of comfort stations, the hygiene maintenance in comfort stations and among comfort women, and the issuance of identification as well as other documents to those who were related to comfort stations(Statement by Chief Cabinet Secretary Koichi Kato(July 6, 1992)

Korea

the South Korean army also operated its own “military comfort system” during and until immediately after the Korean War, from 1951 to 1954. (Chung-Hee
Women’s Sexual Labor and State in Korean History)

Korea Registered “Comfort Women” for UN Soldiers (March 21st, 2007 occidentalism)

U.S. military-oriented prostitution in Korea is not simply a matter of women walking the streets and picking up U.S. soldiers for a few bucks. It is a system that is sponsored and regulated by two governments, Korean and American (through the U.S. military).

Support for the former victims
Japan
Japanese activists visited Korea to search for the comfort women. Backed up Japanese activists and Korean organization, the former comfort women came forward.

Despite the financial generosity of the South Korean government’s own fund for former comfort women, the South Korean government and NGOs used it and other means as instruments of pressure and intimidation against Korean women who otherwise would have sought assistance from the Asian Women’s Fund.

The government and NGO tend to use ex-comfort women to criticize Japan and to demand conpensation,but they did little to help us. Rather, Japanese people helped ex-comfor t women to receive medical check-ups,to file suit , carry out the funeral and other minor things, and they have showed continuous concern and served us well.(지만원)

Korea

most camptown prostitutes, especially of the early generations, refuse to discuss their past

The vast majority of these women have experienced in common the pain of contempt and stigma from the mainstream Korean society. These women have been and are treated as trash, “the lowest of the low,” in a Korean society characterized by classist (family/educational status-oriented) distinctions and discrimination.

(sex among allies)

Apology and the fund
Japan

Kato hief Cabinet Secretary 1992
The Government again would like to express its sincere apology and remorse to all those who have suffered indescribable hardship as so-called “wartime comfort women”, irrespective of their nationality or place of birth.

Kono the Chief Cabinet Secretary 1993
The Government of Japan would like to take this opportunity once again to extend its sincere apologies and remorse to all those, irrespective of place of origin, who suffered immeasurable pain and incurable physical and psychological wounds as comfort women.

Murayama Prime Minister 1995
The problem of the so-called wartime comfort women is one such scar, which, with the involvement of the Japanese military forces of the time, seriously stained the honor and dignity of many women. This is entirely inexcusable. I offer my profound apology to all those who, as wartime comfort women, suffered emotional and physical wounds that can never be closed.

Hashimoto Prime Minister 1998
Recognizing that the issue of comfort women, with an involvement of the Japanese military authorities at that time, was a grave affront to the honor and dignity of large numbers of women, I would like to convey to Your Excellency my most sincere apologies and remorse to all the women who underwent immeasurable and painful experiences and suffered incurable physical and psychological wounds as comfort women

Koizumi Prime Minister 2001
As Prime Minister of Japan, I thus extend anew my most sincere apologies and remorse to all the women who underwent immeasurable and painful experiences and suffered incurable physical and psychological wounds as comfort women.
(Mofa)

I, as Prime Minister of Japan, expressed my apologizes, and also expressed my apologizes for the fact that they were placed in that sort of circumstance.

Asian Womens fund was set up.

Korea
None.

Surely you support the resolution to make South Korea apologize for the first time. No?
The resolution, far from being anti-Korean, is quite pro-Koreans. It simply suggests (a resolution is not a demand) that Korea start to align itself with the 21st Century and other great powers.