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chris_J2
Joined: 17 Apr 2006
Location: From Brisbane, Au.
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 Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2007 10:59 pm Post subject: Comfort Women |
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And this from the Japan Times:
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/rc20070311a3.html
From the Washington Post:
"U.S. Ambassador Thomas Schieffer last week advised Tokyo not to renege on the 1993 apology, known as the "Kono Statement", after the chief cabinet secretary in whose name it was issued."
"On Sunday, Abe repeated that the 1993 apology remained in effect. "We have stated our heartfelt apologies to the 'comfort women' at the time who suffered greatly and were injured in their hearts," Abe said in an interview with NHK television. "I want to say that that sentiment has not changed at all."
Sentiments & 'heartfelt apologies' are all very fine & good, but the fact remains that the recommendation to officially apologise, as concluded by the 1993 'Kono Statement', has NEVER passed through Japanese Parliament. |
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bucheon bum
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2007 10:47 am Post subject: |
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From this week's economist:
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| Not all of those euphemistically termed �comfort women� were enslaved: some were already prostitutes, and others had been sold into bondage by their families. But many say they were kidnapped, enslaved and raped. Their testimony, plus documents unearthed in military archives, forced the Japanese government in 1993 to acknowledge responsibility. Now Mr Abe has said that there is no �historical proof� that coercion was involved. In other words, that the women are liars. |
Abe is apparently inept across the board:
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| After his groundbreaking visits to China and South Korea last October, and no doubt helped by North Korea's nuclear test the very day he left Beijing, the new prime minister's approval rating was in the high 70s. Now it has slumped below 40%. |
Scarely an Abe-rration |
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caniff
Joined: 03 Feb 2004
Location: All over the map
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| Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2007 11:10 am Post subject: |
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| stevemcgarrett wrote: |
jinju:
And we can't all have sensational avatars like a panda doing exercises. 
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Sorry to interrupt the debate, but I feel compelled to point out that it's a badger.
http://badgerbadgerbadger.com/ |
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Kuros
Joined: 27 Apr 2004
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| Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2007 9:07 pm Post subject: |
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Rep. Michael Honda's resolution can be found here.
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Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Representatives that the Government of Japan--
(1) should formally acknowledge, apologize, and accept historical responsibility in a clear and unequivocal manner for its Imperial Armed Force's coercion of young women into sexual slavery, known to the world as `comfort women', during its colonial and wartime occupation of Asia and the Pacific Islands from the 1930s through the duration of World War II;
(2) should have this official apology given as a public statement presented by the Prime Minister of Japan in his official capacity;
(3) should clearly and publicly refute any claims that the sexual enslavement and trafficking of the `comfort women' for the Japanese Imperial Armed Forces never occurred; and
(4) should educate current and future generations about this horrible crime while following the recommendations of the international community with respect to the `comfort women'. |
Only the last part of 4 seems to me a bit heavy-handed. Who is the international community and what are their recommendations, exactly?
The rest seems like common sense.
Here is the action history:
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1/31/2007:
Referred to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.
2/1/2007:
Introductory remarks on measure. (CR E234-235)
2/12/2007:
Introductory remarks on measure. (CR E321, E322, E322-323)
3/8/2007:
Introductory remarks on measure. (CR E486-487)
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I wouldn't hold out that the LDP, Japan's Politburo, is going to respond to the measure. |
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stevemcgarrett
Joined: 24 Mar 2006
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| Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2007 12:29 am Post subject: |
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caniff:
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| Sorry to interrupt the debate, but I feel compelled to point out that it's a badger. |
Duly noted, and given that the mascot of my alma mater and home state is a badger, this is inexcusable. Ten lashes of the whip for me. |
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chris_J2
Joined: 17 Apr 2006
Location: From Brisbane, Au.
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stevemcgarrett
Joined: 24 Mar 2006
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| Posted: Sat Mar 17, 2007 11:49 pm Post subject: |
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chris:
You keep providing good weblinks to academics who have uncovered Japanese government documentation of their own policies and effort to "procure" these "comfort women" and yet not only Abe but some of the posters on this forum (involving several related threads) continue to obfuscate, deny, and diminish the importance of this evidence.
As jinju and you know, the Japanese government has never fully come to terms with its complicity in this most horrendous chapter in its history. I no longer believe it is attributable to a collective need to save face, since each succeeding public denial only serves to call renewed attention to the claim. No, I think it's further proof that the far right and its more moderate sympathizers refuse to acknowledge the extent of Japan's war crimes out of nationalistic arrogance in the same manner that they downplay the contributions of ancient Chinese culture to their own civilization. |
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jinju
Joined: 22 Jan 2006
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| Posted: Sun Mar 18, 2007 4:08 am Post subject: |
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| stevemcgarrett wrote: |
| As jinju and you know, the Japanese government has never fully come to terms with its complicity in this most horrendous chapter in its history. |
They never have. "Fully" doesnt belong there. There has never been an official apology from the Japanese government. Its not about saving face. Its about the fact that Japan is run by a bunch of evil old men who sympathize wholeheartedly with what Japan did. |
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