Korean Job Discussion Forums

[nuthatch]

Ex-Prostitutes Say South Korea and U.S. Enabled Sex Trade Near Bases

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/08/world/asia/08korea.html?_r=1&hp

[jkelly80]

I'd imagine they tried to contain it and prevent too much VD, corruption, and human trafficking, which is what every country should do.

[Bigfeet]

Interesting, the US pretty much did the same thing in the Philippines at Subic Bay. As for comparing it to comfort women during World War 2, that's a farce.

[jkelly80]

[coffeeandmilk]

[RACETRAITOR]

In other news, water is wet.

[Hater Depot]

An American researcher published a book reaching the same conclusion over a decade ago.

http://www.amazon.com/Sex-Among-Allies-Katharine-Moon/dp/0231106432

[crazy_arcade]

people trying to take advantage of a situation for money...

what's new?

[blaseblasphemener]

A Korean journalist writing a story and not once mentioning Korea's ubiquitous (sic) non-GI sex industry. Can't have Korea losing face, I guess.

[earthbound14]

I've read a few other articles and journals that support the claims of these women. Women were used to grease the wheels of politics between the US and Korea.

However what they are requesting and what they are comparing this to are not entirely logical.

They were not coerced and they were paid to have sex....they were prostitutes. Hardly the same as being comfort women.

They blame the Korean government...OK. Prostitution is not a really nice trade to get into and being a pimp is not a really nice thing for your country to do. But still, women chose to play along. I do think it would be nice if those involved owned up though.

They blame the American Army. Well, this isn't news, they Yanks have done this all over Asia. Not a great thing to do.

But the big problem is that seem to be under the impression that this was something that only came about because of the American Army, that this was something that only happened during Korea's economic rise.

The fact is this is something Korean men have done and still do. Perhaps the article should go after Korean society and Korean men in general.

Women grease the wheels of all business in Korea, and these days far more between Koreans than any outside company. Even within the UN Koreans feel the need to grease business with booze and sex while many UN employees from out of the country try to avoid this crap.

This article, while interesting and valid, omits far greater truths, it blames the US when Korean society is really what is to blame.

This is not something that used to happen between Korea and the Americans....it's something that happens daily in Korea among Koreans.

[blaseblasphemener]

How is this not BETTER than Korean men who have been conscripted to serve in the military for 2-3 years, virtually working for free, with no choice in the matter? These women have some nerve.

[coffeeandmilk]

[Guri Guy]

Korea and South Korea have had a long history of using comfort women. This is hardly anything new.

Here is a good post on the subject debating comfort women. Judge for yourself.

# Matt Says:
August 16th, 2006 at 5:27 pm

In yet more serious note, the comments here reminds me to ask - what is the concensus on accounts of atrocities involving �Comfort Women�?

You know, the outrageous stuff. Aborting babies by sitting on expecting mother�s belly or by stabbing with a sword - so that the mother can get back to work. Doctors administering STD drugs that cause infertility. Women finding out soldiers had served them human meat of a fellow sex slave.

All fiction? All true? Rare events made possible by poor administration, flagging ethics in wartime, unstable soldiers? Were the perps punished? What kind of punishment was administered?

If you read Korean blogs, you�d think it happened all the time. If you read some people�s comments on Occidentalism, you�d think thing like that never happened.

Empraptor, that is a good question that deserves an answer.

First read this 1944 contemporary account of the comfort women from the US army. As far as I know, that report is the only contemporary account that methodically describes what the comfort women were doing, and in what conditions they were doing it. The report is an internal report, not an anti-Japanese propaganda document, so there is no reason to believe that it suffers from any bias or distortions. And despite wjk�s �belief� that these investigators could only speak English, the worlds most sophisticated army was able to come up with some people that could communicate with the girls.

As for aborting baby�s by sitting on a womans belly, well, perhaps Koreans think that is possible or is a traditional Korean method of abortion. Japanese knew how to do medical abortions, so there was no need to sit on anyones belly, or stab anyone with a sword. What do prostitutes in Korea normally do if they get pregnant? Something to think about.

The same with the STD drugs and cannibalism. The Japanese going to the effort of producing a drug that cures STDs and causes infertility? Just because they are bastards that enjoy doing stuff like that, right? The cannibalism is the same - I doubt you could find a Japanese chef willing to prepare human meat. Cannibalism would also destroy the morale of the soldiers. It does not take much thinking to realise that claims like that are nonsense.

Wjk says that pretty women were dragged off the street and forced to become comfort women. If that were true, there would be accounts of Koreans protesting the kidnapping of their daughters. The Korean government claims that 200 000 Korean women were comfort women (a number for which it has never offered any methodology for) - if that were true, do you think that not even one Korean would raise their voice in protest if their female family members were kidnapped off the street?

The most important thing that needs to be asked is �where is the money?�. The 1944 report made it clear that the women all had a �debt�. This �debt� was money paid up front in exchange for future services rendered. Where did the money go? Probably to the comfort womans family. Even if the girl did not know what she was getting into, surely the family members knew they were not getting thousands of yen just so their daughters could do a normal job. It seems a case of families selling their daughters for money. Of course, the report also makes it clear that many were just regular prostitutes that did know what they were getting into an signed up for the money.

Of course, that does not mean the Japanese army does not have any responsibilty. Once the money was paid and the contract (for 6-12 months) sealed with the family stamp, the girl had little way to escape it. I suppose the girl could say she didnt want to have sex with soldiers, but then they would ask her how she is going to pay back her family debt.

I think the comfort woman system was quite shameful, although the Japanese army used the system to prevent rapes of women in war zones. I think Korean society is trying to shift the blame from themselves to an easy target - WW2 Japan. The fact is the average Korean woman was in no danger of becoming a comfort woman. It takes a family willing to accept a small fortune in exchange for their daughters sexual services. The question again is �where did the money go?�.

The comfort women themselves have a choice. Be despised as the worst kind of collaborators, prostitutes for the Japanese, or be victims that were forced into it by the Japanese army. Choosing the latter also means that they might have a chance at �compensation�.

The comfort woman system was wrong. People that did not want to be prostitutes became prostitutes because of family pressure (although again, not all, many knew what they were doing) and the Japanese army did nothing to stop it. That is because in those days in Japan, but especially Korea, women were chattel with little ability to defy the head of the household. However, what the Koreans are doing now is wrong. Korean society is trying to transfer all the responsibility for this on to the Japanese. I dont think I have ever seen Koreans reflect on their role in the comfort women system, or how people could sell their family members to become prostitutes.

http://www.occidentalism.org/?p=309

[jkelly80]

^
That post sucks. The Japanese didnt' engage in cannibalism because it was mean? They didnt' stab people they saw as less than human because they had other means of killing babies? Whoever this guy is, his powers of logic are truly underwhelming. The Japanese have a long and storied history of torturing non-Japanese to death for no special reason in the years between 1920-1945.

Guri you never miss an opportunity to swipe at Korean social conditions c. 1920 when discussing Japanese war crimes. This time by citing the comment section of a website. Here's an idea: post a link, and quote only the relevant info, instead of just throwing up 5 paragraphs of some anonymous person's opinion.

At least you're consistent.

[blaseblasphemener]