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Former Asahi Shimbun reporter says threats against him are getting worse

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Staff Writer

A former Asahi Shimbun reporter who has sustained a spate of personal attacks relating to his coverage of so-called “comfort women” years ago says the threats against him are growing worse.

Takashi Uemura said the assault against him and Hokusei Gakuen University in Sapporo, where he works as a lecturer, has escalated to the point that even his 17-year-old daughter, whose mother is a South Korean, is facing death threats.

A threatening letter the president of the university received in early February read: “I will kill his (Uemura’s) daughter without fail. I will kill her no matter how many years might take. I will kill her at any cost.”

“What is happening grieves me,” Uemura said. “My article appeared 24 years ago. My daughter is 17 years old. She has nothing to do with it. She was not even born at that time. . . . Attacks on me, my family and the university show no sign of stopping.”

Uemura filed a ¥16.5 million libel lawsuit in January against Tsutomu Nishioka, a professor at Tokyo Christian University, and Bungeishunju Ltd., the publisher of the weekly Shukan Bunshun. He lodged the suit after the magazine ran an article claiming Uemura had fabricated an Aug. 11, 1991, report on comfort women, a euphemism for those who were forced to work in Japanese military brothels before and during World War II.

Uemura was speaking at a news conference after the Tokyo District Court held the first hearing of the case on Monday.

He said that because Nishioka’s criticism of him had gone beyond a reasonable limit, he had no recourse but to go to court.

Nishioka’s writing characterized him as “my enemy who continues to injure the reputation of Japan,” Uemura said.

“Because Mr. Nishioka has identified me as his enemy, the practice of exchanging arguments and counterarguments in the area of free speech does not work any more. So I would like to have cool-headed discussions in court.”

The article in question was based on a tape recording offered by a South Korean group dealing with the issue of Joshi Teishin-tai (Women’s Volunteer Corps). The article reported testimony by the first South Korean woman to come forward and speak about being forced to provide sex to Imperial Japanese Army troops, and was the first report of its kind to be published by a Japanese newspaper.

It was followed by another article published on Dec. 25, 1991, in which Uemura reported on an interview Japanese lawyers conducted with the woman, Kim Hak-sun, in South Korea.

Shukan Bunshun’s Feb. 6 edition last year quoted Nishioka as saying Uemura “fabricated a story,” mainly on the grounds that his article said the woman in question was taken to a military brothel as a member of the Joshi Teishin-tai, and that it gave the impression that she was “forcibly taken” there.

Nishioka also alleges that Uemura’s article was aimed at helping his Korean mother-in-law, who is a leader of a group of South Korean war victims.

A third-party committee set up by the Asahi Shimbun concluded in December that the article in question did not distort facts to help his relatives. It, however, said that the article gave the impression that the woman had been “forcibly taken.”

Uemura said the expression “forcibly taken” was not used in the article and that even a competing publication, the Sankei Shimbun, has used the phrase.

“Why am I alone singled out as a target for attack?” Uemura said. “I did not make up my articles.”

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Former Asahi Shimbun reporter Takashi Uemura speaks during a news conference on Monday in Tokyo. | KYODO

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  • taitai

    when Kim Hak-sun came forward, Asahi Shimbun published an article of the “scoop” by Takashi Uemura, which reported, “It turns out that one of the ‘Military Korean Comfort Women’ who were forced to the battle field to engage in prostitution activities with the Japanese soldiers, lives in Seoul.”
    Following that, in January, 1992, the newspaper published an article that revealed a notification concerning the management of comfort women brothels submitted by the Japanese military, claiming, “The material shows the military’s involvement.” Since the Asahi explanation of comfort women at this time had claimed that those women were forced to accompany the military as a volunteer corps, the Prime Minister, Kiichi Miyazawa, apologized to the Korean president, Roh Tae-woom, when he visited Korea right after the article had been published.
    However, in actuality, that notification was a message to traders: “Do not kidnap the comfort women”. In fact, there is no hard evidence, nor any document, which suggests that the military had abducted those women. Though, because the Korean government had asked for reparations from the Japanese government, it became an issue between the two.

    • taitai

      When Japanese first heard the story of Kim Hak-sun, she was saying that she was “sold by her parents,” and it was written so on the petition as well. Even today, no one knows the process of how her testimony was replaced to reflect that she had been “abducted by the military” after the report by Asahi Shimbun.
      There is suspicion that the article of the reporter, Uemura, had been fabricated, as the leader of the plaintiff party was the mother-in-law of Uemura. On the other hand, considering that he had accepted the lies told by Yoshida, of the “women’s volunteer corps,” he might have simply believed Yoshida’s testimony, convinced that he had “gathered the evidence.”
      It was Yoshiaki Yoshimi, a professor of Chuo University, who cooperated in the interview for Asahi Shimbun. His book, “Military Comfort Women”(Iwanami Shoten Publishers), has been published in English, and this is another cause for further misunderstanding, as it is the only source of reference for populations overseas.
      It was only after the forced company report of Asahi Shimbun that Yoshiaki started to investigate this issue. Therefore, from the beginning, his input on the matter was biased in that it sought to find proof for forced company. Even though the previous notification was meant to prohibit abduction, Mr. Yoshimi had wrongly interpreted the message, reading it as if it had been an order to abduct. This caused more confusion.
      but Uemura never apologize his mistakes and make Japanese very angry.

      • Steve

        After line after tedious line of incomprehension, the last 4 words of your post clarify your position. Thanks for the reasoned debate.

      • Toolonggone

        First of all, Uemura is NOT responsible for ‘mistakes’ his former employer made in comfort women reporting. His articles are NOT the very first news report appeared in the Japanese media, either. Yomiuri and Mainichi made comfort women’s news report in the late 80s before Uemura’s articles came out in August/December 1991. Second, nowhere did he ever use the word “forced or abducted by the military” in his previous articles. Conservative gangs like Tsutomu Nishioka & Yoshiko Sakurai completely ignored that, and chose to make shameless ad hominem attack and distortion in incendiary weekly tabloids like Shukan Shincho, Shukanbunshun, and WILL. They spread demagoguery to instigate public hysteria in a way to direct at Uemura–despite the fact he has nothing to do with reporting of Seiji Yoshida’s testimony.

        You are also wrong on Yoshimi. He never agrees on account of Seiji Yoshida’s bogus testimony. What he agrees with dissenters is the existence of ‘collaborators’ that might have provided aids to the Japanese military in recruiting victims. It is Nobuo Ikeda and like-minded apologists who made a false accusation of him due to their inability to get an important point he made. He has never argued that Japanese military took comfort women by force–contrary to deniers and apologists suggest.

        It is Asahi executives who made a horrible decision on errors in Yoshida testimonies and subsequent actions. See what happened after their apology and corrections? It led to conservative bully’s scapegoating, unnecessary public bashing, and libertine tabloids astroturfing.

      • taitai

        Non,Non. Uemura has the big responsibility of Kim Hak-sun’s trumped-up story.Uemura wrote a fabricated report about Kim.because Kim’s submitting a written complaint to the court was before Uemura’s report.Kim’s complaint said ” I was taken by　father-in-law to Japanese Army” Uemura checked Kim’s complaint before he wrote an article on Kim.Nevertheless,Uemura omitted ” Kim was brought to Japanese Army by her father and wrote “Kim was forcibly seized by Japanese Army”.to Asahi Shimbun.Plus Uemura knew quite well Women’s Volunteer Corps and comfort women　were two entirely different things (Women’s Volunteer Corps were just another recruiting labors in time of war）　but Uemura wrote articles that　Women’s Volunteer Corps were Comfort women.Japanese Army deceived Korean Women .Recently, He was criticized his fabricated reports by a press person,He never apologize　and He said “There is no reason to apologize because other Japanese media wired report quoted in Asahi Shimbun.Why do you all blame me?”.Uemura is a liar and I have absolutely no sympathy for Uemura.

      • Toolonggone

        What Uemura wrote in Asahi article is: “(she[Kim Hak-sun]) was ‘tricked [by local brokers] into being escorted by the Japanese imperial army.” There is no such word ‘forced’ or ‘seized’ in his pieces.Moreover, the term “Women’s Volunteer Corps” and “Comfort Women” are NOT his coinage. They are the words directly used in Korean newspaper–even before Asahi made a controversial report on Seiji Yoshida’s testimony in 1982. These words are ‘synonym’ in Korean context, and have been used interchangeably in both their spoken and written language for many years. Uemura may be partially responsible for causing confusion to the readers who don’t know how these two words played out in Korean context. But it is insufficient(and ludicrous) to conclude that ‘he is a lair’ because these two terms have similar meanings in context. Only those who don’t like Asahi and anyone belongs to Asahi would make false accusations like Nishioka, Sakurai, and like-minded people who would miss no opportunity to spew demagogue in garbled weekly magazines.

  • SH

    As all the respectable media and fair-minded world organizations have said, respectable historians and politicians and academics and honest peoples agree and believe that the Japanese Imperial Army was as bad as the Nazis, killing tens of millions of innocent Chinese/Korean/Asian children, women, men, old people. And its Unit 731 has been proven to have done inhuman experiments on Chinese civilians (just like the Nazis did to the Jews etc.). And for brainwashed Japanese people and Abe to try to change the facts that all the tens of thousands/hundreds of thousands/millions of Korean/Chinese/Asian women were not systematically and forcibly used as sex slaves by the Japanese army shows how Japan has not changed for the better. The more Japan denies, the more shame it brings on itself and the more damage it does to its so-called “70 years of progressive peace.” Collective amnesia is so bad enough, but trying to censor, whitewash and change the evidence/facts is beyond forgiveness. And now Abe is teaching already brainwashed Japanese children to be like him: to ignore and forget some of the most horrific atrocities mankind has witnessed. That is why papers like Asahi Shinbun and honest reporters like Uemura are heroes, beacons of hope for a Japan whose people are too brainwashed or too coward to fight for the truth.

  • Toolonggone

    Amazing how the bunch of accusers are making a mockery out of Asahi blunder for this insidious scapegoating. Nishioka and Sakurai are the two representatives of conservative demagogue.

  • taitai

    Uemura wrote a bylined article on Korean comfort women.Uemura wrote “One victim, Kim was taken away by Japanese Army for the sake of women’s volunteer Corps, she forced to serve as comfort women for Japanese soldiers.and Kim filed a damage suit to the Court for forced comfort woman in December of that year but Kim’s 　complaint　says ” I was taken by father and I and father went to China.” even though another minutes of the testimony,Kim didn’t say she was taken away by Japanese Army.Kim clearly said “I was taken by my father to Japanese Army’s camp.”

    In fact,Kim was a prostitute, who was sold by her father.

    Asahi Shimbun has comment on Uemura’s bylined article.Asahi Shimbun said ” At that time,in South Korea,Comfort women and women’s volunteer Corps were mixed,Korean women’s volunteer Corps were mistaken as being synonymous with “Comfort women” and Uemura also misunderstood those words.

    I want to say to Uemura and Asahi Shimbun “That’s not true,you all are lier. You all are Japanese so very know the big difference between women’s volunteer Corps and Comfort women. And However,Uemura never apologize for his false report in spite of Uemura wrote bylined article. In spite of Uemura said “It’s the big problem that women’s volunteer Corps is mistakenly used to imply “Comfort Women”. Uemura never never apologize for his false report to the world.

    And now,Uemura is spreading misinformation about ” Comfort women” in the u.s.