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Osaka to send letter to San Francisco over ‘comfort women’ statue

Kyodo

OSAKA – The Osaka Municipal Government will ask San Francisco’s city council to carefully examine a resolution that supports establishment of a statue honoring the “comfort women” who worked at wartime Japanese military brothels, officials said.

Osaka City Hall will send a letter to the assembly of its U.S. sister city expressing concerns that erecting such a statue could negatively affect the city-to-city relationship as well as diplomatic ties between Japan and the United States.

The letter will be sent by Sept. 8, when the San Francisco council, known as the board of supervisors, is scheduled to start debate on the resolution, Osaka officials said Tuesday.

“It’s true that women’s human rights were abused during World War II, but it’s not fair to say only Japan did something special,” Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto said at a news conference in July, when he indicated his plan to send such a letter to San Francisco.

The comfort women were mainly Asian women forced into brothels for the Japanese military before and during World War II.

According to the Osaka Municipal Government, the San Francisco city council will discuss a resolution that states an estimated 200,000 Asian and other women were forced to serve as sex slaves for the Japanese military during the war.

In 2013, the outspoken Hashimoto said Japan’s wartime system of sexual servitude was “necessary to maintain discipline” in the Japanese military before and during World War II, sparking criticism at home and abroad. He later said he did not personally hold the view that those women were necessary but was only describing the situation during wartime.

The San Francisco council subsequently adopted a resolution condemning Hashimoto’s remarks. Hashimoto also canceled a planned visit to San Francisco after he received a letter from a senior San Francisco official that urged him to do so due to the furor caused by his comments.

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Toru Hashimoto | KYODO

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  • Firas Kraïem

    There it goes again. Looking forward to SF’s answer.

  • anoninjapan

    oh dear oh dear….he simply can’t stop himself. Repeating the same old tired mantra. Me too, i’m looking forward to SF’s official reply..

  • J.P. Bunny

    Back at it once again. People in Osaka don’t like his ideas and plans, so on to Plan B: sticking his nose in places that are none of his concern. Should be fun to watch.

  • Jake Ashton

    missing from the article and debate: south korean and us army use of comfort women in vietnam.
    if they are going to erect a statue, it shouldn’t be limited to just japan and world war ii. these types of atrocities have occurred throughout history and are still ongoing in certain areas.

  • truthseeker

    I think Mr.Hashimoto would like to know the truth.
    So here is my opinion about the truth of ‘Comfort Women’.
    First, please compare the sentences below.

    During the WWⅡ in Asia, the prostitution was Legal.
    The number of ‘Comfort Women’ is estimated from 20,000 to 200,000.

    Now(21st century) in South Korea, the prostitution is ILLegal.
    The number of prostitutes is estimated, several hundreds of thousands.
    At least 260,000 women in 2003.
    (Source : The Korean Institute of Criminology)
    Others allege,it amounts to 500,000~1,200,000.
    (Source : Korean Feminist Institution 2003.3.6.)

    The economic condition now is much better than that during the World War Ⅱ.
    In this abundant society, even prohibited by law,
    still exist enough number of prostitutes in South Korea.
    As the statistics above show, it must have been easy to hire the prostitutes
    legally during the WWⅡin the Korean Peninsula(including North Korea now).

    So I have to conclude that,
    the large part of ‘Comfort Women’ were the voluntary prostitutes,
    from numerical and economical analysis.

    People in the world should notice the situation of sex industry in South Korea.
    UN had better recommend South Korea to improve the life of Korean women.
    I hope Mr. Ban Ki-moon will do a good job.