When you mention something about "comfort women" relating to the Japanese military, you should not use the word "sex slaves," because they were not slaves at all — just prostitutes who earned a lot of money. Fictions have been created and exaggerated by people who have tried to derive an apology and money from the Japanese government.

Japan does not have a history of slavery. People are polite by nature as was seen during the Tohoku disaster. The Japanese word ianfu ("comfort woman") itself came from Japanese politeness to soften the plain and rude term "prostitute."

Some Koreans claim that up to 200,000 Korean woman were abducted and forced to be sex slaves by the Japanese military. How is it, then, that Korean men did not resist this large-scale abduction of their daughters or sisters? Surely they were not all weak-kneed. You would think that riots and disturbances must have occurred as a result. Yet I have never heard of such an incident as historical fact.

koichi katsuta
yokohama

The opinions expressed in this letter to the editor are the writer's own and do not necessarily reflect the policies of The Japan Times.