Subj : Comfort Girls
To   : All
From : Lee Lofaso
Date : Mon Jul 22 2013 09:57:02

Hello Everybody,

Some discussion has been had in this echo concerning comfort girls,
or comfort women.  Many people around the world have been misled
by the term.  While there were a handful of cases where young girls
were forced by individual Japanese soldiers to have sex with them
and/or their units, this was not the norm.

For Japan's high command, comfort women and condoms were essential
supplies for the imperial troops.  Chaste teenage virgins were most
desirable.  However, Japanese officers and soldiers did not round up
scared little girls who were running away from them.  Nothing could
have been farther from the truth.  The girls came to them, willingly
offering their sexual services to the officers and soldiers. As long
as they had money (and food or other favors) to spend.

Almost all the women known as "comfort girls" or "comfort women"
willingly sold their services to the Japanese for money.  IOW, they
were prostitutes.

These "comfort women" were put under the control of brother owners
and were paid for the sexual service they performed for Japanese
soldiers.  That is good old-fashioned brother prostitution - by
anybody's definition.  The brothels were licensed by and under the
control of the Japanese military.

Were these women forcibly abducted by the Japanese army?  Were these
women forced to be comfort women?  Even Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo
Abe was extremely skeptical of that, and has openly denied those
allegations.

Think it out.  To recap what Japanese have said for decades -

Comfort women were prostitutes like prostitutes. These prostitutes
were put under the control of brothel owners and were paid for their
services.  The entire system was not criminal.  And most certainly
not anything amounting to "war crimes" or "crimes against humanity".

For more on this subject, read this most excellent book -

"Sexual Violence and Postcolonial Memory in Korea and Japan", by
C. Sarah Soh, professor of anthropolgy at San Francisco University.

--Lee


 * SLMR 2.1a * "Your raincheck is in the mail." - KFC

--- Maximus 3.01
 * Origin: Xaragmata / Adelaide SA telnet://xaragmata.mooo.com (3:800/432)

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