Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Well, this should go over well

There is some real tone-deafness (at best) at work here:

A prominent Japanese politician has described as "necessary" the system by which women were forced to become prostitutes for World War II troops.

Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto said on Monday that the "comfort women" gave Japanese soldiers a chance "to rest".

On Tuesday, Japanese ministers tried to distance themselves from his remarks.

Some 200,000 women in territories occupied by Japan during WWII are estimated to have been forced to become sex slaves for troops.
Ugh.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ugh is right.

He is co-leader of the conservative nationalist Japan Restoration Party, a political party that recently merged with the conservative Sunrise Party.

I'm guessing re-writing history* is something conservatives worldwide have in common.

* As Driftglass calls it, "Strategic Forgettery".

Montag said...

"On Tuesday, Japanese ministers tried to distance themselves from his remarks."

No surprise there. The Japanese government has generally been trying to distance itself from that issue ever since the surviving comfort women have been trying to get compensation.

pansypoo said...

since they LOST, i'd say IT WASN'T.

Anonymous said...

The Japanese have never really acknowledged their numerous and horrific crimes committed during WWII. They have instead successfully painted themselves as victims. Everybody knows about what the Germans did, but few Americans know about the medical experimentation, the comfort women, Nanjing, etc.