{"id":31889,"date":"2013-09-04T11:08:39","date_gmt":"2013-09-04T07:08:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/?p=31889"},"modified":"2013-09-04T11:08:39","modified_gmt":"2013-09-04T07:08:39","slug":"japan-and-turkey-on-comfort-women-and-genocide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/en\/?p=31889","title":{"rendered":"Japan and Turkey: On \u2018Comfort Women\u2019 and Genocide"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Harut Sassounian<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>Publisher, The California Courier<\/strong><\/p>\n

The sleepy town of Glendale became the center of a major international controversy on July 9, when the City Council approved a memorial to \u2018comfort women\u2019 — a euphemism to describe up to 200,000 young females who were forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese army during its occupation of Korea and neighboring countries before and during World War II.<\/p>\n

The City Council, after hearing conflicting testimonies from members of the local Japanese and Korean communities, approved with a 4 to 1 vote the installation of a monument in Glendale in honor of \u2018comfort women.\u2019 At the unveiling ceremony of the monument, council members Ara Najarian and Zareh Sinanyan expressed sympathy for the plight of \u201ccomfort women,\u2019 as their own Armenian ancestors had suffered from mass atrocities in Turkey.<\/p>\n

Concerned by the parallels drawn between the genocide of Armenians by Turkey during World War I and the Japanese military’s sexual enslavement of \u2018comfort women\u2019 during World War II, the Consulate of Japan in Los Angeles sought a meeting with the Armenian National Committee of America to present its government’s position on this issue.<\/p>\n

During Deputy Consul General Masahiro Suga\u2019s meeting with ANCA, it became evident that the Japanese government had been far more forthcoming regarding the crimes committed by the imperial Japanese army than the Turkish government was on the Armenian Genocide. Mr. Suga explained that Japan had recognized its responsibility for violating the rights of \u2018comfort women\u2019 by issuing an apology, and offering compensation to the victims.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, the \u2018comfort women\u2019 remain dissatisfied with Japan\u2019s acts of \u201catonement,\u201d accusing Japanese officials of making conflicting announcements on this issue. Most \u2018comfort women\u2019 have also rejected the offered financial compensation, claiming that it was partially provided by private sources and not the government of Japan. In 2007, the U.S. House of Representatives adopted a resolution in support of \u2018comfort women,\u2019 urging the Japanese government to \u201cformally acknowledge, apologize, and accept historical responsibility in a clear and unequivocal manner for its Imperial Armed Forces\u2019 coercion of young women into sexual slavery.\u201d<\/p>\n

To find out how Japan\u2019s reaction to the issue of \u2018comfort women\u2019 differed from the Turkish government\u2019s denialist stand on the Armenian Genocide, I interviewed Jun Niimi, the Consul General of Japan in Los Angeles. He fondly spoke about his \u201caffinity\u201d toward Armenians developed during his 1995-98 service at the Japanese Embassy in Tehran, and his subsequent visits to Armenia, while stationed at the Embassy of Japan in Moscow.<\/p>\n

Regarding the Japanese government\u2019s position on \u2018comfort women,\u2019 Mr. Niimi explained that Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama issued a statement in 1995, expressing \u201cdeep remorse\u201d and \u201cheartfelt apology.\u201d Japan also \u201cprovided atonement through the Asian Women\u2019s Fund.\u201d<\/p>\n

Turning to the differences in the reaction of Turkey to the Armenian Genocide and Japan\u2019s to the abuse of \u2018comfort women,\u2019 Consul General Niimi made three points:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe government of Japan is well aware of the tragedy of the Armenian people at the beginning of last century. We would like to express our deepest condolences and sympathy to the victims. It is our strong belief that this kind of tragedy should never be repeated. The second point is regarding the position of the Turkish government. This is about another country\u2019s position. Even though we are aware of that atrocity, yet, we are not in a position to grasp the details of precisely what happened a century ago in that area. So we cannot make a comment on the Turkish government\u2019s position. But, I would like to repeat that we are aware of the tragedy and would like to express our sympathy and condolences. And the third point is that, regardless of the position of the Turkish government, the Japanese government\u2019s position on the issue of \u2018comfort women\u2019 is that it expressed apology and remorse and made efforts to extend support to former \u2018comfort women.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

I informed the Consul General that Japan\u2019s position on the Armenian Genocide is not much different from that of Turkey. I asked Mr. Niimi to relay to his country\u2019s Foreign Ministry that Japan\u2019s lack of acknowledgment of the Armenian Genocide reinforces the skepticism of those who question the Japanese government\u2019s sincerity in dealing fairly with the issue of \u2018comfort women.\u2019<\/p>\n

In response, the Consul General of Japan expressed his understanding that \u201cthe word tragedy doesn\u2019t sound good to you, because it\u2019s genocide.\u201d He promised to convey to his government \u201cthe sentiments of the Armenian community\u201d on this issue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Harut Sassounian Publisher, The California Courier The sleepy town of Glendale became the center…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":31887,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[224,212,137],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-image","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-weekly-news","category-world","post_format-post-format-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31889"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31889\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/31887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}