Japanese historians scold Japanese PM`s view on comfort women

Japanese history scholars have confronted head-on the history distortion by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Japanese Association for History Research announced a statement on Thursday, “It is an unshakable truth that the Japanese military was deeply involved in and implemented forced mobilization of the so-called comfort women.” The statement is a refutation to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who denies the fact that comfort women were forced into sexual servitude by the Japanese army.

Since its foundation in 1932, the 2,100-member association has been a representative history academic society in Japan. The academic group has been studying the comfort women issue since 1980s. In the statement titled "Criticism against wrongful perception on comfort women of Japanese military driven by the Japanese government leadership and some mass media," the association criticized, “Following Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s view on the comfort women issue is an erroneous behavior, which will make public irresponsible attitude of the Japanese government to the world.”

In the interview with the Dong-A Ilbo at the association office in Tokyo on last Friday, Chairman Toru Kubo, professor of Liberal Arts at Shinshu University, said, “The fact that comfort women were forced to sexual servitude was clearly revealed in Shanxi Province of China. There are multiple Korean victims who testify that they were mobilized by force.”

Kuro said, “Forced mobilization is not limited to ‘breaking into a house and dragging a woman by force,’ which is Prime Minister Abe’s view. It includes all activities in whatever form against a victim’s will, such as cajolery, conning, threatening and trafficking.”

Regarding Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga’s comment on last Wednesday, he said, “(Whether the comfort women were forcefully mobilized to sexual servitude) must be left to history scholars. It was already confirmed by historians. Saying as if it is not confirmed yet is deceiving the Japanese public.” The Japanese professor also said, “You may regard that ‘most’ of history scholars think the same way as our statement."