７０６５号にて、米国のＰＢＳという公共放送テレビにゲスト出演した古森氏が、慰安婦問題に
ついて、ホストと意見交換している内容は、ＯＮＬＩＮＥで調べたら、以下が掴めた。
In Depth: Comfort Women / Show 313
Fareed Zakaria: Japan's new Prime Minister Shinzo Abe sparked outrage in Asia and beyond when he
recently said that there was no evidence that Japan's Army had forced women to work in military
brothels during World War II. The acknowledgement of and apologies for the so-called comfort women
has been a stumbling block to better relations with Japan's powerful neighbors China and South
Korea. We are joined by Yoshihisa Komori of Japan's daily Sankei Shimbum for a closer look at this
hot topic. Komori why did Abe feel he had to make that statement?
Yoshihisa Komori: Because he has been asserting that the Japanese military as a matter of policy
never coerced the recruitment of young women in Asia. There have been some isolated--isolated
cases where soldiers and officers who are defying the order from [inaudible] forcefully taken
away--some unfortunate ladies--young ladies, China or Indonesia, but--but again there's no proof
that the Japanese military as a policy--as a whole did such thing.
Fareed Zakaria: But the number of women involved, the scale of it, seems to suggest some kind of
systematic effort and the women themselves claim that they were made to--they were almost
screened by military authorities so it does seem to have a--a systemic or institutional aspect to
the--to the policy.
Yoshihisa Komori: Yes; I--I think Japanese leadership and the people acknowledge that there's a
systematic involvement or systematic running of brothels of prostitution--the systematic way. But
again it's based on a voluntary basis and there was--there were--
Fareed Zakaria: You mean voluntary by the military officers--not by the women?
Yoshihisa Komori: No, no, by women; you--you may be surprised to hear this but there are lots of the
newspaper ads and some other commercial advertisement for recruitment for those women but remind
you though sadly the prostitution per se was legal in those days--not just in Japan and there's
--between women and the Japanese military there’s a huge sort of business people who were running
these brothels for the military--maybe at the request of the military. So yes; the military was involved
but the military never as a policy was coercing those--those women and that's the sort of complexity
of--of the issue.
Fareed Zakaria: But--but there are certainly women who claim to have been coerced.
Yoshihisa Komori: There are a few cases--coerced by those merchants--merchants of prostitution and
sometimes they were--the whole family was in debt and still their parents decided to pretty much
sell--so human trafficking in other words--the very saddest form that sold those soldiers to--I mean
daughters to prostitution houses in exchange for some money. So in that case on the individual basis
on the part of women yes there is a coercion--.
Fareed Zakaria: But the military was paying for it--just to get at this institutional nature of--of the
sex trade; as I understand it the soldiers were not paying for the prostitutes. The military as--as an
institution was paying--was contracting with the intermediaries, buying the services of these women
and providing them to its--to its soldiers.
Yoshihisa Komori: But each soldier was paying--that--the individual.
Fareed Zakaria: The individual?
Yoshihisa Komori: The individual--the whole record and many of the women again I don't want to
sound like I'm endorsing those sad obviously wrong acts but the--but the fact remains on one hand
that those--some of the women were making a lot of money--on the record. They were
sending--they're remitting their money home to their parents and some of them were making much
more money than the Japanese Prime Minister.
Fareed Zakaria: So--so you're--but you're saying that the military in its official capacity never paid for
these services?
Yoshihisa Komori: No; they probably paid for the--the people who are running the prostitution houses.
Fareed Zakaria: And the set up; I mean these were--these were--
Yoshihisa Komori: But the sex itself was not--that was--
Fareed Zakaria: But there was a setup; there were houses in which on military camps there were
places where this was being done. The military must have been housing these people--.
Yoshihisa Komori: Yes; that's right.
Fareed Zakaria: They created the infrastructure.
Yoshihisa Komori: They created the infrastructure and for that the Japanese government and
successive Prime Ministers acknowledged the wrongdoing of the past and apologized.
Fareed Zakaria: Why is it that--that apology if it was made seems to be one that has not been--been
accepted or taken as a real apology in either South Korea or China?
Yoshihisa Komori: See there's a certain element outside Japan that would never seem to be willing to
accept the Japanese apology. Succession--succession--I mean all the Japanese Prime Ministers in the
past 14 years--15 years individually or collectively apologized but this--that's not enough and so
now--now they say that we have to pass the a [inaudible] resolution for apology you know that--just
a hurdle has always--has been raised. But--but remind you this--this is a part of the War effort and
the whole War effort conducted by Japan was punished--punished to death. We paid the price; all
those War criminals have been tried and executed. The entire nation of [inaudible] subjected itself to
the winners of the--victors of World War II resulting in [inaudible] execution and reparation and the
San Francisco Peace Treaty and all that you know. So what more can we do? That's our feeling you
know--they're nitpicking and I think the essence of this issue from the Japanese perspective is
double-jeopardy, double-standards, and a tinge of racism. The--why do we have to be held
responsible forever and ever for something that our--the people in the two generations--three
generations ago did and we acknowledged that was a wrong thing. We [inaudible] it; we apologized
for it but again somehow the way we apologized is not enough or the way we paid money was not
enough--it just comes again and again and again. And look at Japan now; it's a purely democratic sort
of--have a lot of faith in the democracy, humanism, and we have been making a very significant
contribution to the international humanitarian causes, [ODA] or other forms; why do we have to be so
attacked and put in a sort of inferior position morally I mean?
Fareed Zakaria: You said racism but the attacks are really coming from South Korea and China. The
United States has actually been very quiet on this issue as an official matter--.
Yoshihisa Komori: Look at the--what’s going on--House of Representatives in the US--.
Fareed Zakaria: No; I mean the Executive Branch has not been pushing you hard on this. It's--it's
China and South Korea that you're facing the most criticism from.
Yoshihisa Komori: So we--criticism now coming is from the United States. New York Times, the Los
Angeles Times, Boston Globe--they are bashing Japan and the Japanese leadership as if there is
something wrong in the Japanese DNA. None of us was around when these things happened; the
comparison between Germany and Japan what the Nazi Germany did just annihilation, premeditated
decision made at the top of the national government to annihilate the--one entire race--ethnic group;
that had nothing to do with War, whereas in Japan there’s no such thing remotely even. Everything
that Japan has been accused of it happened in the battlefield with the parties--the warring parties.
Fareed Zakaria: You know that it causes problems for Japan in East Asia, particularly with the Chinese
and the--and the South Koreans, whatever the merits of the issue. Why did Abe feel--why did the
Prime Minister feel he had to do something like this now? Is it some people claim that--that he--some
people claim that he has been losing ground in the polls; he needed to sure up his support and this
was a way of throwing a--an issue to his nationalistic right-winged base.
Yoshihisa Komori: No; this--I--I really have to make the table turnaround--turn the table around. Abe
only--Prime Minister Abe only reacted to the bunch of questions raised by the Japanese reporters on
the resolution that was brought and to be--about to be voted on in the House of Representatives of
the United States. So our question is why--why do they have to bring up this issue now? We haven't
said anything about this. We have not--either--you know negatively or positively; so only because of
this House of Representatives resolution did Abe have to say something because the resolution
specifically calls for un-equitable or no--un--un--something apology--something, an apology--a
national apology or something which Abe said that he’s--I have apologized, so you know he doesn't
need to apologize anymore.
Fareed Zakaria: But he also said that the military was not involved in an official capacity.
Yoshihisa Komori: So official capacity or not that's policy; I mean that's pretty much an established
fact. I mean you really have to show us you know and the military is a top level. They made a
decision--need proof that they are coerced--that they are ordering them--coerced recruitment of the
young women.
Fareed Zakaria: How does Japan get out of this--this situation? When--when Japan tried to get
permanent status--permanent seat in the UN Security Council it was stunning how little support it
had. I mean in all of Asia the only country that--that gave it its qualified support was Singapore. So
how--and--and this--despite the fact that Japan has given tens of billions of dollars of aid to all of
these countries and I think it's almost $30 billion to--to China alone--how does Japan get out of this
trap where its image seems tied to what happened during World War II and its--its reaction and its
handling of that past?
Yoshihisa Komori: The past 50 years or so I think the Japanese attitude I think as well as government
policy to--is to say nothing against any charges--not just--by showing--by showing our democratic
nature and the humanitarian policy but by these--by policies. But certainly that--that didn't work so I
think what you may be seeing from now is the Japanese leadership or Japanese people are speaking
out. For instance there's no such thing as a military--top decision--policy decision to coerce women
even though there--there are people who say there are--there was, but so now I think you--we--I
think people more and more need to be speaking out--engaged in a dialogue or a discussion or--or a
debate. I think quietly accepting any charge and by doing all those good things just doesn't work, so
there's a profound disappointment, sadness, resentment on the part of many people in Japan now.
You may be seeing a new Japan because this is seriously beginning to erode the Japanese American
alliance because the kind of people whose pride and other feelings are hurt by this--this--you know
incessant accusation against Japan are the people that--who--who most vigorously supported the
alliance. They're more based on democracy with the United States; why would countries like India or
Australia, Britain or France--you know? But somehow they take something because there's a--even
behind this current move against Japan there's a Chinese move because Congressman Mike Honda of
California has been receiving a huge amount of political donations for the Chinese--Chinese activists
who are associated with the Chinese organization and so interestingly there's very little supportive
actors from Korea. So I see this as a diplomatic maneuver on the part of certain countries to keep
Japan in a emasculated way or inferior way--just portraying Japan as if something--the country or
the--the people who are sort of genetically wrong or something--inferior. So that's how strongly I
feel.
Fareed Zakaria: On that--well it’s always a pleasure to talk to you Komori; thank you.
Uncomfortable History
Approximately 200,000 Asians served as “comfort women” during World War Two
The women came from Japanese colonies and occupied territories and included Japanese prostitutes
as well
By some estimates, Korea provided 20% of the “comfort women” or 40,000 in all
Source: Durham Herald Sun
以上、Foreign Exchange with Zakaria から引用した。古森氏、よく頑張ってくれていた。
このホスト自身、よくこの慰安婦問題を調べていない、という印象が強い、三国人らが騒ぐから一緒になって
騒ぐ、というのだろう。下院とて同様だろう。ただ、そうやって火をつけ、毛唐らを騒がせるようにもっていく
のが三国人だ、と冷ややかにみたところで、ああして米国を味方につけると、そこは白を黒にしかねない勢いが
生じてくる。これが怖い。かつての大戦も然り。日支事変当時、蒋介石夫人、宋女史が巧みに米政界を泳ぎ、米国側の
支持をとりつけ、米政界に「悪者は日本だ」を植え付けるのに成功した。
今、同じようなことが起きている。六五余年前の繰り返した。そうした点では、日本は何らその欠点を反省し、
挽回していない。相変わらす、世界への表現が下手。だから、不利な立場にばかり追い込まれている。
口では勝てないから、堪忍袋の帯が切れたら、即実力行使に入る ・・・まさか繰り返すことはあるまいのう。■
元へ戻る