Japanese mayor says that WWII 'comfort women' were necessary

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

Won't that be also due to the association of tattooing with organised crime?

I am not sure that is a natural association anymore for anyone under 50 with a tattoo (and it would probably have to be a spesifc type even if so), mind you this guy does seem to be a bit of a idiot/dick to say the least so you never know.

 

[JimW]

I am not sure that is a natural association anymore for anyone under 50 with a tattoo (and it would probably have to be a spesifc type even if so), mind you this guy does seem to be a bit of a idiot/dick to say the least so you never know.

Yeah, I'm sure that's moved on for most people (met plenty of young Japanese folk with tatts) but as you imply, seems the sort of conservative idiocy he might have in mind.

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

Yeah, I'm sure that's moved on for most people (met plenty of young Japanese folk with tatts) but as you imply, seems the sort of conservative idiocy he might have in mind.

From what I gather from my Japanese friends Japan is a little like england toda y with tthe chithole tory governmn\ent . W
e seem to share the same attitudes.

 

[elbows]

Hashimoto performed in front of the foreign press the other week in response to the controversy and horror his foul words previously created. It didnt go down very well for obvious reasons.

For example the Economist were not terribly amused:

THE scent of blood was in the air at the Tokyo Foreign Correspondents’ Club last week. A rising political star tipped as a candidate for prime minister was facing a hostile crowd of reporters after having uttered a series of controversial bon mots. Most strikingly, Toru Hashimoto (pictured above), the mayor of Osaka and a leader of the right-wing Japan Restoration Party (JRP), said Japan’s organised rape of wartime sex slaves was a necessary evil. Turning to the present day, he also said that “hot-blooded” American soldiers should themselves be using prostitutes more often in Okinawa, which is today home to 75% of the American bases in Japan. In the great tradition of Japanese politics, Mr Hashimoto was expected to bow before his media inquisitors, apologise and move on. He did no such thing.

Mr Hashimoto survived a vote of no-confidence in the Osaka assembly, but the full verdict on the whole performance has yet to emerge—many commentators suspect that Mr Hashimoto has torpedoed his political career. This would be especially extraordinary given his party’s having won a stunning 12m votes in the elections of December 2012, a share that put them ahead of the party of the previous government, the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) as the country’s second-largest.

Mr Hashimoto, who was wooed by Mr Abe earlier this year as a possible political partner, lamented at his press conference that Japan is once again getting bogged down in discussion about the past. “My generation should look ahead and create a better future for our people,” he said. He said this as if he were unaware that he had just spent almost three hours straight talking about the middle of the 20th century.

More about the shit he said, shit the PM and his party says and does including visits to the Yasukuni shrine in the article.

http://www.economist.com/blogs/banyan/2013/06/japans-right-wing-politicians

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

Jesus wept.

 

[Dillinger4]

this is unnecessary.

 

[butchersapron]

Odd one: Japan should follow Nazi route on revising constitution, minister says

Version one:

"I don't want to see this done in the midst of an uproar," Aso said, according to the transcript. Since revisions of the constitution may raise protests, "doing it quietly, just as in one day the Weimar constitution changed to the Nazi constitution without anyone realising it, why don't we learn from that sort of tactic?"

Version two:

"If you listen to the context, it is clear that I have a negative view of how the Weimar constitution got changed by the Nazi regime," he said. "This is a constitution for all. I just don't want [the revision] to be decided amid a ruckus."

And, on top of that, there was no nazi constitution.

 

[elbows]

By the way the Japan Restoration Party suffered disappointing results in the recent election and Hashimoto offered his resignation but was 'convinced to stay' by others in the party.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/20...himoto-in-limbo-after-trouncing/#.UfuVIT1Z-48

http://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0000414937

 

[Tito Puente]

An outspoken nationalist mayor has said the Japanese military's "comfort women" regime of forced prostitution of Asian women before and during the second world war was necessary to maintain discipline in the ranks and provide rest for soldiers who risked their lives in battle.

If you take that comment purely as a fact and in the context of war, the guy is probably right. Now that doesn't excuse the crime in any way. But soldiers rape in war and it no doubt does maintain discipline.

 

[Lea]

If you take that comment purely as a fact and in the context of war, the guy is probably right. Now that doesn't excuse the crime in any way. But soldiers rape in war and it no doubt does maintain discipline.

I disagree. Can't they just have a wank like any other person who doesn't have access to a sexual partner. They'd have to be animals to resort to raping women in order to maintain discipline.

 

[Fez909]

I disagree. Can't they just have a wank like any other person who doesn't have access to a sexual partner. They'd have to be animals to resort to raping women in order to maintain discipline.

Agreed. Tito's position is disgusting.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

Japaneses politicians should just be from banned talking about the war. They seem unable to say anything apart from offending people.

That's a little bit worrying.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

As I said above, my take is the embarrassing thing here is that his minders missed it because they don't think about that history.

You'd think that the people around him would be quite well educated, including a broad education in the history of their own country. But having said that, Japan has long suppressed mention of the various atrocities committed by them during the war, from textbooks etc.

Imagine a modern German politician who'd never heard of or had forgotten about Auschwitz.

 

[Red Storm]

I asked my Korean boss what she thought of the comfort women and she replied: that it was terrible but young men in the heat of battle need women, and if Korea was winning it would have been okay for them to do it. Then she said she thought I would have done it and asked me if that was the case.

 

[Yossarian]

If you take that comment purely as a fact and in the context of war, the guy is probably right. Now that doesn't excuse the crime in any way. But soldiers rape in war and it no doubt does maintain discipline.

What would happen if they were undisciplined - would they go around committing war crimes like rape?

 

[dylanredefined]

What would happen if they were undisciplined - would they go around committing war crimes like rape?

Obviously if you have an undisciplined mob of soldiers looting and rape take place. It is only in the later bit of the 20th century that it was considered a very bad thing before that it was even seen as a perk of the job.
Treat your soldiers somewhat like human beings keep them busy and supervise them and let them know they will be punished if they step out of line and the army won't turn into a murder rape machine.
The imperial Japanese army treated its foot soldiers little better than the Allied POWs whose treatment we consider a war crime.

 

[MikeMcc]

It went further than that though. The Japanese military formalised and condoned the rape and looting, setting up brothels with comfort women.

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

The Japanese were brutal in WW2 and many seem to still consider their behaviour as honourable, which is just really.

Comfort women were dragged from their homes to be repeatedly raped over months and years, often until they died from the abuse. There's no defence of that shit whatsoever.

As to 731 plane, brings to mind the BNP's anti-immigrant poster featuring a Spitfire from 303 squadron

 

[BlackArab]

You'd think that the people around him would be quite well educated, including a broad education in the history of their own country. But having said that, Japan has long suppressed mention of the various atrocities committed by them during the war, from textbooks etc.

Imagine a modern German politician who'd never heard of or had forgotten about Auschwitz.

Selective amnesia about an imperial past isn't unique to the Japanese.

 

[Tito Puente]

They'd have to be animals to resort to raping women in order to maintain discipline.

I think they probably were animals as you put it. They weren't there for an evening watching the ballet. They were ruthless, brutal thugs, because that is presumably what the Japanese command wanted. The comfort women were the spoils of war.

Spoils of war go back to the Norman conquest and before. Where the vanquished were stripped of their castles and land and it was given as rewards to the conquering army. Or Visigoths sacking Rome and making off with plunder and the women.

I don't condone it. I'm just trying to look at this in a purely factual way. And in the context and in the circumstances this mayor guy is probably correct that these women were part of maintaining discipline in the ranks.

War is savage, war is cruel, war is sickening. If it was down to me, war wouldn't exist.

 

[Lea]

I think they probably were animals as you put it. They weren't there for an evening watching the ballet. They were ruthless, brutal thugs, because that is presumably what the Japanese command wanted. The comfort women were the spoils of war.

Spoils of war go back to the Norman conquest and before. Where the vanquished were stripped of their castles and land and it was given as rewards to the conquering army. Or Visigoths sacking Rome and making off with plunder and the women.

I don't condone it. I'm just trying to look at this in a purely factual way. And in the context and in the circumstances this mayor guy is probably correct that these women were part of maintaining discipline in the ranks.

War is savage, war is cruel, war is sickening. If it was down to me, war wouldn't exist.

Rape is savage, rape is cruel, rape is sickening. If it was down to me, rape wouldn't exist!

Rape is most definitely not necessary to maintain discipline nor to give the soldiers rest at war.

You say you don't condone it but then again you say that the mayor is probably correct. Which is it?

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

I think they probably were animals as you put it. They weren't there for an evening watching the ballet. They were ruthless, brutal thugs, because that is presumably what the Japanese command wanted. The comfort women were the spoils of war.

Spoils of war go back to the Norman conquest and before. Where the vanquished were stripped of their castles and land and it was given as rewards to the conquering army. Or Visigoths sacking Rome and making off with plunder and the women.

I don't condone it. I'm just trying to look at this in a purely factual way. And in the context and in the circumstances this mayor guy is probably correct that these women were part of maintaining discipline in the ranks.

War is savage, war is cruel, war is sickening. If it was down to me, war wouldn't exist.

The people who set up these comfort houses are the people who stood by while the Rape of Nanking occurred.

 

[Tito Puente]

You say you don't condone it but then again you say that the mayor is probably correct. Which is it?

In that soundbite from the mayor - and I confess I haven't read any more - he is not condoning it. Whether comfort women are indeed necessary to keep discipline is not something I can say. I only have the experience of sitting at a computer screen. I don't know enough about the reality of fighting in that kind of war to say what is needed to keep discipline among troops.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

. Whether comfort women are indeed necessary to keep discipline is not something I can say..

Did the British Army have comfort women?

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

The Japanese were brutal in WW2 and many seem to still consider their behaviour as honourable, which is just really.

Not all of them by along chalk. There has been plenty of literature that shows the common mans disgust at what went on.
The powers that be (more than ever) are quite disgusting though.
You can't judge england as a island of thatcher lovers.

 

[Lea]

BTW what is meant by the discipline of the troops?

 

[dylanredefined]

Did the British Army have comfort women?

Certainly in no authorized capacity . They did have the medical corp inspect and offer treatment to prostitutes whose brothels were in major ports or cities with large troop concentrations which is about as far as they got into the sex trade.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

Certainly in no authorized capacity . They did have the medical corp inspect and offer treatment to prostitutes whose brothels were in major ports or cities with large troop concentrations which is about as far as they got into the sex trade.

Not the same as enslaving the women of Belgium, for instance, and forcing them to work in mass brothels for soldiers.

 

[Tito Puente]

Did the British Army have comfort women?

i believe that when the British troops were in large numbers in Germany, their soldiers were not wholly unknown visitors to the brothels of Osnabrück, Münster, Dortmund, or Mönchengladbach.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

i believe that when the British troops were in large numbers in Germany, their soldiers were not wholly unknown visitors to the brothels of Osnabrück, Münster, Dortmund, or Mönchengladbach.

I'm sure they did. The question is, did the British Army go into a country like Belgium, select women to be slave prostitutes, and set them up in army-run mass brothels?