Elaine Meinel Supkis
I have watched with fascination as the Japanese officials chitter, hiss and spit with rage, eyes rolling as the Chinese won over the Koreans and a host of other former slaves of the Emperor of Japan in order to force the cheap skates of that country to cough up war reparations for the victims of sex slavery. This has been a very big issue in Asia and repeatedly, I have called upon the US to back the nations pushing the Japanese around because it is the right thing to do. In turn, the hissing, spitting Japanese officials make threats towards us. We should cut off trade until they figure out 'do not attack your customers and allies' stuff.
Grimacing and bowing while making tiny insulting gestures with the hand and using various time-worn inflections of the voice to show hidden rage and obvious malice, the government of Japan cannot really 'apologize' for enslaving Asia. They know in their tiny, dark little hearts---Abe, their leader, is the son of a Japanese official who enslaved Koreans and worked them to death in coal mines in Japan--they will have to pay reparations. And they should!
Not to the governments but to the families who were enslaved. The families who were butchered in massacres of civilians. The women who were turned into prostitutes when only 14 years old and in school. This is a hefty package but...Japan can pay!
I happen to be one of a tiny number of people who harps on the fact that Miz Japan has a trillion+ dollars tucked inside her kimono. That is, $900 billion in cash and another $700 billion in US bonds. She should hand out this sum, it should do the trick. Make her pay for WWII. Germany paid!
The U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee passed a resolution Tuesday seeking an apology from Japan over the sexual exploitation of Asian women by the Japanese military during World War II.The nonbinding resolution was approved by 39-2. Rep. Michael Honda, a California Democrat of Japanese descent, and some Republicans submitted the resolution in January urging the Japanese prime minister to offer an official apology to the victims, known euphemistically in Japan as ''comfort women.''
''What they said today in their vote was that, yes, there were victims, there were women who were used as sex slaves, yes, there was a systematic military program that captured, coerced women and girls to be used as sex slaves,'' Honda told reporters after the passage of the resolution.
''It is time that the Japanese government approach and acknowledge, take full responsibility and apologize in an unambiguous, formal way,'' he said.
They raped girls. Not just women. Girls. As a girl who was raped, I will tell you, it is painful. And the repercussions are life-long. And I wish my rapist paid me something. He owes me a lot. But then, he killed himself after he confessed to me so there was some small justice there.
Finally, the US figured out we were losing face and status in all of Asia as we kow towed to the Japanese on everything. They could rewrite history and say we forced the civilians of Okinawa to commit mass suicide, for example. My father-in-law was a medic in that battle from beginning to end. This is an insult to him and his brave companions who worked hard to save the dying civilians! He then flew into China and saw what the Japanese did there!
It wasn't pretty.
And when the Japanese stood behind our military might and sneered at everyone over this comfort women issue, I was doubly enraged. Bush then hosted Koizumi so sneered his way all over DC and then home while Bush insulted Hu repeatedly. Well, the State Department is probably kissing the ass of Abe. But at least this was a shot over the prow of the Yamamato.
- The Japanese government reacted cautiously Wednesday to a non-binding resolution passed by a US House of Representatives committee, which demands an apology from Japan to wartime sex slaves, Japanese media reported.
While Japanese Foreign Ministry officials expressed disappointment over the US lower house decision, the government intended to avoid making any immediate reaction, Jiji Press quoted officials as saying."It is up to each country what its parliament has to do... We have already shown our own stance on such occasions as Prime Minister Abe's visit to the United States in April, and there is nothing for us to say in addition," Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki said.
Shiozaki added that this resolution would not affect Japan-US relations and the Japanese government would continue making efforts to improve understanding of the sexual slavery issue.
The understanding isn't there since it involves money. These victims are still alive and need it badly. Their lives were ruined as I well know. Try finding a husband when you are not a virgin! Even today, it is no simple matter. And try wanting a husband after being raped repeatedly for several years. My feelings on this are very strong. I would like to see the goofballs at the World Court who go after Africans all the time to go after Japan! Put them in prison for war crimes!
HELL, PUT BUSH AND CHENEY BEHIND BARS! The imperial powers go after Serbs and Ugandans or Rwandans while neglecting the world's biggest, nastiest war criminals. We hung some of these after WWII but that was pure malice coated in legalese cant. The Nüremberg War Trials were pure kangaroo court since no American or Russia much less English war criminal has been prosecuted for the millions of deaths and slaveries of those empires.
Reminds me about all those kidnapped Africans brought to America and then raped and enslaved....the media makes fun of their descendent's demands for reparations. I believe they have a rock-solid case. Fixing past crimes means paying penalties and this is one thing empires hate.
Last week, Kato Ryozo, Japan's ambassador to the US, warned, "This resolution, which is not grounded in objectivity, is not good for US-Japan relations."Now Mainichi reports that in New York on Monday, on the eve of the scheduled passage of the resolution in the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, a group of Japanese-American leaders expressed their concerns about the resolution. Irene Hirano, head of the Japanese American National Museum, is quoted as saying, "When relations between the two countries worsen, the first to feel its effects are Japanese-Americans."
So what is the Ambassador going to do? Stop trade? Heh. Refuse to let American goods into Japan? Hello! Japan is basically pulling us down into the pit and they are doing this with malice since they know what will happen to us if this relationship that is killing us rapidly isn't fixed. And far from worrying about this, their only worry is, we will wake up and smell the tofu!
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"HELL, PUT BUSH AND CHENEY BEHIND BARS! (etc.)"
After calling for reparations from Japan, I wondered how long it would take you to get around to the US. I ws surprised that you were able to hold off as long as you did.
"Reminds me about all those kidnapped Africans brought to America and then raped and enslaved....the media makes fun of their descendent's demands for reparations."
I know a guy who has a filled-out application for a license to run a liquor store in his desk drawer, ready to file should that eventuality ever come to pass.
"Fixing past crimes means paying penalties ..."
Why do I think it's really about the money? You're not one of those liberal redistributionist types, are you?
"Kato Ryozo, Japan's ambassador to the US, warned, "This resolution, which is not grounded in objectivity, is not good for US-Japan relations."
Wasn't Kato the Green Hornet's sidekick?
Posted by: JSmith | June 27, 2007 at 02:17 PM
Kato was Inspector Cloussau's butler, I believe.
They can always harpoon one of our TV's after we crack a numchuk over the back of their heads.
Posted by: DeVaul | June 28, 2007 at 05:00 PM
"Kato was Inspector Cloussau's butler, I believe."
Looks like both.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Kato_(The_Green_Hornet)
http://ithithome.blogspot.com/2006/05/
not-now-kato.html
And now he's Japan's ambassador to the US. Kato's a very accomplished guy!
Posted by: JSmith | June 29, 2007 at 11:13 AM