www射-国产免费一级-欧美福利-亚洲成人福利-成人一区在线观看-亚州成人

left corner left corner
China Daily Website

Wartime brothels were wrong: Japanese veteran

Updated: 2013-05-23 15:49
( Agencies)

SAGAMIHARA, Japan - When Masayoshi Matsumoto joined the Japanese army in 1943 and was sent to occupied China as a medic, he thought he was taking part in a righteous war to free Asia from the yoke of Western imperialism.

Seven decades later, the 91-year-old retired Christian pastor says it's his mission to speak out about the injustice of the war and the sufferings of women, mostly Asian and many Korean, forced to work in Japanese wartime military brothels.

"I feel like a war criminal. It is painful to speak of such things and I would rather cover it up. It is painful, but I must speak," the slender, white-haired Matsumoto said at his daughter's home about 40 km (25 miles) from Tokyo.

"I think that to speak out is the meaning of my being alive," added Matsumoto, who returned to Japan in 1946 and later became the pastor of a Christian church. He is one of a dwindling number of veterans with experience of the brothels.
Wartime brothels were wrong: Japanese veteran

91-year-old former Japanese army medic Masayoshi Matsumoto listens to a question during an interview with Reuters at his daughter's house in Sagamihara, south of Tokyo May 22, 2013. Photo/Agencies]

Outspoken Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto sparked a firestorm of criticism at home and abroad when he said last week that the military brothel system was "necessary" at the time and that Japan has been unfairly singled out for practices common among other militaries during wartime.

The remarks outraged China, where many suffered under Japan's military occupation, and South Koreans, where bitter memories of Japan's 1910-1945 colonial rule run deep.

They also sparked a backlash in Japan. Support for Hashimoto's right-leaning Japan Restoration Party, already sliding, has fallen further ahead of an upper house election just two months away and another small party has broken off ties with it.

As a medic stationed in Yu county in China's Shanxi province during the war, Matsumoto helped doctors examine a half dozen Korean women who provided sexual services for officers and non-commissioned officers, part of an effort to stem the spread of venereal disease among soldiers.

Whatever the rationale at the time, Matsumoto said, the system and the treatment of the women - known euphemistically as "comfort women" - were inexcusable.

"NO EXCUSE"

"It is not just Japan that did something wrong. But Japan also did something wrong ... Just because someone else is a thief, is it all right to be a thief? Because someone else kills people, is it all right to be a murderer? That is no excuse," Matsumoto said.

"The prime minister of Japan should apologise properly as the representative of the nation and compensate those who should be compensated."

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe caused controversy during his first 2006-2007 term by saying there was no proof that Japan's military had kidnapped women for the brothels. Such doubts are common among Japanese ultra-conservatives.

But Abe has sought to distance himself from Hashimoto's remarks, saying his government's stance is different.

"The stance of the government on this issue is that, as we stated previously, we are deeply pained when thinking of the women who experienced immeasurable pain and suffering. On this point, the Abe cabinet has the same position as prior cabinets," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a news conference last week, although he declined direct comment on Hashimoto's remarks.

The issue has often frayed ties between Tokyo and Seoul. Japan says the matter of compensation was settled under a 1965 treaty establishing diplomatic ties. In 1995, Japan set up a fund to make payments to the women from private contributions, but South Korea says that was not official and so not enough.

Matsumoto said the women had no means of escape from the walled town where his military unit was headquartered and were in fact sex slaves. "No matter if they wanted to flee, there was no way to escape," he said.

Recalling the conditions in which the women lived, Matsumoto said soldiers lining up for sex would unfasten their leg wrappings and lower their trousers so as to waste no time when their turns came. "It was like they were going to the toilet," he said.

Only years later did Matsumoto come to believe his country had done something wrong. "We were taught that it was the mission of Japan, the mission of the Japanese people, to liberate Asian countries from European colonialism," he said.

"So we went to war gladly then. When I think of it now, it was monstrous, but I didn't think so then."

Previous Page 1 2 3 4 Next Page

8.03K
 
...
...
主站蜘蛛池模板: 亚洲成人免费在线观看 | 日韩免费一级片 | 国产一级视频免费 | 亚洲免费a | 乱人伦中文字幕视频 | 国产美女作爱全过程免费视频 | 日韩免费专区 | 毛片免费全部播放一级 | 国产一区二区三区国产精品 | 92看片淫黄大片看国产片 | 成年人三级网站 | 美女张开腿让男人桶爽免 | 日韩一级黄色 | 中字毛片 | 亚洲精品视频免费在线观看 | 美女三级毛片 | 怡红院成人永久免费看 | 九九精品免视看国产成人 | 国产va精品网站精品网站精品 | 国产精品视频免费观看调教网 | 亚洲视频一区在线观看 | 日韩欧美在线一区二区三区 | 在线播放精品一区二区啪视频 | 国产精品久久免费视频 | 国产精品亚洲玖玖玖在线靠爱 | 国产精品合集一区二区 | 亚洲国产成人99精品激情在线 | 久久精品亚瑟全部免费观看 | 欧美一级xxxx俄罗斯一级 | 无毛片 | 极品美女写真菠萝蜜视频 | 国产a国产 | 荡公乱妇蒂芙尼中文字幕 | 国内精品久久久久久中文字幕 | 国产乱肥老妇精品视频 | 国产高清毛片 | 欧美大尺度xxxxx视频 | 国产露脸3p普通话 | 免费观看a级毛片在线播放 免费观看a级网站 | 亚洲日本高清成人aⅴ片 | 偷自拍第一页 |