WWII Sex Slaves Recount Horror

Japan's Denial Of Wartime Brutality And Humiliation Draws Protests Throughout Asia

(CBS/AP)  Lee Ok-seon's three years as a sex slave for Japanese soldiers began on a summer day when two men snatched her off a street in broad daylight. Before she realized what was happening, she was on a train to China, where humiliation and brutal beatings awaited.

She was just 15, one of thousands of girls and women across Asia who were kidnapped and forced into providing sex for Japanese troops during World War II.

Among the few still alive in South Korea today, she was incensed to hear Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe say last week that there was no proof they were coerced into prostitution.

His comments came as the U.S. House of Representatives considers a resolution urging Japan to formally apologize for its treatment of the so-called "comfort women."

They also brought a condemnation from North Korea Wednesday.

"No matter how desperately the Japanese authorities may try to whitewash the crime-woven past of Japan and cover up the crimes related to the 'comfort women' ... the worst flesh traffic in the 20th century, they are historical facts that Japan can neither sidestep nor deny," the North's Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Even in Japan, opposition lawmakers urged Abe Wednesday to acknowledge that the army forced women into sexual slavery during World War II, as officials attempted to calm an international furor over his recent denials.

"Japan must have the courage to face up to the truth ... that Japan caused much suffering as victimizers," Yukio Hatoyama, head of the main opposition Democratic Party of Japan, told a meeting of about a dozen opposition lawmakers and 100 citizens in Tokyo.

"Abe is showing his true colors ... and leading Japan in a dangerous direction," Hatoyama said, calling with other lawmakers for a clear acknowledgment and apology for the past use of sex slaves.

"We must resolve this issue for the sake of upholding peace and human rights in Asia," said Haruko Yoshikawa, a lawmaker for the Japanese Communist Party.

Abe's remarks also triggered outrage in China and the Philippines.

Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing urged Japan to "stand up to this part of history, take responsibility and seriously view and properly handle this issue."

"They took away other people's young daughters only to beat them to death, make them sick to death and starve them to death," said Lee, the South Korean's speech slurred because she is missing her lower front teeth from a beating she said she suffered as a sex slave.

"And now they say there was no coercion in taking us. How evil are they?" she said Tuesday in Gwangju, 30 miles south of Seoul, where she and eight other women share a shelter for former sex slaves that includes a museum.

Now 79, Lee is among 113 remaining South Korean survivors of the Japanese military brothels that were widespread throughout Asia in the 1930s and '40s. For years the women have staged weekly rallies at the Japanese Embassy in Seoul, demanding an apology and compensation from Tokyo.

Japan acknowledged in the 1990s that its military set up and ran brothels for its troops. But it has rejected most compensation claims, saying they were settled by postwar treaties. And though the government issued an apology in 1993, it was never approved by parliament.

[gwlafayette]

let me see if i understand. the capitol building is evil because it existed when slaves existed? slaves still exist, in africa and other third world places. the african people that are in the best shape today are african-americans, the descendants of white-owned slaves. the descendants of black-owned african slaves are not doing very well. they are more deserving of an apology.

[agnim]

"youre right, i can make billions of people feel guilty for something they didnt do and something that hasnt had any effect on me. thanks.

Posted by GWLafayette at 02:24 AM : Mar 08, 2007"

You are missing the point.

No one is that foolish as to believe that the present generation of Americans is directly responsible for slavery itself. How silly is that.

It is the INHERITANCE OF THE ILL GOTTEN GAINS OF THE ENSLAVEMENT, and the perpetuation to this day of some of the evils surrounding the enslavement (like racism, say) for which regret, remorse and RECOMPENSE are due! OK?

The capitol building in Washington DC, for instance, still stands to this day. And it is still in use by the present generation of Americans who INHERITED THAT PRODUCT OF ENSLAVED LABOR FROM THEIR ENSLAVING ANCESTORS! Get it?

[gwlafayette]

i can also demand an apology from the Islamic Evil Empire that invaded spain!!

im gonna be rich!!!!!!!!

[gwlafayette]

youre right, i can make billions of people feel guilty for something they didnt do and something that hasnt had any effect on me. thanks.

[agnim]

"my ancestors were enslaved by the Romans and I have never heard an apology.

Posted by GWLafayette at 08:29 PM : Mar 07, 2007"

If you hadn't delayed until the 'statute of limitation' ran out, you could have made a claim against the MAFIA. LOL

Oh wait!

The Roman Evil Empire morphed into the Holey Roman Evil Empire.

So you can make a claim against the church on behalf of your ancestors.

And you cold be in even more luck; you/your forebears may have been sodomized in the Roman Catholic Church of Child Sodomy?
Go get them, tiger! LOL

[gwlafayette]

my ancestors were enslaved by the Romans and I have never heard an apology. but since they didnt do anything to me, I think it would be pathetic to demand an apology. And if my ancestors had actually sold themselves into slavery, it would be extremely pathetic to demand an apology, and especially if my life was better in their society rather than the society my ancestors built.

[agnim]

"So you're saying that people who never owned any slaves owe reparations to people who never were slaves - because of slavery.
......

Hmmm... seeing as the majority of black Americans are mixed themselves - shall you perhaps conduct DNA tests

Posted by dogsoul at 05:25 PM : Mar 07, 2007"

The descendants of enslavers INHERITED from their ancestors!

Part of the inheritance of descendants of enslavers is DEBT OF ANCESTORS! Get it!

Part of the inheritance of the descendants of the enslaved is CREDIT OF THEIR ANCESTORS!
It's call karma; but that way above your level of evolution.

And no DNA tests are needed!
America can stick with the racist 'one drop of Black blood' excuse, which has been used for generations to determine Black in America, no?

It's all easier than you think; but Neanderthals don't think much when it comes to the subject of human virtue; so don't sweat it.
Progressive changes are always made around the dead in the head. LOL

[dogsoul]

"And apology is ONLY THE FIRST STEP on the long road to REPARATION!"

Ha! you are a joke - this is hysterical!

So you're saying that people who never owned any slaves owe reparations to people who never were slaves - because of slavery. And responsibility for those actions & subsequent reparations paid shall be administered on the basis of race and geographical residency; exceptions where said slave trader was himself African.

Hmmm... seeing as the majority of black Americans are mixed themselves - shall you perhaps conduct DNA tests to determine the precise amount of reparations to receive? Is Obama a wash because he's half & half?

Loser... better go take the garbage out before your mom comes home & yells at ya for playing on the internet all day instead of looking for a job...

[agnim]

"ya think maybe things that politicians do & say are - ya know, politically motivated? They know full well that there are many many cods like yourself out there who soak up that kind of *** - and if it'd get them votes... they'd apologize for diaper rash.

Posted by dogsoul at 05:06 PM : Mar 07, 2007"

I'm sure that the Neanderthal mind cannot bend around the fact that 'politically motivated actions' can also be the right thing to do?

And apology is ONLY THE FIRST STEP on the long road to REPARATION!

Accepting 'apology' is like encouraging babies to walk, first in MANY successive steps!

Like I previously stated, don't sweat it!

Lesser evolved minds are condemned to PICK UP THE RARE, and the lower winds of your leaders who found the wakefulness and wisdom to lead even fools! Enjoy their scent from the behind! LOL

[dogsoul]

"And yet those Virgina State legislators exhibit some wakefulness and wisdom and apologize for the horrors committed by the people of that State? Go figure."

People long since dead you mean... besides - ya think maybe things that politicians do & say are - ya know, politically motivated? They know full well that there are many many cods like yourself out there who soak up that kind of *** - and if it'd get them votes... they'd apologize for diaper rash.

"It did take them a while to recognize the evils of their ways in that State"

Evil of whose ways exactly? Evil of those who engaged in the slave trade? Who doesn't recognize that as evil? besides maybe klansmen... They've known their whole lives - their parents, grandparents & great grandparents knew it was evil... that doesn't make anyone alive today responsible for it - and as such, any apologies made by those not responsible are pointless... well, aside from the political value of such gestures when presented to mindless voters such as yourself...

you are pathetic