Comfort Women: How do we face history in earnest?
OGURA Kizo / Professor, Kyoto University Graduate School of Human and Environmental Studies.
January 29, 2016
The Foreign Ministers of Japan and the Republic of Korea met in Seoul at the end of last year and announced the agreement between the two governments on the issue of comfort women. I hope that the Japanese government will implement the agreement faithfully and with humility and do its utmost to restore the honor and dignity of former comfort women.
Above all, Prime Minister Abe should, in his own voice, express his respectful words of apology that will strike a responsive chord in the hearts of former comfort women. In managing the foundation to be established by the government of the Republic of Korea (to which the Japanese government will contribute 1 billion yen), a particular view of history should not be allowed to dominate. Japan and the Republic of Korea had to face head on the wartime human right violations against women in a manner unprecedented in the world, and have struggled painfully for a quarter of century to address the multitude of issues involved. The diverse points that have arisen should be duly taken into account.
The average Japanese, for the most part, must have found the issue of comfort women troubling their conscience. They must be hoping, deep in their heart, that some way could be found to respond to those women who have been crying for help to their lives that had been torn into shreds.
But it is the extreme camps on the "right" and "left" that have trampled these simple feelings of the average Japanese. They categorically refuse to accept any view that might differ even slightly from their own. They are intent, not on solving the problem, but on bringing their own assertions into reality without any flaw, thus ruling out any possibility of compromise.
It is nothing but a fiction to claim, as the "right" does, that the comfort women were none other than prostitutes and there was no coercion. There is no ground either to the assertion of the "left" that the Japanese military forcibly abducted hundreds of thousands of sweet, innocent Korean girls.
With a sense of deep remorse over history, we would like to know what had really happened. Professor Park Yu-ha of Sejong University in Korea wrote in her book "Comfort Women of the Empire" that comfort women were not outside the Japanese Empire but were recruited within the Empire's system and there were even cases where they developed "comradelike" feelings toward Japanese soldiers. Such was the thoroughgoing and elaborate nature of the imperial rule. As we read this book, our hearts go out to the plights and vicissitudes of the comfort women, and we are tempted even more to unravel the complex system of violence of the Empire.
The "left" in Japan and Korea sharply denounced the book as exonerating Japan. Upon complaint by some former comfort women, the Korean prosecutors indicted the author without arrest on the charge of defamation. What a violent action this is! There is no sign of facing history in earnest in this stance of eliminating those who give a narrative that is different from the "correct" version of history that they concocted.
"The Japanese military forcibly abducted in broad daylight hundreds of thousands of girls into slavery." This is the prototypal image of the comfort women issue in Korea. If the Koreans were to blame Japan without moving a step beyond this crudely plain image, it would be an insult to history to respond to the charge. Instead, Japan should face up to the totality of diverse and complex facts of history. And that is not as simple as Koreans of today think. As long as we oversimplify and underestimate the characteristics of the Empire, neither the Japanese nor the Koreans will free themselves from its shackles.
The writer is Professor, Kyoto University Graduate School of Human and Environmental Studies.This article originally appeared in the evening edition of Kyoto Shimbun on January 13th 2016.
Above all, Prime Minister Abe should, in his own voice, express his respectful words of apology that will strike a responsive chord in the hearts of former comfort women. In managing the foundation to be established by the government of the Republic of Korea (to which the Japanese government will contribute 1 billion yen), a particular view of history should not be allowed to dominate. Japan and the Republic of Korea had to face head on the wartime human right violations against women in a manner unprecedented in the world, and have struggled painfully for a quarter of century to address the multitude of issues involved. The diverse points that have arisen should be duly taken into account.
The average Japanese, for the most part, must have found the issue of comfort women troubling their conscience. They must be hoping, deep in their heart, that some way could be found to respond to those women who have been crying for help to their lives that had been torn into shreds.
But it is the extreme camps on the "right" and "left" that have trampled these simple feelings of the average Japanese. They categorically refuse to accept any view that might differ even slightly from their own. They are intent, not on solving the problem, but on bringing their own assertions into reality without any flaw, thus ruling out any possibility of compromise.
It is nothing but a fiction to claim, as the "right" does, that the comfort women were none other than prostitutes and there was no coercion. There is no ground either to the assertion of the "left" that the Japanese military forcibly abducted hundreds of thousands of sweet, innocent Korean girls.
With a sense of deep remorse over history, we would like to know what had really happened. Professor Park Yu-ha of Sejong University in Korea wrote in her book "Comfort Women of the Empire" that comfort women were not outside the Japanese Empire but were recruited within the Empire's system and there were even cases where they developed "comradelike" feelings toward Japanese soldiers. Such was the thoroughgoing and elaborate nature of the imperial rule. As we read this book, our hearts go out to the plights and vicissitudes of the comfort women, and we are tempted even more to unravel the complex system of violence of the Empire.
The "left" in Japan and Korea sharply denounced the book as exonerating Japan. Upon complaint by some former comfort women, the Korean prosecutors indicted the author without arrest on the charge of defamation. What a violent action this is! There is no sign of facing history in earnest in this stance of eliminating those who give a narrative that is different from the "correct" version of history that they concocted.
"The Japanese military forcibly abducted in broad daylight hundreds of thousands of girls into slavery." This is the prototypal image of the comfort women issue in Korea. If the Koreans were to blame Japan without moving a step beyond this crudely plain image, it would be an insult to history to respond to the charge. Instead, Japan should face up to the totality of diverse and complex facts of history. And that is not as simple as Koreans of today think. As long as we oversimplify and underestimate the characteristics of the Empire, neither the Japanese nor the Koreans will free themselves from its shackles.
The writer is Professor, Kyoto University Graduate School of Human and Environmental Studies.This article originally appeared in the evening edition of Kyoto Shimbun on January 13th 2016.
The English-Speaking Union of Japan
慰安婦問題・・・歴史への真摯な姿勢とは？
小倉紀蔵 / 京都大学教授（総合人間学部）
2016年 1月 29日
昨年暮れにソウルで日韓外相会談が開かれ、慰安婦問題に関する両国政府間の合意が発表された。日本政府は、合意を誠実かつ謙虚に履行し、元慰安婦の方々の名誉と尊厳を回復することに全力を挙げていただきたい。
何よりも安倍首相は、自らの肉声で、元慰安婦の方々の心に届くような、敬意のこもったお詫びの言葉を述べるべきだ。また、韓国がつくる財団（ここに日本が１０億円を拠出する）の運営は、特定の歴史観だけが支配することを避けるべきだ。戦時の女性に対する人権蹂躙という問題に、日韓が世界に先駆けて、四半世紀の間苦しみながら出してきた論点の多様性を大切にしてほしい。
大多数のふつうの日本人は、これまで慰安婦問題に心を傷めてきたはずだ。人生をずたずたにされたと訴える女性たちに、なんとか応答したいという気持ちを、心のなかで持っているはずだ。
だが、そのような素朴な気持ちを踏みにじってきたのは、両極端な「右」と「左」の陣営だった。自分たちの見解と少しでも異なる考えを、絶対に受け入れない。そして問題の解決ではなく、自己の陣営の主張を一点の欠損もなく実現することが目的になるので、一切の妥協もできなくなった。
だが、「右」の主張である「慰安婦というのは売春婦にほかならず、強制性もなかった」というのは虚構にすぎない。また「左」のいうように「日本軍が数十万のいたいけな朝鮮少女を強制連行した」というのも、根拠がない主張だ。
私たちは、歴史に対する反省の気持ちを強く抱きながら、「ほんとうは何が起こったのか」を知りたいのである。韓国・世宗大学(Sejong University)の朴裕河(Park Yu-ha)教授は『帝国の慰安婦(Comfort Women of the Empire)』という本を書いて、慰安婦は日本帝国の外側にいた人たちではなく、帝国のシステムによって動員され、兵士たちと「同志的」な感情まで共有することがあった、という内容を語った。それほど帝国の支配は全体的かつ精緻だったのである。私たちはこの本を読んで、慰安婦たちの多様な境遇に深く思いを馳せ、帝国の複雑な暴力性をますます解明したくなる。
ところが韓国と日本の「左」の陣営は、「この本は日本を免責するものだ」といって激しく糾弾した。韓国の検察は元慰安婦たちによる訴えをもとに、朴裕河氏を名誉毀損の罪で在宅起訴した。なんという暴力性であろうか。自分たちの構築した「正しい」歴史像と合わない叙述をした者を排除しようとする姿勢からは、歴史に対する真摯さがまったく伝わってこない。
「日本軍が数十万人の少女たちを白昼、奴隷狩りのように連行した」というのが韓国における慰安婦問題の原型的イメージだ。韓国人がこのわかりやすいイメージから一歩も出ないまま日本の責任を問うのなら、それに応答することは歴史への冒涜になる。日本が応答すべきなのは、多様で複雑な歴史の現実全体に対してである。そしてそれは現在の韓国人が考えているほど、単純なものではない。帝国というものの性格を単純化し過小評価しているかぎり、日本人も韓国人もこの帝国のくびきから離れられないのである。
(筆者は 京都大学教授（総合人間学部）。本稿は京都新聞 １月13日付夕刊に掲載された。）
何よりも安倍首相は、自らの肉声で、元慰安婦の方々の心に届くような、敬意のこもったお詫びの言葉を述べるべきだ。また、韓国がつくる財団（ここに日本が１０億円を拠出する）の運営は、特定の歴史観だけが支配することを避けるべきだ。戦時の女性に対する人権蹂躙という問題に、日韓が世界に先駆けて、四半世紀の間苦しみながら出してきた論点の多様性を大切にしてほしい。
大多数のふつうの日本人は、これまで慰安婦問題に心を傷めてきたはずだ。人生をずたずたにされたと訴える女性たちに、なんとか応答したいという気持ちを、心のなかで持っているはずだ。
だが、そのような素朴な気持ちを踏みにじってきたのは、両極端な「右」と「左」の陣営だった。自分たちの見解と少しでも異なる考えを、絶対に受け入れない。そして問題の解決ではなく、自己の陣営の主張を一点の欠損もなく実現することが目的になるので、一切の妥協もできなくなった。
だが、「右」の主張である「慰安婦というのは売春婦にほかならず、強制性もなかった」というのは虚構にすぎない。また「左」のいうように「日本軍が数十万のいたいけな朝鮮少女を強制連行した」というのも、根拠がない主張だ。
私たちは、歴史に対する反省の気持ちを強く抱きながら、「ほんとうは何が起こったのか」を知りたいのである。韓国・世宗大学(Sejong University)の朴裕河(Park Yu-ha)教授は『帝国の慰安婦(Comfort Women of the Empire)』という本を書いて、慰安婦は日本帝国の外側にいた人たちではなく、帝国のシステムによって動員され、兵士たちと「同志的」な感情まで共有することがあった、という内容を語った。それほど帝国の支配は全体的かつ精緻だったのである。私たちはこの本を読んで、慰安婦たちの多様な境遇に深く思いを馳せ、帝国の複雑な暴力性をますます解明したくなる。
ところが韓国と日本の「左」の陣営は、「この本は日本を免責するものだ」といって激しく糾弾した。韓国の検察は元慰安婦たちによる訴えをもとに、朴裕河氏を名誉毀損の罪で在宅起訴した。なんという暴力性であろうか。自分たちの構築した「正しい」歴史像と合わない叙述をした者を排除しようとする姿勢からは、歴史に対する真摯さがまったく伝わってこない。
「日本軍が数十万人の少女たちを白昼、奴隷狩りのように連行した」というのが韓国における慰安婦問題の原型的イメージだ。韓国人がこのわかりやすいイメージから一歩も出ないまま日本の責任を問うのなら、それに応答することは歴史への冒涜になる。日本が応答すべきなのは、多様で複雑な歴史の現実全体に対してである。そしてそれは現在の韓国人が考えているほど、単純なものではない。帝国というものの性格を単純化し過小評価しているかぎり、日本人も韓国人もこの帝国のくびきから離れられないのである。
(筆者は 京都大学教授（総合人間学部）。本稿は京都新聞 １月13日付夕刊に掲載された。）
一般社団法人 日本英語交流連盟