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Sankei distorted the article of the New York Times by replacing the word "Ex-prostitute" with "Ex-comfort women"
Japanese hawkish rightist newspaper "Sankei Shimbun" delivered Japanese articles to Yahoo Japan and Iza! at 15:57 on January 8th. Sankei introduces a summary of The New York Times' article on January 8th which was titled "Ex-Prostitutes Say South Korea and U.S. Enabled Sex Trade Near Bases". But the title of the Sankei article can be read as "Korean Ex-comfort women denounce Korean government and US Forces, NY Times paper" (My translation from Japanese to English).
In the NYT article, the words "prostitute" and "comfort women" are being used for different meanings. It is obvious from its expression below;
------ quotation -----
The women, who are seeking compensation and an apology, have compared themselves to the so-called comfort women who have won widespread public sympathy for being forced into prostitution by the Japanese during World War II. Whether prostitutes by choice, need or coercion, the women say, they were all victims of government policies.
------ the end of quotation ---------
Sankei should have known it. But they replaced the word "ex-prostitutes" with "ex-comfort women". Basically, the word "comfort women" is used to express victims of women by Japanese Imperial Forces' sex slavery system during China-Japan War and World War Two. Although the two cases have similarity when it comes to sex-exploitation by army forces, I think they are different, should be treated separately and perhaps Japan's case is more serious crime. I mean that one of two cases is that an aggressive forces enslaved women who were from invaded lands, and the second is that a government that has other country's military bases has allowed or helped prostitutions near the bases. Needless to say, the former is Japanese Imperial Army's "Comfort Women", the latter is the issue that NYT pointed out.
According to Mr. Apeman, there is a possibility that such Korean women had also been called "Ianfu(comfort women)" until 1990's. But when a newspaper uses the word "comfort women" for Korean prostitutes, it certainly has a meaning. I guess the meaning that the New York Times did not intended but Japanese rightists feel happy by that. The usage of the same word "comfort women" for Korean prostitution as sex slavery system of war time Japan seems to make readers think that Japan is not the only country that had such system. That's what Sankei wanted to do and what Japanese rightists feel better. When they think that Japan is not the only country that had sex slavery for military, they seem to be eased and happy as if their own country's crime would be less serious. I would like to say I cannot understand rightists' way of thinking.
I will never support what right wings say like "Comfort women were just prostitutes. At that time, prostitute was an ordinary commercial transaction. So it's not a crime that Japanese government is responsible for." This is unforgivable. According to a comment by Stiffmuscle on dj19's blog, not only for the title, there are other distortions in Sankei's report on the New York Times' article. And this time again, Sankei proved that they are stupid. If the allegation of those Korean women seeking compensation and an apology would be accepted by their country, what should Japanese do for the serious crime that had victimized a huge number of women in other Asian countries?
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