Text 28371, 87 rader
Skriven 2007-04-26 21:48:00 av LEE LOFASO
     Kommentar till en text av JOHN HULL
Ärende: Japan's "comfort women"
===============================
This message was from JOE NICHOLSON to ALL,
originally in conference MEMORIES
and was forwarded to you by LEE LOFASO.
                    -------------------------
 Japan organized brothels for U.S. soldiers after WWII
 By Eric Talmadge
 Thursday, April 26, 2007

 TOKYO - Japan's practice of enslaving women to provide sex for its
 troops in World War II has a little-known sequel:  After its
 surrender, with tacit approval from the U.S. occupation authorities.
 Japan set up a similar "comfort women" system for American GIs.

 A review of historical documents and records shows U.S. authorities
 permitted the official brothel system to operate despite internal
 reports that women were being coerced into prostitution.

 The Americans also had full knowledge by then of Japan's atrocious
 treatment of women in countries across Asia that it conquered during
 the war.

 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who begins a U.S. visit today,
 sparked a furor last month when he said there was no evidence the
 Japanese military coerced thousands of women into sexual slavery
 during World War II.

 Historical documents also show brothels were rushed into operation
 for U.S. forces as they poured into Japan beginning in August 1945.

 "Sadly, we police had to set up sexual comfort stations for the
 occupation troops," recounts the official history of the Ibaraki
 Prefectural Police Department, whose jurisdiction is just northeast
 of Tokyo.

 The orders from the Interior Ministry came on August 18, 1945, a day
 before a Japanese delegation flew to the Philippines to negotiate
 the terms of their country's surrender and occupation.

 The Ibaraki police quickly converted a dormitory for single police
 officers into a brothel.

 The history says: "The comfort women . . . had some resistance to
 selling themselves to men who just yesterday were the enemy, and
 because of differences in language and race, there were a great deal
 of apprehensions at first. But they were paid highly, and they
 gradually came to accept their work peacefully."

 Tens of thousands of women were employed to provide cheap sex to
 U.S. troops until spring 1946, when Gen. Douglas MacArthur shut down
 the brothels.

 In 1945, police and Tokyo businessmen established a network of
 brothels under the auspices of the Recreation and Amusement
 Association, which operated with government funds.

 Seiichi Kaburagi, the chief of public relations for the association,
 wrote in a 1972 memoir that GIs paid upfront and were given tickets
 and condoms.

 Kaburagi said high demand forced brothel operators to advertise for
 women who were not licensed prostitutes.

 Natsue Takita, a 19-year-old woman whose relatives had been killed
 in the war, responded to an ad seeking an office worker. She was
 told the only positions available were for comfort women and was
 persuaded to accept the offer.

 According to Kaburagi's memoirs, Takita jumped in front of a train
 a few days after the brothel where she worked started operations.

 A December 6, 1945, memorandum from Lt. Col. Hugh McDonald, a senior
 officer with the Public Health and Welfare Division of the
 occupation's General Headquarters, shows U.S. occupation forces were
 aware the Japanese comfort women were often coerced.

 "The girl is impressed into contracting by the desperate financial
 straits of her parents and their urging, occasionally supplemented
 by her willingness to make such a sacrifice to help her family," he
 wrote. "It is the belief of our informants, however, that in urban
 districts the practice of enslaving girls, while much less prevalent
 than in the past, still exists."

___ Blue Wave/QWK v2.12

 * SLMR 2.1a * "I know NOTHING!!!" - Sgt. Hans Schultz
--- Platinum Xpress/Win/WINServer v3.0pr5
 * Origin: Doc's Place BBS Fido Since 1991 docsplace.tzo.com (1:123/140)