Oh, you have got to be fucking kidding me. But that's classic, isn't it? Wait until the people who were hurt by heartless policies are almost all dead, and then claim such policies a) didn't exist or b) weren't that bad. We've seen it here with the politicans attempting to claim the McCarthyism was that bad after all, slavery wasn't all that bad, and other such crap.

Speechless. Sickened.

"We've seen it here with the politicans attempting to claim the McCarthyism was that bad after all, slavery wasn't all that bad, and other such crap." - EG

Politicians are claiming slavery wasn't that bad?

"We've seen it here with the politicans attempting to claim the McCarthyism was that bad after all, slavery wasn't all that bad, and other such crap." - EG

Politicians are claiming slavery wasn't that bad?

No evidence of coercion, eh? Wow, I guess the old "she was asking for it" thing doesn't just apply to girls in provocative clothing.

i read this yesterday . . . absolutely disgusting.

“Some say it is useful to compare the brothels to college cafeterias run by private companies, who recruit their own staff, procure foodstuffs and set prices,� Nariaki Nakayama, the leader of 120 lawmakers who want to revise the declaration, said Thursday.

anyone else catch this?
with an analogy like that, how could anyone possibly think that women were forced into anything! thanks for clearing that up.

“Some say it is useful to compare the brothels to college cafeterias run by private companies, who recruit their own staff, procure foodstuffs and set prices,� Nariaki Nakayama, the leader of 120 lawmakers who want to revise the declaration, said Thursday.

anyone else catch this?
with an analogy like that, how could anyone possibly think that women were forced into anything! thanks for clearing that up.

alot of them were tricked into sex slavery. they were told they would work in a restaurant and were forced into servitude. it works the same way with a lot of sex trafficking and sex slavery today. fraud and debt bondage make it slavery.

Yeah, people used to claim that slavery wasn't that bad. I have a copy of Douglass's autobiography. In the introduction whoever is writing it takes it upon himself to note that because of Douglass's political agenda (i.e. abolishing slavery) that he paints a dreadful picture of the institution and says that "if there was a sunnier side to slavery, it will not be found in these pages." It's pretty sickening.

wow. i'm almost inclined to laugh because of the complete insanity involved in such a statement. but of course it's really just horrible.

i also remember reading some quotes from the always wonderful Senator Brownback, recently, where he was arguing that slavery really wasn't as awful as it's made out to be . . . unfortunately, though, i don't have an immediate reference.

Dinesh D'Souza:

“The American slave was treated like property, which is to say, pretty well.�

“If America as a nation owes blacks as a group reparations for slavery, what do blacks as a group owe America for the abolition of slavery?�

"Am I calling for the repeal of the Civil Rights Act of 1964? Actually, yes."

Dinesh D'Souza:

“The American slave was treated like property, which is to say, pretty well.�

“If America as a nation owes blacks as a group reparations for slavery, what do blacks as a group owe America for the abolition of slavery?�

"Am I calling for the repeal of the Civil Rights Act of 1964? Actually, yes."

Ugh, donna. Now I'm nauseated.

i aim to please.

As a Korean, I can't be angered more. Now there are only about 120 women alive who were victims of forced prostitution. An official apology is WAY overdue. I would hate to see them die before they hear the apology.

It just feels like the Japanese government is waiting to see every single one of them die to silence the truth. Did you know that the Japanese troops left most of them behind in the Philippines and Thailand? Sometimes they locked women up in one room so that they can be bombed and thus killed. They did this to hide what they did to those women. They are scarred for life.

http://www.comfort-women.org/v2/photos.html Look at the last picture where Japanese men are smiling. On the right is a "comfort woman" looking miserable. It's obvious that she's pregnant.

Exactly. Exactly. It's like the way Newt Gingrich, a while back, suggested that we should take away the children of parents unable to afford to care for them and put them in orphanages. He had to wait until the last people who'd grown up in orphanages had died before he could make that suggestion and have it be taken seriously.

I can't imagine what these Japanese officials imagine happened: a slew of young Korean women and girls just, of their own accord, upped and sent themselves into bondage for no discernable reason whatsoever? Because what, women are like that?

This is a timely post as March 1 (yesterday) is a very important national Korean holiday. The "three-one" movement in 1919 was the beginning of a wave of civil protest against Japan, which colonized and exploited Korea at that time.

Sadly, such exploitation of women (or entire nations, for that matter) is not unique to only Japan.

“If America as a nation owes blacks as a group reparations for slavery, what do blacks as a group owe America for the abolition of slavery?�

"If I owe you reparations for trashing your living room, what do you owe me for not trashing the rest of your house?"

Brilliant logic!

“If America as a nation owes blacks as a group reparations for slavery, what do blacks as a group owe America for the abolition of slavery?�

"If I owe you reparations for trashing your living room, what do you owe me for not trashing the rest of your house?"

Brilliant logic!

I don't know if "forced into prostitution" is the right way to put it. Doesn't the word prostitution sort of imply that the women were paid or othewise compensated in some way?

they weren't compensated at all. they were sex slaves servicing up to 50 men a day.

they weren't compensated at all. they were sex slaves servicing up to 50 men a day.