In this undated image released by the Yokosuka City Council in Japan, U.S. sailors gather in front of a Yasu-ura House "comfort station" in Yokosuka, south of Tokyo.
The chief reason for the issue of comfort women being as big as it is right now is Japan’s reluctance, as a nation, to concede their wrongdoings. Of course, other nation’s anger towards Japan and the relatively recent ‘discovery’ of this issue are important as well. Still, from watching developments in Japanese politics in the last few years, one is forced to wonder why they can’t just accept what happened in the past and move on. Three causes seem to support Japan’s strange, sinister-seeming denial: the U.S. occupation of Japan, the losses Japan incurred after the war, and the reparations Japan has already made.
The victory of “the West”, the Americans, and how they treated their victory in Asia did the most, out of the three aforementioned reasons, in shaping the Japanese perspective on war responsibility. First, the unequivocality of the American victory and occupation left little room in the Japanese consciousness to consider other nations they fought against. The war was transformed in the “Pacific War,” the victors were the Americans, and the other nations who suffered devastation at the hands of the empire–China, Korea, Indonesia, and others–were effectively invisible and without influence on the island. Then there was the exoneration of the emperor. The man “in whose name imperial Japan had conducted foreign and military policy for twenty years was not held accountable”, and it became even harder for the Japanese to take the matter of war responsibility seriously(1). Finally, there was too the sense of “victor’s justice” that permeated postwar trials, although this was more of an inevitability. As happens in any human war, the victors of the Second World War often judged their former enemies with more severity than themselves, and the Tokyo war trials have been criticized as a textbook example of this(2). These events, and others, have done much to contribute to the Japanese perspective that postwar responsibilities to victims are unimportant, unnecessary, and handed out hypocritically by western powers.
Beyond the external shaping of perspective, though, after the war Japanese began to see themselves as victims, too much to accept that they were agents of destruction as well. The horrors of the atomic bomb, the American occupation, and disillusionment created what historian John W. Dower has called “Culture of Defeat” in which postwar Japanese resiliently embraced their role as victims and formed new mindsets(3). These mindsets, however, had no room for awareness of their own victims, and Japanese textbooks and their omissions show this attitude of remembering only the crimes perpetrated against Japan.
Also, when considering the current Japanese perspective on the issue of comfort women, one must not forget that Japan has made many reparations and apologies for the victims of it's past. Although many Koreans don't consider these 'sincere' enough and claim that they are looking for Japan to truly acknowledge their past in a meaningful manner, some Japanese feel that they are being forced to repeat apologies already made for crimes committed long in the past.
The victory of “the West”, the Americans, and how they treated their victory in Asia did the most, out of the three aforementioned reasons, in shaping the Japanese perspective on war responsibility. First, the unequivocality of the American victory and occupation left little room in the Japanese consciousness to consider other nations they fought against. The war was transformed in the “Pacific War,” the victors were the Americans, and the other nations who suffered devastation at the hands of the empire–China, Korea, Indonesia, and others–were effectively invisible and without influence on the island. Then there was the exoneration of the emperor. The man “in whose name imperial Japan had conducted foreign and military policy for twenty years was not held accountable”, and it became even harder for the Japanese to take the matter of war responsibility seriously(1). Finally, there was too the sense of “victor’s justice” that permeated postwar trials, although this was more of an inevitability. As happens in any human war, the victors of the Second World War often judged their former enemies with more severity than themselves, and the Tokyo war trials have been criticized as a textbook example of this(2). These events, and others, have done much to contribute to the Japanese perspective that postwar responsibilities to victims are unimportant, unnecessary, and handed out hypocritically by western powers.
Beyond the external shaping of perspective, though, after the war Japanese began to see themselves as victims, too much to accept that they were agents of destruction as well. The horrors of the atomic bomb, the American occupation, and disillusionment created what historian John W. Dower has called “Culture of Defeat” in which postwar Japanese resiliently embraced their role as victims and formed new mindsets(3). These mindsets, however, had no room for awareness of their own victims, and Japanese textbooks and their omissions show this attitude of remembering only the crimes perpetrated against Japan.
Also, when considering the current Japanese perspective on the issue of comfort women, one must not forget that Japan has made many reparations and apologies for the victims of it's past. Although many Koreans don't consider these 'sincere' enough and claim that they are looking for Japan to truly acknowledge their past in a meaningful manner, some Japanese feel that they are being forced to repeat apologies already made for crimes committed long in the past.
1. Dower, John W. Embracing Defeat : Japan in the wake of World War II. New York: W.W. Norton & Co, 1999.
2. Wittner, Lawrence S. Pacific Historical Review 41, no. 2 (1972): 262-63. doi:10.2307/3638356.
3. Dower, Embracing Defeat.
South Korea’s president, Park Geun-hye, (right) shakes hands with Japan’s foreign minister, Fumio Kishida, on 28 December. Photograph: Official handout