Japan Osaka mayor says the WW2 "confort women" were necessary

[Cybran]

Nice cherry picking. This is from your article:

“The likely negative consequences of legalised prostitution on a country’s inflows of human trafficking might be seen to support those who argue in favour of banning prostitution, thereby reducing the flows of trafficking. However, such a line of argumentation overlooks potential benefits that the legalisation of prostitution might have on those employed in the industry. Working conditions could be substantially improved for prostitutes—at least those legally employed—if prostitution is legalised. Prohibiting prostitution also raises tricky “freedom of choice” issues concerning both the potential suppliers and clients of prostitution services.”

http://www.examiner.com/article/germ...ation-to-women

German chief police reported yesterday sex trafficking is on the rise in the country. The chief officer also said that sex trafficking has increased 11 percent from last year and 70% over five year period. While many advocates for legalized prostitution argued that legalization should improve the rights of prostitutes and eliminate discrimination, the case in Germany shows otherwise. Rather, the sex industry in Germany became a magnet for sex traffickers from Eastern Europe and African countries. Further, it became a source of exploitation of German as well as other foreign women rather than their emancipation to support their right to sell their bodies.

In terms of their rights, many prostitutes in Germany are still live in poor conditions and exploited by the pimps and the landlords who take the majority of the prostitutes' earnings.

That didn't happen in Denmark, Holland, Germany or Belgium. Why do you think it will happen elsewhere?

Not to mention increases in human trafficking seems more a flaw in regulation than in the industry itself.

You are wrong.

[Elegiac]

http://www.examiner.com/article/germ...ation-to-women

That didn't happen in Denmark, Holland, Germany or Belgium. Why do you think it will happen elsewhere?

Nice quoting a website that basically pulls its info from blogs.

As Wells said, the problems are related to poor regulation of the industry, not the merits of legalization in of itself.

If you ban it, the government loses any ability to actually help sanitize the industry.

[Sky High]

1:No, not what I am saying. get a fucking clue charlie brown.
NO controls, means MUCH worse treatment of the woman involved. Check the mighty fuckin google machine instead of no minding and trying to find shit I am NOT saying. If I am wrong, why have prostituting unions and government control improved conditions for whores in europe and Arizona?

2:Oh of course not, you wouldn't know what to do with it. Since you've not lived through a world war, you have ZERO understanding you lucky dog.

1)the key word you used there was FORCED, not voluntary, which is what you said. if you meant something else then thats a failing on your part pal. and fine if you want the government to control VOLUNTARY prostitution then by all means.

2) and you have? yea, being born 50 or so years later kind of has that effect on people. I can only Fathom. and continue on with that snide attitude. rape can be as damaging to a person as getting your limbs blown off, sounds like an exaggeration but guess what? I have an understanding of THAT.

[cubby]

Couldn't fit a title that would make sense. Basically he said that the system through which women were raped and turned into prostitutes against their will by japanese soldiers was necessary. And this was just the fault of the war.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-22519384

"A prominent Japanese politician has described as "necessary" the system by which women were forced to become prostitutes for World War II troops.

Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto said the "comfort women" gave soldiers putting their lives at risk a chance "to rest".

He acknowledged that the women had been acting "against their will".

Some 200,000 women in territories occupied by Japan during WWII are estimated to have been forced into becoming sex slaves for troops.

Many of the women came from China and South Korea, but also from the Philippines, Indonesia and Taiwan.

Japan's treatment of its wartime role has been a frequent source of tension with its neighbours.

Mr Hashimoto, the co-founder of the nationalist Japanese Restoration Party, was the youngest governor in Japanese history before becoming mayor of Osaka.

He said last year that Japan needed "a dictatorship".

In his latest controversial comments, quoted by Japanese media, he said: "In the circumstances in which bullets are flying like rain and wind, the soldiers are running around at the risk of losing their lives,"

"If you want them to have a rest in such a situation, a comfort women system is necessary. Anyone can understand that."

He also claimed that Japan was not the only country to use the system, though it was responsible for its actions.

He said he backed a 1995 statement by Japan's then-PM Tomiichi Murayama, in which he apologised for its wartime actions in Asia.

"It is a result of the tragedy of the war that they became comfort women against their will. The responsibility for the war also lies with Japan. We have to politely offer kind words to [former] comfort women.""

You are really taking what he's saying out of context, even the quotes you're using, much less the items you are paraphrasing. Perhaps still with quoted text and links rather than mismatched and misleading statements next time.

[Cybran]

Nice quoting a website that basically pulls its info from blogs.

As Wells said, the problems are related to poor regulation of the industry, not the merits of legalization in of itself.

If you ban it, the government loses any ability to actually help sanitize the industry.

I never claimed criminalizing it and punishing it's victims (the forced ones) is right.

http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archive...gates_impo.php

Asscher, a Labour party minister, is currently working on a policy document together with justice minister Ivo Opstelten in which the government will outline its strategy to deal with the sex industry.

Hilkens told the AD she is visiting Sweden with an open mind, adding that forced prostitution is one of the 'most important misunderstandings' of our time.

Between 50% and 80% of the women working in the Dutch sex industry are said to have been forced into prostitution. 'It is not the man who visits her who forces her but a people trafficker or a pimp. Or she is forced by addiction,' Hilkens said. 'I feel responsible for these women.'

Prostitution is legal in the Netherlands and brothels can apply for official licences. The government is planning to increase the age at which women can become prostitutes to 21.

Holland is finally implementing changes like raising the age (since young girls/boys get tricked into being trafficked easier), mandatory language tests (removes the barrier between the victims and the police), shorter shifts (there was a documentary about the conditions and they were awful).

The problem with legalization is that no matter how well it's done it increases the Demand and that increases the need for new girls which fuels solicitors and traffickers profits. Legalization is only viable when these problems are dealt with.

Personally I would go for decriminalization and building trust between prostitutes and the police. Making the victims feel comfortable about reporting abuse from solicitors and clients. Offering them housing and a way out the industry.

[Elegiac]

I never claimed criminalizing it and punishing it's victims (the forced ones) is right.

http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archive...gates_impo.php

Then quit bitching about it, seriously.

"Legalization is only viable when these problems are dealt with?" Again, rubbish. The fact that it is banned makes it impossible to deal with the problem effectively.

[Deleted]

The russian army did the same in Romania once we switched sides, but not such a larger scale. Talk to anyone who was alive then, russian soldiers were the lowest dispicable form of human. Considering the nazi german soldiers were gentlemans, I still would have opted not to change stance in the middle of the war.

[Cybran]

Then quit bitching about it, seriously.

"Legalization is only viable when these problems are dealt with?" Again, rubbish. The fact that it is banned makes it impossible to deal with the problem effectively.

Legalizing it without the proper regulations in place makes it worse. What part of that is so hard to understand?

[Elegiac]

Legalizing it without the proper regulations in place makes it worse. What part of that is so hard to understand?

Which is exactly what Wells and I have been saying.

[Cybran]

Which is exactly what Wells and I have been saying.

No. He said that "Human trafficking is not a flaw of the industry itself".

Human trafficking is a by product of the industry and the increased demand after legalization increases the NEED FOR IT. You both ignored that.

[Windfury]

Way to put words in my mouth.

I don't care about rape in particular. I'm talking about war crimes in general. You know... like American soldiers massacring vietnamese villages? That kind of war crime. Yeah rape is a part of it, but if you live to complain about being a "comfort woman" then you got off way easier than anyone who lived in Nanking.

An estimated ~300 000 of the comfort women were literally raped to death, the remainder were mostly left sterile (along with other severe injuries) due to the serious trauma their bodies were subject to. They then had to live with that for the rest of their lives, while everyone in their society denied did their best to escape any sort of responsibility. You really consider that easy?

[Well]

Tbh, it was. It's cruel, apanthropic, facist and what not, but so is war. There was a need for that system. Facing facts is not bad.

[Kalyyn]

Jesus Christ...

I don't see how one could even begin to justify... so many things that the Japanese did in that war. I swear, they were trying to outdo the Mongols for just being horrible. And while records are sketchy, they just might have done it. If you're going to empire, empire responsibly. I mean it's common sense, really. After you've just conquered a people, most of them probably don't care for you. Logic dictates that your first course of action should be to turn that opinion, and get them on your side. It sure as hell works a lot better than doing everything you can to make sure that they'll turn on you the second you're not looking. That is how you lose your empire.

[Bolson13]

I'm sorry, perhaps you didn't see just how they killed people in Nanking?

Didn't read about the Japanese officers who had a contest to see who could kill more civilians with a sword?

Didn't read about the Japanese who cut open pregnant women and skewered the fetus? Here:



The Japanese managed to kill 300,000 (average estimate) Chinese in the span of 6 weeks.

Another major (Nagoya) and a few other officials actually said it was fabricated. Not even 40 years ago but last year.
Japan is still a pretty messed up country. And they wonder why China wants to wipe them off the planet.

[LilSaihah]

Shit happens in war. It's super duper sad and nobody wants it to happen but it does happen.

Let's just stop having wars?

[Cybran]

Logic dictates that your first course of action should be to turn that opinion, and get them on your side. It sure as hell works a lot better than doing everything you can to make sure that they'll turn on you the second you're not looking. That is how you lose your empire.

Japan's goal wasn't to make the occupied people their friends. They viewed themselves as "Honorary Aryans". Hitler called them "Allies against the hated Slavs". If they had the chance they would have exterminated most of Asia.

[Deleted]

Not surprising. The Japanese are still denying things Unit 731 or the mass executions of Chinese POWs (out of the thousands captured only 56 were alive at the end of ww2 and they were in such poor shape they died even with medical treatment)

The Japanese will never freely admit their actions. Or they try to defend them.

[Kalyyn]

Japan's goal wasn't to make the occupied people their friends. They viewed themselves as "Honorary Aryans". Hitler called them "Allies against the hated Slavs". If they had the chance they would have exterminated most of Asia.

Which I could have told them was a terrible idea...
"Hey, I wonder what'll happen a few generations from now when the nazis are really powerful, and we're the only brown people left on Earth?"

[Shixun]

Not surprising. The Japanese are still denying things Unit 731 or the mass executions of Chinese POWs (out of the thousands captured only 56 were alive at the end of ww2 and they were in such poor shape they died even with medical treatment)

The Japanese will never freely admit their actions. Or they try to defend them.

Even to this day, Japanese officials deemed Pearl Harbor a necessary action. They believe that US forced them to strike first. Honestly guys, Japanese will always make up excuses regardless how terrible their actions are. What's to stop them from doing similar bullshxt in the future? = = Did you know that Japanese were also researching nuclear arsenals at the same time as US? Had they completed first do you think they would hesitate to nuke US?

It saddens me that people actually believe those horrifying racial genocides which Japanese committed are necessary.
Really? Herding thousands of civilians and children like cattle towards machine gun fire is necessary?

[Bolson13]

As horrible as the Rape of Nanking was, this is baffling. How is marauding soldiers killing civilians, which is something everyone from the Mongols in Central Asia and the Swedes in Germany have done, make the Nazi's industrialised and organised mass murder of millions "human".....?[COLOR="red"]

You do realise that Japan killed far more Chinese civilians (even with most modest estimates, it could easily be double) then Germany killed Jews right? And that is not counting all the civilians they killed in Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Phillipines. The nazi's were sick bastards for industrialising the killings like they were cattle, making murder an industry. But the Japanese were very brutal in their murders like all the beheadings etc.. And it is not like they didn't mustardgas groups of people in various countries or had "death" capms. where the only food prisoners had were the rats they could catch.

Seriously, Germany and Japan were equally bad. Germany at least is very apologetic and their government and people show deep regret. In Japan your almost a traitor if you say it out loud it seems.