【従軍慰安婦像撤去の請願へのご協力のお願い】 Petition for the removal of a “comfort woman” statue in Nassau County, New York.

English post follows after the Japanese message.

昨年末12月23日に米国カリフォルニア州グレンデール市に設置された従軍慰安婦像の撤去を求めるホワイトハウスに向けた請願に、ご協力をお願いいたしましたが、こちらは10万人を超える方々の署名が集まりました。https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/remove-offensive-state-glendale-ca-public-park/3zLr8dZh拡散、ご協力ありがとうございました。

一方で、同様の状況がニューヨーク州ナッソー郡にも存在し、アイゼンハワーパークに設置された従軍慰安婦像の撤去を求めるホワイトハウスに向けた請願に、ご協力をお願いいたします。国籍を問わずに誰でも請願することができます。2014年1月12日迄に最低でも10万人の署名が必要です。以下のリンクから請願にご協力ください。また、是非とも、このメッセージを拡散いただけますよう、お願い致します。

【ニューヨーク州ナッソー郡アイゼンハワーパーク】←こちらは周知が進んでおらず署名数が低迷しています。是非ご協力を！
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/please-remove-offensive-state-nassau-county-new-york-eisenhower-park/RB7kC1hD

従軍慰安婦問題では強制連行が全く無かったとは言えないかもしれませんが、逆に、あたかも、全て、或いは、殆どが強制連行だったというような解釈は明らかに事実の歪曲であることが、公表されている幾つかの調査で明らかになっています。 実際には、家庭の事情(貧困、借金等)で親に勧められてそういう境遇になった人、家庭内暴力からの脱出(これらの事情には韓国の伝統的な家父長制も密接に関係しているとの調査あり)、お金目当てで職業として選択した人たちなど、状況は様々でした。これらの事実は、例え ば、早くは1944年第二次大戦中の米軍による韓国からビルマ(現ミヤンマー)に渡った20名の慰安婦(Comfort Women/Girls)への聞き取り調査(米国公文書、次のサイトで見れます。下記リンクのものは米国テキサス州のMr. Tony Maranoにより入手されたものです)、

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxEvNFgafcpfQkpnLVRfVGx2T3M/edit?usp=sharing

近年では、San Francisco State Uの教授でご自身が韓国出身でもあるProfessor Chunghee Sarah Soh の2008年に出版された著書 "The Comfort Women: Sexual Violence and Postcolonial Memory in Korea and Japan"

http://www.sfsu.edu/~news/2009/spring/26.html

http://www.amazon.com/The-Comfort-Women-Postcolonial-Sexuality/dp/0226767779/

でも明らかにされています。

こういう事実を無視して、全てがあたかも強制された状況だったかのように故意に解釈・吹聴し、そうした不公平なプロパガンダ的な認識を流布するのみならず、米国の多くの都市の公園等に従軍慰安婦像を建立するなどという行為は、故意に間違った歴史を人々の認識に刷り込もうとする卑劣な行為であり、決して放置されるべきではありません。

私 自身には数人の韓国人或いは韓国系の友達や知り合いがいますが、彼・彼女達個々人は心優しい素晴らしい人たちです。しかし、どこの国でも個々人と政府は別 物。韓国政府の場合は前政権から特に現政権にかけて、その言動は「醜い」を通り越して殆ど「狂気の沙汰」の域に達している気がします。

関連するリンク: 以下blogも参照させていただきました。

http://ameblo.jp/minna4970/entry-11732739509.html

[Message in English]

Dear Readers of this message,

I posted this message on December 23, 2013 to request you to sign up for the petition at the U.S. White House on its web site here in order to remove the “comfort woman/girl” statue, which seemingly masquerades as a peace statue while in essence, after reading the inscription, it intends to promote hate towards the people and nation of Japan based on intentional misinterpretation of history surrounding Korean comfort women.

As for Glendale California, more than 100,000 have signed up as of January 3, 2014, and the petition is now considered successful. 

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/remove-offensive-state-glendale-ca-public-park/3zLr8dZh
Thank you for your sharing and action to have made this happen. 

In the meantime, there is essentially the same issue in Nassau County New York, Eisenhower Park, as we have in Glendale, CA., and the petition still requires approximately 65,000 more to go before it can reach 100,000, and this has to be done by January 12, 2014. Kindly please provide your support by signing up for the petition at the following link:  
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/please-remove-offensive-state-nassau-county-new-york-eisenhower-park/RB7kC1hD

While one probably cannot say that there was no comfort woman who was not forced into prostitution, it is clearly not based on facts for one to say as if all or most of them had been forced into the situations, as demonstrated in publicly available documents and researches. Some comfort women/girls had their parents arranged them into the situations for the reasons such as poverty, family debts, or other complicated family situations, and some voluntarily opted to be professional prostitutes to earn money.

One research conducted as early as in 1944 by the US Army Forces on 20 Korean comfort women, who went to Burma (now Myanmar), “Japanese Prisoner of War Interrogation Report No.49” is available from National Archives in the US., and I am sharing the public document here (by courtesy of Mr. Tony Marano in Texas, US who made this available on the web).

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxEvNFgafcpfQkpnLVRfVGx2T3M/edit?usp=sharing

One recent well-researched book "The Comfort Women: Sexual Violence and Postcolonial Memory in Korea and Japan" (University Of Chicago Press, 2009) written by Professor Chunghee Sarah Soh, who was born and raised in Korea, at San Francisco State University, also discusses the matter in broader historical and cultural contexts by refusing to yield to knee-jerk responses or politically correct narratives.

http://www.sfsu.edu/~news/2009/spring/26.html

http://www.amazon.com/The-Comfort-Women-Postcolonial-Sexuality/dp/0226767779/

Ignoring many-faceted nature surrounding the issue and painting it in just one color as “having been forced into prostitution” by the Japanese brutal regime back then, and not only intentionally using such one-sided story as a political propaganda, but also even going as far as to build a statue in public part masquerading wishing for peace is utterly a shameful, discreditable behavior, which would only undermine their integrity and credibility. Due justice has to be done.

Not to be misunderstood, I have more than a few Korean friends in Korea, the US, and elsewhere, and they are individually wonderful and caring persons and I love them all. However, unfortunately the Korean government does appear to be far from it, and especially it has been so under the former President Lee Myung-bak and even more so with the incumbent President Park Geun-hye. Their outright anti-Japanese attitude does not only look extreme and unwarranted but also it effectively appears to portray them almost insane to me and I am deeply concerned about it.  

Referenced web link (in Japanese): http://ameblo.jp/minna4970/entry-11732739509.html