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Asahi Shimbun and Kim Haksun - Story of Comfort Woman

Fact:

Asahi Shimbun reported on August 11th, 1991 that a Korean woman introduced herself as one of the Korean Military Comfort Women who were forcibly brought to the battle field under the name of Women's Volunteer Corps. On August 14th, on the other hand, the woman, Kim Hak-sun, said that she was brought to the battle field by her father-in-low. Kim Hak-sum filed a suit against Japanese government in December 1991. She described that she went to China in 1939 with her father-in-law in the petition.

Details:

Seiji YOSHIDA published "My War Crime" in 1983, and the Korean translation was published in 1989. He insisted in the book that he abducted many Korean in Jeju Island under the order of the Japanese government. After the publication, the left wing in Japan invited Korean women who worked as a Comfort Woman for Japanese Army. Finally they found out Kim Hak-sun. She testified her experiences in a NHK program in which she said that she was sold by her parents and brought to a sex house of Japanese Army by her father-in-law.

On August 11th, 1991, Asahi Shimbun reported that a Korean woman testified her experiences as a Comfort Woman. The article was:

Caption: Half a century after the war, a Korean Comfort Woman for Army began to speak

Lead: One of women who were forcibly brought to the battle fields and forced to work as prostitute for Japanese soldiers under the name of Women's Volunteer Corps during Japan-China War and the World War II alive in Soul. "Korean Council for Women's Volunteer Corps Problem" began interview.

This article was written by Takashi UEMURA.

Kim Hak-sun appeared in Korean media three days after the report in the Japanese newspaper, and testified that she was sold to a Kisaeng house by her mother when she was 14 years old and was brought to the place of a Japanese troop by her father-in-law. This testimony was as same as that she told in NHK.

Kim Hak-suu filed a suit against Japanese government on December 16, 1991 with the support of the Japanese left wing. Her petition surprised Japanese people a little because she described that her father-in-law took her to China, which was different from the newspaper article that implied that Japanese officers forcibly brought to the Japanese Army.

Yang Sun-Im, the president of the Association for the Pacific War Victims (Korea), was also one of the complainants of the lawsuit on December 16, 1991. Her daughter is the wife of Takeshi UEMURA, who wrote the article of Kim Hak-sun. Yang Sun-Im was arrested in Korea for defrauding of judicial costs.

After the lawsuit, Kim Hak-sum began to change her testimony. The contents of the testimony leaned to the article of Takeshi UEMURA. Finally, she insisted that she was put into a truck by Japanese soldiers and brought to the battle field in China.

Why this fact affects the rightward trend?

A Comfort Woman was another name of a prostitute. The term of Military Comfort Woman did not exist during the war. It was created by a Japanese writer in 1973. Nowadays, the Military Comfort Woman Problem is one the big issued between Japan and Korea.

The events in 1990s show that the Military Comfort Woman Problem was created by the Japanese left wing.

They found out a Korean woman who was a Comfort Woman during the World War II. Although she testified that her father-in-law brought her to a sex house in a battle filed, Asahi Shimbun reported that Japanese officers brought her forcibly. The reporter's family was related to the lawsuit.

Since the left wing played an important role to fabricate the stories and create the problem, people tend to lean the right wing.