A Letter to Prime Minister Abe - a former officer of Governor General of Korea

A person who served local governments under the Governor General of Korea from 1933 to 1945 sent a letter to the Prime Minister Abe in February, 2013, in which he described the administrative system of Japanese rule over Korea and explained that the story that the army or government forcibly brought Korean girls for comfort women was not possible.

Mr Kiyoshi Nishikawa was born in 1915 and worked in Korea as officers of local government under the Governor of Korea from 1933 to 1945. He promoted the manager of the Home Office. He wrote the following letter and sent it to Prime Minister Abe in February, 2013.

Dear Prime Minister Abe,

I sincerely apologize to you such a rudeness that an obscure dotage send a letter to the Prime Minister who are working hard for our country every day and night.

I just want to a message while I am alive. It is about so called the military comfort woman. The army and the government officers of Japan had never been involved in the forced transportation of military comfort women, which is so called by Korea and others.

I can predicate this because of my experiences as a manager of the Home Office of Wonju-gun and Yeongwol-gun in Gangwong-dou of Korea. Here, I would like to describe the situations at that time.

I came to Korea in 1933, and worked as an officer in Gangwong-dou until I came back to Japan after the World War II. I was called up for the military service for a year during the stay in Korea.

The administrative orders were conveyed from the Governor General of Korea to Dou Offices, from the Dou Office to Gun Offices, and the Gun Office to each municipality, and then enforced. The head of a Gun was called as Gunsyu, most of them were Koreans, under which the Home Office and Industrial Office were placed. Most of the managers of the Home Office were Japanese, who were older than 40 years having rich experienced and managed personnel and general office works, holding the real power of the Gun Office.

The responsibilities of the manager of the Home Office included supervising municipalities and military matters, although the major work of military matters was about the soldiers on the veteran list because Korean men were free from the duty of conscription.

For Korean men, drafting to the government work was applied. The Governor General of Korea allocated a necessary number to each Dou, and each the Head of Dou allocate it to each Gun, and the Head of Gun allocated it to each municipality. Recruited men were sent to Pusan and handed over them to the officers of the Governor General of Korea.

There was no similar system for Korean women. If the army intended to collect comfort women, the Japanese Korean Army needed to request to the Governor General of Korea and collect them through the route mentioned above. But such thing had never been taken place.

If prostitutes were forcibly brought and abducted, it was done by procures or other similar persons, and the army and the government had never been involved it. There were many Japanese prostitutes at comfort housed near military bases, but who dared to say that they were military comfort woman?

I'm frastrated that people who are so shameless that they think money is everything, which are different from Japanese, create a number of lies taking advantage that Japanese became pessimistic after the World War II.

Nowadays, probably most of the persons, who know the real situation of those days, in the Governor General of Korea, administrative bodies such as Dou and Gun, and the army have passed away. On the other hand, some Japanese who have masochistic tendencies insist that the army and the officers were involved in so-called military comfort women, but they do not know anything about the facts of girl bars and brothels which can be said to be the home land of Korean prostitutes before and during the war. I cannot put up with the situation that such people who play desk theories.

You (Prime Minister Abe) would be the only politician who can review the Kono Statement, which has deteriorated the national dignity and be the negative legacy. I sincerely ask you to correct the statement firmly for the prestige of Japan.

Last of all, I wish you are health for you and our country.

With best regards,

Kiyoshi Nishikawa,

Tanabe City, Wakayama Prefecture February, 2013

Seiji Yoshida testified that he was involved in abductions of Korean girls under the order of Japanese Army during World War II in his book “My War Crime” in 1983. His description about the administrative system of Japan at that time was so strange that the book was very doubtful, and his testify proved to be a fake story after some investigations. Asahi Shimbun picked up his fake story to spread the story of comfort women even after it was found that the book was fake. Asahi Shimbun agreed that his story was forgery on August 5, 2014. On the other hand, there is no strangeness in the testimony of Kiyoshi Nishikawa. He has evidences that support his story.