OPPapers.com

Japan, Abe, And "Comfort Women"

The issue of ‘comfort women’—a term used to describe women who provided sexual services to the Japanese military in World War II—drew international attention last spring and continued into the fall after then-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe publicly questioned whether the women were coerced into prostitution. His denial angered many within the international community; South Koreans and Americans were particularly incensed. Many groups of former “comfort women” in South Korea, whose early 20th century colonization at the hands of Japan remains a major source of resentment, called for Abe to admit to Japan’s direct culpability, while in America, the House of Representatives approved a resolution in August, calling on Japan to acknowledge and apologize for forcing women into sexual slavery. While Abe faced pressure internationally to apologize, he faced domestic pressure to do the opposite, with a group of conservative members of the Liberal Democratic Party seeking to revise the statement issued by former Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono in 1993, apologizing for the government’s role in coercing ‘comfort women’ into prostitution. These conflicting forces behind the controversy are reflected in the media coverage of the ‘comfort women’ issue. The articles written on the subject by newspapers in the United States, South Korea, and Japan reveals three different images of the country’s wartime behavior and present political climate, all shaped by their own specific biases.
The American perspective of the “comfort women” controversy is represented here by the New York Times. Investigation of the Times’ coverage of the issue reveals a notable bias against Japan and Abe’s refusal to apologize, as well as displaying a slight misinterpretation of Japanese politics. The story broke in the Times with the March 2nd article “Abe Rejects Japan’s Files on War Sex”, by Norimitsu Onishi. In the article, more weight is given to the view...

Please login to view the full essay...