Book Review: American Soldiers Witnessed Korean Comfort Women - Flowers of the War
There is a new book out with original source information on Korean comfort women. American Soldiers Witnessed Korean Comfort Women-”Flowers of the War” (2020) contains the translation and compilation of the original work in Japanese, Japanese Military Men Witnessed Flowers at the Battlefields-Korean Comfort Women, which was published in Japanese in 2019.
The title merits clarification. The word “flower” is used to depict the true nature of the comfort women, not as forced sex slaves, but as women deserving of praise who provided solace and comfort to weary soldiers returning from the battlefield.
Firsthand History
The book contains translations from Japanese into English of a compilation of statements of 20 former Japanese military men and civilians about their experiences with comfort women. These statements were published in a monthly newsletter by the Research Institute for Showa History.
The institute covered various controversial issues in modern history, with its first newsletter published in 1996 and continuing for 155 editions until 2010. This book was authored, edited, and published by the late Dr. Koichi Mera, past director of the Global Alliance for Historical Truth, and Kiyoshi Hosoda, the current director of GAHT-U.S.
The book also contains two official wartime reports of the United States Army: Interrogation Report No. 49 and an interrogation report of a Japanese prisoner of war captured on Guadalcanal.
These 20 statements are based on the personal experiences of each interviewee. There is one very detailed narrative by a noncommissioned officer who was tasked by his commander to investigate a request by a Korean comfort station operator to operate in the organization’s area of responsibility. The noncommissioned officer tells of his visit to other organizations seeking firsthand knowledge of operations and the nature of comfort women.
The book also includes a narrative of a then-young enlistee on a train, having a pleasant conversation with two comfort women going on a holiday trip (hardly the type of activity expected of abducted sex slaves). Other accounts include those of former military officers and other men in various capacities on their experiences with Korean comfort women.
Many of the former soldiers served in China and Manchuria, but those who served in Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands are also included. There is a common thread in all the statements:
- There is no mention of military recruitment by the Japanese of Korean women or of any other nationality. In all cases, the Korean women worked for their civilian Korean pimps.
- The women were paid for their service by the soldiers and shared their earnings with the brothel operator to pay off their loans.
- Comfort women were primarily from Korea and Japan. Although some local brothels were authorized for use by soldiers, allowing employment of local women was generally avoided to minimize local resentment.
The Role of Zegens — Korean Recruiters
A heretofore unmentioned aspect of the comfort women issue was the existence in Korea of those who recruited comfort women. Referred to as “zegens,” they were members of an organized group that recruited the women, then sold the contracts to comfort station operators and apparently also made the arrangements with the Japanese military. Detailed information on “zegens” is lacking, but they did not operate comfort stations.
The author of the book, Dr. Mera, summarizes it in a closing statement:
The statements of the Japanese military men contained in this volume clearly reveal that the Korean comfort women “sex slave” assertion is false. Rather, the women were praised as “Flowers of the Battlefields.”
Moreover, it should be recognized that the entire collection has a high level of consistency with the United States’ military reports contained in this volume.
Any attempt therefore to obtain compensation founded on assertion of pain and torture is tantamount to fraud on an international scale.
Recent Controversy in South Korea
This book is timely in that, just recently, in early May 2020, Lee Yong Soo, a widely-known Korean comfort woman and activist, denounced Yoon Mee Hyang, the former head of Korean Council for Justice and Remembrance of Military Sexual Slavery by Japan, of misappropriating donated funds. Lee Yong Soo was the former comfort woman in the reception line next to South Korean President Moon Jae In, welcoming U.S. President Donald Trump on his official visit to Korea in 2017.
Yoon, who had headed the Korean Council since 2008 and resigned in March 2020 to enter politics, made a comment that cast doubt on whether Lee was in fact a former comfort woman. The Korean Council is currently undergoing police investigation.
For those interested in the truth about comfort women, this collection of primary source material is a must. It provides a wealth of details about comfort women and the comfort women system not recorded in World War II military records in our national archives. The book is available from Amazon.
RELATED STORIES: BOOK REVIEW | ‘Wartime Military Records on Comfort Women’ by Archie Miyamoto, and Comfort Women: Were They Prostitutes or Sex Slaves?
ABOUT THE BOOK:
Title: American Soldiers Witnessed Korean Comfort Women-”Flowers of the War”
Authors: Koichi Mera and Kiyoshi Hosoya
Sold By: Amazon.com Services, LLC, (April 2020)
Learn more or purchase the book: Click here for information about the book on the publisher’s website.
Author: Archie Miyamoto
"While it’s clear the issue has been distorted by Korea as well, it seems a bit disingenuous to write it off as a scam, wouldn’t you say?"
I agree. I think the "scam" narrative is quite extreme.
IMO, one of the champions of objectivity on this issue would be Hata Ikuhiko (秦郁彦), who you may already know of as the author of the book "Comfort Women and Sex in the Battle Zone" (English PDF available free) referenced frequently in the blog link you shared in your previous comment. This well researched book includes information that would inflame both extreme sides of the issue, and is ultimately critical of how the issue is being reported/propagandized in Korea and internationally.
And I think this is the gist of the issue for the majority of Japanese. That is, the international media has simply swallowed the Korean rhetoric whole without questioning any of their claims when there were many other pieces to this puzzle that any reporter exercising due diligence would've stumbled upon.
I think this might be partly coming from the understandable human tendency to err on the side of victims, and also from simple negligence, simplification, or sensationalization stemming from, again, an entirely understandable lack among their reading audience of a more-than-passing appetite for the complex intertwining of facts of Japan-Korean history. But there might be other more nefarious machinations going on, such as:
How Beijing weaponizes ‘comfort women’ as propaganda tool
https://www.citizendaily.news/how-beijing-weaponizes-comfort-women-as-propaganda-tool/
A Weapon Without War: China’s United Front Strategy - Foreign Policy Research Institute
https://www.fpri.org/article/2018/02/weapon-without-war-chinas-united-front-strategy/
The author of the first article, Jason Morgan, says, "The more China can convince the international community to believe the worst about the Japanese, the easier it will be for China to have its way in Taiwan, Tibet, Xinjiang, Bhutan, Nepal, Vietnam, the Philippines, Mongolia, and beyond."
An interesting big-picture perspective to keep in mind I think.
This is very good info, thanks for sharing.
The comfort women myth of Japanese military abducting Korean women and forcing them to be sex slaves was created in the 1990s.
In reality, Korean comfort women were highly paid battlefield prostitutes.
Read the political formation of that propaganda at the site below.
Prior to that time, comfort women were recognized battlefield prostitutes in both Japan and South Korea.
But in the 1990s, Japan Communist Party's member Yoshida Seiji published a propaganda book that he was ordered to hunt Korean women by the Japanese army and the Asahi Shimbun(newspaper) cooperated with Yoshida in order to accuse the Japanese government, the Asahi Shimbun also spread a hoax to the world.
And in South Korea, anti-Japanese activists inspired by the Asahi Shimbun fake news manipulated former comfort women to create a sex slave theory in accordance with the Yoshida's narrative.
This is how they started demanding money and an apology from Japan.
The following site shows then-documents such as the comfort women's recruitment advertisements, the comfort women's paychecks, the comfort women's savings account, the comfort women's fee table, and the Japanese and U.S. military reports proving that Korean Comfort women were mere battlefield prostitutes.
It also shows the Japanese and Korean experts' verification results of Korean Comfort women's testimonies which you people call "living evidence", and they turned out to be doubtful.
http://hontonorekishi.blog.fc2.com/blog-entry-29.html
During the Joseon Dynasty era, the aristocratic class called the Yanbang enslaved the same Korean people.
Women, in particular, were treated as genuine sex slaves by the Yanbang.
(The site below shows slave trade certificates)
http://hontonorekishi.blog.fc2.com/blog-entry-4.html
At the time, there was also a brutal system in which Korean women were beheaded for having sex with foreigners, including Japanese.
http://hontonorekishi.blog.fc2.com/blog-entry-54.html
However, after Japan annexed Korea, slavery was abolished and the status of women was improved.
The following site shows articles proving that Korean women enjoy fashion and excellent school girls are awarded in the Japanese era.
There are also many ads for cosmetics and beauty products.
How would you explain this contradiction if Japan had made Korean girls sex slaves?
http://hontonorekishi.blog.fc2.com/blog-entry-11.html
Currently, the Korean Council, the largest comfort women's support group in South Korea, and its former president, Yoon Meehyang are denounced by former comfort woman Lee Yong-soo over the distribution of donations.
This is the reality of the comfort women issue.
In South Korea, if you show up as a victim of Japan, you will receive a large amount of money in donations.
That's why former comfort women have created various stories such as that they were abducted by the Japanese military in helicopters.
And the people ignore the fact that the Japanese military did not have helicopters and donate them.
But don't forget that the Korean Council also claims that the testimonies of the comfort women who defy that organization are lies and that they are fake comfort women.
The executives of the support group have not given much of the donations to the former comfort women, and they pocket most.
You can read more about the comfort women scam in the following site. How much longer Korean people continue to lie?
https://ameblo.jp/truth-opener/entry-12598545118.html
Did you get the chance to look at the link I posted?
https://dj19.hatenadiary.org/entry/20121213/p1
A variety of firsthand accounts from the Japanese side stretching back decades, well before the 1990's. No reference to Yoshida Seiji. While it's clear the issue has been distorted by Korea as well, it seems a bit disingenuous to write it off as a scam, wouldn't you say?
There are also a number of firsthand accounts that seem to confirm the "sex-slave" narrative.
https://dj19.hatenadiary.org/entry/20121213/p1
It's hard to tell whats true when everybody has an agenda. From what I've seen and read from him, Dr. Mera seems like someone who is very invested in minimizing Japanese wartime wrongdoing.