Japan must sue the Berlin Mitte district of Germany for its national interest
2020/12/22
The following is from the central feature that brings the monthly magazine WiLL released today to a successful beginning.
2020/12/22
The following is from the central feature that brings the monthly magazine WiLL released today to a successful beginning.
It features a conversation between Ms. Yoshiko Sakurai, a national treasure as defined by Saicho, and Mr. Rui Abiru, a real one as a working reporter.
It is a must-read not only for Japan but also for people worldwide.
In particular, it is a must-read for the German people, especially the ignorant left-wing lawmakers in Berlin's Mitte district.
I will translate the entire text and give their ignorance the final word.
The *~* in the text is me.
Cleared of false accusations
Truth has finally triumphed over fakery - let this verdict be a step in the fightback!
'It is from the editorial office.'
In the April 2014 issue of WiLL, Yoshiko Yanai wrote an article titled "Asahi Causes Japan's Course to Go Astray.
In it, she criticized an article on comfort women written by former Asahi Shimbun reporter Takashi Uemura as a "fabrication.
Shortly after that, Mr. Uemura filed a lawsuit against Ms. Sakurai, our company, and Shinchosha and Diamond, publishers of weekly Shincho and weekly Diamond, in which similar articles were published, demanding a total of 16.5 million yen in damages and the publication of an apology article, claiming that the "fabricated comfort women article had damaged his reputation" and other suggestions. In November 2018, the Sapporo District Court ruled in his favor.
In November 2018, the Sapporo District Court dismissed Mr. Uemura's claim, stating that Ms. Sakurai's article "diminishes the social reputation of the plaintiff (Mr. Uemura) because it gives the impression that Mr. Uemura intentionally reported false facts, but the said statements are recognized as authentic and truthful.
Mr. Uemura appealed against the district court's ruling. Still, in February 2020, the Sapporo High Court upheld the first-instance ruling and dismissed his appeal, stating that "the facts presented or the facts on which the opinion or commentary is based have been proven to be accurate, or there are reasonable grounds for believing that they are right." In November 2020, the Supreme Court rejected Uemura's appeal.
Then, in November 2020, the Supreme Court rejected Mr. Uemura's appeal.
As a result, the first and second courts' judgments, which dismissed the claim, became final.
The legal battle lasted more than five years, and Ms. Sakurai won the case, while Mr. Uemura lost.
The Real Culprit
Abiru
Congratulations on your complete victory.
Sakurai
Thank you very much.
Mr. Abiru, you covered the trial in your Sankei Shimbun column, "Kyokugen Gomen."
Abiru
We have long argued that the Asahi Shimbun's fabricated reporting has distorted Japanese people's perception of history.
The fact that the judiciary has recognized Asahi's "fabrication" is significant.
Sakurai
It was a matter of personal "defamation" and "freedom of the press," but simultaneously, it was a trial in which Japan's national interest was at stake.
*Japan must sue the Berlin Mitte district of Germany for its national interest.*
Abiru
The newspapers, including Sankei, should report more extensively on this trial.
The Asahi Shimbun ran an evening article titled "Former Asahi reporter's lawsuit against comfort women confirmed," but I don't see any sense of involvement.
Along with the article by Seiji Yoshida, who falsely testified that it forcibly brought comfort women to Japan, Uemura's writing can be said to be a symbol of comfort women reporting.
They should take the verdict head-on and show remorse to their readers and the public.
Sakurai
In the international community, Japan has been under unwarranted criticism.
The former Japanese military forcibly took women from the Korean Peninsula during the war and turned them into sex slaves called "comfort women," and killed about 75% of them.
The rumor that as many as 400,000 women, 200,000 from the Korean Peninsula and 200,000 from China, were subjected to misery is being spread by Korean and Chinese groups, mainly in the United States.
The Asahi Shimbun is the real culprit behind the comfort women issue. Abiru
The article in question, written by Mr. Uemura, was titled "Former Korean Comfort Women Open Heavy Mouth in Late War Century" and appeared in the August 11, 1991, morning edition of the Asahi Shimbun Osaka.
One of the 'Korean comfort women' who were taken to the battlefield under the name of 'women's volunteer corps' and forced to engage in prostitution with Japanese soldiers is still alive in Seoul.
The Role of the Uemura Article
Sakurai
Remembering Mr. Uemura's article's significance in the Asahi Shimbun's comfort women's coverage is crucial.
On September 2, 1982, the Asahi Shimbun published the testimony of Mr. Seiji Yoshida.
The military ordered Mr. Yoshida to go to Jeju Island and forcibly take 200 women there.
In other words, the newspaper made up the "Japanese military as the perpetrator."
The Asahi Shimbun continued to report this lie on multiple occasions.
Mr. Uemura's article brought to the public's attention that there were no Korean women victims who had been identified as real people.
The emergence of a Korean woman as a victim was a great shock. Still, Uemura's article solidified the composition of Yoshida's testimony: Japan as the perpetrator versus Korea as the victim.
Abiru
The woman in Mr. Uemura's article is anonymous, but she is Kim Hak-sun.In press conferences and interviews, Ms. Kim says that his adoptive father took her to China, where she was sold to Kisaeng.
Sakurai.
However, the article mentioned the "women's volunteer corps," which has nothing to do with comfort women. It gave the impression that Japan and the Japanese military had forcibly taken them away through national strategy.
As is well known to Japanese people, the "volunteer corps" are women the Japanese government mobilized to work in factories as a labor force during the war.
Since Korea's working conditions were different from those in the interior, it was not an effective system.
Abiru
I once interviewed Mr. Uemura in 2015.
When I asked him if the word "volunteer corps" appeared on the tape, he replied, "I'm not sure. At the time, 'volunteer corps' meant 'comfort women,'" he replied.
First, Mr. Uemura did not meet Ms. Kim and listen to her story.
The Korean Council on Volunteer Corps (Volunteer Corps' Association), an anti-Japanese group in South Korea, gave him an anonymous audiotape, which he used in his article.
It is incomprehensible that a reporter would write an article based on this level of research, even with common sense.
It's nothing more than a fabrication.
Sakurai
At the trial, the lawyer asked, "Did the tape recording include the statement, 'I was taken to the battlefield under the name of the Women's Volunteer Corps'? It asked.
Mr. Uemura's answer was, "I don't remember.
'Do you admit that the women's volunteer corps and comfort women are essentially different in Japan? ' He replied, "I acknowledge that comfort women are not usually referred to as female volunteers in Japan."
Abiru
So he knew the difference between the volunteer corps and comfort women, but he dared to confuse them.
Sakurai
The judge also asked, 'I think you wrote 'Taken to the Battlefield in the Name of the Women's Volunteer Corps.' what is the meaning of the word 'in the name' used here?
In response, Mr. Uemura replied, "As I mentioned earlier, I used the word 'comfort women' in the sense of the so-called 'women's volunteer corps' in Korea.
Abiru
Why is it necessary to go into trouble to adapt it to the Korean language?
Sakurai
Because Mr. Uemura wrote the article not in a Korean newspaper but in Japan's Asahi Shimbun, that's very strange.
Even more severe is that Mr. Uemura also testified, "I was aware that she did not take away based on laws and regulations."
Mr. Uemura wrote that Ms. Kim was "taken to the battlefield" even though he knew that she was not taken based on Japanese law.
Moreover, Mr. Uemura admitted that Ms. Kim had said on the tape that she had been tricked into becoming a comfort woman.
Instead of writing what she said, he wrote what she did not say, that she was "taken in under the name of the Women's Volunteer Corps.
Hiding the inconvenient things and adding the convenient stuff is nothing but "fabrication.
This article continues.
2024/9/13 in Miyajima, Hiroshima
