The following is from a feature article in today's WiLL, a monthly magazine titled "The Comfort Women Issue, Germany's ulterior motive in beating Japan," featuring a conversation between journalist Yoshio Kisa and information strategy analyst Tetsuhide Yamaoka.
As I mention every month, the monthly magazines' WiLL, Hanada, and Sound Argument are full of genuine articles that are a must-read not only for the Japanese people but also for people worldwide.
This article proves that point beautifully.
When I was still a subscriber to the Japanese edition of Newsweek, I read an unbelievable article about a German poll showing that about half of Germans have an anti-Japanese ideology.
Since then, I have had the utmost contempt for the so-called cultural figures who have been saying things like "learn from Germany," among whom I have seen firsthand in the pages of Newsweek, Takeshi Umehara, and Masakazu Yamazaki.
Yoshio Kisa and Tetsuhide Yamaoka, who are also national treasures as defined by Saicho, have proven perfectly that my criticism of Germany was 100% correct.
The Japanese people must head to their nearest bookstore to subscribe.
I will let the rest of the world know as best I can.
An Inconvenient Truth
Kisa
There is a severe error in Mr. Szagun's assertion.
That is, Germany has not cleared up its past at all.
Even on the issue of comfort women, Germany refers to comfort women as "forced prostitution.
There are two reasons for this.
One is that the Nazis arrested prostitution, homosexuals, beggars, alcoholics, etc., as "unsocial" behavior that was not in line with the social order.
In addition to professional prostitutes, some women were arrested on other charges and were subjected to prostitution in concentration camps.
Besides, not only the Nazi SS officers in charge of the camps but also men who were inmates and supervised other inmates at the will of the SS, as well as inmates who performed well in forced labor, were allowed to prostitute themselves as a "bonus.
The human rights of the women who were forced to be prostitutes were wholly ignored.
Furthermore, another historical fact that the Wehrmacht, which was separate from the Nazi organization during the Hitler era, forcibly took women from other countries and turned them into sex slaves.
These two are described as "forced prostitution.
Yamaoka
In the Japanese military case, there was no forced recruitment, as is known from various records. Moreover, we know that most of the comfort women were Japanese women.
Kisa
However, today's Germans know very little about these facts of the past and do not even try to verify them.
Yamaoka
The viciousness of forced prostitution in Germany cannot be compared to the comfort women system in Japan.
In Japan's case, there was the concept of a contract, as a paper by Professor Ramseyer of Harvard University makes clear.
Moreover, the content of the contract took into account the interests of both parties.
In Germany's case, however, as Mr. Kisa mentioned, the prostitutes were forced into prostitution without their consent.
Besides, it made the crime of rape in the occupied territories a crime of intimidation (a crime for which no prosecution can be filed without a complaint).
In other words, sex crimes in the area were virtually tolerated.
Kisa
If we insinuate such inconvenient facts about Germany, all the reckoning acts for the war that Germany has done after the war will collapse.
I once asked a woman activist why forced prostitution had not become a social and political issue in Germany.
Her answer was, "In Germany, it is impossible.
Yamaoka
In Mr. Szagun's document that I mentioned earlier, there is a statement that "Germany also did terrible things in Eastern Europe.
In response to this, he argues that Germany is remorseful, but Japan is not.
That perception is only one side of the story.
Kisa
In the case of Germany, all the blame has been placed on Hitler and the Nazis.
In particular, because of the Holocaust issue, Germany was condemned by the international community at once. If it brought up "Hitler" and "the Nazis" as scapegoats and apologized, it perceived that Germany had reflected on its war responsibility.
Yamaoka
It was only a form of remorse.
Kisa
But it is also true that this approach was reaching its limits.
On January 23, 2020, a memorial ceremony was held at the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Jerusalem, Israel, which was attended by German President Steinmeier, who gave the following speech: "The perpetrators were Germans. The perpetrators were the Germans. The worst crime in human history, the industrial mass murder of six million Jews, was committed by our people.
"I wish we could say that the Germans have learned from history, but we can't say that in the face of spreading hatred.
In short, the German head of state's speech effectively put an end to the German people's psychological deception to scapegoat the Nazis.
He said that no one could be held responsible for the war crimes of the Germans.
But Germany alone could not carry that burden.
They looked to the east to see if anyone could help, and they found Japan.
So, they used the Japanese comfort women issue as a shield and a new scapegoat for their sins.
Yamaoka.
In other words, behind the installation of the comfort women statues lies the German people's distorted psychology.
Japanese people's view of Germany up to now was that Germans, in general, were excellent and pro-Japanese and that they were a country with which Japan, with its thriving heavy industry, had a fundamental connection.
But if you read Kisa's book, you will see that all of this is an illusion.
Kisa
There is an unfortunate reality there.
Yamaoka
Germany is also a country with great contradictions.
If you denounce the human rights problem in Japan, will you also condemn the human rights problem in China, Mongolia, Tibet, and Uyghur?
Why don't they criticize anything?
Germany lives in the automobile industry. The primary customer of the automobile industry is the Chinese market.
So, the logic is that they do not criticize China.
Such deceptive thinking does not cause any pangs of conscience.
Surprisingly, when Chancellor Merkel visited Japan, she said at an informal dinner, "Sales of VW (Volkswagen) are more important than human rights issues.
She is not afraid to turn a blind eye to other countries' evils for the sake of her own country's interests.
Kisa
That is the "identity" of the Germans.
China's oppression of its neighboring peoples is even more brutal than that of the Nazis.
However, Chancellor Merkel has never officially criticized China.
The media has also not turned a critical eye to her words and actions.
Yamaoka
If it were Japan, there would be many people calling for the government to take a stand.
Kisa
It is one of Germany's characteristics that the media hardly criticize the government, especially Chancellor Merkel.
It may be one of the reasons for the rise of Hitler.
This article continues.
