英字新聞

The Yomiuri Shimbun August 2, 2013
Refute recent moves in U.S. to distort comfort women issue
「慰安婦」像設置　憂うべき米国での「反日」拡大（8月1日付・読売社説）

　◆強制連行巡る誤解を正したい

A distorted view of historical facts involving Japan is starting to be spread in the United States. We believe the situation is extremely serious.
　歪曲(わいきょく)された歴史が、全米に喧伝(けんでん)されようとしている。極めて憂慮すべき事態である。

A statue of a girl symbolizing so-called comfort women was unveiled Tuesday in a ceremony in Glendale, Calif.
　米カリフォルニア州のグレンデール市内の公園で３０日、「従軍慰安婦」の少女像の除幕式が行われた。

A private group of Korean-Americans led the move to erect the statue. It has the same design as a monument set up by an anti-Japan group in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul in 2011.
　韓国系民間団体の主導による慰安婦像だ。反日団体が一昨年、ソウルの日本大使館前に設置した像と同じデザインである。

The city of Glendale has designated the day, July 30, as “Korean Comfort Women Day.” The day’s origin is July 30, 2007, when the U.S. House of Representatives adopted a resolution calling on Japan to apologize over the comfort women issue.
　この日をグレンデール市は「慰安婦の日」とした。６年前、米下院が慰安婦問題で日本に謝罪を求める決議を採択した日に因(ちな)む。

Overblown descriptions
　◆性奴隷という誇張歪曲

A plaque beside the statue says, “In memory of more than 200,000 Asian and Dutch women who were removed from their homes...to be coerced into sexual slavery by the Imperial Armed Forces of Japan between 1932 and 1945.”
　慰安婦像の傍らの碑には「１９３２年から４５年まで、日本軍に連行され、強制的に性奴隷にされた２０万人以上のアジア人、オランダ人の女性たちを記憶にとどめるために」と記されている。

The distorted and exaggerated phrases “sexual slavery” and “more than 200,000” are enough to significantly degrade the honor of Japan.
　「性奴隷」「２０万人以上」という誇張歪曲した表現だけでも、日本の名誉を著しく傷つける。

The private group plans to set up similar statues elsewhere in the United States.
　韓国系民間団体は、こうした慰安婦像をさらに米国内に設置していく方針だ。

It is clear that the group aims to disseminate false information that the former Imperial Japanese Army forcibly recruited young Korean women, even minors, as comfort women during World War II.
　戦時中、旧日本軍が韓国の若い女性や少女さえも慰安婦として強制的に連行したという誤ったイメージを米国に広めようとしている。

The move calls to mind the way Chinese-American author Iris Chang depicted the Nanjing Incident in her book as an act of genocide equivalent to the Holocaust perpetrated by the German Nazi regime.
　かつて中国系アメリカ人のアイリス・チャン氏が著書で南京事件を、ナチス・ドイツのユダヤ人虐殺と同じような大虐殺として描いたことを想起させる。

The topic of comfort women became a diplomatic issue between Japan and South Korea in 1992. It was triggered by an Asahi Shimbun report that stated the Imperial Japanese Army controlled and supervised the establishment of so-called comfort stations as well as recruitment of comfort women.
　そもそもいわゆる従軍慰安婦問題が日韓間の外交問題に浮上したのは、９２年のことだ。朝日新聞が「日本軍が慰安所の設置や、従軍慰安婦の募集を監督、統制していた」と報じたのが発端だった。

No evidence confirmed
　◆証言の裏付けはない

Another passage in the article suggested that “Joshi Teishin Tai,” a wartime labor mobilization system for women, served as a means of forcible recruitment of comfort women, arousing resentment in South Korea.
　記事には、戦時勤労動員の「女子挺身(ていしん)隊」があたかも慰安婦の強制連行であったかのような表現もあり、韓国で反発が強まった。

The government has conducted an intensive investigation on the issue, but found no documents backing up the claim that the Japanese military forcibly recruited comfort women.
　政府は徹底的に調査したが、日本軍による強制連行を裏付けるような文書は発見できなかった。

In 1993, the Cabinet of then Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa approved a statement issued by then Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono to express “apologies and remorse” to former comfort women, apparently with the aim of politically settling the dispute between the two countries.
　宮沢内閣は翌９３年、元慰安婦へのおわびと反省の意を表した河野官房長官談話を決定し、政治決着を図ろうとした。

The statement said that “at times, administrative/military personnel directly took part in the recruitments.”
談話には「官憲等が直接これに加担したこともあった」と記されている。

The statement included the sentence because when the government conducted interviews with 16 former comfort women, at the request of the South Korean government, there was testimony from one of them that police officers of the then Government-General of Korea took part in the recruitment of comfort women and intimidated them. Nobuo Ishihara, deputy chief cabinet secretary at the time, later revealed the finding.
　韓国政府の要望を受け、１６人の元慰安婦から聞き取り調査を行った際、その中に、朝鮮総督府の巡査が慰安婦募集に立ち会って威嚇した旨の証言があったからだという。当時、官房副長官だった石原信雄氏が明らかにした。

However, no steps were taken to confirm the former comfort woman’s testimony. It cannot be denied that excessive diplomatic deference to South Korea was in the background.
　証言の裏付け調査は行われなかった。韓国への過剰な外交配慮が背景にあったことは否めない。

The Kono statement became a source of misunderstanding. Countries like South Korea took it to mean the Japanese government had admitted the comfort women were recruited forcibly.
　この河野談話が誤解の火種となった。慰安婦は強制連行であったと日本政府が認めたかのように、韓国などは受け止めた。

Issues of property and claims were settled under international law when the two countries normalized their relations in 1965. The Japanese government’s position is that compensation to former comfort women was also settled at that time as a matter of course.
　日韓間の財産・請求権問題については、１９６５年の国交正常化で国際法的には解決済みである。日本政府は元慰安婦への補償も当然含まれるとの立場だ。

The government later established the Asian Women’s Fund and provided 2 million yen in “atonement money” to 285 former comfort women in Taiwan, the Phillipines and South Korea. A letter of apology from then Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto was also distributed to them.
　政府はその後、「アジア女性基金」を設け、台湾やフィリピンなど２８５人の元慰安婦に１人２００万円の「償い金」を支給し、首相のおわびの手紙も届けた。

However, the South Korean side reacted fiercely, saying this did not count as state compensation, and many former South Korean comfort women refused to receive the money.
　だが、韓国側は国家による補償ではないと反発し、多くの韓国人元慰安婦も受け取りを拒んだ。

It is also problematic that Japan’s atonement project was not accurately introduced to the public in South Korea and therefore went unappreciated.
　日本の償い事業が韓国できちんと伝えられず、評価されなかったことにも問題がある。

On the problem of comfort women, which has grown ever more knotty, the government needs to reexamine the issue from its roots, including the Kono statement.
　こじれ続ける慰安婦問題への対応について、政府は、河野談話を手始めに、根本から再検証する必要があるだろう。