The following is from the book review section of today's Sankei Shimbun.
It was a fiction originating in Japan.
by Ju Ik-jong (Bungei Shunju, 2,420 yen).
The final conclusion of the Anti-Japan Tribalism is the "comfort women issue."
The author, who has studied economic history in South Korea, empirically researched a vast amount of data to prove that most of the comfort women issues, including forced deportation, are fiction and distortion.
The book is a significant work of more than 480 pages, including the index, but between the lines, one can sense the author's intense feelings as if to say, "Is that really all there is to it?"
The arguments of those who have criticized Japan on this issue have been extremely sloppy, and this book, based on facts, is the "final conclusion."
It was a coincidence that the issue of comfort women had been brought up since the 1980s.
Still, this book shows that the decreasing number of people who had direct experience with comfort women, whether military personnel, government officials, or contractors, created a breeding ground for propaganda.
I was also reminded that the issue of comfort women was created by the Japanese side, as Tsutomu Nishioka, often quoted in this book, has said in the past.
I heard that the term "comfort women" was coined by writer Kako Senda.
The term "comfort women" existed, but "military comfort women" did not.
These, the term "sex slavery" and the "comfort women hunting" testimony of Seiji Yoshida, all originated in Japan, if one thinks about it.
In South Korea, the opposition party and others are trying to enact a law to block even empirical research on the comfort women issue.
The majority of the general public also believes that the forced deportation of comfort women is true.
In such a situation, making a claim like the one in this book must have been very difficult, and the author's efforts to pursue it are worthy of respect.
On the other hand, I felt that we should keep in mind that our "enemies" are trying to create another goalpost.
Just as the "forced deportation of comfort women" came into question, so did the "forced labor" theory surrounding the Gunkanjima islands and the "gold mine on Sado Island," which is being sought for UNESCO World Heritage registration.
For the leftist forces in Japan and South Korea, any subject is good enough to attack Japan and worsen Japan-Korea relations.
After reading this book, I am reminded of the need to be more vigilant.
Reviewed by Kazuhiro Araki
2024/6/29 in Osaka
