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TOKYO: A historian said Monday he has uncovered
documents from post-World War II trials of Japanese war criminals
that prove the military directly forced Asian women into sexual
slavery.
The findings will likely cause a
stir as conservative Prime Minister Shinzo Abe sparked controversy
last month when he said there was no proof the imperial army
directly coerced so-called comfort women.
Hirofumi Hayashi, a professor of
history at Kanto Gakuin University, said he found seven items while
combing through the massive storehouse of documents submitted during
the 1946-48 “Tokyo Trials” of war criminals.
One document, written by Dutch
prosecutors and dated March 13, 1946, quoted a Japanese civilian
employee of the Japanese army who said an officer made local women
in occupied Borneo stand naked and slapped them in the face.
“We detained them under orders
of the chief security officer to find excuses to put them into
brothels,” the Japanese employee was quoted as saying, according
to Hayashi.
Another document also includes
testimony by a Japanese lieutenant, who said the army-forced women
into sexual slavery on Indonesia’s Moa island, he said.
“The document shows that he
testified that the army forced local girls into brothels,” the
historian told AFP.
“It says that it was in
retaliation for local villagers who attacked the Japanese force,”
he said. “The army killed 40 villagers and put six of their
daughters into brothels.”
“It says one of the six agreed
to the demands that she work at a brothel while five others
refused” but were forced, he said.
Historians believe up to 200,000
women served in brothels for Japanese troops across Asia by the end
of the war.
Abe caused a stir last month when
he said that no documents showed Japan “directly” enslaved
women, such as by kidnapping them.
However, Abe has repeatedly said
that Japan was responsible in a broader sense and that he stands
behind a landmark 1993 apology to former comfort women. Hayashi
plans to present his documents to the public Tuesday.
--AFP
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