慰安婦問題 史実踏まえて新長官談話を

The Yomiuri Shimbun
Govt should issue new, fact-based statement on comfort women
慰安婦問題　史実踏まえて新長官談話を

The latest move represents a call, in effect, on the government to revise the statement by former Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono on wartime “comfort women,” toward the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II next year.
　戦後７０年に向けた「河野談話」の事実上の見直し要請である。

The Liberal Democratic Party’s Policy Research Council on Tuesday submitted a proposal to current Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, calling on the government to issue a new statement on comfort women through Suga.
　自民党政務調査会は、いわゆる従軍慰安婦問題に関する新たな内閣官房長官談話の発表を求める申し入れ書を、菅官房長官に提出した。

There has been a misunderstanding, spread widely throughout the international community, that a large number of women were forcibly taken away by the Imperial Japanese Army to serve as “sex slaves.” The Kono statement is a factor in that misunderstanding.
　第２次大戦中に日本軍が多くの慰安婦を「性奴隷」として強制連行したとの誤解が、国際社会に広がっている。その要因の一つが河野談話である。

Suga is said to be negative toward issuing a new statement. But he should take the LDP’s call to heart and seriously consider it.
　菅氏は新談話に消極的だというが、自民党の要請を重く受け止め、前向きに検討すべきだ。

The statement, issued in 1993 by the Cabinet of Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa through Kono, expressed the government’s apologies and remorse to former comfort women.
　河野談話は、宮沢内閣時代の１９９３年に元慰安婦へのおわびと反省の意を表したものだ。

The statement said “at times, administrative/military personnel directly took part in the recruitments.” This expression can be construed to mean military and administrative personnel were involved in the forcible taking away of women.
慰安婦募集について「官憲等が直接これに加担したこともあった」と、軍などによる強制連行があったかのように記している。

Yet there have so far been no confirmed documents to prove the forcible taking away of comfort women.
　しかし、強制連行を裏付ける資料は確認されていない。

A governmental panel of experts in June compiled a report on an investigation into the drafting of the statement.
　有識者による政府の検討会は６月、河野談話の作成過程に関する報告書をまとめた。

It revealed that the Japanese and South Korean governments had coordinated closely over expressions regarding “coercion” in the recruitment, with Seoul calling for modification, saying that the statement must be one whose value could be recognized by the people of South Korea.
韓国側が「韓国国民から評価を受け得るものでなければならない」と修正を求めるなど、日韓両政府が表現を調整した実態が明らかになった。

Verification key

In light of these findings, the council criticized the then government for releasing the statement to the world “as a product of political negotiation without going through a verification process.” It is reasonable for the council to point out that the then LDP-led administration should be held heavily responsible.
　これを踏まえ、申し入れ書は、「検証作業を経ずに『政治的すり合わせの産物』としての談話を世界に発出した」と批判した。「当時の自民党政権の責任は重い」と指摘したのは、もっともだ。

The council, in its proposal, also regards news articles carried by some news media as problematic, saying that they have repeatedly spread falsehoods that aggravated relations between Japan and South Korea. This apparently refers to the series of articles on wartime comfort women run by The Asahi Shimbun.
　申し入れ書は、「事実に基づかない虚偽を繰り返し喧伝けんでんし、日韓関係を悪化させた」として、「一部報道機関」の記事を問題視した。朝日新聞の慰安婦報道を指したものだろう。

The Asahi had repeatedly carried articles since 1982, citing the false testimony of a man named Seiji Yoshida, including his statement that many Korean women were “hunted out” on Jeju Island during the war.
　朝日新聞は、８２年以降、韓国・済州島で戦時中に多くの慰安婦を「狩り出した」などとする吉田清治氏の虚偽の証言を、繰り返し記事にした。

On Aug. 5, the Asahi at long last retracted its articles concerning Yoshida’s testimony, but it is clear that the articles stirred up anti-Japan sentiment in South Korea, influencing the environment in which the Kono statement was released.
　今月５日の紙面で、ようやく吉田証言に関する記事を取り消したものの、一連の報道が韓国の反日世論をかき立て、河野談話の伏線となったことは間違いない。

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has made clear his policy of leaving the Kono statement as it is, probably as part of his big-picture judgment that bilateral relations could be aggravated further.
　安倍首相は、河野談話を継承する方針を明らかにしている。日韓関係のこれ以上の悪化などを憂慮しての大局的判断なのだろう。

Yet the release of a new government statement on the issue would be significant for passing down correct history both at home and abroad, with next year seeing the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II and the 50th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic ties between the two countries.
　だが、戦後７０年と日韓国交正常化５０年の節目となる来年に向け、新談話の発表は、国内外に正しい歴史を伝える上で意義がある。

Nonetheless, it is also a fact that the honor and dignity of a large number of women were hurt during the war, even though there was no forcible taking away of comfort women.
　強制連行はなかったにせよ、戦時中に多数の女性の名誉と尊厳が傷つけられたことも事実だ。

As the LDP has advocated, the government should transmit to the world the information concerning comfort women based on historical facts.
　自民党が提言しているように、史実に基づいた慰安婦問題の情報を世界に発信していきたい。

(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, Aug. 27, 2014)