Association for Asian American Studies (AAAS) Endorses the "Comfort Women" Resolution!

A Historic Win: AAAS has become the nation's first national academic association to officially take a stand in solidarity with Comfort Women for their demand for justice!

We are extremely proud to announce that the Association for Asian American Studies Board of Directors unanimously voted to endorse the "Comfort Women" Resolution! This is a win for women’s rights, human rights, and most especially a measure of justice for our grandmothers, both those who have passed on and those who are still here with us. This victory is an attribution to the decades-long movement, led by the brave women who came out to tell their stories over 20 years ago. Community members, activists, and academics have followed suit, telling and memorializing our grandmother’s stories and rightly pointing out the unimaginably twisted atrocity inflicted and institutionalized by the Japanese imperial army, and forcefully denied as "official position" by the current Japanese government. Politicization of the issue, away from the human rights issue that it is, and Tokyo's active whitewashing of its militaristic past have put tremendous pressure on the scholars working on the issue of wartime sexual slavery and threatened our academic freedom.

In light of the recent news that Japan is threatening to boycott the South Korean Olympics due to President Moon publically rejecting the so-called 2015 “agreement” between South Korea and Japan, which did nothing to “resolve” the “Comfort Women” issue and instead completely silenced the demands by surviving grandmothers, the AAAS endorsement of the “Comfort Women” resolution is an important step in acknowledging and denouncing institutionalized sex slavery and resisting historical denialism. 

We will follow up with another email with an exciting list of presentations, panels, and our annual “Comfort Women” section meeting at the 2018 gathering in San Francisco, but for now, please see the statement below. The original resolution submitted for endorsement included over 100 signatories.

AAAS Board of Directors Statement on Supporting the Comfort Women Resolution

2018 Association for Asian American Studies Conference
March 29-31, 2018
Westin St. Francis, San Francisco, California

Regarding the campaign to “Support Remembrance of ‘Comfort Women’ and Their Endangered History,” the Association for Asian American Studies Board of Directors supports the following statement:

That the call to stand with the survivors of Japanese Imperial Army’s heinous atrocity of sexual enslavement system euphemistically known as the “Comfort Women” system as resistance to the current administration of Japan to whitewash its militaristic past is an important point. Mainstream Japanese institutions are complicit with Japanese government’s active denial and denigration of the truths and truth-bearers of this mass human rights violation the world cannot afford to banish into oblivion, as the world grapples with contemporary threats of colonial sexual violence again.

There was a careful distinction made between the Japanese government and its complicit institutions, and individual academics of Japanese ancestry. It is the former – the government and complicit institutions – that are the target of concern, and not individual scholars per se. The similarity of the “Comfort Women” denialism to the Holocaust denialism is also a matter to think about.

Because the US government does not oppose or protest the reprehensible actions of the Japanese government with respect to our right to historical truths, justice, education and academic freedom, it falls to civil society organizations like the AAAS to take up the call by the former Comfort Women grandmothers and their supporters to stand in solidarity with them as they make a principled demand for unequivocal acceptance of WWII era Japanese military sexual slavery, and justice. Academics in Japan who speak out against the Japanese government’s policies are subject to intimidation and retribution, and so it is crucial that the AAAS stand in solidarity with Japanese academics who protest the denialist actions of the state of Japan.

Specifically, the Endorsement “Supporting Remembrance of ‘Comfort Women’ and their Endangered History calls upon members of AAAS to educate, through courses, forums, and other means, the students, faculty, and staff on their campuses of the realities and truths of arguably the largest-scale mass human trafficking system of the 21st century, and the survivors of this horrific system whose stories are systematically derided and discredited by the Japanese government; to encourage further integration of this often-hidden history into relevant teaching curricula; and to forge alliances with academics and students conducting research on this subject.

[Click here for the original resolution submitted]

[repost from the "Comfort Women" Justice Coalition website / 「慰安婦」正義連盟ウェブサイトより再掲]

Shame on Shinzo Abe, Taking the Olympics Hostage as Global Calls for Justice Pierce the 2015 “Comfort Women” Agreement

On January 9, 2018, the government of the Republic of Korea (ROK) announced its position, in alignment with the UN’s Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, that the 2015 ROK-Japan Agreement fails to take a “victim-centered” approach and does not constitute a true resolution of the issue of the Japanese Military “Comfort Women” System. Subsequently the ROK urged Japan to make a sincere apology to the victims, whom, with hideous dehumanizing violence, the Japanese Imperial Army had sexually enslaved as “war ammunition” for Japan’s imperial wars of aggression in dozens of countries across the Asia-Pacific region. Signalling displeasure with the ROK’s demand, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will reportedly boycott the Winter Olympics in the ROK next month, while stubbornly insisting that the Agreement had already resolved the “Comfort Women” issue — “fully and irreversibly.”

This Agreement, however, not only lacks official documentation, but fulfills none of the principled demands that, during the two decades preceding it, victims had outlined, as follows:

1. Acknowledgement of Japan’s military sexual slavery
2. Comprehensive investigation into the crimes
3. Official and legally-bound apology
4. Government reparations to all victims
5. Prosecution of the criminals
6. Ongoing education in Japan’s history textbooks
7. Construction of Memorials and Museums to remember victims and to preserve history

The Government of Japan (GOJ) used the 2015 Agreement effectively as a vehicle for shielding itself from having to fulfill any of these demands rather than restoring the victims’ dignity by means of a genuine resolution. The true goal of the Agreement is to promote the illusion that Japan has indeed apologized while simultaneously insisting the crimes did not occur. In the Agreement, the GOJ even prohibits the ROK from using the term “sexual slavery” and disapproves of memorial statues, while spending half a billion dollars for allegedly “recovering the honor and dignity” of the victims.

A sense of irony is not lost on us, when Prime Minister Abe accuses the ROK of foul play by allegedly breaking “an international and universal principle” of diplomacy in demanding Japan’s sincere apology. Isn’t it Japan that is engaging in foul play, to deceive the victims and the conscientious people of the world about the true intent of the Agreement? In complicity with the GOJ, all major Japanese press outlets, including Asahi, Yomiuri, and Mainichi, normalize the GOJ’s deception. With hateful language against Korean and Chinese communities, they recently mischaracterized our “Comfort Women” Memorial in San Francisco as a symbol of Japan bashing, while attacking our multi-ethnic and transnational solidarity for upholding the fundamental principles of justice and human rights. Instead of showing any hint of remorse, the Japanese media escalates the GOJ’s hateful anti-ROK propaganda.

By taking the Winter Olympics hostage, in a desperate measure to punish the ROK, Mr. Abe has hit a new low. What Japan needs in a leader today is integrity and commitment to humanity for a peaceful tomorrow. We call on the peace-loving people in Japan to join the international “Comfort Women” justice movement in denouncing the GOJ’s deception, demanding a full investigation of the Abe administration’s faulty diplomacy in the name of the Agreement, and leading a nationwide act of atonement for Japan’s past crime. By refusing to confront its imperial aggression, Japan has not only failed to end its racism and nationalism but is already turning back onto a path of full-blown fascism under the Abe administration. While the GOJ and the United States consider the “Comfort Women” issue as a mere stumbling block in their re-militarization agenda, it is the victims’ principled demands to the GOJ that will guide us on an alternative path to a peaceful and prosperous world free from fear of sexual violence, where all women, girls, and all people can live a life with respect and dignity.

January 18th, 2018
“Comfort Women” Justice Coalition

日本軍「慰安婦」制度の犠牲者に公式謝罪を拒否し、オリンピックを盾に不当な韓国叩きを続ける安倍首相の欺瞞を、世界市民は決して許さない。

２０１８年１月９日、韓国政府は日本軍の「慰安婦」問題を巡る２０１５年の韓日「合意」は被害者中心のアプローチに欠け、「慰安婦」問題の根本的な解決にはあたらないと発表した。この結論は先の２０１６年２月に、国連の女性差別撤廃委員会が発表した内容と合致するものである。文大統領はさらに「日本が真実を認め、被害者の女性たちに心を尽くして謝罪し、それを教訓に再発しないよう国際社会と努力する」ことが、完全な解決への条件だと示唆した。「慰安婦」問題の犠牲者は、韓国のみならずアジア太平洋地域にある何十もの国々の出身者で、日本帝国による侵略戦争の為の「兵站」として、日本帝国陸軍、海軍により強制的に「性奴隷」とされ非人間的で卑劣な暴力の被害を受けた。韓国側の発表を受け、安倍首相は加害国の長として誠意と反省の念を持って答えるどころか、逆に不快感をあらわにし、「慰安婦」問題は「合意」により最終的かつ不可逆的に解決されたとの従来からの立場に固執した。マスコミによれば、首相は「慰安婦」問題を理由に来月韓国で開催される冬季五輪のボイコットをちらつかせ、直前まで出席の有無を発表しないとみられる。

このいわゆる「合意」には公式な書類もなく、犠牲者が長年に亘り求め続けてこられた要求事項を一つも満たしていない。犠牲者の要求とは次の７点である。

１、日本軍性奴隷制度を事実として認める
２、この犯罪の徹底した調査
３、公式で法に基づく謝罪
４、政府による全被害者に対する補償
５、犯罪者の処罰
６、継続的な歴史教育・歴史教科書への記載
７、犠牲者を記憶し歴史を保存する為の記念碑・記念館の建設

２０１５年の「合意」は初めから、当事者の意向を無視し、犠牲者の尊厳の回復と「慰安婦」問題の真の解決を目指しておらず、むしろ「合意」の主たる目的は日本政府がこれらの責任から逃れることにあった。「合意」の中で日本政府は被害者の「名誉と尊厳の回復」のために１０億円の拠出を約束する一方、韓国政府に「性奴隷」という名称そのものの使用を禁じ、世界的な「慰安婦」記念像建設阻止を図っている。つまり一方で日本軍「慰安婦」制度という犯罪そのものを否定しながら、同時に日本はすでに犠牲者に謝罪したという幻想を作り出そうとしたのだ。 韓国政府が日本の自主的な、心からの謝罪を示唆したのに対し、安倍首相は韓国は「合意」を履行せず日本の裏をかき「国際的で普遍的」な外交の基本を逸脱したとして、韓国政府を責めたてている。しかし法的にも外交的にも一切拘束力のない「合意」を盾にして、その真の目的を隠し、犠牲者と良心的な世界の市民を姑息にも騙そうとした安倍政権こそが責められるべきではないだろうか？国際人権法の違反者である日本政府が、韓国政府を国際的外交の原則の違反者として責めたてるのは、皮肉以外の何物でもない。しかし残念なことに、朝日、読売、毎日など、日本の大手マスコミ各社も日本政府の欺瞞を批判するどころか、日本政府に追従し日本政府の異常な主張をあたかも正常であるかのように報道している。我々が正義と人権の原則に則って、民族の枠を超え国際的な団結の象徴としてサンフランシスコに建てた「慰安婦」像に関しても、日本のマスコミはあたかも反日の日本叩きのシンボルであるかのように報道し、一部マスコミは韓国系・中国系のアメリカ市民に対する差別的なヘイトスピーチを 紙面上で繰り返している。今回の「合意」に関する報道でも、過去の罪に対する日本の国家としての責任に基づく後悔、反省の念のかけらも見られず、日本政府によるヘイトに満ちた反韓国のプロパガンダをただ繰り返すのみだ。

「慰安婦」問題を盾にオリンピック出席を渋らせ韓国政府を懲らしめようと躍起になる安倍氏は、国家の長としてこれまでにも増して醜態をさらしている。今日本が平和な未来を建設する上で必要としているのは、人間の尊厳に基づいた世界市民の共存を志す、誠実で清廉な指導者である。

我々は今後、これまでより一層多くの平和を愛する日本の市民の方々が、国際的な「慰安婦」正義運動に積極的に加わり、日本政府の欺瞞を暴き、「合意」の名の下に安倍政権が行った不正に満ちた外交の責任を正し、「合意」を無効とし、日本が過去に犯した犯罪を償うための全国民的な運動を繰り広げて行くことを望む。植民地・帝国主義の過去ときちんと向き合うことを避け続けることで、日本はその民族差別や偏狭なナショナリズムの深刻な問題を未だに抱え続けているばかりでなく、安倍政権のもと戦前のファシズムに逆戻りする道をひた走っている。日本政府もアメリカ政府も共に、「慰安婦」問題をアジアの（再）軍事化を妨げる厄介な外交問題としてしか捉えていない。日本の与党の指導者たちは安倍首相のオリンピック出席を求め、このまま慰安婦問題をうやむやにすることも企んでいるようだ。

しかし安倍政権のこのような政策は、世界の潮流に逆行している。例えば、アメリカの黒人女性活動家によって始められた#MeToo運動は海を越え、世界中の女性やトランスジェンダー・ジェンダークイアの人々を奮い立たせている。私たちはアメリカ社会の中の性暴力と対峙する中、日本の「詩織さん」の訴えについても読んだ。ここで忘れてならないのは、この世界的運動が始まる何十年も前に、日本軍「慰安婦」制度のサバイバーのおばあさんたちは声をあげ、特に性差別、民族差別、植民地主義が交差し増幅させた暴力の被害者として、果敢に日本政府に立ち向かい正義と女性の人権を求める運動を牽引してこられたことだ。その歴史の流れの中に現在の女性の人権と尊厳を求める運動がある。サバイバーのおばあさんたちが長年にわたって訴え続けてこられた要求を一つ一つ実現させていく道こそが、性暴力を恐れることなく、全ての少女、女性、そして全ての世界市民が尊厳を持って生きていくことのできる、平和で豊かな世界を実現させる唯一の道である。

世界の皆さんとの連帯を心から願いつつ。

２０１８年１月１８日
「慰安婦」正義連盟