I think they need to apologize for this one:
"Osaka mayor defends ‘comfort women’ remark; Says other nations also had brothels for their soldiers" by Mari Yamaguchi | Associated Press, May 17, 2013
TOKYO — An outspoken Japanese mayor who outraged many with remarks about Japan’s wartime and modern sexual services stood by his comments Thursday although he said he may have lacked ‘‘international sensitivity.’’
Mayor Toru Hashimoto of Osaka said his lack of sensitivity to America’s perception of prostitution might have caused outrage to his suggestion earlier this week that US troops based in southern Japan should patronize legal adult entertainment establishments to reduce sex crime there.
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Hashimoto, coleader of an emerging nationalist party, had already angered Japan’s neighbors by saying the Japanese military’s wartime practice of forcing women into prostitution was necessary to maintain discipline and provide relaxation for soldiers.
Tell that to female American service members.
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Hey, you are doing a public service for the country, ladies, so stop complaining.
He asserted Thursday that the practice was widely used by many countries during World War II and that Japan was being unfairly singled out.
Historians say up to 200,000 women, mainly from the Korean Peninsula and China, were forced to provide sex for Japanese soldiers in military brothels. While some other World War II armies had military brothels, Japan is the only country accused of widespread, organized sexual slavery.
That's because they lost the war.
Hashimoto’s comments added to recent ire in countries that suffered from Japan’s wartime aggression. Those countries have complained about the lack of atonement for atrocities.
How long ago was that?
Hashimoto said Thursday he had no intention of retracting his comments. But he said his remarks might have seemed inappropriate to people outside Japan with different values.
Is this guy for real?
‘‘If there is one big mistake I made, that might have been my lack of understanding of culture behind the US sex industry: If you mention adult entertainment in the United States, everyone thinks of prostitution,’’ Hashimoto said.
No we don't, we think pornography.
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He's the one who doesn't understand.
UPDATE:
"Japan may revise sex slave apology" by MARTIN FACKLER | NY Times Syndication, December 28, 2012
TOKYO — A top official hinted Thursday that Japan’s newly installed conservative government might seek to revise a two-decade-old official apology to women forced into sexual slavery during World War II, a move that would most likely outrage South Korea and possibly other former victims of Japanese militarism.
Speaking a day after the new Cabinet was named, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, who serves as the government’s top spokesman, said at a news conference that it would be ‘‘desirable for experts and historians to study’’ the statement, which acknowledged the Imperial Army’s involvement in forcing thousands of Asian and Dutch women to provide sex for Japanese soldiers.
Suga seemed to keep his comments intentionally vague, adding only that the matter ‘‘should not be made into a political or diplomatic issue.’’ He also said the Abe government would uphold a broader apology, issued in 1995 to observe the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II, to all victims of Japan’s colonialism and aggression.
The sex slaves issue remains highly emotional in South Korea, a former Japanese colony. On Thursday, the South Korean Foreign Ministry responded to Suga’s comments by calling on Japan not to forget its militaristic past.
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