No Organized or Forced Recruitment: Misconception about Comfort Women and the Japanese Military
By HATA Ikuhiko,
Abstract
NO ORGANIZED OR FORCED RECRUITMENT:MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT COMFORT WOMEN
AND THE JAPANESE MILITARY
The recent media excitement over the issue of the so-called comfort women is based
on historical fallacies. The largest percentage of the war time “comfort women” were
Japanese (40%) and a smaller percentage were Koreans (20%). Some of them were sold
by their impoverished parents to brokers. Some of them went of their own free will,
lured by newspaper advertisements, of the prospect of economic gain, of “high risk-high
return;” it was not necessary to recruit them by force.
Professor Hata, the most knowledgeable expert on the “comfort women” issue,
illustrates the reality of the comfort women. He even reveals the testimonies of the
former “comfort women” are unreliable and also fallacy of Kono Statement. He
concludes The truth relating to the “comfort women” need to be discussed to diffuse the
prevailing irrational media-induced hysteria.