17 June 2006

Asian women

Chun Kwangne, "Victims of the Emperor Faith." Akiko Okuda and Haruko Okano, eds. Women and Religion in Japan Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1998.

Koreans were not the only comfort women, and when it came to light that women from six Asian countries were also victims, the expression of one Filipina friend I was with at the time I heard this, became set in a pained look. It was not simply the comfort women she was thinking of, but also the so-called 'Japanyukis,' women coming to Japan to find work and being forced into prostitution, and the groups of Japanese men going to the Phillipines on sex tours. The situation of these Asian women in Japan could be called the latest version of the comfort women. Industry has taken over from where the former Japanese IMperial Army left of, wielding money and economic power in place of bayonets and military might. Japanese men are using up Asian women both in and outside Japan as though they are simply merchandise; in the past they were regarded as war supplies, now they are sexual commodities forced to be communal receptacles for Japanese men. And the men who go shopping for women show no sign whatsoever of any sense of guilt.
...
In 1991 I heard of a Japanese woman around the same age as me, who hid contraceptives in her husband's suitcase whenever he went on a business trip in Asia. If it were an affair with a Japanese woman then it would be cause for jealousy, but if a husband buys an Asian woman for sex then it is seen only from a rationalist point of view. Far from questioning her husband's warped morality and sexuality, this woman did not even notice that she had become an accomplice in the crime by promoting it. Recently the prejudice that Asian women are the source of AIDS infection is also on the increase.
To give an example: Asian women workers in all regions of Japan have been experiencing trouble for some time, but this came to a head at a public bathhouse where the manager was pressured over which customers to allow entry by a regular customer who said, "If they [Asian descent foreigners] are using the same bath, then I won't come. Even if they don't have AIDS, you don't know what diseases they've got." Despite already being in an uncertain position business-wise, the manager apparently finally sent a letter of apology to the regular customer saying, "Public baths are something that people who have no bath cannot be deprived of."
This account shows just how Asian women, who are sacrificed as an outlet for Japanese men's sexual desire, are easily seen as a source of AIDS contamination. Regarding them as unclean in addition to lusting after their bodies, robs them of vallue as humang beings. Comfort women and Asian women are the ones who are the victims, and it is their own shameful conduct as human beings that Japanese men ought to be making an issue of.
...
One day in 1991 I saw an Asahi TV documentary about the comfort women. There was one scene in particular which riveted me. In answer to the question from the Japanese woman interviewer, "have you ever thought about marriage," the former comfort woman fixed her with a steely eye for a second and answered. "Women who were comfort women aren't seen as human beings you know. Marriage? If you have a conscience there is no way you could do it with this body. I haven't ever even thought about it. What would I do if I got married? Do you think I could have children?"

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

You’re the son/daughter of SATIN your role is to create fear mongering so your LORD SATIN will have fertile ground for his work.

7:22 PM, June 17, 2006  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

That's amazing! I'm the son of MODAL. Modal is a synthetic fabric made from beechwood cellulose. My role is to create widespread skepticism about the media so my LORD MODAL will have fertile ground for his work.

7:42 PM, June 17, 2006  

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