Japan Institute for National Fundamentals

　　　　　　At the House of Representatives Budget Committee on February 20, former Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobuo Ishihara admitted that then Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono's statement in 1993 alleging the Japanese officials' coercive wartime recruitment of comfort women was groundless.
　 Ishihara, who was responsible for writing the statement, made the following key points in the testimony:
(1) At the request of the South Korean side, Japanese government officials interviewed former South Korean comfort women in a bid to admit the coercive recruitment.
(2) The Japanese side conducted no research to back their testimonies.
(3) A Japanese government survey found that no document directly backed the coercive recruitment.
(4) The Japanese government might have naturally coordinated with the South Korean side about the wording of the Kono statement.

Grave testimony by Ishihara
　　　　　Last October, The Sankei Shimbun scooped the records of interviews with 16 former comfort women on which the Kono statement was based, reporting that they included one who had initially described herself as trafficked prostitute (who was not recruited by Japan coercively). The newspaper noted that six others claimed to have been forced to work in Osaka, Kumamoto, Taiwan and other places where the Japanese military had no brothels, casting doubts about the credibility of their statements in the interviews.
　　　　　We have taken various opportunities to point to this kind of doubts. When the Diet heard the testimony of the person who was responsible for writing the Kono statement, and the testimony was reported big in the news media including the Asahi Shimbun that inflamed the issue years ago, I feel like living in a completely different age.
　　　　　"Before the end of World War II, the Japanese military coercively recruited 200,000 Korean women as sex slaves and slaughtered most of them," says a groundless slander that is spreading in the international community. As Japanese rebut the slander, foreigners note that the Japanese government admitted the coercive recruitment in the Kono statement. The statement effectively admitted the coercive recruitment, saying that although the recruitment of the comfort women was conducted mainly by private recruiters, "administrative/military personnel directly took part in the recruitments."
　　　　　　In response to my inquiry, however, government officials explained that administrative/military personnel took part in coercing Dutch prisoners into prostitution in an Indonesian case. Official wartime documents have indicated that administrative/military personnel had severely cracked down on private recruiters' abduction on the Korean Peninsula.

Government has to protect Japan’s honor
　　　　　Ishihara testified, “Although our documents did not directly back the Japanese government’s or military’s coercive recruitment of comfort women, their (former comfort women’s) testimonies led us to suspect such recruitment by some recruiters and some relationships between recruiters and administrative/military personnel and thus to settle down to the wording of the statement.”
　　　　　But interview testimonies that are not backed by separate research cannot be any ground for establishing historical facts. The government should immediately review the preparation process of the Kono statement including details of interviews with former comfort women.
　　　　　Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has said incumbent Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga would review the statement by then Chief Cabinet Secretary Kono. But Suga has yet to have interviews even with experts that had once been reported as planned. The government has a duty to protect Japan’s honor and should promptly launch research in a bid to issue a new statement by the chief cabinet secretary.

Tsutomu Nishioka is Planning Committee Member, Japan Institute for National Fundamentals, and Professor at Tokyo Christian University.