Condom used by Japanese soldiers against Comfort Women

[Kim Sung]

I've already done the first part of the article. I'll post it some days later.

[Penn44]

This is the most important discovery on Japanese war crimes after WWII.

Has the Japanese Gov’t commented yet on the condom?

Penn44


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[Peter H]

http://news.media.daum.net/society/affa ... 36802.html

This is becoming a big news here. Newspapers and TVs broadcast this everyday. I've never seen the media pays such an attention to this matter. This is the most important discovery on Japanese war crimes after WWII. Every internet forums are flooded with this news and people's reaction to the news.

A rough translation indicates that VD was seen as hazardous to Japanese soldiers as "Assault No,1",the storming of an enemy position.It implies it was for protection against such hazards with a anti bacteria compound inside it.It comes from Okinawa,picked up somewhere in the Pacific,and its been known since 2001.

[Kim Sung]

Translation of the first part

태평양 전쟁 당시 일본군이 종군위안부에게 사용을 강요한 콘돔의 실제 사진이 공개됐다. 전문가들은 이 콘돔이 군 보급품으로 일본군이 직접 제작,배급했던 것으로 판단하고 있다. 일본군이 직접 위안부를 관리했음을 보여주는 증거라는 것이다.

'돌격일번(突擊一番)'이란 제품명이 붙어 있는 콘돔 사진은 지난달 말 일본 후지타병기연구소 사이트에 게재됐다. 이 사이트는 태평양 전쟁 당시 일본군 무기 등을 수집해 소개하고 있다. 사진에는 '돌격일번'이라고 적힌 빛바랜 콘돔 포장지와 밴드 부분만 남은 콘돔이 찍혀 있다. 돌격일번은 ‘돌격이 제일’이라는 뜻이다.

A real photo of a condom the Japanese forced comfort women to use during the Pacific War has been made public. From this condom, Specialists concluded that these condoms were made and distributed by the Japanese military. They say this is the evidence that the Japanese army directly controled comfort women.

The photo of the condom marked Dotsugeki Ichiban (突擊一番) was shown at the Japanese website of Fujita Arms Research Institute. This site collects and shows Japanese weapons used in the Pacific War. The photo shows a condom case and a band left from a condom. Dotsugeki Ichiban means 'The First in Advance'.

[Kim Sung]

Translation of the second part

사이트 운영자는 “일본군이 병사들의 성병을 예방하기 위해 돌격일번이라는 군 전용 위생 콘돔을 만들어 정기적으로 배급했다”며 “윤활성분이 발린 요즘의 습식 콘돔과는 달리 고무로만 만들어진 건식이었다”고 설명했다. 또 “이름이 돌격일번인 이유는 적을 향해 돌격할 때 병사들이 머리 보호를 위해 철모를 쓰듯 성병 예방을 위해 성기에 콘돔을 쓰는 것이기 때문”이라고 덧붙였다.

동경도립대학 미네기시 겐타로 교수는 2001월 8월 한국에서도 발간된 서적 ‘천황의 군대와 성노예’에서 돌격일번이 실제로 존재했고 ‘사쿠’라는 일본명으로 불렸다고 적었다. ‘군부는 조직적으로 위안소를 설치했다-콘돔’ 단원에서 그는 “일본군부가 ‘여자는 전부 성병에 걸려 있다고 생각하고 성병 예방에 만전을 기하라. 위안부로부터 사쿠를 받아 반드시 성병을 예방하라’고 촉구했다”면서 “여기서 사쿠란 콘돔을 말하는데 돌격일번이라고 인쇄돼 있다”고 했다.

The site administrator wrote "The Japanese army distributed military-use condoms on a regular basis to soldiers to prevent veneral diseases. They were made only of rubber, unlike today's lubricated condoms." "They put Totsugeki Ichiban because a condom was used to protect sex organ just as soldiers put helmets on advance." he added.

Professor Minegishi Gentaro wrote in his book 'Emperor's Army and Sex Slaves" published in Korea in August 2001 that Totsugeki Ichiban called Saku really existed. In the section 'The Japanese military systematically ran comfort women brothels", he wrote "The Japanese authorities considered that all women are confected with VD and urged soldiers to be very cautious in preventing VD and to be sure to get a saku from a comfort woman. Saku here means a condom and Totsugeki Ichiban was printed on it."

[Kim Sung]

A Japanese right winger's military site using the name Totsugeki Ichiban

http://www.sopia.or.jp/maeda/index.html

[Peter H]

So Totsugeki Ichiban was not a call to rape but a reminder that injury from VD was as perilious as charging an enemy position.

[Kim Sung]

So Totsugeki Ichiban was not a call to rape but a reminder that injury from VD was as perilious as charging an enemy position.

I don't agree. As I said before, Asian languages are more symbolic than western languages. Totsugeki Ichiban literally means "Advance towards the enemy regardless of danger!". So it is the opposite of "Take care" or "Be careful"

When we use this expression toward women, it means "Rape women and enjoy without fear!"

[Penn44]

When we use this expression toward women, it means "Rape women and enjoy without fear!"

Is this phrase commonly used today in Asia?

Penn44

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[David Thompson]

Let's get back on topic -- a topic which has nothing to do with frequently or infrequently used phrases.

[Penn44]

So Totsugeki Ichiban was not a call to rape but a reminder that injury from VD was as perilious as charging an enemy position.

I don't agree. As I said before, Asian languages are more symbolic than western languages. Totsugeki Ichiban literally means "Advance towards the enemy regardless of danger!". So it is the opposite of "Take care" or "Be careful"

If your claim is true, that the title is not a call to use caution and safety, why even use a condom? Why not attack the position dangerously without a condom? A condom, by "definition", is a safety device, not an instrument of aggression.

Penn44


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[tonyh]

Do we have any Japanese people on this site that can translate the phrase?

Tony

[ToKu]

Penn 44 wrote:

"If your claim is true, that the title is not a call to use caution and safety, why even use a condom? Why not attack the position dangerously without a condom? A condom, by "definition", is a safety device, not an instrument of aggression. "

Condom was used to protect soldiers from diseases as was pointed in this tread. Thats why positions were attacked with condom, not without it.

As for a safety device, well, if condom is marked with signs that encouraging user to rape woman - then condom becames instrument of aggression. Verbal agrression - for sure, a kind of propaganda vessel. Nazi hate spreading newspapers was also - as every newspaper instruments of information, not agression - but look what Goebbels made of them!
If signs on condom really mean what was translated here, then I think it can also be discussed that it proves the country taht produced and distributed condoms with such marks amongs its soldiers was aware of the procedures concerning comfort women. If there is no documentation on that (as Sung earlier wrote), and Japanesse are not feeling guilty and do not want to take responibility then it might be an important finding.

I also think that if the phrase was transleted that drastically earlier we would have avoided lots of confusion in this tread.

[Penn44]

... If there is no documentation on that (as Sung earlier wrote), and Japanesse are not feeling guilty and do not want to take responibility then it might be an important finding.

ToKu:

Thank you for your reply.

I've been sitting on this for a few days in order to observed how certain persons developed [or more likely], did not develop their argument within this thread. Several days ago, after a quick search I found this online:

In 1992, Professor Yoshimi Yoshiaki of Chuo University found wartime documents in the Library of the National Institute for Defence Studies that confirmed that the Japanese Forces had operated comfort stations. On the same day that excerpts from the documents were published in Japanese newspapers, the government admitted its involvement.

http://research.unc.edu/endeavors/win97/comfort.html

The above is from a pro-comfort woman claim site.

Unfortunately, due to my current geographical position, I don't have access to a library in order to locate any of Professor Yoshiaki's work. If some other forum member can, please research your local library to determine what documentary evidence Yoshiaki found, and then share that information with this forum. I would be much obliged.

When I heard the claim that the comfort women did not have any evidence, I could not imagine that the Japanese operated so many comfort stations using so many women without leaving some form of documentary evidence or testimony from Japanese personnel who witnessed the events at hand.

Besides Japanese documentation, I remembered that there was also American documentation. Back in the late 1990s, I was doing research in the National Archives, and the man sitting next to me was a researcher for a documentary film company. We started up a conversation, and he told me he researching the story of the Japanese use of comfort women. At time, this man was particularly interested in how the Americans handled these women following their capture/liberation. He showed me some US documents (interrogation reports) and US military photos of these "captured" comfort women. I doubt seriously that these battered women suddenly made up their stories for American military interrogators. At the time of the interrogation and photographing, American forces had just captured them. These women were captured in the midst of combat for these islands (they had were unkempt, dirty, and had the thousand yard stare of someone who has experienced recent bombardment and capture). I doubt seriously these women were of mental clarity at the time of their interrogation to concoct a false story, and what would be their motivation? They told the American interrogators the truth, they were comfort women for the Japanese, and the American interrogators accepted their stories as such.

Despite the claims of some, the evidence has been there. One only needs to look for it. It is the HEIGHT OF FOLLY for anyone to claim that the sole evidence of comfort women rests on a single condom.

Penn44

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[Kim Sung]

In 1992, Professor Yoshimi Yoshiaki of Chuo University found wartime documents in the Library of the National Institute for Defence Studies that confirmed that the Japanese Forces had operated comfort stations. On the same day that excerpts from the documents were published in Japanese newspapers, the government admitted its involvement.

http://research.unc.edu/endeavors/win97/comfort.html

The above is from a pro-comfort woman claim site.

Unfortunately, due to my current geographical position, I don't have access to a library in order to locate any of Professor Yoshiaki's work. If some other forum member can, please research your local library to determine what documentary evidence Yoshiaki found, and then share that information with this forum. I would be much obliged.

When I heard the claim that the comfort women did not have any evidence, I could not imagine that the Japanese operated so many comfort stations using so many women without leaving some form of documentary evidence or testimony from Japanese personnel who witnessed the events at hand.

Besides Japanese documentation, I remembered that there was also American documentation. Back in the late 1990s, I was doing research in the National Archives, and the man sitting next to me was a researcher for a documentary film company. We started up a conversation, and he told me he researching the story of the Japanese use of comfort women. At time, this man was particularly interested in how the Americans handled these women following their capture/liberation. He showed me some US documents (interrogation reports) and US military photos of these "captured" comfort women. I doubt seriously that these battered women suddenly made up their stories for American military interrogators. At the time of the interrogation and photographing, American forces had just captured them. These women were captured in the midst of combat for these islands (they had were unkempt, dirty, and had the thousand yard stare of someone who has experienced recent bombardment and capture). I doubt seriously these women were of mental clarity at the time of their interrogation to concoct a false story, and what would be their motivation? They told the American interrogators the truth, they were comfort women for the Japanese, and the American interrogators accepted their stories as such.

Despite the claims of some, the evidence has been there. One only needs to look for it. It is the HEIGHT OF FOLLY for anyone to claim that the sole evidence of comfort women rests on a single condom.

Penn44

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So what? Professor Yoshimi Yoshiaki (吉見義明) is a well-known scholar on the matter of comfort women. Anybody who has a little interest in comfort women issue would know his name.

The focal point in the comfort women issue is whether the Japanese government was directly involved in recuiting comfort women and operating comfort women brothels. The Japanese politicians insist that the government was not involved in recuiting comfort women and operating comfort women brothels and it was civilians who really operated them. It means that comfort women were voluntary employees.

In previous threads, I wrote like this.

we don't any decisive evidence except former comfort women's accounts to prove Japan's engagement in exploitation of sex slaves.

Because the Japanese think comfort women issue was fabricated and all documents related to it was deliberately fabricated by Korean and Chinese governments, we are in desperate need of evidences, for example, documents written by the Japanese governments.

I know there are some documents on comfort women. Even some Japanese officers made verbal accounts admitting their involvement in operating comfort women brothels. But Japanese politicians and courts don't consider these documents and verbal accounts as decisive evidence that can prove the Japanese government's invlovement in recuiting comfort women and operating comfort women brothels. Even an international report on comfort women based on Yoshimi Yoshiaki's research admit that there are no decisive evidence on Japanese government's involvement.

Some US documents (interrogation reports) and US military photos of these "captured" comfort women are well-known and already covered by the media several thousand times. One of those comfort women shown in those US military photos, Park Young-Shim (박영심) passed away on August 7 this year in North Korea. But Japan didn't admit these US documents as decisive evidences.

I think you need more research instead of superficial knowledges. With your logic, you will not persuade Japanese judges in Japanese courts. And, first of all, you have to fix your provocative writing (or speaking) style.