[POL 135] Comfort Women

• Sovereignty


  The full right and power of a governing body over itself, without any interference from outside sources or bodies
• When sovereignty is threatened, diplomacy comes in
• Noted a remarkable improvement in Filipino "feelings toward Japan"

  1972
• Lubang Island incident


  • Japanese causing trouble among islanders
  • Kotsuka Kinshichi - Former Japanese corporal was shot in this exchange with the police
  • Marcos held a Buddhist funeral mass to "praise the brave soldier"
• Ratified the PH-JP Treaty of Friendship, Commerce, Navigation (FCN Treaty)

  1973
• Tanaka Kakuei - Prime Minister


  • Only felt welcomed in the PH after 5 anti-JP riots from SE countries
  • Onoda Hiro - Kotsuka's superior surrendered in Lubang Island and Marcos pardoned and commended him for his military bravery, a warm embrace in Malacanang
  • The rescuing of Mr. Onoda reconciled PH-JP relations without bringing back old war memories
  • JP still faced disputes over taking responsibilities to the war. They struggled to be an economic superpower without facing int'l criticism
  • Emphasizing they also faced their own wartime struggles due to atomic bomb attacks, POW camps, etc.
• KR and China were both main critics of JP's views concerning past wars after the normalization of diplomatic relations with JP in 1965 and 1972 respectively
• Ministry of Education censored public school history books to underplay JP's war crimes


  1982
• PM. Nakasone Yasuhiro's "formal visit to pray" at Yasukuni Shrine, JP's most well known war memorial


  • Raised diplomatic issues with KR and China
  • Nakasone stopped his prayer ritual, and became the first PM to address the "aggressive aspects" of past wars
• Comfort women files resurfaced and PM. Miyazawa Ki'chi apologized and resigned


  1992
• The Cabinet also issued their statement apologizing in sincere "remorse and repentance"
• PM. Hosokawa Morihiro acknowledged and apologized for JP's "wars of aggression"
• Left VS. Right in JP

  • Leftwing - liberal historians and journalists embarked on studies on JP's war crimes while repenting their selfish pacifism
  • Rightwing - strong opposition to the apologies. Criticizing the "Tokyo Military Tribunal version" of the Pacific War and "specters of the Nanjing Massacre" offering "war of self-defense" theories and blaming the US and its Euro allies for forcing JP into the war
  • Even bringing about how JP became a national liberator of independence for many SE countries
  • After Cabinet members committing gaffes (diplomatic blunder), 5 JP PMs were forced to resign during the next 10 years after Nakasone's policy change
• Rightwing nationalist campaigns


  • Organized the "League of Diet Members for a Brighter Japan" chaired by Okuno Seisuke
  • Group of rightwing nationalist intellectuals established the "Liberal Version of History Research Group" to put JP in the position of US/Europe as a national liberator, criticizing the current tone of history books as having "masochistic view of history" when JP should be able to write and teach a proud "national history" like other nations
  • This caused a set of int'l and domestic disputes and triggered another cycle of gaffes and apologies from the 1980s onward
• Apology and Forgiveness characterized the mood between JP and PH

  • 1983: Nakasone visited PH, a welcome was mobilized by Marcos. It was Nakasone's first time to express "repentance of the past" clearly
  • Corazon Aquino's state visit to JP under courtesy call of Emperor Hirohito. The press said that the emperor kept apologizing for what they did in WWII. Aquino said to him to forget about all that. The emperor went on saying he wanted JP to make up for the pain caused
  • The Imperial Household Agency and Ministry of Foreign Affairs denied that all this was true, and conversations with the Emperor and his foreign guest are utmost confidential
• Comfort Women issues resurfaced

  • PH-JP NGOs vigorously campaigned for an official apology and compensation by the JP gov't
  • Romulo visited JP in 1993 telling the press he wanted to solve the issue calmly without confrontation
  • Foreign Minister Watanabe Michio apologized to Filipino women who underwent hardships as comfort women
  • Ramos highly suggested it would be best to issue an official apology from a high official in the JP gov't
  • 1995: Ramos quickly stated that the PH gov't would welcome the Asian Women's Fund as a concrete expression of Japanese repentance
• Apologies to the Four Comfort Women

  • 1996: letters from the JP PM and atonement money were sent to the four CW who were also founded by the PH gov't
  • Ceremony was held in PH in which ambassador Yushita Hiroyuki greeted Maria Rosa L. Henson, one of the first comfort women who came forward
  • 2000: most of the 170 recipients of atonement money were Filipinos
  • Criticisms arose when apologies were not instigated by gov't channels but by NGOs who had to demand them and raise the money from private corporations and the general public
  • The pattern: JP apologizes, PH accepts in good faith. Not the case for KR and China. Rightwing nationalist did not bother on the apologetic attitude to PH = a much less strained of mutual public sentiment than of KR and China
• PH Soldiers reached 518k deaths second to China's 711k fatalities
• No wonder war memorials were fully upheld in the PH more than any other country
• JP gov't missions to PH found more soldiers' remains, and more pilgrimage tours (including private) in 1997
• First in the PH to be the large-scale foreign located war dead memorial in 1973, and many private memorials, at least 96
• Order of Mourning


  • Those who mourn the 20M Asian victims of JP aggression - Leftwing
  • Those who mourn the 3M Japanese "who died for nothing as the perpetrators of an unjust wrong war." - Rightwing
• Mourn your own dead first


  Kato argues that as long as this divide is ongoing, JP cannot win the confidence in its integrity among Asian neighbors
• Mourn your victims first

  Takahashi Tetsuya - argued that because it was a war of aggression, mourning of one's dead should not be placed before mourning the victims of that aggression. "We should remember our disgrace, continue to be ashamed, apologize and make compensation."
• Yasukuni Shrine Dispute and The Battle of Leyte


  • O'oka, a war survivor, said he mourned his own comrades deaths first, and then acknowledge and repent for the sacrifice of the Filipinos they killed in battle
  • What should be asked here is, did mourning of the dead really paved the way for reconciliation and mutual understanding of the past?
• Japanese War Bereaved Association (JWBA)


  • The sole national organization of families of soldiers killed in the war. Still the largest up until today
  • JWBA has been the defender of Yasukuni Shrine, a symbol of confrontations over "war memories" both at home and abroad
  • Understanding of the PH between JWBA provides understanding of the memorializing issue and the "politics of war memories"
• First JP gov't mission to gather remains of its fallen soldiers in the PH


  1. The remains of dead soldiers usually were recovered and cremated on the spot, put them in wooden urns for the families to receive

  2. All war dead were gathered in Yasukuni Shrine to honor them in Shinto ceremonies

  3. During WWII was it difficult to recover the remains as they were also heavily overwhelmed by the task of certifying the safety and whereabouts of its troops — and they would only know if their comrades would have returned alive

  4. Even the agency taking charge of sending death notices committed mistakes of noting their exact location of death

  5. Yasukuni Shrine was made to become a religious corporation along with other Shinto shrines

  6. However under the Article 20 of the New Constitution which banned gov't authorities from any religious activities, where Yasukuni Shrine lost its status as the official site for remembering the war dead

  7. The task now fell onto an unlikely agency - Ministry of Health and Welfare which was designated to take charge of relief operations for civilian and military repatriates
• Bureau of War Victims' Relief


  • They absorbed these tasks and became the Bureau of War Victims' Relief after a few years of renaming. Their special functions were: relief for civilian repatriates, relief for sick and wounded veterans as well as bereaved families, repatriation of former Army and Navy personnel and their remaining businesses under the title "engo gyosei"
  • They were specific on the army and navy because they held very important roles during the war
• War memorial practice was not recognized as part of administering relief, except with respect in "the handling of war dead remains and things left behind"
• Early postwar years, skeletons of Japanese soldiers were simply abandoned and lied to scatter in trodden jungles and caves at former battle sites around the Asia-Pacific region
• Kasagi Shizuko - popular singer


  • Saw dead remains of their fallen countrymen when they made an emergency landing in Wake Island
  • Many Japanese felt guilty for neglecting the war dead
• The Health Ministry issued the "Implementation Guidelines for Gathering War Dead Remains Abroad and for Other Purposes"


  1. It emphasized the necessity of gathering war dead remains "in order to quicken the postwar settlement"

  2. They organized gov't missions composed of: officials, workers, doctors, clergymen, and the families of the dead

  3. They went to places of annihilation and where the war dead remains could not be recovered

  4. They were expected to unearth remains, sort out articles of the deceased, identify bodies, cremate them, gather remains to be sent home, handle ashes and erect memorials and hold memorial services
• Mission Conducted

  1. Each mission was accompanied by: 4-6 deceased family representatives from prefectures that lost the most lives, 2-3 clergymen recommended by the Nippon Shukyo Renmei, and 1 engineer for erecting memorials if granted permission by the countries

  2. Missions were sent to Solomon Islands, Bismarck Islands, and etc.

  3. The PH was the only major place of "annihilation" unvisited due to delays in concluding war reparations negotiations and establishing diplomatic relations
• The Association for JP-PH Memorialization

  • Organized by former high officials of the Army and Navy who survived the war
  • Leaders of prewar/wartime Japanese community in the PH also joined
  • The inauguration meeting was attended by Yamashita Hisako and Homma Fujiko, widows of executed generals. joined also by men of influence who had been to the PH and officials from ministries if foreign affairs and health. Even a PH ambassador - this was all covered by broadcast media and print
• Goal of the Association

  • Was to exhort Japanese not only to welcome back the souls of our comrades but also contribute to PH-JP friendship by memorializing all the heroic spirits of Filipino civilians and military with all due respect
  • Cosponsors were survivors, who had seen horrors of the war and were aware of the damage to PH caused by the Occupation
  • It acknowledged both PH's memorialization of their civilians and the retrieval of JP's war dead remains
• Japan-Philippines Friendship Monument

  • Was erected on top of Atagoyama Hill in Choshi, Chiba
  • This sign of "friendship" from a relationship of a JP perpetrator and PH victim during the war is best left forgotten so as to not degrade the heroic spirits of JP's war dead and hasten reconciliation with the PH
• More Memorial Activities from Japan

  • Same epitaph was used in that monument in Lions Club beside "Memorial of Heroic Spirits" in PH-JP Friendship Garden in Baguio
  • Top of Sangane Mountain, Aichi Prefecture, were dozens of memorials dedicated to specific military detachments at the foot of a big statue of the "Bodhisattva of Mercy for the Philippines"
  • JP put up "Filipino War Victims' Memorial" - shaped uniquely to suggest figures of a mother and a child
• Yukawa Morio

  Was concerned that war memories would be revived if they wish to continue to do the war dead retrieval missions. Gov't suggested not publicizing it instead and keeping it lowkey
• JP gov't was not optimistic that by doing this would lead to any reconciliation amid the anti-Japanese sentiment of the world
• The Manila Mission

  • Separated into 2 groups, each taking about 1 month to visit former battle sites in Luzon & Visayas
  • Only 2 identifications were made out of the 2.5k skeletons. 2 flags were retrieved
  • Tropical weather eroded the sites, not too many remains were found in the open. Most were hidden in caves
  • Time & security considerations limited from searching the upper areas, where most of the soldiers fought during the last days of the war
  • It was all they could do to gather symbolic remains and hold memorial services on the spot