Outrage
I generally keep this blog rant free because I do a lot of that in other spaces, but I haven't found an outlet for this particular topic of outrage--the Japanese government's refusal to be accountable for sex-slavery. It's a given that as a matter of justice and addressing past wrongs, it ranks high on the list of Egregious Acts of State Sponsored Rape and Torture. It's also frustrating because like so many international rights/reparations/social justice advocacy, I find it difficult to know what I--or anyone can do in solidarity or to directly support the work. I know, we can write letters in support of the various legislative resolutions, protest the Japanese consulate, donate to good organizations, write to our local papers...but all that feels off in some way.
I kind of felt the same way at the Gabriela solidarity event last week. I mean the government and military kill over 850 people and "disappear" so many more and I make a meager donation, eat some adobo and spend nice evening with my friends? (Just to be clear, the women of Gabriela rock--this isn't a rant about their work, just my own piddly non-participation in global solidarity movements.) I know I know, this is beginning to sound a lot like some progressive guilt trip. I'll stop. But not until I rant a bit about Japanese politicians.
Two weeks before coming to the U.S., Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe asserted there was "no evidence to prove there was coercion" of girls and women into sexual slavery by the Imperial Army of Japan during WWII. Last week, Abe was in DC and made some more ridiculous statements about Japan's sex-slave system in WWII. He acknowledged the "sacrifice" of sex slaves and offered "deep-hearted sympathies that the people who had to serve as comfort women were placed in extreme hardships." In an eerily timed decision, two days ago, Japan's Supreme Court rendered a similarly accountability evading decision that acknowledged the existence of the sex-slave system--and documents the specific enslavement and repeated rape of two 13 and 15 year old girls...but refused reparations for survivors. Thus, the Japanese government is absolved of any accountability while being shielded from future claims.
These non-acknowledgment/non-accountability statements are even more maddening than a flat out denial that sex-slave system ever existed. Talking about the experiences of women subject to sex-slaves as "sacrifices" keeps breathing life into the Imperial Army's view that such women were all subjects of the Japanese Emperor and called to service their "comrade" soldiers of the Japanese empire accordingly. The calculated elusiveness of this kind of slippery language allows elements of the Japanese government to assert that there is an"ongoing dispute" about the sex-slave system. There is no debate about whether the system existed. There are mountains of evidence that even the Japanese government acknowledges that document the sex-slave system. The only real "debate" is whether the Japanese government will be held accountable.
I promise a lighter post next time.