This essay examines a front-page Sankei Shimbun report on Jewish organizations’ objections to the UNESCO “Memory of the World” application regarding comfort women documents, highlighting distortions of the Holocaust and the lack of evidence behind the claims.

The following is an article that appeared with a major headline on the front page of today’s Sankei Shimbun.
2016-11-24.
The following is an article that appeared with a major headline on the front page of today’s Sankei Shimbun.
It contains numerous facts that readers of newspapers such as Asahi Shimbun and Mainichi Shimbun would know nothing about.
Emphasis within the text outside the headline is mine.
“Comfort women” application documents.
“Distortion of the Holocaust.”
Memory of the World.
Jewish organizations criticize.
Regarding documents on comfort women that were submitted for registration in the “Memory of the World” program of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO, it was learned on the 23rd that the Canada–Israel Friendship Association in Toronto sent a statement of opinion to UNESCO criticizing that “the applicants are twisting the meaning of the Holocaust, the genocide of the Jewish people.”
The statement argued that UNESCO had become a “political tool” for some member states and pointed out that the claims of “sexual slavery” and “200,000 comfort women” lack supporting evidence.
The application for registration with UNESCO was carried out mainly by an international solidarity committee composed of fourteen civic groups from eight countries and regions, including Japan, China, and South Korea.
The application document claimed that the comfort women system was “a wartime tragedy comparable to the Holocaust or the genocide carried out by the former Pol Pot regime in Cambodia.”
In response, a statement signed by three Jewish members of the association, including Ilana Schneider, quoted former Israeli ambassador to Japan Eli Cohen, who stated that “there was nothing comparable to the Holocaust,” and refuted the claim.
It further emphasized that “China’s invasion of Tibet is closer to the concept of the Holocaust” and that “even worse was the Cultural Revolution.”
The statement also pointed out that the comfort women issue was not raised at the Tokyo Trials and that investigations by U.S. authorities found that most women working at comfort stations were paid, noting that the “sexual slavery” theory has not been proven.
The application document explained the fact that comfort women were not known to the world until 1991 by claiming that “female sexuality” is taboo in Asia, but this was dismissed as “unconvincing.”
The statement explained that the comfort women issue had been “one of the tools” used by China and South Korea, after gaining economic power, to stir up anti-Japanese sentiment.
To be continued.