This excerpt records claims and criticisms surrounding a comfort women panel at the University of Toronto OISE, describing the institution’s far-left environment, the framing of Japan through present-day conflicts, assertions such as the 200,000 kidnapping claim and testimony-based arguments, questionable examples, and the post-lecture questioning about sources including MacArthur’s 1945 report and the alleged earthquake-related rapes cited as coming from Japanese women’s groups.

And he stated that the fact of rapes during the Great East Japan Earthquake was information from Japanese women’s groups.
2016-12-04
I would like to make two points here. First, OISE is an educational institution that implants extreme leftist ideology in students, and many teachers openly declare that they are Marxists.
They are extremely hostile toward developed countries (including Canada), and claim that the development of developed countries is nothing other than the result of colonial exploitation.
For example, at almost all events held at the University of Toronto, extreme-left teachers (Lytle is no exception) and moderators say things like this.
“We are standing on land owned by Indigenous people. This land is still a colony.”
In reality, the truth is that Indigenous people sold off their land long ago, but facts do not matter because the purpose of these leftists is to demean the country of Canada.
To take up “comfort women” in this panel discussion is likewise an attempt to unfairly demean Japan.
Next, what I want to point out is that the organizers incorporated currently occurring problems into the comfort women issue, which is an event of the past.
Yanar Mohammed, a panelist originally from Iraq, spoke about how after the 2003 American invasion of Iraq, women were kidnapped by local residents and Americans, raped, and sold off as slaves.
Winnie Muchuba’s talk was about the impact of war in her country of origin, the Congo, on women (in both Iraq and Congo, the harm to women was caused by civil war and has nothing to do with colonial policy).
Such arguments create the image that Japan is a country as terrible as countries like Iraq and Congo that have no rule of law.
Both Tiffany Hsuing and Yoon Meehyang, in their respective presentations, emphasized that the Japanese military kidnapped as many as 200,000 Korean women and that testimony by wartime victims is important.
Their two points are as follows.
Kidnapped Korean women (including women other than Koreans) were made sexual slaves in countries occupied by Japan. Because they were deeply ashamed of having been sexually assaulted, it took many months before they confessed that truth. Support organizations for former comfort women have confirmed 500 survivors up to the present, but most women have uncertain memories or want to forget the past.
Some of the examples that Yoon Meehyang wants to present are truly strange. Gil Won Ok (attending as a panelist) was kidnapped when she was 13 years old, but because it was a year that corresponded to Korea’s lunar year (lunar year), she was actually 11 years old. Another comfort woman whom Yoon Meehyang cited as an example was a 15-year-old girl at the time. She was in such a state that she had to be given injections because she was extremely fatigued every day. In 1995, when this woman appeared before Yoon Meehyang, there were needle marks left on her body. (This story is quite implausible. Would injection-needle scars from the 1930s remain until 1995.)
Yoon Meehyang also said this. During the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, many women in the disaster areas were victims of rape. The Korean Council sent $50,000 and packages containing underwear with messages from former comfort women to the victims in the disaster areas. The Korean Council is also pursuing rape by soldiers dispatched to the Vietnam War. Prime Minister Abe refuses to face the truth because his grandfather is a war criminal. The apology in the December 2015 Japan–Korea agreement is insufficient. Japan should fully acknowledge all its crimes and provide monetary compensation to former comfort women. Japan should adopt textbooks that include the crimes Japan committed.
The author asked questions after the lecture because no media had raised questions about the basis on which Yoon Meehyang claims that the comfort women stories are true, and also about the rapes at the time of the earthquake. First, regarding the point that the comfort women stories Yoon Meehyang asserts are true, she said they are based on the description in MacArthur’s 1945 “Amenities in the Japanese Armed Forces.” And he stated that the fact of rapes during the Great East Japan Earthquake was information from Japanese women’s groups.
After this question, the author’s friend asked a further question regarding the age of the comfort women. Citing the book she had with her at the time, she raised the issue that, given that wages were paid to women and that the ages of women were said to range from 17 to 30, the possibility that an 11-year-old girl was recruited would be extremely low.
This continues.