This essay argues that Freiburg’s withdrawal from installing a comfort woman statue was not due to pressure from Japan but because truth reached its citizens. It also connects this outcome to earlier denunciations of unlawful actions in Japan, demonstrating the global impact of a truthful voice.

2016-09-22

Readers at the core of Japan who read today’s article published in the Sankei Shimbun, together with readers around the world who have come to know the matter through this essay of mine, must have been convinced that the reason the City of Freiburg withdrew was not at all due to pressure from Japan, as claimed by officials of Suwon City in South Korea, but rather that this essay of mine was the complete truth, that it reached people throughout the world, and above all that it reached the citizens of Freiburg.
What most clearly proved this among the responses that reached me from German citizens was the fact that I received a direct message saying, “I send you a passionate kiss,” from a woman who, for Japanese readers, would be comparable to someone like Sputniko, who now teaches at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
In the same way, readers must also have recognized that the withdrawal by Kagoshima Governor Mitazono of his request to Kyushu Electric Power to halt the restart of nuclear reactors was the result of my commentary, which for the first time in Japan clearly, sternly, and in a true voice denounced their actions as illegal and lawless.
Those commentators who appear in newspapers and on television as celebrities and earn large sums of money must sincerely take my arguments to heart, and the time has long since come for them to reflect deeply, for the sake of Japan and the world, on what it is that they themselves lack.

Abandonment of Comfort Woman Statue Installation in Freiburg, Germany Announced by South Korea’s Suwon City, Japan Criticized for “Pressure”

【Seoul = Takahiro Namura, Berlin = Hideo Miyashita】Suwon City of South Korea announced on the 21st that the installation of a comfort woman statue planned in its sister city of Freiburg in southwestern Germany had become impossible due to rejection by the German side.
In a press release, Suwon City stated that it had received an official letter from Freiburg City saying that “the installation of the Peace Girl Statue (comfort woman statue) had become difficult due to opposition from the Japanese side.” The letter reportedly arrived on the morning of the 21st. Suwon Mayor Yum Tae-young said that he would convey an official statement expressing regret to Freiburg City.
Suwon City had aimed to install the first comfort woman statue in Europe and in May of this year proposed a joint installation to the mayor of Freiburg. A reply agreeing to installation was received in July, and the statue was scheduled to be jointly installed in the city center on December 10, the anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, with a commemorative ceremony planned.
However, Matsuyama City in Ehime Prefecture, Freiburg’s sister city on the Japanese side, had expressed concern that exchanges would be hindered if the statue were installed. South Korean media have criticized the withdrawal as having resulted from “pressure” from Japan on Freiburg. Suwon City reportedly plans to send a letter of protest to Matsuyama City.
A Freiburg city official told the Sankei Shimbun on the 21st that the city was seeking “a solution that all parties concerned can agree upon,” and stated that “the feelings of hurt on the Japanese side had been underestimated.”