Originally published on October 17, 2019.
Based on an essay by the late scholar Watanabe Shōichi included in the Monthly Hanada Collection volume South Korea’s Two Lies: Forced Laborers and Comfort Women, this article examines Mike Honda’s U.S. House comfort women resolution, the Asahi Shimbun’s fabricated reporting, the influence of Chinese anti-Japanese organizations, and the role played by Japan’s left wing in amplifying the issue.

October 17, 2019.
The Asahi Shimbun, which had ignited the “comfort women attached to the military” issue in Japan, had come to be recognized as a shameful “fabrication” news organization.
This time, however, the issue arose from the United States.
I am republishing a chapter originally posted on January 24, 2019, under the title:
In fact, according to reporting by Komori Yoshihisa and others, Congressman Mike Honda has received donations from Chinese anti-Japanese organizations.
The Monthly Hanada Collection now on sale, South Korea’s Two Lies: Forced Laborers and Comfort Women … (926 yen), is a book that every Japanese citizen and every pseudo-moralist throughout the world who is manipulated by ignorant and foolish propaganda must now read before anything else.
Why?
Because unless one reads this special issue, one will not merely be complicit in the falsehoods that have continued to exist in the postwar world.
One will also continue to be complicit in the evil of China and the Korean Peninsula, that “bottomless evil” and “plausible lie.”
There may be those who continue to aid evil, arrogantly assuming that it is fine because they will not be punished in this world…
For example, Alexis Dudden of the United States, the Süddeutsche Zeitung of Germany, that disgraceful Italian self-proclaimed journalist bastard who dominates the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan, and some ignorant, foolish, racist-minded imbeciles inhabiting Paris who are being steered by the propaganda of “bottomless evil” and “plausible lies,” and so on…
But never forget this alone:
There will be no gate to heaven for you.
King Enma of hell is waiting, having prepared the greatest torment for you.
The following is from an essay by the late Watanabe Shōichi, a great scholar and one of Japan’s great benefactors, reprinted from the 2007 special issue of WiLL and published on pages 122 to 131.
Put Anti-Japanese Japanese on Trial for the “Crime of Insulting the State.”
On June 26, 2007, a resolution concerning “comfort women attached to the military” was passed by the U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs.
The “comfort women attached to the military” issue is an extremely unpleasant issue for Japan.
It became an issue in 2007 because Congressman Mike Honda submitted a resolution in the U.S. House of Representatives, but in Japan the facts had already been clarified, and everything had been settled.
Then it came back just when it had been forgotten.
In Japan, through the efforts of Nishioka Tsutomu, Itakura Yoshiaki, Uesugi Chitose, and others, the claim that there was “coercion by government authorities” was completely refuted, and the term “comfort women attached to the military” disappeared from textbooks as well.
The Asahi Shimbun, which had ignited the “comfort women attached to the military” issue in Japan, had come to be recognized as a shameful “fabrication” news organization.
This time, however, the issue arose from the United States.
We are deeply concerned about this fact that it is “originating from America.”
As for the “Nanjing Massacre” issue, the fact that it “did not exist” had also, by and large, been settled in Japan, and even the Asahi Shimbun had stopped taking it up.
However, under the pretext of the 70th anniversary of the fall of Nanjing, more than ten anti-Japanese films concerning “Nanjing” are apparently being produced in the United States.
In every case, the anti-Japanese policies of China and South Korea, which have long assaulted Japan, have circled the globe and returned by way of America.
In fact, according to reporting by Komori Yoshihisa and others, Congressman Mike Honda has received donations from Chinese anti-Japanese organizations.
As this makes clear, this America-originated “comfort women attached to the military” issue is a problem arising from China’s policy toward Japan.
Since South Korea is also involved in the “comfort women attached to the military” issue, South Korea is happily riding along on its coattails.
Moreover, Japan’s left wing and the Asahi Shimbun are gladly jumping on board as well.
That is the structure.
Domestically, it has already been thoroughly proven that the “comfort women attached to the military” issue is a fabrication.
The core of the problem is that this has not been conveyed overseas.
Amid this situation, Prime Minister Abe, then prime minister, visited the United States.
Before his visit, we were concerned about this issue and had an opportunity to discuss it with Prime Minister Abe.
At that time, Prime Minister Abe said that his policy was that “this issue is not supposed to come up in the meeting with President Bush,” and that “it will probably be asked about at the press conference, but I will brush it aside lightly.”
The gist of what he meant was that “in present-day America, prostitution is considered evil and a human-rights issue.”
The Accusers Do Not Know That Era.
When I heard this, rather than sensing Prime Minister Abe’s own will, I had the impression that he was being swept along by the flow in which the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had apologized without reason up to that point, and I felt an ominous foreboding.
Unfortunately, this premonition proved correct, and the resolution was passed by the U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs, with the situation moving toward passage in the full House as well.
Under these circumstances, I believe that the Japanese people now need to review the “comfort women attached to the military” issue.
To be continued.