Yoshiko Sakurai’s essay exposes how fabricated narratives surrounding the comfort women issue have been internalized as historical fact. By examining Asahi Shimbun’s role, the article questions media responsibility and the strategic challenges Japan faces in correcting global misconceptions.

2016-02-06

Yoshiko Sakurai’s essay spans three columns and extends from pages 30 to 39, making it a truly outstanding work.
The passage cited in the previous chapter appears on page 37, in the section that begins with the heading “Asahi Must Face Its Responsibility.”

(All emphases within the text, other than the heading, are mine.)

Asahi Must Face Its Responsibility

[Omitted portion]

What is now being questioned is how, while recognizing the flaws of this agreement, Japan can treat it as a new starting point and strategically develop the struggle ahead in order to protect its national interests.

After the agreement, Tsutomu Nishioka, professor at Tokyo Christian University, reported from Seoul.
He asked young women holding comfort-women protests in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul why they were participating in the demonstrations.

They reportedly answered as follows:

“Japanese people forcibly abducted 200,000 Korean women and killed and buried 180,000 of them. That is why I am here protesting.”

They sincerely believe such a fabricated version of history.

The Asahi Shimbun’s editorial on the day after the agreement looked back on the 1990s—when the Kono Statement was issued and initiatives such as the Asian Women’s Fund were undertaken—and wrote:
“Together with both governments, we would like to reflect on the lessons of that time, including those involving civic groups supporting former comfort women and the media.”

However, was it not Asahi Shimbun itself that caused misunderstandings among Korean women and within the international community?

Does Asahi Shimbun still refuse to look squarely at the truth of the matter, and feel no sense of responsibility for its own actions?

To be continued.