A Deceitful Korean Citizens’ Group (NGO) and the Comfort Women Issue

I reprinted the article on the Nadeshiko Action website with the permission from Representative Ms.Yamamoto.
Japanese version is also posted on the Japanese AJCN blog.

                                     Secretary-General and President of AJCN 

                                                                   Sumiyo Egawa 

Human Rights Council 
Forty-fourth session
June–July 2020 (TBC)
Agenda item 4
Human rights situations that require the Council’s attention
Joint written statement* submitted by Japan Society for History Textbook, non-governmental organizations in special consultative status 

The Secretary-General has received the following written statement which is
circulated in accordance with Economic and Social Council resolution 1996/31.

[27 May 2020]

A Deceitful Korean Citizens’ Group (NGO) and the Comfort Women Issue

The Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan (hereinafter KCWDMS), currently called The Korean Council for Justice and Remembrance for the Issues of Military Sexual Slavery by Japan (hereinafter KCJR), a Korean organization primarily centered on the comfort women issue and has criticized Japan in the United Nations Human Rights Council for “coercive recruitment into ‘sexual slavery’”, has allegedly defrauded its donors. The KCWDMS has had special consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) since 2014.

Ms. LEE Yong-soo, a self-proclaimed comfort woman has long been active with the group. She is known around the world as the activist who screamed before the members of the US House of Representatives in 2007 during the deliberation on the resolution calling for an apology from the Japanese government over the comfort women issue. Recently, she asked President Donald Trump for a hug as an ex-comfort woman at the state dinner given during President’s visit to the Republic of Korea (ROK) in November 2017.

On May 7, 2020, Ms. LEE Yong-soo without hesitation stated the following at a press conference in Daegu, the ROK.

1. The donations collected by the group were never used for former comfort women. The money was mostly used for private purposes and the responsibility lies with Ms. YOON Mi-hyang, who was the head of the group until this past March 2020.
2. Ms. LEE’s testimonies about her days as a comfort woman were given as instructed by the group. 
3. She was not a “sex slave.” She requested Ms. YOON Mi-hyang not to use the phrase because she did not understand why she was called one but Ms. YOON made it a point of using the phrase “sex slave” at the UN because “the expression was effective in scaring America.”

Based on these three points, it is clear that former president YOON
Mihyang allowed false testimonies to be made from those who call themselves "comfort women", including Ms. LEE, and misrepresented the comfort women as “sex slaves,” made use of the UN to spread the lie of the comfort women issue as a global women’s human rights issue and collected large amounts of donations from within and outside the ROK for her own personal use.

At present, former KCJR president YOON Mi-hyang has been denounced by several citizens’ groups, in addition to Ms. LEE Yong-soo, for suspected private use of donations and dubious accounting. The ROK’s prosecutors have started an investigation—prosecutors searched the KCJR premises on May 20 and 21, 2020.

UN Human Rights Council Fooled by Crooks

As has been repeatedly demonstrated in the past, Japanese "comfort women" were prostitutes who worked in warzones. This has been clearly stated by US Army Psychological Warfare Report No. 49 (official data of the US Army) dated October 1, 1944 made by the US Office of War Information (OWI), a report of captured Korean comfort women and their employers in Burma. The American interrogator stated that “a comfort girl is nothing more than a prostitute or professional camp follower” in conclusion.

The KCWDMS claimed that “Japanese administrative personnel coercively recruited 200,000 Korean women to make them comfort women and abused them as ‘sex slaves.’” However, on its face, this is clearly nonsense. In fact, many "comfort women" were obligated to engage in this line of work solely for the money. From 1930s to the middle of WWII, Korean criminal syndicates trafficked Korean women to Manchuria and China to become prostitutes. Really, most comfort women then who claim to have been "coerced" were victims of criminals. It should be noted that Japanese administrative personnel did what they could to enforce the law. Accounts of kidnappings and Japanese responses have been noted in the Dong-a Ilbo of the time.

Nonetheless, the KCWDMS outright lies to the UN, and denigrates the honor of Japan, striving to show its earnestness in combatting human trafficking.

Committee on Civil and Political Rights (CCPR), Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR), Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), Committee against Torture (CAT) and Committee on Enforced Disappearances (CED) have recommended the Japanese government to “publicly acknowledge legal responsibility for the crimes of sexual slavery and prosecute and punish perpetrators with appropriate penalties” based on an opinion paper from the group.

In light of the circumstances, we request the following:

• The matter of the KCJR (former KCWDMS), must be vigorously investigated and resolved by the Government of the ROK and the findings reported to the UN Human Rights Council. The UN Human Rights Council must immediately demand this action to the Government of the ROK.
  
• The six human rights treaty-based bodies mentioned above made accusations against Japan based on KCWDMS’s falsehoods and deceit, and continuously issued misdirected recommendations to the Japanese government concerning the comfort women issue. We demand that the various human rights treaty-based bodies thoroughly investigate facts without swallowing the victims’ testimonies and produce a report. A scientific investigation based on facts is more important than anything.

International Research Institute of Controversial Histories (iRICH) NGO without consultative status, also share the views expressed in this statement.

Corruption of anti-Japan Korean organization

Sumiyo Egawa 

Secretariat-General and President of AJCN

May 7, Lee Yong-soo, one of former “Comfort Women” accused an influential activist group “the Korean Council for Justice and Remembrance for the Issues of Military Sexual Slavery by Japan” since this group is exploiting Women and exploiting money from Japan for Japan Bashing. She declared she would not attend Wednesday rally anymore,
When Mr. Michael Yon, my friend came to Sydney for supporting AJCN, he told me the “Comfort Women” are animals kept in a zoo called “The Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan” and trained by it so that they have been main players at the anti-Japan campaign. The fraud and corruption of this group being revealed this time proves his words.


Re: Michael Yon
■ Title
Photographer / journalist
■ Profile
Born in Florida, USA in 1964. He belonged to the US Army Special Forces (Green Berets) for 5 years in the 1980s. Since 2004, he has been a correspondent in the Iraq war and Afghan conflict. Report on 70 countries around the world is also receiving attention from major media in the world. He “re-discovered” the US government research report IWG report, which had been buried for nearly 10 years, and continues to research the truth of the “comfort women” issue. Recently He enthusiastically covered the Hong Kong issue and disseminated information about the Chinese Communist Party's oppression on Hong Kong citizens.

The following is an article of The Japan Times News published May 9, 2020 quoting the article of Kyodo published on May 8. The scandal is being pursued daily in South Korea, and a reassessment of the anti-Japanese activities affected by this group abroad will be also undertaken.

Ex-'comfort woman' in South Korea criticizes weekly protests at Japanese Embassy
The Japan Times News  May 9, 2020


Lee Yong Soo, a 91-year-old former South Korean "comfort woman," holds a news conference in the city of Daegu on Thursday. | YONHAP / VIA KYODO

KYODO
SEOUL – A 91-year-old former "comfort woman" in South Korea has criticized weekly protest rallies in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul, saying they preach hatred to young participants.
Lee Yong-soo's accusation, made at a news conference Thursday, marks a rare moment of dissent among veteran participants in the rallies that have been held 1,438 times every Wednesday since January 1992.
Together with a civic group that has organized the rallies and supported the comfort women who were forced or coerced into sexual servitude under various circumstances before and during the war, including abduction, deception and poverty, Lee has spent years demanding an apology and compensation from the Japanese government.
The wartime dispute has been one of the major issues straining ties between Japan and South Korea.
At Thursday's news conference in the southeastern city of Daegu, the nonagenarian accused the group, the Korean Council for Justice and Remembrance for the Issues of Military Sexual Slavery by Japan, of not using in a transparent manner donations collected from the public.

Lee also said she will no longer attend the weekly rallies, which draw many students from middle school through university, among other participants, and that the gatherings should end.
"The rallies only teach young students hatred," she said, adding that young generations of South Koreans and Japanese should interact more and become friendly to each other.
She also criticized Yoon Mi-hyang, former head of the group, for becoming a lawmaker after successfully running in the April 15 general election as a ruling party-affiliated candidate.
Her pointed criticism of Yoon may suggest some internal division within the group after the 55-year-old activist sought to enter politics.
On Friday, Yoon wrote on her social media account that all the donations collected by the group were subjected to thorough oversight and were used properly. She also emphasized the importance of the weekly rallies.
The civic group separately released a statement on Friday saying it was regrettable that there was some misunderstanding between the group and former comfort women.
"We will use this as a chance to look back on our movements during the past 30 years where we tried our best to be together with the victims as family and colleagues," the group said, pledging to work harder to help settle the comfort women issue with Japan and restore the women's rights and honor.