Local newspapers report that the statue of an elderly woman looking at three girls depicts the face of late grandma Kim Haksoon. China Daily reports that she was �gforefully taken at the age of 17 by Japanese soldiers and confined to a comfort station."

Kim Haksoon was sold by her parents to Kisaeng House for 40 yen.

However, it is not true. As the book titled �gThe Comfort Women�h by C. Sarah Soh describes, �gKim was 17 years old when her foster father took her and another girl to China to find jobs for them .�h(p127)

Kim Haksoon's press release and affidavit submitted to the Tokyo District Court back up C. Sarah Soh's description. During the lawsuit process at Tokyo in 1991, she clearly stated that �gSince her family was so poor, her parents sold her to a Kisaeng House for 40 yen when she was 14.�h and �gafter three years of training as a Kisaeng girl, her foster father by the name of Kim Taigen (‹à‘׌³) took her and another girl called Emiko to China so that they could find jobs and earn money.�h

No Japanese Army/Police was involved in the circumstance of her becoming a comfort woman.
 

Kim Hak-soon, the first woman who made a public statement that she was forced to serve as a Comfort Woman, admitted that she had been sold to a Kisaeng House for 40 yen. But it was not entirely her fault. She confessed that she was so alone and just wanted to meet her old friends. Lawyers and activists who used her low intelligence for their own ends are to blame.

 

Hatred and Fake History Incarnated

Varied testimonial narratives of Lee Yong-soo

It is well known that Grandma Lee Yong-soo tells different testimony every time she opens her mouth.

For example, the aforementioned �gThe Comfort Women�h by C. Sarah Soh writes as follows;

Yi Yong-su (b.1928), was sixteen years old when she left home without telling anyone in search of a better life.

Yi came from a poor family in Taegu, the third largest city in Korea. Having worked in a cotton-batting manufacturing factory from the age of nine to thirteen and attended a night school for a short while under the Japanese name of Yasuhara Riyoshu, she vividly recalled --- after the lapse of nearly half a century --- the delightful moment of seeing a red dress and a pair of leather shoes in a packet the recruiter handed to her in the fall of 1944:

At the time I was shabbily clothed and wreched....[One the day I left hoe with my friend Pun-sun without telling my mother] I was wearing a black tongchima [Korean-style seamless one-piece skirt], along-sleeved, bottoned-up cotton skirt, and geta [Japanese-style wooden clogs, in Japanese] on my feet... You don�ft know how pleased I was in my childlike mind when I received the packet. So without any further thought I readily followed him. (pp.12-13)

However, on February 21, 2007 at Japan�fs House of Councilors, she stated that �gJapanese soldiers forced their way into her home and dragged her out by the neck.�h (Feb.22, 2007-edition of "Japan Times")

There are many other versions of her narratives. For further details, visit the following page.

Analysis of Testimonies of Ms. Lee Yong-soo

At one time she tip-toed out of the house following her friend without telling her mother (US House of Reps hearing in 2007), the other time she was taken at point of bayonet (statement to the Japanese Communist Party in 2002). and in yet another time Japanese soldiers banged into her home to drag her away by the neck (statement to Japan�fs House of Councilors in 2007).

How can you trust any of the words she says?

While the burden of proof is placed upon the accusing side, NO hard evidence that corroborates the inscription such as �g200,000 girls were coerced into sexual slavery by the Japanese Army�h has ever been presented since 1991 when this comfort women issue surfaced on the deplomatic relationships between Japan and S. Korea. All hard evidences indicate that the comfort women were nothing but paid prostitutes. Putting aside the unfairness that no chance has ever been allowed for the Japanese side to conduct cross-examination of witness accounts, the apparent lack of consistency (such as above) makes their narratives unreliable.

Cheating on Evidence

Besides, Koreans cheat on the evidence such as this one. Read the concealed part of the US Army Report by clicking below. The part clearly says, �ga �ecomfort girl�f is nothing more than a prostitute or professional camp follower."

How can you trust any of the words Koreans say to you, when they cheat on the evidence?

Purpose: universal human rights or Japan-bashing?

If the purpose of building the statue is to raise awareness of universal human rights of women at war as often described by promoters of the statue such as Lillian Sing and Julie Tang of the Comfort Women Justice Coalition, why do they single out Japan�fs case alone?

Where is the comfort women memorial of Korean women who were forced to become comfort women for the United States Army during the Korean War and thereafter? Also where is the memorial addressing the Vietnamese women forced to provide sex services for South Korean troops during the Vietnam War?

Why do you Americans let S. Koreans get away with their horrible atrocities they had inflicted upon Vietnamese women while you severely denounce Japan without letup?

US forces are no exception, author lives in Yokohama where US 8th Army, comprised of 230,000 men landed in 1945. You can easily assume what will happen if victorious army with such a large number of men at peak of their reproductive capability lands on the war-ravaged city. Local history records show many cases of rapes and murders by blatant intrusion into homes, kidnapping girls on streets, raids upon hospital dormitory of nurses, rape of sick women on beds, and all sorts of horrible crimes you can imagine. Outraged Japanese men often resorted to fist fights against armed soldiers. US generals such as D. MacArthur and R. Eichelberger were so shocked that they demanded creation of RAA (Recreation and Amusement Association) which was virtually no different from comfort stations for the Japanese Army.

This is sheer hypocrisy, or what?

Moreover, their allegations are based on unfounded hearsay and baseless rumors.

While the burden of proof shall be placed upon the accusing side, neither the Korean government nor a civic group has presented any hard evidence ever since 1991, when this issue first surfaced on the diplomatic horizon between the two governments of South Korea and Japan.

All hard evidences discovered so far, including 2007 IWG Report, two US Army Reports (APO689 and List No.78/1538), and 1993 Investigation by the Japanese Government, indicate contrary to the Korean allegations. We consider that the nation and people of Japan are falsely accused.

Yes, there were comfort women and comfort stations as all other armies of the world did have such women following them. However, there was NO forced recruitment, round-up or whatsoever for sexual slavery by the Japanese Army/Police, except for a few isolated cases such as Semarang Incident in the Dutch East Indies where Ms. Jan Ruff O�fHerne was involved. Such isolated cases do not mean the same misconduct was committed in a large mass-scale by the entire army forces.

Remember that there are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers; and then, look at what these women or YOU are doing here in San Francisco.

Today, nearly 80% of the Japanese population consider that S. Korea is an untrustworthy partner in areas of diplomatic or economic activities (February 2017, Sankei Shimbun Survey), due largely to the relentless smear campaign directed against Japan by Korean activists and their US collaborators. As some critics suggest, they are successfully driving a wedge into the relationship between Japan and S. Korea.

Those women have caused irreparable damage to the reputation of Japan and will leave behind only division, racial animosity and hatred between the two countries for generations to come, and YOU people in San Francisco are helping it.

I (author of this webpage, a Japanese male who lives in Yokohama) strongly urge Americans to wake up, regain your common sense and moral decency, and open your eyes to identify what is real and what is false. Some of the news and information you got may be baseless rumors. Do just basic fact-checking before bashing somebody. Your children and young people are entitled to learn the truth after all.