"comfort women"

In a time when World War II (here is a link for the curious) is a blur on so many mental radar screens, I suppose that dredging up another horror will not have much impact. Horrors come and horrors go.

Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto, 43, said on Monday that the "comfort women" forced to have sex with invading Japanese troops in China, Korea, Indonesia, Taiwan and the Philippines were "necessary." The women, Hashimoto said, gave the soldiers a chance "to rest."

In the circumstances in which bullets are flying like rain and wind, the soldiers are running around at the risk of losing their lives....
If you want them to have a rest in such a situation, a comfort women system is necessary. Anyone can understand that.

According to the BBC story,  "Some 200,000 women in territories occupied by Japan during WWII are estimated to have been forced to become sex slaves for troops."

As those women were being raped, Hashimoto was not even a twinkle in his daddy's eye. His hindsight is nothing unusual -- those who did not live something are often pretty quick to assert an understanding that lacks understanding -- but still ....

Those with the stomach for it might want to watch, "City of Life and Death," a subtitled movie about the Japanese occupation of Nanking/Nanjing during the war. No doubt the flavor of the film cannot hold a candle to the reality, but it is a flavor. I sympathize with those who lack the stomach for such a movie ... eating ground glass is not exactly a joyous -- or even restful -- pastime.