Tag: Japan-South Korea

  • Cumings' Japan Alarmism and Article 9 in U.S.-Japan Ties

    Bruce Cumings, the distinguished Korea historian at University of Chicago, had some pretty harsh and not particularly well defended criticism of Japan in a recent OhMyNews interview. I can’t get it to load right now, but from what Occidentalism posted, it seems like he’s lost his temper with the Japanese nationalists. For a long time…

  • Abe's 'Comfort Women' denial: U.S. reaction, a victim speaks, and classifieds

    Just joining us? See this entry and this follow-up. New developments: U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte would not comment on Abe’s specific words, but AP reports: “Our view is that what happened during the war was most deplorable,” he said when asked about the sex slave issue. “But … as far as some…

  • More on Abe's 'Comfort Women' Denial

    Japan Probe has a good entry that digs up the transcript for the October statement I referred to twice previously. Abe was responding to questions from Shii Kazuo, the chair of the executive committee of the Japanese Communist Party, and insisted that his cabinet would follow the Kono Statement. Abe said his previous questioning of…

  • Abe Rescinds Support for 1993 Comfort Women Statement

    In the politics of 20th century East Asian history, the Japanese wartime practice of using women as sex slaves under the putrid euphemism “comfort women” is comparable only to the Nanjing Massacre and the Yasukuni Shrine in its prominence. In 1993, Japan’s chief cabinet secretary, Kono Yohei, acknowledged that “comfort stations” had existed and that…

  • Is the Nuclear Unity Hiding Ongoing Friction?

    Dozens of reporters are working the North Korean nuclear test story. Dozens more, some on double duty, are covering Abe Shinzo’s tour through China and South Korea. I won’t try to duplicate or aggregate their work, but some of the key links appear at right in my Google Reader feed. But there’s something going on…