[Statement]

We give a recommendation to the German Federal Government regarding the installation of the comfort woman statue in Berlin's Mitte district!

Recently, a resolution of the Mitte-gu Congress in Berlin, the so-called'Peace Girl Statue' is being admitted in a way that allows ignorance and misjudgment of historical facts. Therefore, we would like to convey this information to the German government in order to correct it.

First, the Mitegu council gave the reason for the installation of the statue of comfort women, because of the former Prime Minister's ,"Go-no-Statement" in 1993. There was a Japanese person named Seiji Yoshida behind the publication of this 1993 “Go-no-Statement”. He worked as the head of mobilization for the Shimonoseki branch of the Yamaguchi Labor Council In 1983. In his book <My War Crimes>, he stated that he led the military unit that forcibly recruited more than 200 women from villages in Jeju Island as comfort women. However, in an investigation by a researcher at the Korea Institute of Jungshindae, in 1993, in the Asahi Newspaper, as reported in 2014, that the reports of Yoshida's eldest son, were found to be false. Due to this, the Asahi Newspaper withdrew all related articles.

Second, in the data found by the Japanese government, there was not found a description of so-called forced arrest by the military or governmental constitution. △The expression 'sex slave' (confirmed by the Korea-Japan agreement) is contrary to the facts and therefore should not be used. △The number of '200,000 comfort women' is revealed to be a number that is not specifically supported, there is no verifiable proof, so it seems that the'compulsiveness' section from Go-no Statement has been virtually withdrawn.

Other positions include the Asian Women's Fund, the Reconciliation and Healing Foundation for the former Japanese military comfort women, compensation and relief projects, and apology and reflection, which was individually sent by the then-four Prime Ministers, such as Ryutaro Hashimoto.

Third, the Korean activist groups, which are very vocal about, and give much support to the Korean comfort women, who served the Japanese military, have also carried out activities. These activities include installing a large number of comfort woman statues, using the testimony of comfort women, which are based on the “ Go-no Statement. Also, two representative organizations and an incumbent lawmaker, who was the representative of one of these organizations, are being investigated by the prosecutor's office for illegal activities related to large amounts of donations and support funds.

Fourth, according to the thesis 'Nazi brothels and forced prostitution-the reality and memories of postwar periods,' published in ' Women and History No.29,' by the Korean Society for Women's History, which states, "Through the brothels and forced labor camps run by the SS, the Nazis led systematic forced prostitution, but they were silenced for more than half a century and their memories were suppressed.” The emphasis is on the customs and sexual morality of the past. The victims are stubbornly silent due to the fear of social prejudice and becoming social misfits'.

During the Sino-Japanese-Pacific War, the prostitution policy on the Japanese and colonial Korean peninsula was a commercial “ Prostitution Law" similar to the legal sex trade policy in Germany today. Therefore, unlike Nazi's'forced brothels,' which were related to the Holocaust, Japanese military comfort women were a legal system that allowed 'sex work' only after obtaining a business license from the Japanese (Japanese military) authorities.

Separately, incidences of women who were in the process of becoming comfort women due to “poverty," can often be found in newspaper reports during the Japanese colonial period. This is because incidences such as employment fraud and human trafficking are still occurring globally, regardless of the legality decriminalization of the sex trade. The sex trade is a constant throughout human history, except during the wartime situation of the Japanese colonial rule. It's no different.

People around the world are now wondering whether Germany is trying to conceal the Nazi “forced brothel” by allowing a statue of the former Japanese military comfort woman in Berlin's Mitte-gu. We wish the German federal government to use wisdom in its judgment.

December 9th 2020

The Committee for Truthful Investigation on Anti-Japanese Statues