Nikon axes comfort women photo exhibition

[FrankS]

I guess the Japanese do not want to know about their darker side in WW2.

It would be more accurate to say that some Japanese people do not wish to be reminded of some aspects of the war.

General, broad-brush statements about a large group or whole race of people are certain to be incorrect at the individual level.

 

[David Hughes]

Hi,

The trouble is that history usually gets distorted, often by politicians. Just look how many believe those stories that the USSR looted Contax. Worst still, look how many refuse to accept, or just cannot believe, that the USSR and the USA were fighting on the same side.

One of the things I like about RFF is that so many here have open minds and act reasonably. But I guess that's because us film and RF users are yet another minority and know how hard it is to get the truth over to some people...

Regards, David

 

[noimmunity]

A pity that Nikon did not go through with the exhibit. But then again, it would have been a little like Daimler Benz putting on an exhibit of photos of the Warsaw Ghetto.

The real problem of course is that the historical legacy of 'comfort women' remains largely unresolved.

Part of the reason this legacy remains unresolved is because of complicity from the postwar US-occupation. As in so many other areas of Japanese life, where elements of the wartime establishment were mobilized to support US policy of domination in Asia, comfort women were used on a very wide scale by US occupation forces during the initial stages of occupation.

 

[sevo]

A pity that Nikon did not go through with the exhibit. But then again, it would have been a little like Daimler Benz putting on an exhibit of photos of the Warsaw Ghetto

German corporations generally will support exhibitions of that type - companies of Daimler-Benz scale usually even have researched and published their own involvement in Nazi age atrocities, and have some program to at least symbolically compensate their victims.

 

[noimmunity]

German corporations generally will support exhibitions of that type - companies of Daimler-Benz scale usually even have researched and published their own involvement in Nazi age atrocities, and have some program to at least symbolically compensate their victims.

Thank you for the clarification and for insisting on the often merely symbolic nature of reparations.

Once again, the issue of U.S. complicity is significant.

The International Military Tribunal for the Far East established in 1946 was supposed to be a counterpart to the Nuremberg Tribunal... Conspicuously, absent from the tribunal's list of defendants were representatives of the zaibatsus. The situation of Japanese national guilt is complicated by the seeming pardon of the Japanese Emperor Hirohito for war crimes and the nuclear annihilation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Further American intervention against Communism in East Asia required a stable Japan. Prosecuting former militarists would harm the Japanese economic recovery and was contrary to the American national interest.

from http://www.fantompowa.net/Flame/levy_japanese_war_crimes.htm

Although Nikon was involved in the armaments industry, I have not read of any allegations of forced or slave labor. There is documentation however of widespread used of forced Korean labor in Japan during the war.

 

[redisburning]

why do the yakuza organize nationalist rallies?

my understanding was that they grew out of the immediate post-war period. what is it to them that the books accurately describe what the military did?

the photographer is a brave man; a Korean living in Japan trying to shed light on a squelched part of Japanese history. If I had my own gallery I would be proud to offer him space to show his photographs.

 

[Frontman]

why do the yakuza organize nationalist rallies?

my understanding was that they grew out of the immediate post-war period. what is it to them that the books accurately describe what the military did?

the photographer is a brave man; a Korean living in Japan trying to shed light on a squelched part of Japanese history. If I had my own gallery I would be proud to offer him space to show his photographs.

The Yakuza go back quite far in Japanese history, with references to them occurring as early as the 17th century.

If you spend any time in a large Japanese city you'll eventually see and hear the speaker trucks blaring old military airs. The trucks are usually pAinted black, and are marked with the chrysanthemum seal and/or old battle flags. These nuts generally drive around in noisy convoys, stopping in front of the occasion train station, government office building, or immigration office were jack-booted thugs in smart uniforms with swastikas on their shoulders will rant against good and normalcy.

The Yakuza usually spend most of their time breaking legs, pimping prostitutes, or skimming the profits of their more "legitimate" enterprises. Being right-wing nuts is a part-time occupation for them.

 

[Nikon Bob]

The Yakuza go back quite far in Japanese history, with references to them occurring as early as the 17th century.

If you spend any time in a large Japanese city you'll eventually see and hear the speaker trucks blaring old military airs. The trucks are usually pAinted black, and are marked with the chrysanthemum seal and/or old battle flags. These nuts generally drive around in noisy convoys, stopping in front of the occasion train station, government office building, or immigration office were jack-booted thugs in smart uniforms with swastikas on their shoulders will rant against good and normalcy.

The Yakuza usually spend most of their time breaking legs, pimping prostitutes, or skimming the profits of their more "legitimate" enterprises. Being right-wing nuts is a part-time occupation for them.

So in other words they are the bottom rung of the corporate ladder.

Bob