In what I can only describe as an interesting insight into the Japanese psyche and that nation's continued self-denial about its past actions in the face of irrefutable evidence, there seems to be a minor shitstorm brewing between the U.S. State Department and Japan after Hillary Clinton reportedly corrected a
State Department official who referred to women drafted into
prostitution by the Japanese during World War II by the widely used term comfort women, asking that the Department instead call it like it is
and say enforced sex slaves.





Yasukuni Shrine, Japan


Unsurprisingly Japan isn't quite happy with that development should it be proven true. "If that is confirmed, I will tell her that it is an incorrect
expression and explain to her the steps that we have taken, including an
apology by the prime minister and the creation of a fund to support
women in Asia in order to help comfort women," Japanese Foreign Minister Koichiro Gemba was cited in reaction.




On which I call... bollocks, good sir! Japan's stance towards its past crimes in general seems to have been and continue to be to largely act as if they've never happened in the first place. It's the behavior of an ostrich. And just like with that bird that can't fly sticking their heads in the sand doesn't mean the issue will go away! Worse, the whole business feels more like they're apologizing - very grudgingly - because others expect them to do it and not because they think it's the right thing to do. 




What actually bothers me the most here is this stubborn determination to stick with euphemisms on the side of Japan. It's disgraceful. It's not like people wouldn't know what you're talking about either way! Kim Dong-hee, secretary general for a Seoul-based civic group Korean
Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sex Slavery by Japan, said
that in Korean, the euphemism carries the connotation that they are the
victims of forced sex slavery - which they were. Quite frankly, stomping your foot and insiting on these women to be called comfort women - indicating this was something done in mutual consent - makes you look like giant douche bags. It's the equivalent of calling the imprisonment and forced relocation of people to the concentration camps "booking a survival trip".


I'm all for developing a positive and steadfast relationship to one's national past and identity, accepting the bad things and cherishing the good ones. But there's something genuinely wrong when that turns into war criminals being enshrined at Yasukuni and you throwing a hissy fit when people call a spade a spade. Can you imagine the kind of outcry it'd create if we Germans put the names of Reinhardt Heydrich or Adolf Eichmann on some military memorial