The ‘Comfort Women’ Statue: Let History Speak through the Facts

[unhappycamper]

http://watchingamerica.com/News/232427/the-comfort-women-statue-let-history-speak-through-the-facts/

The ‘Comfort Women’ Statue: Let History Speak through the FactsSankei News, Japan
By Rui Sasaki
Translated By Stephanie Sanders
8 February 2014
Edited by Gillian Palmer

I have been shown a scene I did not wish to see. It is an image of House Committee on Foreign Affairs Chairman Ed Royce, R-Calif., offering incense, on bended knees, in front of the "comfort women" statue installed by Korean-Americans. It must have been a "political show" held in a park in Glendale, California, to please the local Korean residents.

Royce, who was re-elected in the November 2012 election, represents California’s 39th congressional district near Glendale. There is a large number of Korean residents in the area. Royce has won re-election 11 times consecutively since 1992. If he were to lose, he would likely be too preoccupied to even think of Japan-U.S. relations. His performance in front of the comfort women statue looks like nothing more than a publicity stunt for votes.

Royce had reportedly said to the press that "confronting this issue is the right thing to do. It is important that the Japanese government confronts this dark part of the history of Imperial Japan."

~snip~

Historical perspective is something that is different depending on the country. From Japan’s point of view, South Korea, in particular, appears to distort history and utilize anti-Japanese propaganda. I hope U.S. lawmakers do not forget to maintain an impartial perspective.