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NEWS: France's Angoulême Comics Festival Displays Comfort Women Manhwa


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revolutionotaku



Joined: 19 May 2011
Posts: 896
PostPosted: Sat Feb 01, 2014 1:28 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
The issue of comfort women has become a hot topic in Japan after Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto made a controversial comment on the subject last May.

According to NHK World, Hashimoto will be resigning as mayor of Osaka.
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20140201_20.html
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BushidoRise00



Joined: 01 Feb 2014
Posts: 5
PostPosted: Sat Feb 01, 2014 2:54 pm Reply with quote
I translated the description from the French website, in case anyone wants to know more:

The 41st international Festival of Comics in Angoulême welcomes “The flowers that do not wither,” a collective exhibit consecrated to the painful subject of “Comfort Women” and initiated jointly by the Korean government, a private association (The Korean Association for Manhwa), and a public institution (The Komacon, Korea Manhwa Contents Agency). The commissioners of this exhibit wish to communicate to a large international audience the Korean point of view while informing about the irreparable damages suffered by these women.

The commissioner of the exhibit, Shin Myeonghwan, designed the space in three different sections: Past, Present, and Future. “Past” retraces the historical context of Asia during WWII and the circumstances that led to the system, by the imperial Japanese army, of “comfort” sex slaves. The “Present” section reveals what was involved with the lives of the victims, portraying to the visitor what really happened. Finally, “Future” evokes the hope of realizing a future with more transparence by the recognition of historical events.

The important work given light by the exhibit is the fruit of the collaboration between screenwriter Jeong Ki-young and artist Kim Gwang-sung. Titled “The butterfly’s song of hope,” it constitutes 100 slides made with Chinese ink on traditional Korean paper, and tells the drama of young girls raised and employed with force by the Japanese army during the occurrences of “Comfort Women.” The exhibit will also be the opportunity for around twenty Korean authors (notably Tak Young-ho, Lee Hyun-se, Baek Sung-min, Park Jae-dong, Cho Kwan-je, Oh Sé-young, Ahn Soo-cheol, Kang Hyo-suk, Kang Do-ha, Park Kun-woong, Keum Suk Gendry-Kim) to give their perspective on the tragic outcomes of these women. Their contributions, in the form of short stories, will be gathered and published as a collection. The procedure of the exhibit is done from two voluminous works – “Automata” from Ahn Soo-Cheol and an installation of the artist Lee Je-sook. Finally, an unedited animation, a story yet to be finished, will be shown in a pre-screening before the Festival as well as a short, “Herstory,” from Kim Jun-ki, a hit in Korea.

http://www.bdangouleme.com/394,exposition-coree-fleurs-qui-ne-se-fanent-pas
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Gilles Poitras



Joined: 05 Apr 2008
Posts: 478
Location: Oakland California
PostPosted: Sat Feb 01, 2014 5:58 pm Reply with quote
The issue of comfort women in the war is more complex than those on both sides generally acknowledge. In the early days they were licensed prostitutes working in privately run brothels. Many of the women were from impoverished families in Kyushu or ethnic Koreans, at the time Korea was part of Japan, who had contracts to work for a set number of years. Their working conditions were not the best, brothels rarely are nice places for the workers.

Later in the war women were conscripted, that is forced, into working in the brothels in much harsher conditions. These are the ones we usually hear about. After the war there was even an organization in Japan itself that was set up to provide similar services for U.S. soldiers, however that was officially off limits to the troops.

I firmly believe Japan can do much more to apologize, however there have been many apologies in the past and we should be aware of that.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_war_apology_statements_issued_by_Japan

Thing is that since the mid 1990s the right wing in Japan has been on a campaign to deny much of what had been previously admitted. The most revisionist textbooks you hear about are used in few schools, often private schools with a conservative bent. Much like revisionist groups in the U.S. that try to change the political scope of what is in approved textbooks they are pushing for a nationalist slant in the curriculum. It has not always been the case I have met Japanese who were very knowledgeable of the crimes of WWII, and they learned of them in school.

All in all this is a very unpleasant subject to discuss that should not be ignored or allowed to be turned into a propaganda tool for one nation or another. That said all of Japan should not be blamed for the comments of a few right wing politicians any more than the U.S. should be for the comments some of our nationalists make.
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Gilles Poitras



Joined: 05 Apr 2008
Posts: 478
Location: Oakland California
PostPosted: Sat Feb 01, 2014 6:00 pm Reply with quote
revolutionotaku wrote:
According to NHK World, Hashimoto will be resigning as mayor of Osaka.

His resignation is a tactic to force an early election in the hopes of gaining more political power to back his plans for changing Osaka. It does not have to do with his statements on comfort women.
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mdo7



Joined: 23 May 2007
Posts: 6372
Location: Katy, Texas, USA
PostPosted: Sat Feb 01, 2014 9:02 pm Reply with quote
Gilles Poitras wrote:

All in all this is a very unpleasant subject to discuss that should not be ignored or allowed to be turned into a propaganda tool for one nation or another. That said all of Japan should not be blamed for the comments of a few right wing politicians any more than the U.S. should be for the comments some of our nationalists make.


This is why I'm glad Wikipedia exist for, unbias research.
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Yuno07



Joined: 12 Jan 2014
Posts: 43
Location: Sacramento
PostPosted: Sat Feb 01, 2014 11:12 pm Reply with quote
mdo7 wrote:
This is why I'm glad Wikipedia exist for, unbias research.


Did you really just suggest that Wikipedia is unbiased?Laughing
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GATSU



Joined: 03 Jan 2002
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PostPosted: Sat Feb 01, 2014 11:46 pm Reply with quote
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oatari777



Joined: 02 Feb 2014
Posts: 6
PostPosted: Sun Feb 02, 2014 1:07 am Reply with quote
Every country commits this kind of crime.
The Korean comfort women in WW2 were directly used in the Korean war under the supervision of SKorean government. This is a well-known story that some of them were carried to the front line into drums one by one labeled "Category-5 supplies". To quote from the Scripture "Only one who is innocent can throw a stone at her"
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#shanez



Joined: 02 Feb 2014
Posts: 2
PostPosted: Sun Feb 02, 2014 2:59 am Reply with quote
South Korea insists the comfort women were forced sex slaves.
Comfort Women did exist, but they were not forced sex slaves at all.
Japan admited confort women and apologized in 1965.
But 'sex slave' lies are what Japanese people are against and can't let go.

There's an objective evidence that says US soldiers interviewed comfort women in 1944 and they answered they were hired.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HtFHaPsors

There are also other objective evidences which show comfort women were hired with very good salary but there are no objective evidence that proves they are sex slaves other than South Korean's testimonies.
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Gilles Poitras



Joined: 05 Apr 2008
Posts: 478
Location: Oakland California
PostPosted: Sun Feb 02, 2014 10:09 am Reply with quote
#shanez wrote:
South Korea insists the comfort women were forced sex slaves.
Comfort Women did exist, but they were not forced sex slaves at all.
Japan admited confort women and apologized in 1965.


There were both women who entered into prostitution to help out families or just to have food to eat and women who were forced. There are many accounts of women, Asian and European who were forced. As I said earlier the situation is complex.
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Yuno07



Joined: 12 Jan 2014
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Location: Sacramento
PostPosted: Sun Feb 02, 2014 3:03 pm Reply with quote
GATSU wrote:


What exactly was that supposed to prove? Wikipedia can be edited by ANYONE and is NOT a scholarly source. Rolling Eyes
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enurtsol



Joined: 01 May 2007
Posts: 14886
PostPosted: Sun Feb 02, 2014 9:57 pm Reply with quote
On brighter note:

http://www.france24.com/en/20140202-calvin-hobbes-watterson-angouleme-comic-book-award/

  • Bill Watterson, the American author of the Calvin and Hobbes books, was awarded the coveted Grand Prix at the Angoulême International Comics Festival in France on Sunday, nearly 20 years after he brought the successful series to an end.

    The jury of the 41st International Comics Festival awarded its highest accolade to 56-year-old Watterson, whose complete Calvin and Hobbes series was republished in 2012.

  • In one such trademark three-frame story, Calvin says: “They say the world is a stage. But obviously the play is unrehearsed and everybody is ad-libbing their lines.”

    Hobbes replies: “Maybe that’s why it’s hard to tell if we’re in a tragedy or a farce.”
    “We need more special effects and dance numbers,” Calvin concludes.

  • Watterson received the best foreign book award at the Angoulême festival in 1992.

    Yet after a row with his publishers in which he opposed the development of merchandise and animations based on his characters, the media-shy author stopped the series in 1995.

  • Watterson, 56, won the grand prix at the 41st edition of the festival, beating Japan’s Katsuhiro Otomo (Akira) and Britain’s Alan Moore (Watchmen).

    He was not present to receive his prize, the most prestigious of its kind in the French-speaking world.


Watterson, Otomo, Moore - what a roll call.
Though along the habit of Hayao Miyazaki, Watterson wasn't at the ceremony.
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SheRrIs





PostPosted: Mon Feb 03, 2014 3:48 am Reply with quote
oatari777 wrote:

and
#shanez wrote:

are the same user.
Look at that Holocaust denier and laugh. Rolling Eyes
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#shanez



Joined: 02 Feb 2014
Posts: 2
PostPosted: Mon Feb 03, 2014 10:05 pm Reply with quote
Sherris wrote:
oatari777 wrote:

and
#shanez wrote:

are the same user.
Look at that Holocaust denier and laugh. Rolling Eyes


What's the proof??
With all due respect, I'm not oatari777.
You will know that after you get very old and go to heaven, I promise Smile

Anyway, what Korea insists is not based on objective evidences.
Seiji Yoshida is the famous man who wrote a sex slavery story. Korea relis on that but Yoshida admitted it was a fiction.

And I must add this, US proves that those comfort women were hired professionlas like I mentioned in the earlier post.

This is a repetition, but Japanese goverment admits there was comfort women and feels sorry about what happend. But they were NO sexual slavery.
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GATSU



Joined: 03 Jan 2002
Posts: 15550
PostPosted: Tue Feb 04, 2014 2:11 am Reply with quote
Yuno: I was kidding around.
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