XI) The Reliability of Documents
Yoshimi insists "Japanese Prisoners of War Interrogation Report No. 49" was not reliable. Interrogations reported average Korean "comfort women" were about twenty five years old, uneducated, childish, and selfish. They were not pretty either by Japanese or Caucasian standards. They were egotistical and tended to talk about themselves. Their attitudes towards strangers were quiet and demure, but she "knew the wiles of a woman."
Yoshimi told that Mr. Alex Yorichi, a Japanese-American sergeant, who interrogated comfort women were not so confident in them. Mr. Yorichi must have mostly adopted what brothel's dealers told because brothel's dealers could speak Japanese very well, but Korean comfort women could not speak Japanese very well.
However, Yorichi were not absolutely confident in the brothel's dealers. In "Examination's Report of Psychological Warfare No. 49" (translation's center of South-East Asia), Yorichi interrogated and reported that M739 (the brothel's dealer) and his wife entrusted his restaurant to his sister-in-law on July 10th 1942.
He took twenty-two women he bought from Pusan with a party of seven hundred and three women and ninty Japanese men and women such as M739, an ugly man. Yoshimi's insistence is not correct. Yorichi was not so confident in brothel's dealers. Mr.Yorichi did not completly adopt what brothel's dealers told.
Moreover, Ms. Rumiko Nishino, a researcher about comfort women, also insists this document was not reliable because it did not take enough time to examine their testimonies. For example, Mr. Yorichi wrote comfort women were usually quartered in a large two story house (usually a school building) with a separate room for each girl. Yorichi did not understand that the large two story house was a comfort house.
Nishino's insitence is not correct, either. This document took enough time to examine their testimonies. "Japanese Prisoner of War Interrogation Report No. 49" reported: Date Interrogated Aug. 20th - Sep. 10th, 1944 Date of Report: October 1st. It took twenty days to examine their testimonies written at the place (a large two story house) each girl lived, slept, and did their business. Nishino overlooks the latter sentence on purpose. Mr. Yorichi understood the large two story house was a comfort house. "Japanese Prisoner of War Interrogation Report No. 49" is fair, objective, and reliable document.
Mr. Hanabusa, a supporter of comfort women's trial, insists "Report of Cases About the Second Repatriates in Celebes Civil Administration - Reports on Investigation About Facilities of Prostitution - Life of Prostitutes" is not reliable. This document is based on the order of comfort facilities' investigation by court-martial's public prosecutor of Dutch Army. Brothel's dealers in Indonesia might have handed in the false report to the public prosecutor to escape war crimes.
However, this report was reliable because the Allied Force only judged the men who abducted white women and forced them into prostitution. The Allied Force punished
only in two cases. The first case is that a Japanese troop with brothel's dealers took away sixty-five Dutch women from a prison camp to a brothel and they forced women into prostitution in Semarang, Indonesia. The second case is that a Japanese troop threatened captive Australian nurses to become prostitutes in Palembang, Indonesia.
The war crimes defined by the Allied Forces were limited to the people who abducted white women and forced them into prostituton because of racial discrimination. The brothel's dealers who were handed in the public prosecutor were people remained in Indonesia. They were not isolated captives who were limited their activities and the access of information.
The brothel's dealers could judge the extent of the Allied Force's war crime from rumors and news of war crimes' trial. Brothel's dealers who abducted white women and forced them into prostitution were on trial for by Dutch Army at Semarang, Indonesia. The brothel's dealers who were handed in the public prosecutors lived in Indonesia, too.
"Report of Item about the Second Repatriates in Celebes Civil Administration - A Report on an Investigation About a Facilities of Prostitution - Life of Prostitutes", intended Japanese, Korean, Chinaese, Taiwanese, and Indonesian women. The brothel's dealers in Indonesia did not have to hand in a false report to the public prosecutor in order to escape war crimes.
Professor Toshiyuki Tanaka, a researcher about comfort women, gave a case that Japanese-American forced a few women in Guam island into prostitution after Japanese Army occupied. However, this case was tried with the case that the Japanese-American insulted the American flag. Besides, this case was that an American forced American women into prostitution. This case was an exception because it is natural that an American judges a crime committed by an American.
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