오노다씨의 증언(영어)

http://www.sdh-fact.com/CL02_1/30_S4.pdf

The Real Identity of Military Comfort Women I Saw
 
Onoda Hiroo
Translation of Japanese article published in Seiron January 2006 issue
 
The issues of the Japanese Prime Minister’s visit to Yasukuni Shrine and the
so-called military comfort women, about which many people are now debating,
rest on absolutely baseless accusations made by people outside of Japan. I
have always thought that the comfort women, like the so-called Nanking
Massacre, would not require much of an explanation; and I am simply amazed
at the level of stupidity, the falsehoods and intemperate language surrounding
this issue have yet to disappear.
Now that more than 60 years have passed since the end of the Greater East
Asian War and the number of living people who took part and survived is
decreasing, I have decided to leave a written testimony to the effect that being a
“comfort woman” was nothing but a “commercial activity.”
For military units that are called out and stationed in foreign parts, the
problems that most seriously hamper the maintenance of security and
pacification activities are rape, looting and arson by soldiers. For this reason, as
is generally known, every country takes some sort of measures to prevent these
acts. At the time of the Greater East Asian War, “comfort women” did exist on
battlefields, which was quite reasonable because Japan had licensed
prostitution in those days.
It was not necessary to be an officer or soldier involved in field operations to
know the term jugun kangofu “military nurse”; it was common knowledge shared
by the general public. However, nobody heard of or used the term jugun ianfu
“military comfort woman.” This term was obviously coined at a later time in an
attempt to demean Japan.
 
To use lewd words, Chinese and Korean prostitutes were respectively
referred to as “tsunko pi (Chinese P) and chosen pi (Korean P)” on the China
front, as I remember. Acts involving such women were something that could not
take place in front of another person, so naturally, few people made accurate
presentations in public about what they saw or heard about “comfort stations” or
“comfort women.” And anybody claiming to have detailed knowledge about
these things would have been greeted with scorn and phrases such as “Oh,
how well you know!”
 
I can imagine readers asking me, “Then, how can you know?” Fortunately, I
was in a position to observe the actual situations as an outsider. That is why I
can make my observations public for the purpose of dispelling public
misconception without feeling abashed.
 
◆Visit to a “comfort station” in Hankou
As a trading company employee, I went to Hankou (currently called Wuhan),
in the middle reaches of Yangtze River in China, in the 17th spring of my life. I
began to live in this town only five months into its capture by Japanese troops,
with the smell of gun smoke still lingering, so to speak. In those days, the town
of Hankou was divided into the Refugee, Chinese, and Japanese-Chinese
Zones and the French, Japanese, former German, former Russian, and former
British Concessions, each of which had its own security measures in place
according to the circumstances.
The Japanese-Chinese Zone was an area shared by Japanese and Chinese
residents. The Chinese living in the zone carried “civilian passports,” while those
without such passports were placed in the Refugee Zone for the purpose of
security.

後略

http://www.sdh-fact.com/CL02_1/30_S4.pdf