New Zealand axes plan for WW2 comfort women statue after Japan's protest
Posted by kwentongskyblue@reddit | anime_titties | View on Reddit | 73 comments
Posted by kwentongskyblue@reddit | anime_titties | View on Reddit | 73 comments
SomeDumRedditor@reddit
New Zealand talks a big game when it comes to progressive government (and to be fair they’re certainly ahead of the curve a lot of the time), but when push comes to shove money talks, as always.
That aside, Japan is so cowardly and despicable for this. It’s unsurprising given their intergenerational refusal to actually take undeflected, direct responsibility for their myriad of war crimes, but it’s sickening nonetheless.
Meanwhile domestically Japanese history books sanitize their WWII activities and they take an “out of sight out of mind” approach culturally. That is until a “foreigner” dares make a statement about it - at which point it becomes an unfair, targeted attack on their peaceful culture!
Japan is many good things. It’s also a xenophobic, racist, war crime denying, whale slaughtering nation with an inhuman system of financial debt obligation and a totalitarian-state approach to criminal justice.
What makes it sad is all of the above is solvable by simply stopping force feeding each generation the ethnonational exceptionalism kool-aide.
Boided@reddit
Current government in Aotearoa New Zealand is the most conservative government arguably this century. Bunch of crooks and cowards
Sutraner@reddit
New Zealand at the end of the day is a tiny country that isn't particularly rich going up against one of the worlds biggest economies and one of their biggest trading partners. It's unrealistic to expect them to make a huge stand over something like this which didn't even affect New Zealand personally
sandpaperedanus777@reddit
Go figure, the nation that hasn't dealt with its world war two crimes refuses to allow anyone else to expose i's facade.
Imagine if Germany pressured any country to remove any homages to the Jews they murdered.
Ambiwlans@reddit
If Russia started funding statues globally to be built depicting the trail of tears, you don't think America would be offended?
Or if Pakistan paid for statues to be built all over depicting the Anti-Sikh slaughters of the 80s or the more recent anti-Muslim killings, you don't think India would be pissed?
seat17F@reddit
But this is Koreans funding memorials to Koreans, no? It’s not comparable to your hypotheticals.
Ambiwlans@reddit
I guess its harder to think of a perfect parallel. Maybe a native Canadian org funding trail of tears statues around the world after Trump threatened Canada.
Would America be wrong to say that this is probably just political?
I don't think it is realistic to think that there is some large number of people harmed in their day to day life due to the comfort women abuses literally 90 years ago living in New Zealand. It hasn't been about the women for decades. Its far more likely that they just want to start shit with Japan.
Certainly, a donation to a women's shelter would do more good.
ivlivscaesar213@reddit
Or the the UK try to remove statues of Indian confort women
Worth_Garbage_4471@reddit
Enough with this BS, there are so many crimes in history and current affairs, there's absolutely no justification for picking one from history 70 years ago and going around fetishizing it because you have nothing better to do.
ivlivscaesar213@reddit
Exactly. We need to focus on the present not the past. We can't do justice to all the crimes that happend in the past anyways
VFP_ProvenRoute@reddit
The WW2 generation is all but died out. We're about to enter a world that has no living memory of some of its worst atrocities. Reminders are incredibly important.
Knightrius@reddit
Why so triggered
ThatHeckinFox@reddit
[ Removed by Reddit ]
HairyH0Od@reddit
Or if UK pressured any country to remove any homages to the tens of millions of Indians they killed.... Oh wait whoops no one really cares/knows about that cuz they were brown 😂
ExistingCarry4868@reddit
Tens of millions is also a massive undercount.
HairyH0Od@reddit
Yea but it's the minimum number that all scholars definitely agree on
ishu22g@reddit
Well.. two largest famines added up to ~30-40 million, one of which was purely caused by British and another was just propped up, so theres that.
I think there were about 7 big ones.
HozukiEiko@reddit
and meanwhile Israel is actively continuing to do this to this day supported by US of course
BioSemantics@reddit
They are trying to pass a law to make IDF veterans get similar benefits to US veterans. They are dunking on us.
https://www.military.com/feature/2026/04/19/emerging-push-extend-some-us-benefits-idf-soldiers.html
AFCSentinel@reddit
South Korea itself has stopped pressing this issue - which generally only gets rolled out when it's politically convenient because both countries, in principle, agreed that the issue has been solved decades ago. So seeing New Zealand jump into a political spat between South Korea and Japan that has died down a few years back - pretty much with the change in administration in SK - was always a bit bemusing.
I am not here to pass judgement on the comfort women issue, though I do believe that as a whole Japan could probably learn a bit from Germany when it comes to dealing with their WWII past. Though then again Germany did learn a bunch of wrong lessons from all that, seeing for example in their steadfast support of Israel for the longest time despite ever more horrible war crimes being committed by that country.
But the "comfort women issue" in a modern context is not about the brave women that were forced to do unspeakable things and about doing right by them. It's about playing political football when one or the other side feels convenient to do so. It doesn't do justice to these women.
Hazzat@reddit
Thank you. People are quick to attack Japan when they see these headlines, but Japan paid reparations and apologised multiple times decades ago. Lingering resentment among victims is because the Korean government spent the reparations on public works projects instead of giving it to victims, who were only offered compensation in 2023 (which they refused).
Japan and Korea called the issue settled in 2015. These comfort women statues are not being erected by the Korean government, but by an independent Korean nationalist group looking to stoke anti-Japan sentiment worldwide.
Ambiwlans@reddit
Amongst the comfort women, only some were forced into it as well (mostly it was a job and prostitution wasn't regarded as negatively in asia in the early 1900s) though the numbers get senselessly blended together. This being such a massive issue 90 years later is clearly a political move.
audacious_egg@reddit
Do you mind sharing more info on this? It's probably the aspect of the story I know about the least.
Hazzat@reddit
They are called the Korean Council for Justice and Remembrance. Ostensibly a women's rights group, but their most visible action is ensuring that this settled matter won't die.
Prosthemadera@reddit
Are you also complaining about Holocaust remembrance groups? "Ostensibly a Jewish rights group, but their most visible action is ensuring that the settled matter of the Holocaust won't die"
You claimed they are an anti-Japanese nationalist group but you have not shown that. And the Wikipedia article doesn't tell me much on that subject either. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Korean_Council_for_the_Women_Drafted_for_Military_Sexual_Slavery_by_Japan
QiDeviation@reddit
And the reason they do so is because the comfort women themselves aren’t satisfied. They wanted legal action and, seemingly, got none.
Prosthemadera@reddit
Why would they be resentful towards Japan then?
No, the resentment does not come from that, that's nonsense. And your link doesn't even provide any evidence for such a claim.
QiDeviation@reddit
In one of the links you provided, it says the victims only wanted legal action taken against perpetrators. That in combination with the “owabi” confusion and actions taken by some prime ministers have kept tensions burning.
I think that if Japan wants this out of their hair, they should have just prosecuted folks ages ago unless they did. I’m only going off the Wikipedia which implies they didn’t.
The comfort women also feel both governments don’t care due to that fact (no prosecutions). They’ve also stated that’s all they wanted iirc too so it’s understandable that they see everything else as just lip service. Talk is cheap as they say.
PriorCraft6238@reddit
It is truly chilling to see you trying to cover up Japan's misdeeds while not properly knowing South Korea's political history.
First, while it is true that the compensation for recognizable damages during the era of imperialism occurred during the Park Chung-hee administration in the 1960s and that South Korea is not demanding reparations from Japan regarding this issue, the issue of comfort women was an existence that was not even recognized until Japan acknowledged it in 2015. Therefore, the perception arose that their existence deserves to receive separate compensation for damages.
Second, regarding the 2015 comfort women agreement, there was a strong perception that Park Geun-hye—who is the daughter of Park Chung-hee and was the president of the conservative government at the time—reached an agreement with Japan as the government pleased, without caring at all about public sentiment or the demands of the comfort women victims, and Park Geun-hye lost a lot of approval ratings because of that. South Korean conservative governments have tried somehow to smooth over many instances of national violence or corruption that have existed in Korea since the Japanese colonial period, including the comfort women. This is because committing such national violence was the history of their political party, and as South Koreans' consciousness strengthened, their corruption and incompetence were revealed, and their eventual move toward the far-right is also connected to that context.
Third, even after the comfort women agreement, Japan refuses to reveal the truth and does not try to teach proper history but only tries to hide its own flaws; if, as you say, the Justice Memory Solidarity is an anti-Japanese organization, then the Japanese government can be seen as a nationalist anti-Korean organization that does not properly reflect on its past history of ruling Korea and continuously claims Korea’s territory as its own.
Prosthemadera@reddit
The people still care.
Why not? Why do you have nothing to say on the core issue here?
False dichotomy and a strawman.
JustAnotherFKNSheep@reddit
Statues never do any justice to people who are gone. Nothing really does. It only serves as a reminder and a warning.
Prosthemadera@reddit
Has anyone argue that setting up a statue does justice to the victims? Justice comes through the justice system.
That is the point, yes.
Medical_Officer@reddit
The Japanese are psychologically incapable of doing what Germany did.
While the Japanese are more than happy to apologize to people, they only do it to those that they feel are ABOVE them in the pecking order, such as white people.
But apologizing to those that they consider beneath them (other Asians) would mean that they're forfeiting their superiority complex. They'd be admitting that they're not superior to other Asians. And that is an unacceptable admission.
They'd literally need to lose another big war to China or Korea before they'd admit such a thing.
moonlandings@reddit
SK stopped pressing the issue because it has become abundantly clear that Japan will never accept accountability for what they’ve done. Japan claims the matter was settled decades ago with their half assed apologies and Korea stopped bothering to make an issue of it because it does more harm than good in the diplomatic realm. That’s not equivalent to “both countries agree the issue was settled”
PriorCraft6238@reddit
I don't understand why you are interpreting it this way just because the Korean government did not step forward. It is abnormal for the Japanese government to act arrogantly, and the Korean government may have judged that carelessly speaking about national support for civic groups does not hold much significance. In the first place, Japan's actions regarding this issue can be seen as an act of revealing their own abominable hypocrisy, but if the Korean government steps forward, it could be interpreted as an unnecessary diplomatic issue.
Gojira085@reddit
I think its bc previously Korea would erect the statues across from Japanese Embassies and Consulates. So while currently thr Korean gov doesn't care, to the Japanese its seen as an "aggressive" act.
PriorCraft6238@reddit
It is simply a disaster created by Japan itself. They had no intention of admitting their faults, and it is nothing more than appealing as if they are victims when the Statue of Peace was installed in front of their embassy. And such victim mentality is nothing more than an excuse created because they have no intention of reflecting even a little.
Just as they think it is a great concession for a government head or representative to offer tributes to the Yasukuni Shrine even if the Prime Minister does not visit in person, or even the act of slightly reducing the frequency of public remarks about Dokdo would be a major concession to them. The more wicked people are, the more they enjoy such blatant wordplay. You can tell just by looking at Israel and the United States.
Gojira085@reddit
Eh i personally don't care. This stuff is gonna be over 100 years old soon. I was just explaining why Japan may be testy about it while Korea doesn't care. However had I been the Japanese government I would have just unveiled statues of KIS in front of the Korean embassies lol
Prosthemadera@reddit
Kim Il Sung? Weird how people like you "don't care" about serious issues but when it comes to trolling you're suddenly very hype.
Gojira085@reddit
Yes bc its entertaining to me and i can get a light chuckle out of it rathet than pretending i care. As for emotionaly caring enough to have an opinion or pick a side on an issue. I have enough present genocides and world crises going on right now to that I am supposedly supposed to care about rather than something that will have happened a century ago within my lifetime.
Montana_Gamer@reddit
"I have enough atrocities to supposedly care about" is such a telling statement.
Why even discuss shit that you don't care about? How empty is your life?
Gojira085@reddit
Gotta do something when bored at work lol
PriorCraft6238@reddit
[ Removed by Reddit ]
sigmaluckynine@reddit
The Korean government you're talking about is the extreme conservatives that didn't rock the boat. The North Koreans made this an issue and your average Korean (regardless of border) will have issues. Also, hasn't died down. Again, there was a right wing idiot in charge the last 4 years but the current administration wouldn't take this down like the last time
Also, I don't think you understand the politics of this. Korea normally doesn't bring this up. The Japanese does. The last time this blew up was because of Japan in 2017 (somewhere around there) and Japan started a one sided trade war which didn't go well for them.
Seriously, why are you posting about this without doing some basic research first, especially on this sub
salizarn@reddit
I think It’s weird that this debate is taking place between two groups of people who have colonised New Zealand.
LinkinParkU4Lyf@reddit
My perspective is that it's to ensure the past atrocities are never written over and forgotten. It isn't just for past generations and victims but for future generations and victims too. By condemning what has happened in the past and keeping it present in the minds of the living it helps make it harder for similar crimes against humanity to be glossed over or dismissed in the future. It doesn't prevent them from happening but it does help retain a standard that globally these crimes are are not accepted and will not be forgotten. It isn't an attack against Japan, it is just a reminder that this violence against women occurred and can and will occur again, and when it does then those will also not be forgotten.
You can't just say sorry and hope that the pain you have caused will be forgotten. When you wrong someone you have to expect and understand that it's fair for your reputation to take a knock and that all you can do is acknowledge the harm you have done and do better going forwards, but you can't reasonably expect that people will just expect or forgive the previous harm you have caused.
Ok-Go-Chain3811@reddit
why is important to have a comfort woman statue in New Zealand? the korean population is less than 1% of the total population in new zealand
feels like the statue is being used as a political tool, rather than a genuine symbol for remembrance.
Ambiwlans@reddit
Its pretty clearly a political tool. I'd be surprised if there were more than 2 former comfort women living in NZ. Keep in mind, these events were 90 years ago.
narrative_device@reddit
Meanwhile, in the heartland of the Korean community of Sydney, Australiia...
Besmirching_Badger@reddit
What about the south korean comfort women that were kidnapped by their own state and forced to be sex slaves for American troops during and after the korean war? Do they get a statue?
Why does such a statue even exist in Australia in the first place?
Montana_Gamer@reddit
It isn't like I am going to say sex crimes & prostitution weren't VERY prevalent in Korea during the Korean war, but America didn't have a state sponsored sex slavery ring.
I am ignorant to the full details, but assuming what you are saying is based in fact, are you saying that the Southern government had enslaved their own/communist women and set up prostitution rings? How much of this was state sponsored and how much was it soldiers seeking to make a buck from the American/NATO soldiers in the area?
Regardless, it is strange to comment on whether a statue should exist because of it's relevance to the location. Even a relatively small immigrated population is enough to justify it.
Besmirching_Badger@reddit
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/02/world/asia/korea-us-comfort-women-sexual-slavery.html
The point is that they were comfort women, but they were comfort women used by 'our side'. They are more relevant than those used by the japanese, so surely they better justify a memorial if one has to be made.
Montana_Gamer@reddit
Thanks for the paywalled link
sigmaluckynine@reddit
You're probably talking about the prostitution that was going on back then. Very different from what we're talking about here.
Because Australia and Korea has a strong economic and potentially military partnership? Because there's a sizeable Korean diaspora in Australia? Because it shouldn't be controversial to put a statue symbolizing these women but also that state sponsored sexual exploitation and SA is not OK? Pick one
Besmirching_Badger@reddit
No I'm talking about the korean women kidnapped and forced to work as sex slaves to please US soldiers. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/02/world/asia/korea-us-comfort-women-sexual-slavery.html
i.e. comfort women. but for the 'good guys'
i.e. the same issue, but with actual relevance to us. The japanese have little relevance to us.
ivlivscaesar213@reddit
They should get a statue too and it should be in Korea
SomeDumRedditor@reddit
und3r_score6969@reddit
Because there's a big Korean community and why shouldn't Australia put up a monument. The Japanese wanted to invade Australia during WW2 and even though we're friendly now, just as we're friendly with Germany who committed genocide and New Zealand who constantly beat us in Rugby, those who forget history are doomed to repeat it.
Prosthemadera@reddit
South Koreans may have a very different perspective on that "harmony". Too many Japanese just want to ignore it and move on.
That statement is disturbing the harmony between Japanese and Koreans.
DenseCalligrapher219@reddit
I always hate this type of "harmony" because it's practically non-existent in regards to ethical principles and any sense of morality and acts as we should ignore wrongdoings by someone.
It's one that's ultimately is designed to be advantageous to bullies and abusers and why
Almechik@reddit
To paraphrase MLK, they prefer a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice
Prosthemadera@reddit
Correct.
warnie685@reddit
Man f these guys. That's the real sign of an abuser, when simply mentioning their abuse is seen as "aggression".
"The Australia-Japan Community Network said in a statement that the statue was "far more than just 'honouring comfort women'".
"This is the clear evidence that the statue always comes with hatred and aggression," the statement said.
"It is extremely unfair for the Japanese community having to face this kind of one-sided intimidation while the matter has got nothing to do with the local community where we have been living in harmony with all other ethnic groups.""
Zemledeliye@reddit
The Koreans hate the Japanese for what they did, the Japanese hate the Koreans for remembering.
AgitatedMagpie@reddit
I feel like Japan really played themselves here. Dispite there being a statue dedicated to comfort women in my country, I have never seen nor heard about it. But then blocking a similar statue in another country has made the news here and even more people have heard about it than would have seen the actual statue. Good job Japan.
Skillr409@reddit
To be honest, I don't get why they would build a statue so far away from where it happened.
I don't think they are many holocaust memorials in Thailand... or Nankin massacre statues in Luxemburg.
So, it's not really a big deal
hgwaz@reddit
"Those Japs are gonna be so mad when we send this statue to NZ, fuck those guys"
Prosthemadera@reddit
There are lots of Koreans in NZ.
Why so far away from where it happened?
Cubusphere@reddit
There is a sizable Korean community in Australia. And former comfort women lived there. It's not that far fetched.
PriorCraft6238@reddit
This is because Germany does not hide its history of the Holocaust or Nazi Germany, nor is it proud of it. On the other hand, Japan is endlessly looking for ways to avoid it. If Japan had obediently accepted their wrongdoings, there would have been no reason for such actions to even receive attention.
sandpaperedanus777@reddit
That would require the Japanese to face their imperial history. It would be powerful sure, but it's extremely unlikely to happen.
Memorials for the victims of criminal National policies very rarely get populous and political approval, from the culprit countries. The genuine remorse in Germany is the exception, not the norm.
Meanwhile, it's good for other nations to show solidarity in pain and sorrow, even if they didn't go through the same harrowing experiences. It gives international visibility, that the culprit nations try to hide.
northrupthebandgeek@reddit
Cowards. Yellowbellies. Poultroons. Cravens. Invertebrates. Malingerers. Wimps. Lily-livers. Recreants. Dastards. Curs. Shirkers. Disappointments to their mothers. Bringers of dishonor to their lineages.
seiryuu-abi@reddit
Man the Japanese are so lucky their country is so beloved especially by the west. Imagine if some MENA or South Asian country had done this.
Another example is all of the constant reminding of the tragedy of “Tianmen Massacre!” on western social media. That’s a good thing but it’s like yeah we’ll never raise a voice over the comfort women on social media because anime bro.