Regarding the May 16 front-page article "Hashimoto sticks to guns on sex slaves": The cruel and insensitive statements from Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto about encouraging the U.S. military to make use of Japanese prostitutes and his apologism for wartime Japanese soldiers' enjoyment of serial-sex with Korean female slaves is not just your run-of-the-mill Japanese nationalism, but some truly sick and dangerous nonsense. Impressionable young men may be encouraged to think that serial rape is not such a bad idea; after all, "we men have our needs."
Considering the enormity of Japan's pornography industry in which woman are the main source of entertainment for male audiences, Hashimoto's words may have consequences for society. This politician should be thrown out on his ear, and both the Japan Restoration Party and the Liberal Democratic Party should be shown the door so that a more intelligent and forward-looking politics can take root in modern Japan.
As an aside, it should be known that at the end of World War II, Soviet soldiers committed mass serial rape and murder of German females, ranging from small girls to very old women. Any female "from eight to eighty" was fair game. This is documented in the gruesome book by Thomas Goodrich, titled "Hellstorm."
There has been enough rape and murder in this world in both the past and present. Let us find a way to peace on Earth.
The opinions expressed in this letter to the editor are the writer's own and do not necessarily reflect the policies of The Japan Times.
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