In his May 8 letter "Fictions aimed at milking Japan," Koichi Katsuta claims that comfort women were "just prostitutes who earned a lot of money." Perhaps there were some in this category, but can he claim they all were?
Perhaps he should read the 2007 statement by Jan Ruff O'Herne to the U.S. House of Representatives [as part of a hearing on "Protecting the Human Rights of Comfort Women"]. It tells the harrowing story of how she and other Dutch women were forced into sex slavery in Indonesia at the age of 19 by the Imperial Japanese Army.
I implore all to read this statement, or see the documentary about her ordeals, and decide for yourselves whether there was sex slavery in World War II, or not as Katsuta suggests.
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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