Nazi War Crimes and Japanese Imperial Government Records Interagency Working Group Report (IWG Report), published in September 2007, is the final product of the Interagency Working Group within the U.S. government established by the Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act of 1998 and expanded by Japanese Imperial Government Disclosure Act of 2001. The IWG reviewed and declassified 8.5 million pages of formerly classified documents from various branches of the government, about 140,000 pages of which related to the Pacific Theatre (i.e. documents about the War with Japan).

Comfort women denier Michael Yon is credited with calling attention to the report, which found little new documentary evidence on Japanese military comfort women system. A notable exception, which Yon fails to mention, is a report by a U.S. informant who “attested to the establishment by the Japanese army of occupation in Malaysia of ‘licensed public comfort houses,’ a practice which did not prevent abuse and rape of Malaysian women.”

That said, the IWG acknowledges that “while the ‘comfort women’ issue is of great current importance, the U.S. government did not systematically collect or create records related to the topic during or after the war. As a consequence, there are very few documents pertaining to the topic in the archives.” The IWG also points out that a large portion of documents pertaining to the Pacific Theatre had already been declassified decades ago, some of which document the Japanese military comfort women system, and were not under the purview of the IWG.

While Yon and other comfort women deniers argue that the IWG’s failure to identify new incriminating evidences “proves” that there was no wrongdoings on the part of Japanese military, the U.S. Congressional Research Service published its own report in April 2007 that cite previously available documents in support of the H.Res.121 calling on Japan to take responsibility for the treatment of comfort women during the WWII. In addition, staff at the National Archives and Record Administration (NARA) do not question that Japanese military comfort women system was a form of sexual slavery, as evidenced by the phrase “the Japanese military used sex slaves, or ‘comfort women,’ during World War II.”

Link: Final Report of the IWG
Link: Researching Japanese War Crimes: Introductory Essays

Seiji Yoshida (吉田清治) is the author of the 1983 “My War Crime,” in which he confessed is role in recruiting women to become comfort women in Jeju Island, Korea during the WWII through force, fraud, and coercion. In the early 1990s accuracy of some or most parts of the book have been called into question, leading both conservative and progressive historians to dismiss the book as a reliable source of historical knowledge by the mid-1990s.

Right-wing comfort women deniers portray Yoshida as the only or primary source on the historical orthodoxy on comfort women, arguing that the dismissal of Yoshida leaves us with no evidence that indicate any wrongdoings by the Japanese military. But researches have considerably advanced since the early 1990s especially after survivors of Japanese military comfort women began speaking out publicly, and the historical consensus on comfort women at least since mid-1990s have not relied on Yoshida in any way. In fact, it is partly these testimonies and researches that proved that Yoshida’s story was unlikely to be accurate.

The right-wing narrative also cannot explain why there was little national or international attention to the issue of comfort women, even after the publication of Yoshida’s book, until survivors began speaking out in the early 1990s if Yoshida was so foundational in our understanding of comfort women.

Under pressure from right-wing critics who blame Asahi Shimbun newspaper for “fabricating” the comfort women issue when it published stories that reported Yoshida’s testimony in the 1980s, in August 2014 the newspaper formally retracted a series of articles mentioning Yoshida, despite the fact that Asahi‘s reporting at the time was no different from those of other publications at the time, and the newspaper had already reported in March 1997 that Yoshida’s testimony had been questioned by experts and that he had refused to defend his claims in the book, after which Asahi stopped quoting or citing Yoshida.

Kazuyoshi Hanada (花田紀凱) is a right-wing magazine editor and comfort women denier. He has been the editor-in-chief of several magazines, most recently for the right-wing WiLL (2004-2016) and Monthly Hanada (2016-).

In 1995 Hanada was the editor-in-chief of Marco Polo, a monthly men’s magazine, which published an article disputing the existence of gas chambers at Nazi concentration camps. After international criticisms, he was fired and the magazine was discontinued.

In 2006 as the editor-in-chief of WiLL, Hanada wrote an internet rumor about the former leader of the Social Democratic Party being a Korean as a fact. The court determined the article to be an obvious falsehood and ordered Hanada to pay compensation.

Hanada was a co-singer to Channel Sakura’s letter protesting the U.S. H.Res.121 demanding Japan to “accept historical responsibility” for the treatment of comfort women.

See Hinomaru Gaisen Otome.

Study Group for Japan’s Rebirth (日本再生研究会) is a monthly study group on modern Japanese history founded in 2006 by comfort women denier Koichi Mera. The meetings were held in Japanese mainly for “shin issei” (new first generation) Japanese immigrants according to Mera. As of 2014, annual membership is $60.

Unlike Mera’s other group, Global Alliance for Historical Truth, the Study Group has largely remained unnoticed from the non-Japanese speaking public because it had not exerted itself into public controversies outside the Japanese speaking communities. However, in 2016 the Study Group collaborated with two similarly minded groups from Japan to submit a joint proposal that seeks to deny the historical orthodoxy on comfort women to UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register.

Website: http://www.japansrebirth-sc.org/

Memory of the World Register is a project of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) that was founded to “facilitate preservation […] of the world’s documentary heritage,” “assist universal access to documentary heritage,” and “increase awareness worldwide of the existence and significance of documentary heritage.”

In 2014, People’s Republic of China submitted “Documents of Nanjing Massacre” for inclusion in the Memory of the World Register and they were inscribed in 2015. Japanese nationalists, many of whom consider Nanking atrocities to be a hoax or vastly exaggerated, became enraged and began calling for the government of Japan to suspend its financial obligation to UNESCO or to withdraw from it altogether. Bowing to their pressure, the Shinzo Abe administration announced in October 2016 that Japan had suspended its payment to UNESCO.

The Japanese government has criticized that the Memory of the World Registry had become too politicized and strayed away from its original goal of fostering dialogue and cooperation. However, Japan has itself nominated and inscribed documents related to the internment of Japanese nationals by the Soviet Union after the WWII and their repatriation to Japan in the same year China submitted documents on Nanking atrocities.

In the 2016-2017 cycle, a coalition of 14 civic groups from Japan, China, South Korea, Taiwan, The Netherlands, The Philippines, Indonesia, East Timor, and the United Kingdom submitted “voices of comfort women,” a collection of materials from private and public archives that document Japanese military comfort women system and the postwar struggles by its victims to demand justice. Predictably, Japanese right-wing nationalists protested UNESCO and coalition members, and at least one Japanese organization involved in the effort have received a bomb threat.

Anticipating the submission of “voices of comfort women,” a coalition of right-wing comfort women denier organizations also submitted their own set of documents, “Documentation on ‘Comfort Women’ and Japanese Army discipline.” Members of the right-wing coalition are the Alliance for Truth About Comfort Women, the Study Group for Japan’s Rebirth (Koichi Mera), and Nadeshiko Action (a.k.a. Japanese Women for Justice and Peace). In the submission, they claim (as they always do): “[C]omfort women enjoyed a certain amount of freedom, even in battle zones, and were paid handsomely. They were decidedly not sex slaves.”

Each country is allowed up to two submission per cycle, but this restriction is waived for joint submissions involving groups from multiple countries. The right-wing submission was permitted because one of the sponsors, the Study Group for Japan’s Rebirth, is technically located in the United States, even though all of its businesses are conducted in Japanese by and for Japanese residents in Los Angeles. Both parties’ submissions are pending review.

In July 2014, City of Glendale, California enacted a “peace memorial” dedicated to the victims and survivors of Japanese military comfort women system in the City’s Central Park. Since then, Japanese right-wing nationalists have protested the memorial, even filing lawsuits against the city (see Gingery et al. v. City of Glendale) to seek its removal.

The memorial was endorsed by a coalition of Asian American groups, including Korean American Forum of California, Nikkei for Civil Rights and Redress, and the local (San Fernando Valley) chapter of the Japanese American Citizens League. A group made up of local Japanese residents and first-generation Japanese immigrants (often referred to as “shin issei” or “new first generation”) led by Koichi Mera opposed it.

Since the establishment of the memorial, Japanese right-wing media such as Channel Sakura claimed that the statue led to the rampant bullying and hate crimes against Japanese children in Glendale and surrounding areas. The claim has been thoroughly debunked by local authorities, schools, national media, and Japanese American groups.

This page links to the activities of Japanese comfort women deniers in the United States.

2014

• December: Nadeshiko Action/Happy Science Events in California (2014)

2015

• March: Texas Night in NYC (2015)
• April: Scottsboro Girls Screening at Central Washington University (2015)

2016

• March: Texas Night in NYC (2016)
• March: UN Commission on the Status of Women NGO Parallel Events (2016)
• August: Himawari Japan Lectures (2016)

2017

• July: Himawari Japan Lectures (2017)

This page links to the activities of right-wing Japanese comfort women deniers at the United Nations.

2014

• July: Alliance for Truth about Comfort Women Geneva Delegation (2014)

2015

• July: Alliance for Truth about Comfort Women Geneva Delegation (2015)

2016

• February: Alliance for Truth about Comfort Women Geneva Delegation (February 2016)
• March: UN Commission on the Status of Women NGO Parallel Events (2016)
• September: Alliance for Truth about Comfort Women Geneva Delegation (September 2016)
• Publication: Sex-Slave Report: The UN’s Global Hoax (2016)

2017

• March: Alliance for Truth about Comfort Women Geneva Delegation (March 2017)
• June: Alliance for Truth about Comfort Women Geneva Delegation (June 2017)
• September: Alliance for Truth about Comfort Women Geneva Delegation (September 2017)

Miki Otaka (大高未貴) is a conservative journalist, Channel Sakura host, and a comfort women denier. She is a frequent contributor to conservative publications including Sankei Shimbun’s Yukan Fuji and Seiron.

In October 2013, Otaka reported in her show on Channel Sakura that Japanese children are being bullied in Glendale after the city enacted a comfort women memorial earlier that year. After Japanese residents in the area questioned the story, the video of the program was pulled from the internet. The claim has been thoroughly debunked by local authorities, schools, national media, and Japanese American groups.

Website: http://www.miki-otaka.com