＜書 評＞
『慰安婦と戦場の性』
秦郁彦著（英訳：ジェイソン・モーガン）
英訳版：ハミルトン・ブックス2018
英訳版書評者 タダシ・ハマ（日本語訳：「史実を世界に発信する会」 ）
韓国では、反日という奇怪な出来事が異常発生しています。この国は、ジョージ・オーウェルが『１９８４年』で描いた世界へ変わっていこうとしているのではないかと評者のハマ氏はいいます。韓国の民族派が描くストーリーに合致しない事実は「記録の抹殺」の処分を受け、それが政府、マスコミの容認するところとなっているからです。
その典型的な事例が「慰安婦問題」です。この問題に関しては、韓国が主張している慰安婦強制連行、性奴隷などということは事実ではないことが今や証明されているにもかかわらず、依然としていってみれば「ウソ」を公然と言い続け、日本非難を続けているわけです。
驚くべきことにこのような大ウソが、国際的にも漠然と信じられているのですが、その大きな理由は、慰安婦問題を本格的に扱った本が英文でほとんど出ていないところにあります。慰安婦問題を最も学問的、総括的に扱った本として挙げられるのが、日本大学名誉教授の秦郁彦氏の『慰安婦と戦場の性』（新潮社）です。前々からこの大著の英訳が期待されていたのですが、ようやく昨年の秋にアメリカのハミルトン・ブックス社から全訳版が出版されました。
ハマ氏は、秦氏の著作が戦前戦中の日本軍の売春制度は完全な金銭ビジネスだったことを証明し、慰安婦は民間工場の労働者、本国の売春婦、軍の将校よりもずっと高額の給与をもらっていたことを明らかにしていることをまず指摘します。活動家やメディアが「性奴隷」として悲惨な扱いを受けていたと非難するのは全く事実に反していることを証拠をもって示しています。
慰安婦＝韓国人といった前提は全く事実と異なり、慰安婦のほとんどは日本人であったことも秦氏は指摘しています。慰安婦に補償をいう人は、日本人慰安婦はどうするのか考えたことがあるのでしょうか。というより、日本人慰安婦のだれ一人、そんな理不尽な要求をしている人はありません。
世界の主要国の軍事売春制度を紹介しているところも秦氏の著作の優れたところです。朝鮮戦争、ベトナム戦争の間、米軍、韓国軍が売春制度を利用していたことも述べられています。
ハマ氏は秦氏の著作の最も意義あるポイントは、慰安婦の話（告白）はそのどれ一つについても、検証されていないということを挙げていることであるといいます。要するに、反対尋問なき一方的な主張がそのまままかり通っているのが、慰安婦訴訟、非難の実態であるというのです。まさにオーウェルの世界です。
書評：英文原文：http://www.sdh-fact.com/CL/hata-book-review.pdf
日本語訳：http://hassin.org/01/wp-content/uploads/hata.pdf
令和元年５月８日 「史実を世界に発信する会」 茂木弘道
Comfort Women and Sex in the Battle Zone
Ikuhiko Hata
Hamilton Books, 2018
Reviewed by Tadashi Hama
The reviewer, Mr. Hama, writes that recent events in the Republic of Korea have demonstrated that it has transformed into a state that George Orwell would readily recognize—one where facts that contradict the Korean nationalist narrative can be discarded down a “memory hole”, thereby allowing the Korean nationalist elites to create a history to their liking.
A typical example would be the “comfort women” issue. Korean government and nationalists are still seeking reparation for war-time Korean “comfort women” and now “slave laborers”. However, it has been verified by objective research that there were no “comfort women” who were coerced or “sex slaves”. No document supporting such a view has ever been found.
A major reason why such ridiculous lies still prevail not only in Korea but also throughout the world is that very few authentic publications concerning the “comfort women” are available in the English language. However, a thoroughly comprehensive academic text written by Hata Inkuhiko, professor emeritus of Nihon University, has been recently translated into English and published by Hamilton Books in the US.
Hata’s book shows that the prewar and wartime Japanese military brothel system was entirely a fee-based service: the women were given an advance by civilian recruiters, worked as prostitutes exclusively for military personnel and military-related civilians until they repaid their advance and were free to either leave or continue to work. The current book also points out that the women were paid much more than civilian factory workers, prostitutes working back in the home country and military officers. The book suggests that the “comfort women” can hardly be characterized as “sex slaves”, as luridly depicted by activists and the media.
One other major activists’ claim that the current book deflates is that most of the “comfort women” were Korean—in fact, many were Japanese. Hata points out that this fact raises an interesting question: why are former Korean “comfort women” strident in seeking redress but former Japanese “comfort women” are not?
Hata goes on to show the true nature of the former Korean “comfort women” by collecting their mercurial autobiographies, which change as circumstances and the needs of their Korean nationalist handlers change. Surprisingly, as Hata points out, that former Korean “comfort women” were in fact “comfort women” have yet to be independently verified, such as by their former owners or their Korean or Japanese clients. In spite of this, their word is taken as gospel by willing audiences, including representatives of foreign governments and nongovernmental organizations.
From media coverage of the Korean “comfort women” issue, it may seem that civilian-run military brothels were somehow unique to Japan. However, this is not at all the case and Hata gives lengthy descriptions of other countries’ military brothel systems, including South Korea’s and the U.S.’s during the Korean War and the Vietnam War.
Probably the most useful aspect of Hata’s book is that it asks questions about the “comfort women” issue that have yet to be addressed, despite the outpouring of literature and media coverage on this subject. As mentioned earlier, the current book asks why there has been no attempt at independent verification of any of the “comfort women’s” stories. The book raises other puzzling questions, such as why are there no stories from the “comfort women” recruiters or those that ran the comfort stations? If there were “200,000 Korean comfort women”, then why are there almost no stories from those who “captured” them?
Book Review: HTML: http://www.sdh-fact.com/review-article/1340/
PDF: http://www.sdh-fact.com/CL/hata-book-review.pdf
MOTEKI Hiromichi, Acting Chairman
for KASE Hideaki, Chairman
Society for the Dissemination of Historical Fact