THE ANATOMY OF A FALSEHOOD
By Hisae Kennedy,
Abstract
Abstract: The Anatomy of A FalsehoodAsia Pacific Journal carried an article about testimony given by Matsumoto Masayoshi. The 92-year-old resident of Sagamihara City is a former Christian minister who served as a medical corpsman in China during World War II. The author of the article is David McNeill, an Irish journalist. McNeill writes that Matsumoto said, when Japanese troops raided a village, they would capture any women who were unable to escape, take them back to their barracks, and rape them.
Ms. Kennedy together with American journalist Michael Yon and researcher Alfred Johnson visited Mr. Matsumoto at his residence and made a direct interview on this issue. The result was really astounding.
Firstly, Mr. Matsumoto denied that he met David McNeill. He further strongly criticized that Yoshida Seiji was a liar. He said that “Before they were comfort women, they were prostitute.” However, he had misconception about Women’s Volunteer Corps. perhaps through leftwing media. Even though he never witnessed abduction or war crimes against comfort women he thought comfort women were abducted from their home and raped. A falsehood was created by no intentional will.
Ms. Kennedy analyses how such false story developed adopting psychology of Dr. Elizabeth Loftus.