Japanese Scholars’ Reply to the American Scholars’ Comfort Women Statement:
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Abstract
Abstract: Japanese Scholars’ Reply to the American Scholars’Comfort Women Statement
On May 5th, 2015, one hundred and eighty-seven American-based researchers of Japan issued a statement on the comfort women issue titled, “Open letter in support of historians in Japan”. Subsequently, the number of signers increased to some four hundred and sixty people. In response to the challenge proposed by the American scholars’ statement, we Japanese scholars respond with the following views.
<1> Complete agreement that events should be viewed in their historical context, and weighed carefully in the balance.
<2> Who are the “historians in Japan”?
<3> History must not be used for political purposes.
<4> There is no basis for singling Japan out among the twentieth-century history of wartime sexual violence and military prostitution.