Osaka’s mayor yesterday hit back at US criticism of his remarks on wartime sex slavery, claiming US troops abused Japanese women during their seven-year occupation.
Washington denounced as “outrageous” comments earlier this week by Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto, who said “comfort women” forced to provide sex to Japanese troops during World War II were a military necessity.
“Mayor Hashimoto’s comments were outrageous and offensive,” US Department of State spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters, urging Tokyo to work with its neighbors to address the past.
Up to 200,000 “comfort women” from Taiwan, Korea, China, the Philippines and elsewhere were forcibly drafted into brothels catering to the Japanese military during World War II, but Hashimoto hit back on Twitter.
“Let me go straight to the point. When America occupied Japan, didn’t they make use of Japanese women?” Hashimoto tweeted to his 1 million followers.
“I can’t help but point out that it is unfair for America to criticize only Japan by putting aside acts by its own country,” said Hashimoto, who has been mentioned as a possible future Japanese prime minister. “[The US] should face what the US military did against local women, in particular Okinawan women, when they occupied Japan.”
US-led Allied powers controlled Japan until 1952 following its surrender at the end of World War II. The southern prefecture of Okinawa remained under US governance for another two decades.
On Monday, Hashimoto prompted outrage by saying that soldiers living with the daily threat of death needed some way to let off steam and that this was provided by the comfort women system. He said he believed the system was wrong and that former sex slaves deserved an apology.
Taiwan’s exports soared to an all-time high of US$61.8 billion last month, surging 49.7 percent from a year earlier, as the global frenzy for artificial intelligence (AI) applications and new consumer electronics powered shipments of high-tech goods, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. It was the first time exports had exceeded the US$60 billion mark, fueled by the global boom in AI development that has significantly boosted Taiwanese companies across the international supply chain, Department of Statistics Director-General Beatrice Tsai (蔡美娜) told a media briefing. “There is a consensus among major AI players that the upcycle is still in its early stage,”
‘SECRETS’: While saying China would not attack during his presidency, Donald Trump declined to say how Washington would respond if Beijing were to take military action US President Donald Trump said that China would not take military action against Taiwan while he is president, as the Chinese leaders “know the consequences.” Trump made the statement during an interview on CBS’ 60 Minutes program that aired on Sunday, a few days after his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in South Korea. “He [Xi] has openly said, and his people have openly said at meetings, ‘we would never do anything while President Trump is president,’ because they know the consequences,” Trump said in the interview. However, he repeatedly declined to say exactly how Washington would respond in
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said yesterday that China using armed force against Taiwan could constitute a "survival-threatening situation" for Japan, allowing the country to mobilize the Japanese armed forces under its security laws. Takaichi made the remarks during a parliamentary session yesterday while responding to a question about whether a "Taiwan contingency" involving a Chinese naval blockade would qualify as a "survival-threatening situation" for Japan, according to a report by Japan’s Asahi Shimbun. "If warships are used and other armed actions are involved, I believe this could constitute a survival- threatening
WARFARE: All sectors of society should recognize, unite, and collectively resist and condemn Beijing’s cross-border suppression, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng said The number of Taiwanese detained because of legal affairs by Chinese authorities has tripled this year, as Beijing intensified its intimidation and division of Taiwanese by combining lawfare and cognitive warfare, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) made the statement in response to questions by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Puma Shen (沈柏洋) about the government’s response to counter Chinese public opinion warfare, lawfare and psychological warfare. Shen said he is also being investigated by China for promoting “Taiwanese independence.” He was referring to a report published on Tuesday last week by China’s state-run Xinhua news agency,
RSS