Would any self-respecting U.S. law firm represent a client who suggested the Jews deserved the Holocaust? Probably not. As a matter of honor, most law firms would run a mile, and even the least honorable would conclude that the damage to their reputation wasn’t worth it.
Where imperial Japan’s atrocities are concerned, however, at least one top U.S. law firm hasn’t been so choosy. In what is surely one of the most controversial civil suits ever filed in the United States, the Los Angeles office of Chicago-based Mayer Brown is trying to prove that the so-called comfort women – the sex slaves used by the Imperial Japanese Army in World War II – were no more than common prostitutes.
The suit has been filed on behalf of two Japanese-Americans, Michiko Shiota Gingery and Koichi Mera, plus a corporation called GAHT-US (a bizarre entity whose involvement must be a particular embarrassment to any decent person at Mayer Brown – more about this in a moment). At the center of the controversy is a Korean-funded memorial to the comfort women which was recently established in a park in Glendale, California. The suit suggests that the above named Japanese-Americans will suffer “irreparable injury” from “feelings of exclusion, discomfort, and anger” if the memorial is not removed.
This is, of course, the functional equivalent of suggesting that German-Americans suffer “irreparable injury” from memorials to the Jewish Holocaust. Although the suit has so far received little attention in the mainstream American press, it has provoked outrage elsewhere, not least in London where the noted British commentator Robert Fisk has provided a particularly trenchant account. It has also sparked a firestorm among legal bloggers. Here, for instance, is a comment from Ken White, a prominent Los Angeles-based criminal attorney: “I cannot remember a lawsuit that so immediately repulsed and enraged…..This lawsuit is thoroughly contemptible. It should fail, and everyone involved should face severe social consequences.”
Publicizing the comfort women issue: 65 years after the truth was established in a Dutch court room, a top American law firm says the victims of one of World War II’s worst atrocities are liars. (Photo credit: theogeo)
Strong words but White’s assessment is hard to fault. The indisputable historical record, after all, shows that countless women who served in the Imperial Army’s brothels were innocents seized at gunpoint in Japan’s erstwhile colonies and forced into sexual servitude. (Yes, of course, not all were innocents. The army’s first recourse was to professional prostitutes but even if every prostitute in the empire had volunteered for such a hellish assignment, there were far too few of them to serve the army’s needs. Japan’s war was vast, spread as it was across six time zones and involving at least six million men, most of whom seem never to have had any home leave. )
On the basis of 27 years of on-the-spot Japan-watching in Tokyo, I can report that Mayer Brown’s suggestion that the facts “remain an active topic of political debate” is sheerest sophistry. There are no two sides to this issue and no decent Japanese citizen I have ever met questions the validity of the comfort women’s allegations. Anyone who does has a manipulative agenda and doesn’t believe a word he is saying.
Even the Japanese government has admitted as much. Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono issued a widely publicized statement in 1993 acknowledging that there were “many cases” of agents acting on behalf of the Imperial Army “intimidating these women to be recruited against their will.”
The statement went on tacitly to acknowledge the comfort women’s enslaved status: “In the war areas, these women were forced to move with the military under constant military control and that they were deprived of their freedom and had to endure misery.”
The Kono statement was treated as front-page news by the American press at the time, but was hardly new news. To be sure it had been preceded by a long series of denials in Tokyo, a record taken at face value by an ever naïve American press; but the main allegations had been proved in a Dutch court under Western rules of evidence as far back as 1948. That court, which had been convened in what was then the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia), had considered allegations that Japanese army officers had forced many Dutch women seized in the Dutch East Indies into sexual slavery. One Japanese military official was executed and eleven other Japanese citizens were sentenced to jail terms. The Dutch went on in 1956 successfully to press the Japanese government to pay compensation to the women, an almost unheard-of achievement in Western diplomacy (the Japanese establishment has otherwise proved highly successful in stonewalling compensation claims from countless victims of other atrocities). In 1985 details of the comfort women story were published in an official Dutch government history of the war. For more detail on the Dutch side of the story click here.
One of the more striking aspects of the case against Imperial Japan is that so many women of so many nationalities — Korean, Chinese, Taiwanese, Filipinas, Burmese, Vietnamese, and Dutch, among others — closely agreed on the details. Not the least telling detail is that though modern Japan had a long previous history of militarism (it had fought several wars in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries), allegations of sexual slavery first surfaced in the 1930s. Up to that time Japan had been exemplary in abiding by the Geneva Conventions, including those on the treatment of women. It was a strategy aimed at winning diplomatic and economic acceptance for Japan as a “civilized nation” that was the equal of the then world-dominant Great Powers of the West. The fact that there had been virtually no complaints about Japanese military’s sexual behavior before the 1930s and then such complaints suddenly became a torrent is consistent with aother evidence that Tokyo broke decisively with the Geneva Conventions in the early 1930s in a new policy of no-holds-barred warfare.
As for GAHT-US, its full name is the Global Alliance for Historical Truth-US. If that sounds impressive, its genesis is less so. It was incorporated as recently as February 6 and uses a UPS office as its official address. The really controversial part is that its name has evidently been chosen so it would be confused with a very different entity, the Global Alliance for Preserving the History of WWII in Asia. This latter is a long-established, entirely respectable scholarly group founded by Chinese-American professors that is on the other side of the comfort women argument. The first two responses to a Google Google search today for “Global Alliance for Historical Truth” brought up the Chinese-American entity, thus suggesting that respectable Chinese-American opinion endorses the effort to brand the comfort women as prostitutes.
For the record I reached Michiko Shiota Gingery by phone and asked her whether she really believes the comfort women are lying. In avoiding the question, she argued that the memorial had no place in America and should be located instead in Korea or Japan. This echoed an opinion voiced by other opponents of the memorial but it seems a bit selective. The fact is that ethnic Koreans constitute a significant minority in Glendale and it is not unusual for other ethnic groups to erect monuments remembering past injustices. If Wikipedia is to be believed, there are 45 memorials to the Jewish Holocaust alone in the United States, sixteen to the Irish famine, and six to the Ottoman Turks’ genocide of Armenians.
I emailed the four Mayer Brown attorneys involved in the case – Neil Soltman, Matthew Marmolejo, Ruth Zadikany, and Rebecca Johns – for a comment. I also emailed the firm’s chief executive Paul Theiss. I received no responses. Reached by phone, Soltman referred me to the firm’s public relations officer Bob Harris but Harris also failed to respond.
Should Mayer Brown have taken on this suit? Here is the opinion of the prominent First Amendment attorney Marc Randazza: “Every law firm gets confronted (on a pretty regular basis) with the question: ‘should I put my name on this?’ That soul searching comes into play when you wonder, ‘is this honorable?’ You know when it is, and when it isn’t. I’m not talking about representing a client that you know is guilty — they deserve a defense. I’m not talking about representing a really evil client — because there might be an important legal issue in play. I’m talking about when you do something truly disgusting.”
Why therefore would Mayer Brown, which ranks among America’s top 20 corporate law firms, take on such a case? Beats me but one answer suggested by a commenter at Ken White’s website is probably worth passing on: “Mayer Brown has a heavy practice in Asia…. They are probably either doing this as a favor to a large client, or trying to expand their Asia presence to Japan.”
Update: This commentary has drawn a particularly interesting series of comments and I urge readers to check them out. I am planning a new article to address some of the issues and will post this on Sunday, April 20.
They did it for the money of course.
That being said, taking on this case probably will not reflect very well for the legal firm’s reputation in China.
It is very sad that people seem to be willing to do anything for money these days. It is a serious indictment I think of our capitalistic society too – the very same mentality that drove the massive outsourcing of manufacturing and technology seems to be working the same way in law, short term profits above all else.
If the City of Glendale defend herself that it is the right of freedom of speech, the wording by the statue should be a fact based on sufficient evidences.
Do council members aware that Korean parents sold their daughters to Korean pimps and forced them to be prostitutes for money?
Do council members aware that many of the comfort stations were owned and operated by Korean pimps?
Do council members aware that Korean kidnapped Korean girls and forced them to be prostitutes in the Korean Peninsula during 1935 and 1945?
Korean scholar, C. Sarah Soh wrote in her academic paper.
“In fact, the survivors’ testimonials amply illustrate that during the war Korean men and women actively collaborated in the recruitment of young compatriots to service the Japanese military and also ran comfort stations. ”
Korean scholar, Byeong-jik An, states that many of the comfort stations during WWII in the battlefield were owned and managed by Korean people.
Council members of the City of Glendale should have studied more carefully on this issue before making decision to erect statue.
Do you know who shut down the comfort station which Ms. Jan Ruff O’Herne were forced into sex slave? Yes, this incident is an exception and Imperial Japanese Army had shut down the comfort station as soon as they found out that Ms.Jan Ruff O’Herne and other Dutch women were abducted and forced into slavery. So, can you show me any concrete evidence that all Korean girls were abducted by the Imperial Japanese Army? You really should study more carefully before writing such an emotional article.
I have a very strong feeling this person is not Korean although her name sounds like a Korean name…
Haengja Ko: Could you elaborate please? Even if this was true (and even you must know it is not) but just for the heck of it, how would that make the Japanese any less responsible? How would that make these events less despicable? It is like saying slavery was okay because Africans were selling fellow Africans, the holocaust was not the responsibility of the Germans because there were Jewish people giving up their co-religionists, or that pedophilia is okay if the Indonesian parents are selling their kids. You have some values really misplaced and your comments represent how shameful it really is for these lawyers to take this side.
Thought the same thing!
I’m utterly impressed at how immediate these troll-like, weakly-backed and opaquely-sourced responses are — almost as if a certain organization organized by a certain “truth commission” may have funded someone to professionally look for certain stories and disseminate information in a certain way.
고행자, if you’re trying to masquerade as a truth-telling Korean with that name, you’re just as bad as those you allege forced rape, murder and prostitution on underage girls.
If not, I hope you find joy in what you do my dear close-minded Japanese brother, you might as well before karma comes to even out your life.
You response is very much like Korean respond whose SOUTH Korean government has been giving extreme anti-Japan education for about 70 years.
Dutch women case is RAPE and different from comfort woman system = war time prostitution.
The Dutch women were taken by JP criminals to a comfort station where they were raped. The raped location was happened to be a comfort station. The rape case was reported to then Japan’s colonel and the colonel closed the station completely after about 2 month rape because
it was AGAINST then Japan’s military rule.
Late, the criminals were taken to a court and some were even given DEATH penalty. And Japanese government has been apologizing for the case.
Eamonn, before you humiliate and disgrace Japanese, you have to educate yourself. The world will laugh at you.
F-117JP, I googled your username just out of curiosity – wow, you have some serious hatred problem against South Korea. Are you one of those Japanese extremists who worship at the Yasukuni shrine?
Tell me, what is the difference between “rape” and an involuntary, forced sex? Whatever bullshit name (comfort women? are you kidding me?) they used to cover their heinous crime – everyone knows that the Japanese army raped those women in Asia. The fact that the Japanese army forced sex (therefore, raped) and abused the lay women of Korean, Chinese, Taiwanese, Filipinas, Burmese, Vietnamese, and Dutch will never change.
It is YOU that needs to read more and think, before you humiliate and disgrace your own nation. Don’t you see that this lawsuit itselt has already made a world-wide mockery out of the Japanese?
Japanese scholar, Ikuhiko Hata wrote in his academic paper as follows:
“According to her statement, Ms. O’Herne was taken forcibly from a Japanese internment camp in Semarang, Java in 1944 by Japanese soldiers to a “comfort station.” Two months later, she was freed when the brothel came to the attention of a high-ranking officer, who shut it down. In connection with this incident, 11 persons were tried after the war ended in a Dutch military court,
and sentences were handed down (one person was executed). Therefore, legally at least, it was settled more than 60 years ago. Moreover, the very fact that the brothel in question was closed as soon as its existence came to light is proof that Japanese military authorities did not tolerate such unlawful behavior.”
Reference:
http://www.sdh-fact.com/CL02_1/31_S4.pdf
Before writing any article on comfort women, read academic papers at least.
C. Sarah Soh, The Comfort Women: Sexual Violence and Postcolonial Memory in Korea and Japan
http://books.google.com/books?id=GIHcaFVxXf0C&printsec=frontcover&dq=c.+sarah+soh&hl=ja&sa=X&ei=6C0uU66uMYm7kgWXpoHQCA&ved=0CC0Q6AEwAA
BEHIND THE COMFORT WOMEN CONTROVERSY: HOW LIES BECAME TRUTH
NISHIOKA Tsutomu
http://www.sdh-fact.com/CL02_1/39_S4.pdf
NO ORGANIZED OR FORCED RECRUITMENT: MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT COMFORT WOMEN AND THE JAPANESE MILITARY
Hata Ikuhiko
http://www.sdh-fact.com/CL02_1/31_S4.pdf
Now I know you really don’t understand what the Kono Statement wrote exactly. The Kono statement never admitted that more than 200,000 women were kidnapped or abducted by the Imperial Japanese Military in the Korean Peninsula.
So, can you show me any subjective evidence to prove that 200,000 Asian women were kidnapped and abducted by the Imperial Japanese Army besides testimonies?
The testimony of the women is in many case either self-contradictory, demonstrably false or clearly exaggerated beyond belief. Some former women have testified that most of the women were willing participants in prostitution. Clearly such testimonies were not highlighted by activists.
The system paid its workers very well. What suffering occured was dependent upon the wartime conditions at which workers were located. Some lived in relative luxury, others in harsh conditions. Many made huge amounts of money during their service. One of the first women who wrote about their lives found that most remembered their war years fondly and felt bitter more for how they were treated after the war.
The exact same comfort system was utilized after WWII by the US troops in Japan, also, in Korea, by the US and the Korean troops, in Vietnam by US troops as well.
http://www.awf.or.jp/e1/netherlands.html
“Top military officials found out about the Semarang incident when the Dutch petitioned an officer who came to observe the camp from Tokyo. The officer realized that the women were forced into becoming comfort women against their will, and reported on the matter. On orders from the military headquarters in Jakarta, the comfort stations were closed within two months after starting operation, and the women were liberated.”
Ms. Jan Ruff O’Herne was one of women who were liberated after two months by the Imperial Japanese Army.