A/HRC/44/NGO/X

United Nations

General AssemblyDistr.: General
XX May 2020
English only

Human Rights Council
Forty-fouth session
June–July 2020 (TBC)
Agenda item 4
Human rights situations that require the Council’s attention

Joint written statement* submitted by Japan Society forHistory Textbook, non-governmental organizations in special
consultative status
The Secretary-General has received the following written statement which iscirculated in accordance with Economic and Social Council resolution 1996/31.
[27 May 2020]* Issued as received, in the language(s) of submission only.

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A Deceitful Korean Citizens’ Group (NGO) and the Comfort Women Issue
The Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan (hereinafter KCWDMS),
currently called The Korean Council for Justice and Remembrance for the Issues of Military Sexual Slavery by
Japan (hereinafter KCJR), a Korean organization primarily centered on the comfort women issue and has criticizedJapan in the United Nations Human Rights Council for “coercive recruitment into ‘sexual slavery’”, has allegedly
defrauded its donors. The KCWDMS has had special consultative status with the United Nations Economic andSocial Council (ECOSOC) since 2014.
Ms. LEE Yong-soo, a self-proclaimed comfort woman has long been active with the group. She is known aroundthe world as the activist who screamed before the members of the US House of Representatives in 2007 during thedeliberation on the resolution calling for an apology from the Japanese government over the comfort women issue.
Recently, she asked President Donald Trump for a hug as an ex-comfort woman at the state dinner given during
President’s visit to the Republic of Korea (ROK) in November 2017.
On May 7, 2020, Ms. LEE Yong-soo without hesitation stated the following at a press conference in Daegu, theROK.
1) The donations collected by the group were never used for former comfort women. The money wasmostly used for private purposes and the responsibility lies with Ms. YOON Mi-hyang, who was thehead of the group until this past March 2020.
2) Ms. LEE’s testimonies about her days as a comfort woman were given as instructed by the group.
3) She was not a “sex slave.” She requested Ms. YOON Mi-hyang not to use the phrase because she didnot understand why she was called one but Ms. YOON made it a point of using the phrase “sex slave”
at the UN because “the expression was effective in scaring America.”
Based on these three points, it is clear that former president YOON Mi-hyang allowed false testimonies to bemade from those who call themselves "comfort women", including Ms. LEE, and misrepresented the comfort
women as “sex slaves,” made use of the UN to spread the lie of the comfort women issue as a global women’shuman rights issue and collected large amounts of donations from within and outside the ROK for her own personaluse.
At present, former KCJR president YOON Mi-hyang has been denounced by several citizens’ groups, in addition
to Ms. LEE Yong-soo, for suspected private use of donations and dubious accounting. The ROK’s prosecutors havestarted an investigation—prosecutors searched the KCJR premises on May 20 and 21, 2020.
UN Human Rights Council Fooled by Crooks
As has been repeatedly demonstrated in the past, Japanese "comfort women" were prostitutes who worked inwarzones. This has been clearly stated by US Army Psychological Warfare Report No. 49 (official data of the USArmy) dated October 1, 1944 made by the US Office of War Information (OWI), a report of captured Korean
comfort women and their employers in Burma. The American interrogator stated that “a comfort girl is nothing
more than a prostitute or professional camp follower” in conclusion.
The KCWDMS claimed that “Japanese administrative personnel coercively recruited 200,000 Korean women to
make them comfort women and abused them as ‘sex slaves.’” However, on its face, this is clearly nonsense. In fact,many "comfort women" were obligated to engage in this line of work solely for the money. From 1930s to the
middle of WWII, Korean criminal syndicates trafficked Korean women to Manchuria and China to become
prostitutes. Really, most comfort women then who claim to have been "coerced" were victims of criminals. It should
be noted that Japanese administrative personnel did what they could to enforce the law. Accounts of kidnappings
and Japanese responses have been noted in the Dong-a Ilbo of the time.
Nonetheless, the KCWDMS outright lies to the UN, and denigrates the honor of Japan, striving to show its
earnestness in combatting human trafficking.
Committee on Civil and Political Rights (CCPR), Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR),

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Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination
against Women (CEDAW), Committee against Torture (CAT) and Committee on Enforced Disappearances (CED)
have recommended the Japanese government to “publicly acknowledge legal responsibility for the crimes of sexual
slavery and prosecute and punish perpetrators with appropriate penalties” based on an opinion paper from the group.
In light of the circumstances, we request the following:
・The matter of the KCJR (former KCWDMS), must be vigorously investigated and resolved by the Governmentof the ROK and the findings reported to the UN Human Rights Council. The UN Human Rights Council must
immediately demand this action to the Government of the ROK.
・The six human rights treaty-based bodies mentioned above made accusations against Japan based on KCWDMS’s
falsehoods and deceit, and continuously issued misdirected recommendations to the Japanese government
concerning the comfort women issue. We demand that the various human rights treaty-based bodies thoroughly
investigate facts without swallowing the victims’ testimonies and produce a report. A scientific investigation
based on facts is more important than anything.

International Research Institute of Controversial Histories (iRICH) NGO without consultative status, also share theviews expressed in this statement.

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