Seijuro Arafune

Seijuro Arafune (荒舩清十郎, Arafune Seijūrō, March 9, 1907 - November 25, 1980) was a Japanese politician and a Minister of Transport. He was a member of Liberal Democratic Party. Arafune resigned the Minister of Transport by the alleged abuse of power in 1966. Among these was requiring a National Railway express train to make regular stops at a station located in his own parliamentary constituency.[1]

Seijuro Arafune
荒舩 清十郎
Born(1907-03-09)March 9, 1907
Chichibu District, Saitama, Japan
DiedNovember 25, 1980(1980-11-25) (aged 73)
NationalityJapanese
OccupationPolitician, Cabinet Minister

Among his most controversial actions was making a now discredited claim about the death toll of comfort women. This statement has been widely spread, with many books writing that "142,000 (or 145,000) Korean comfort women were killed by the Japanese army" or "Only about 25 per cent of Comfort women have survived".[2]

Political career

He was born in Katashino village, Chichibu District, Saitama currently Chichibu, Saitama in 1907.[3]

  • April 11, 1946 - November 24, 1980 Member of the House of Representatives
  • August 1, 1966 - October 14, 1966 Minister of Transport
  • January 14, 1970 - January 29, 1972 Vice-Speaker of the House of Representatives[4]

Comfort women

He made a public speech at his home constituency regarding the death toll of Comfort women in 1965:[2]

They (Korean) say Koreans were drafted by Japan during the war and taken from Korea to work, and those who worked well were used as soldiers, and 576,000 of those soldiers are now dead. There are claims that 142,000 Korean comfort women are dead, killed by the Japanese military's sexual abuses.[2]

None of the figures given by Arafune have any basis whatsoever.[2] During the 1965 Korea-Japan Treaty negotiations, Korea's position was that 1,032,684 Koreans had been recruited to serve as laborers, soldiers, and personnel, and that 102,603 of these had been injured or had died. This figure differs with the one he gave by 576,000. Moreover, at that time, no mention was made of comfort women.[2] However, many reports and books cited this figure directly or indirectly without fact-checking it. Some examples are as follows:

  • Karen Parker and Jennifer Chew wrote "Only about 25 per cent of these women are said to have survived these daily abuses." citing Arafune's statement.[5][6]
  • UN Special Rapporteur Gay J. McDougall wrote in her report to the Commission on Human Rights "Only about 25 per cent of these women are said to have survived these daily abuses." citing a book written by Karen Parker and Jennifer Chew.[7]
  • Stephanie Wolfe wrote "Karen Parker and Jennifer F. Chew state that of the approximately 200,000 women enslaved, only one-quarter survived their captivity and of these survivors, only 2,000 women were still alive in 1944.5 Today, ..." [8]
  • Joseph P. Nearey wrote "Some historians believe that only thirty percent of the women survived the war. One member of the Japanese Diet (the Japanese Parliamentary institution), Representative Seijuro Arafune, publicly stated that as many as 145,000 sex slaves died during World War II." citing a book written by Karen Parker and Jennifer Chew.[9]
  • Kelly Dawn Askin wrote "Repeatedly raped, tortured and abused, nearly seventy-five percent of the former 'comfort' women perished." citing a book written by Karen Parker and Jennifer F. Chew.[10]
  • Anne-Marie de Brouwer wrote "It is estimated that only 25 percent of the comfort women survived" citing a book written by Kelly Dawn Askin.[11]
  • Therese Park wrote "One should remember that only about 25% of the estimated 200,000 comfort women survived: some were murdered by the army so as not to leave traces of the crimes, others died as “collateral damage” during the war, and many contracted deadly diseases or committed suicide." without citing the source.[12]
  • In a lawsuit filed on September 19, 2000, Former comfort women HWANG Geum Joo, et al. estimated "only 25% to 35% of the "comfort women" survived the war, and those who did suffered health effects, including damage to reproductive organs and sexually transmitted diseases." without citing the source.[13][14]

His tale is attributed to his propensity to use irresponsible numbers when making public speeches. The former speaker of the House of Representatives Hajime Tamura wrote the following in his book:[15]

I have been to Mr. Arafune's constituency to help him in an election campaign. Mr. Arafune says "That party was financed by the Soviet Union" and indicated the amount of money in quite small details like "some million some hundred thousand". However listening the numbers carefully, he said completely different numbers each time he made a speech. So I asked him "Mr. Arafune, why are the numbers in your inside's stories completely different each time?" Then he answered "As I said random numbers, they won't be consistent. I forgot the numbers I said at the previous place." I said "However your numbers have specific fractions." He answered "People don't believe the numbers without fractions."[15]

See also

References
  1. Fukui, Haruhiro (1970). Party in Power: The Japanese Liberal-democrats and Policy-making. University of California Press. p. 69. ISBN 0520016467. The almost single-minded preoccupations with the advancement of local interests on the part of a former local politician were typified by the incident caused in the autumn of 1966 by the alleged abuse of power by the then Minister of Transportation, Arafune Seijürö, to make a National Railway express train make regular stops at a station located in his own constituency. As a result of this incident, aggravated by the additional charges of his attempt to induce a group of transportation operators to join an association of his electoral supporters and his having taken a couple of textile manufacturers with him on his official trip to South Korea, he was eventually forced to resign on 11 October 1966.
  2. "Number of Comfort Stations and Comfort Women". Asian Women's Fund.
  3. 人事興信録 [Who's who 21st edition]. Jinji Kōshinsha. 1961.
  4. "Speakers and Vice-Speakers of the House of Representatives". The House of Representatives Japan.
  5. Parker, Karen; Chew, Jennifer F. (1994). "Compensation for Japan's World War II War-Rape Victims". Hastings International and Comparative Law Review. 17: 497, 498–499. 'Only about 25 per cent of these women are said to have survived these daily abuses.' note 6. Representative Seijuro Arahune [sic], late of the Japanese Diet (Liberal Democratic Party), made public statements as early as 1975 [sic] that 145,000 Korean sex slaves died during World War II. Interview with Senator Tamako Nakanishi, in Tokyo, Japan (Dec. 8, 1992). Representative Arahune's remarks were recently raised in Diet debates. See STATEMENT OF KOREA, supra note 3. This statement also contains a quote from a November 20, 1975 [sic] campaign speech of Representative Arahune: '142,000 Korean comfort women died. The Japanese soldiers killed them.' Id.
  6. Parker, Karen; Chew, Jennifer F. (1999). Roy Lavon Brooks (ed.). When Sorry Isn't Enough: The Controversy Over Apologies and Reparations for Human Injustice, The Jugun Ianfu System. NYU Press. p. 98. ISBN 0814713327.
  7. McDougall, Gay J. (22 June 1998). "Contemporary Forms of Slavery: Systematic Rape, Sexual Slavery and Slavery-like Practices During Armed Conflict" (PDF). UN Commission on Human Rights, Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities. pp. 29–30. 'Only about 25 per cent of these women are said to have survived these daily abuses.' [Ibid., p.499 and note 6 (citing a 1975 [sic.] statement by Seijuro Arafune, Liberal Democratic Party member of the Japanese Diet, that 145,000 Korean sex slaves died during the Second World War).] [Karen Parker and Jennifer F. Chew, 'Compensation for Japan's World War II War-Rape Victims', Hastings International and Comparative Law Review, Vol. 17, 1994, pp. 497, 498-499.]
  8. Wolfe, Stephanie (2013). The Politics of Reparations and Apologies. Springer Science & Business Media. p. 231. ISBN 978-1461491859.
  9. Nearey, Joseph P. (2001). "Seeking Reparations in the New Millennium: Will Japan Compensate the "Comfort Women" of World War II?". Temple International and Comparative Law Journal. Temple University. 16 (1): 121. Some historians believe that only thirty percent of the women survived the war. One member of the Japanese Diet (the Japanese Parliamentary institution), Representative Seijuro Arafune, publicly stated that as many as 145,000 sex slaves died during World War II.3
    3 See Karen Parker & Jennifer Chew, Compensation for Japan's World War Rape Victims, 17 HASTINGS INT'L & COMP L. REV. 497, 542 n6 (Spring 1994)
    Representative Arafune also is credited with making the following statement in a 1975 campaign speech: "142,000 Korean comfort women died, The Japanese soldiers killed them" Id. In essence, this statement can be seen as an admission by a government official that Japanese soldiers were guilty of murder.
  10. Askin, Kelly Dawn (1997). War Crimes Against Women: Prosecution in International War Crimes Tribunals. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. p. 92. ISBN 9041104860. Repeatedly raped, tortured and abused, nearly seventy-five percent of the former 'comfort' women perished.307
  11. de Brouwer, Anne-Marie (2005). Supranational Criminal Prosecution of Sexual Violence: The ICC and the Practice of the ICTY and the ICTR. Intersentia nv. p. 8. ISBN 9050955339. It is estimated that only 25 percent of the comfort women survived and that most were unable to have children as a consequence of the multiple rapes or the diseases they contracted following the rapes.29
  12. Laura Barberán Reinares, ed. (2014). A Gift of the Emperor and the Military, Sex Trafficking in Postcolonial Literature: Transnational Narratives from Joyce to Bolaño. Routledge. p. 54. ISBN 978-1317667933.
  13. "HWANG Geum Joo, et al., Plaintiffs, v. JAPAN, Defendant" (PDF). UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. October 4, 2001. p. 2.
  14. American International Law Cases. 2. Oceana Publications. 2002. p. 820. ISBN 0379212501.
  15. Tamura, Hajime (1994). 政治家の正体 [Identity of Politician] (in Japanese). Kodansha. p. 51. 荒船清十郎さんの選挙区へ演説の手伝いに行ったことがある。荒船さんは「何党はソ連から幾らもらっている」とか、それを何百何十万円というふうに非常に細かい数字で指摘する。ところが、よく聞いてみると、演説会場によって全部数字が違う。それで「荒船先生、あなたの暴露話は全部数字が違う、どうなんですか」と言ったら「そりゃお前、でたらめ言ってるんだから数字が合うはずないわな、前の会場の数字は忘れたよ。」「でも具体的に端数がついてますが」と尋ねたら「端数をつけなきゃ人は信用せんよ」と答えたので、大笑いしたことがある」
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