The Tale of Forced Abduction of Comfort Women Started From a Fabricated Biography - Why did he lie?
The war ended, and in 1965, mutual discussions took place between Japan and Korea, following which the Japan‐Republic of Korea Basic Relations Treaty was concluded.
This treaty stated that any assets left by Japanese people from the annexation era would be abandoned, and Japan would provide massive economic support to Korea. To Korea, this treaty was like a dream.
During the negotiations for this treaty, when the Japan side mentioned “unpaid wages to the comfort women and deposits saved on the battlefield”, the Korean side promised to “investigate and handle it separately”
During these discussions, talk of the “forced abduction of comfort women by the Japanese army” did not come up at all.
Then in the 80s, Seiji Yoshida and the Asahi Shimbun Newspaper suddenly brought the comfort women issue to the fore.
Seiji Yoshida wrote in his book that “during the way, I was involved in the abduction of North-Korean women on Jeju Island, which was reminiscent of slave hunting”, and conducted lecture activities based on this.
This testimony by Yoshida was published extensively in the Asahi Shimbun newspaper.
Following that, Japanese lawyers went to meet the comfort women in Korea, and lured them into taking out a lawsuit in Japan, telling them “you will get some money”.
In the first lawsuit raised by comfort women in Japan, they claimed “give me back my savings book!”. in regard to “Comfort women hunting” claimed by Seiji Yoshida, a follow-up investigation was carried out by the “Jeju Newspaper” on Jeju Island, but none of the residents there knew about the events claimed by Seiji Yoshida.
When the credibility of the book was questioned, Seiji Yoshida admitted that that the work was a fabrication.
The Asahi Shinbun newspaper apologized for the false reporting.
Why did Seiji Yoshida write such falsehoods in the book and conduct lecture activities based on the same?
It is said that Seiji Yoshida is a pen name, and his real name is “Yuto Yoshida”. There is the name “Yuto Yoshida” in his high school graduation register, but he is recorded as “deceased”.
The work by Seiji Yoshida states that he worked in the Shanghai branch of China Airlines from 1939. However, according to an investigation by Chitoshi Uesugi, there is no record of Yuto Yoshida or (Seiji Yoshida) as employees of China Airlines.
Seiji Yoshida impersonated “Yuto Yoshida”, who had already deceased.
It is thought that Seiji Yoshida was a North-Korean agent who took the name of a deceased person in the Japanese register.
This method of taking the name of a Japanese person in the register is known as “Hainori” (piggy-backing).
As there are no intelligence agencies in Japan, there are no agent activities overseas; however, Japan is prime pickings for infiltrators from overseas.
