Statement on the situation on the Korean peninsula

22 November 2017
WCC Executive Committee, Amman, Jordan, 17-23 November 2017

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. Matthew 5:9

The Executive Committee of the World Council of Churches, meeting in Amman, Jordan, celebrates on the one hand new steps taken towards the global elimination of nuclear weapons, while on the other hand fearing that the next turn in the cycle of confrontation and escalation on the Korean peninsula might result in an uncontrollable slide into nuclear-armed warfare. The death and destruction that would inevitably result from any conflict in such a highly militarized environment cannot and must not be contemplated. The gravity of this situation calls for our most profound words of wisdom and our deepest commitment to work for peace...

"Trostfrauen", "Comfort Women"
The Asia-Pacific Journal | Japan Focus Volume 15 | Issue 21 | Number 3 | Nov 01, 2017
Mit freundlicher Erlaubnis von Japan Focus


Overcoming Double Erasure: Japanese “comfort women”, nationalism and trafficking.

Morita Seiya
translated by Caroline Norma

"Women of Japanese nationality have been erased in relation to the history of the wartime 'comfort women’. For many decades after the war the existence of military ‘comfort women’ as a whole was ignored, and Japanese women, too, were ignored, at least in respect of their status as victims of wartime sexual violence. As we know, this deadlock over the history of the so-called comfort women was broken in the 1990s by survivors publicly testifying about their experiences, specifically those from North and South Korea. These women spoke widely about their experience of violence and abuse at the hands of the Japanese military,

Nationalism in the Abe Era
The Asia-Pacific Journal | Japan Focus Volume 15 | Issue 21 | Number 1 | Nov 01, 2017
Mit freundlicher Erlaubnis von Japan Focus

What is the Aim of Nippon Kaigi, the Ultra-Right Organization that Supports Japan’s Abe Administration?¹
Tawara Yoshifumi
Translation by Asia Policy Point, Senior Fellow William Brooks and Senior Research Assistant Lu Pengqiao Introduction by Tomomi Yamaguchi (http://apjjf.org/#_edn1)


Introduction

Nippon Kaigi (http://www.nipponkaigi.org/) [The Japan Conference], established in 1997, is the largest right-wing organization in Japan. The organization is a major supporter of the current Prime Minister Abe Shinzo, and both Japanese and foreign media report that Abe, and many of his cabinet, are prominent member of its Diet Members League. Despite Nippon Kaigi’s influence on governmental policies of Japan, the organization was little known to the general public until 2015. In 2016, however, numerous books and magazine articles focusing on Nippon Kaigi were published, some becoming best sellers. This created a “Nippon Kaigi boom” in the publishing world.2

"Trostfrauen", "Comfort Women"
The Asia-Pacific Journal | Japan Focus Volume 15 | Issue 19 | Number 4 | Oct 01, 2017
Mit freundlicher Erlaubnis von Japan Focus

Thinking About Coercion in the Context of Prostitution:
Japan’s Military ‘Comfort Women’ and Contemporary Sexually-Exploited Women

Onozawa Akane and Kitahara Minori
Introduction and Translation by Caroline Norma

Abstract:
Leading feminist thought leaders Onozawa Akane and Kitahara Minori discuss in dialogue the contemporary relevance of the Japanese military scheme of wartime sexual slavery. They identify the recruitment tactics of Japan’s pornography and prostitution businesses today as similar to those used in the wartime trafficking of women, and suggest that low level comprehension of women’s human rights means male demand for prostitution continues unhindered in Japan, as it has throughout modern history.

Nordkorea:   06.01.2016 ff H-Bom Tests
                  07.02.2016 ff Missiles; 29.08.2017 ICBM


29.08.2017 Süddeutsche Zeitung
Kim Jong-un blufft.
Nach dem erneuten Raketentest fürchten Beobachter eine Zuspitzung im Konflikt zwischen den USA und Nordkorea. Doch wie ernst die Bedrohung wirklich ist, zeigt sich an der innerkoreanischen Grenze - und da bleibt alles ruhig.
Kommentar von Christoph Neidhart