{"id":11798,"date":"2023-09-21T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-02-20T14:04:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fightforjustice.info\/?p=11798"},"modified":"2023-12-05T08:37:11","modified_gmt":"2023-12-04T23:37:11","slug":"11-4%e3%80%80are-japanese-and-japanese-american-children-bullied-due-to-the-comfort-women-memorials","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/fightforjustice.info\/?p=11798&lang=en","title":{"rendered":"11-4\u3000Are Japanese and Japanese American children bullied due to the \u201ccomfort women\u201d memorials?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div id=\"portfolio-description\" class=\"clearfix\">\r\n\r\n<strong>Stories about \u201cbullying\u201d in conservative Japanese media<\/strong>\r\n\r\nIn July of 2013, the City of Glendale, California, a suburb of Los Angeles, established a statue dedicated to the \u201ccomfort women.\u201d In response, a number of Japanese nationals and \u201cshin issei\u201d immigrants (those who migrated from Japan since the end of the WWII) in the U.S. who oppose the statue joined forces with conservative commentators and activists to form the Global Alliance for Historical Truth (GAHT). In February 2014, GAHT president and Los Angeles area resident Koichi Mera and others brought a lawsuit against the City of Glendale at the Federal district court. They later filed a separate lawsuit in the Los Angeles Superior Court as well, but both courts have dismissed the plaintiff\u2019s claims. (Appeals are pending.)\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<div id=\"attachment_4025\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/fightforjustice.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/%E7%B1%B3%E3%82%B0%E3%83%AC%E3%83%B3%E3%83%87%E3%83%BC%E3%83%AB%E6%85%B0%E5%AE%89%E5%A9%A6%E5%83%8F1-1.jpg\" rel=\"lightbox[4297]\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4025\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-4025\" src=\"http:\/\/fightforjustice.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/%E7%B1%B3%E3%82%B0%E3%83%AC%E3%83%B3%E3%83%87%E3%83%BC%E3%83%AB%E6%85%B0%E5%AE%89%E5%A9%A6%E5%83%8F1-1.jpg\" alt=\"\u7c73\u30b0\u30ec\u30f3\u30c7\u30fc\u30eb\u6170\u5b89\u5a66\u50cf1-1\" width=\"400\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a>\r\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-4025\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">\u30a2\u30e1\u30ea\u30ab\u30fb\u30b0\u30e9\u30f3\u30c7\u30fc\u30eb\u306e\u300c\u6170\u5b89\u5a66\u300d\u50cf\uff08\u64ae\u5f71\u8005\uff1a\u5c0f\u5c71\u30a8\u30df\uff09<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\nJapanese conservative media reporting these cases have claimed that the bullying and hate crimes against Japanese and Japanese American children and adults have become rampant in Glendale since the enactment of the \u201ccomfort women\u201d statue. Right-wing comic series Manga Dai Kenkanryu (Manga Big Hate-Korean Wave) and Hinomaru Gaisen Otome (Rising Sun Flag Demonstration Girl) also describe rampant bullying supposedly taking place in Glendale. Additionally, a delegation of municipal legislators from Japan led by the Suginami Ward (Tokyo) assemblywoman Yoshiko Matsuura has claimed that Japanese children are being bullied and harassed by Koreans in Glendale.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nNo evidence exists for bullying against the Japanese and Japanese Americans\r\nNonetheless, Japanese American groups in the area have told reporters that they are not aware of any such incident. Glendale police department and its school board have not received any reports either.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nJapanese Embassy in Washington D.C. as well as Japanese Consulates in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, and other cities have posted a request on their websites asking Japanese nationals who have experienced bullying, harassment, and other offenses related to \u201cso-called historical issues\u201d to contact them. But according to an article in Tokyo Shimbun (August 29th, 2014), Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs have not received any report concerning a concrete example, and no such incidents have since been reported in the media either.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nMember of the Parliament (the House of Representatives), then, Mio Sugita of the Party for Future Generations who have visited Glendale also stated, \u201cI heard that Japanese children are bullied, so I wanted to speak with the parents of these children and hear their experiences, but could not meet any of them. Therefore, I do not know specifically how they are being victimized. But others I spoke to have told me that some sort of bullying seems to be happening in the area.\u201d Likewise, Matsuura\u2019s delegation mentioned above have only been able to collect rumors of bullying, not actual reports from any victims or their families.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<strong>No public reports of bullying against the Japanese or Japanese Americans<\/strong>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http:\/\/fightforjustice.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/%E7%B1%B3%E3%82%B0%E3%83%AC%E3%83%B3%E3%83%87%E3%83%BC%E3%83%AB%E6%85%B0%E5%AE%89%E5%A9%A6%E5%83%8F1-2.jpg\" rel=\"lightbox[4297]\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright wp-image-4026\" src=\"http:\/\/fightforjustice.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/%E7%B1%B3%E3%82%B0%E3%83%AC%E3%83%B3%E3%83%87%E3%83%BC%E3%83%AB%E6%85%B0%E5%AE%89%E5%A9%A6%E5%83%8F1-2.jpg\" alt=\"\u7c73\u30b0\u30ec\u30f3\u30c7\u30fc\u30eb\u6170\u5b89\u5a66\u50cf1-2\" width=\"400\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a>GAHT\u2019s suit against the \u201ccomfort women\u201d statue in Glendale does not mention any bullying against Japanese or Japanese American children. Similarly, the case brought against the Asahi Shimbun newspaper in Japan by Japanese nationals residing in the U.S. over its reporting of \u201ccomfort women\u201d issue does not include any specific claim regarding the bullying against Japanese children.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nSome conservative media have claimed that the bullying against Japanese children over the \u201ccomfort women\u201d statue has proliferated beyond Glendale to other parts of the U.S. For example, journalist Shigeharu Aoyama reported on Kansai television in May 2014 that Japanese children were being bullied in San Jose, California, more than 300 miles away from Glendale, where he had just visited. However, the organization that invited Aoyama to give a lecture in San Jose denied that such incidents had been reported in the area.\r\nNo public institutions have so far confirmed that Japanese children are bullied as a result of the enactment of \u201ccomfort women\u201d statues and memorials. While the lack of reports does not necessarily indicate no such bullying has ever occurred, we can at least conclude safely that there does not appear to be an epidemic of pervasive and rampant bullying against Japanese and Japanese American children across the United States as claimed by the conservative media.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n\uff1cReferences\uff1e\r\nEmi Koyama, \u201cBeikoku ni Okeru \u2018Ianfu\u2019 Z\u014d to Nikkei Shakai\u201d (The \u201cComfort Woman\u201d Statues in the U.S. and the Japanese American Community), Kikan Sens\u014d Sekinin Kenky\u016b (The Report on Japan\u2019s War Responsibility), Nov. 83, Winter 2014: 25-31.\r\nTokyo Shimbun, \u201cKochira J\u014dh\u014dbu: \u2018Ianfu\u2019 de Iyagarase? Uha Seiryoku Kenen Aoru\u201d (Information Section: Bullying Arising from \u201cComfort Women\u201d? The Right-Wingers Incite Concerns.) August 29, 2014.\r\nMark Schreiber, \u201cTracking Southern California\u2019s Elusive \u2018Bullies\u2019\u201d, Number 1 Shimbun, FCCJ (The Foreign Correspondents\u2019 Club of Japan), September 30, 2014. (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.fccj.or.jp\/number-1-shimbun\/item\/471-tracking-souther-california-s-elusive-bullies\/471-tracking-souther-california-s-elusive-bullies.html)\" class=\"external external_icon\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/www.fccj.or.jp\/number-1-shimbun\/item\/471-tracking-souther-california-s-elusive-bullies\/471-tracking-souther-california-s-elusive-bullies.html)<\/a>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Stories about \u201cbullying\u201d in conservative Japanese media In July of 2013, the City of Glendale, California, a s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":11145,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"swell_btn_cv_data":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[224,219],"tags":[],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/fightforjustice.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11798"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/fightforjustice.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/fightforjustice.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fightforjustice.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fightforjustice.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11798"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/fightforjustice.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11798\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11799,"href":"http:\/\/fightforjustice.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11798\/revisions\/11799"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fightforjustice.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/fightforjustice.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fightforjustice.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fightforjustice.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}