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Rating: 
Summary: I am sorry, but these claims are all invalidated.
Review: It is true that the Secretary-General of the Cabinet of Japan, Yohei Kono, admitted that there were evidences that show the Japanese Army kidnapped women to force them into "sex-slaves" and apologized to the ex-comfort women. Nevertheless, it is also true that, in fact, Kono had no evidences that substantiate the accusation and the ex-comfort women were never cross-examined. Later, the vice-Secretary-General, Nobuo Ishihara, admitted to a journalist that there was a "deal" between the South Korean government and the Japanese government to make the apology for saving South Korea's face so afterwards South Korean would never demand compensations as the government.
Many Japanese scholars and researchers on this issue examined the ex-comfort women's testimonies and concluded that none of them were reliable and substantiated.
Let us look into other testimonies made by comfort women and recorded by the U.S. force. Those women's photo is shown in this book at the page opposite of "contents".
They confided in those American soldiers that they lived comparatively "luxurious" lives thanks to the good money the Japanese soldiers paid for the "comfort" they provided. They had enough money to go to shopping in larger cities and the Japanese always gave them presents. They had picnic, sports-day, fun evening and diner party with Japanese soldiers. The Japanese Army tightly controlled traders who run the comfort stations so that the women would never be physically or financially abused.
This document is found in the book called "Documents of the Comfort Women" edited by Yoshiaki Yoshimi, a leading proponent of the accusation of kidnapping and forcing those women to the sex-slave state by the Japanese Army. On the contrary to the accusation, The women were paid three times more of average Japanese soldiers and some of them went home after working for a few years and built a big house. Most Japanese soldiers were always thankful to them. Some even married to the comfort women. However different those facts are from what you had believed, it is true and, actually, well documented.
Still, you may think the report of Ms. Radhika Coomaraswamy to the United Nations in this book (p112) authentic, but it is based on those invalid testimonies and a sole testimony of an ex-Japanese soldier, Seiji Yoshida who claimed that he was working in woman hunt operations which was later debunked and he publicly admitted it was a lie. Another book Ms. Coomaraswamy relied on is G.Hicks's "Comfort Women" which had already debunked by many scholars and researchers. Furthermore, Ms. Coomaraswamy's academic consultant is above-mentioned Yoshiaki Yoshimi, who also debunked and admitted in a TV debate programme that he had no evidences at all. So, now you know even a Special Rapporteur for the United Nations is not free of prejudice.
I urge everyone who are interested in this issue to know that there are unbelievable amount of propaganda spreaded by so-called anti-Japanese Japanese out there. And works of scholars are no exception.
Rating: 
Summary: A shameful episode
Review: Stark and moving. The sheer numbers of women dragged into sex slavery, the extreme youth of many, and the brutality of their experience... That a handful of courageous women were allowed to tell their story is the first step to justice for the comfort women. It demands our attention.I'm curious, what in Japanese society prompted them to establish such an "institution"? Even today, Japanese sex culture is problematic, to say the least, with its manga and Lolita fetish. The sad thing is the American government has opposed the suit against Japan brought by some comfort women in the California courts, based on what it claims is the settlement of all claims in the 1951 treaty. I'll bet no Koreans and Filipinos were represented there. The reviewer below should be ashamed at his atrocity denial. Elsewhere on Amazon he denies the Nanking incident. Civilized people would not tolerate such unreconstructed behavior from a German, and the same standard should apply to Japanese. Contrary to Hiromi's assertions, the Japanese government apologized not to save Korean face, but its own. Imagine the national shame if this controversy kept appearing in the headlines, and Japan had to pay reparations. Ishihara is hardly a bleeding-heart liberal, if he was party to such concessions the truth must have been damning. "They had picnic, sports-day, fun evening and diner [sic] party with Japanese soldiers"? This lame attempt at justification makes me ill. He doesn't refute the kidnapping, the 11-year-old sex slaves, nor the frequency of debasement these women faced. "...there are unbelievable amount of propaganda spreaded by so-called anti-Japanese Japanese out there." So if a person questions the actions of his government, past or present, we should not believe him? I can see Hiromi would have made a good life during the fascist era. False patriotism - the last refuge of a scoundrel.
Rating:
Summary: A shameful episode
Review: Stark and moving. The sheer numbers of women dragged into sex slavery, the extreme youth of many, and the brutality of their experience... That a handful of courageous women were allowed to tell their story is the first step to justice for the comfort women. It demands our attention. I'm curious, what in Japanese society prompted them to establish such an "institution"? Even today, Japanese sex culture is problematic, to say the least, with its manga and Lolita fetish. The sad thing is the American government has opposed the suit against Japan brought by some comfort women in the California courts, based on what it claims is the settlement of all claims in the 1951 treaty. I'll bet no Koreans and Filipinos were represented there. The reviewer below should be ashamed at his atrocity denial. Elsewhere on Amazon he denies the Nanking incident. Civilized people would not tolerate such unreconstructed behavior from a German, and the same standard should apply to Japanese. Contrary to Hiromi's assertions, the Japanese government apologized not to save Korean face, but its own. Imagine the national shame if this controversy kept appearing in the headlines, and Japan had to pay reparations. Ishihara is hardly a bleeding-heart liberal, if he was party to such concessions the truth must have been damning. "They had picnic, sports-day, fun evening and diner [sic] party with Japanese soldiers"? This lame attempt at justification makes me ill. He doesn't refute the kidnapping, the 11-year-old sex slaves, nor the frequency of debasement these women faced. "...there are unbelievable amount of propaganda spreaded by so-called anti-Japanese Japanese out there." So if a person questions the actions of his government, past or present, we should not believe him? I can see Hiromi would have made a good life during the fascist era. False patriotism - the last refuge of a scoundrel.
Rating:
Summary: remembering the past is the only way to redemption
Review: This is a painful book to read. Everytime I heard the victims' voice I trembled. But the review from Hiromo is THE MOST shockingly inhumane voice/action since the end of the war - which according to her didn't kill millions, nor did it raped tens of thousands, angered a whole Asia and its people for the past half century. The more denial of the unthinkable crime, the longer it takes to forgive. I am the third generation of Japanese war victim and I am shooting a film about comfort woman, or the denial of it, right this moment. I don't want my grandchild to fight for the same justice 50 years later, and you may not want your grandchild to defend it as you did on all major Amazon Japanese war crime books, which by the way, thanks to you, now I know what books to get for my film research. Shame for those of you who found all the denial reviews "useful", while considered all the praise ones "Not helpful". The other day at my library in San Francisco one of you people stole all my comfort women topic books but left the rest untouched. COMFORT WOMEN SPEAK is one of them. So for serious reader, definitely read this book and see what the "patriotic Japanese" are defending for/or scared of. Another book to help you understand the issue in depth is YUKI TANAKA's Japan's Comfort Women. It tackles the US occupation and their own use of the "comfort station" system. Again, just like to deny that Atomic Bombing in Hiroshima ever happened, Japanese women never raped by Allies soldiers or the ordinary Japanese don't deserve peace, dignity and fairness would be unthinkable, to deny the value of voices from the last victims of the War is to deprieve the right to redemption of young Japanese generations to come. This
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