TOKYO, Nov 3, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – A film festival in suburban Tokyo will show
a documentary on the highly controversial issue of Japan’s wartime military
brothels, organisers said Sunday after coming under fire for dropping the
movie.
The film’s screening was cancelled last week after concerns over the safety
of volunteers and objections from local officials.
But the decision was reversed after “lots of voices offering cooperation to
address our safety concerns,” a member of the organising committee told AFP,
who said the festival would increase the number of volunteers to boost
security.
The controversy over the film comes after an exhibit in central Japan was
shut down for two months earlier this year after it received threats for
displaying a statue of a wartime sex slave, and with relations between Japan
and South Korea badly frayed over wartime issues.
The documentary “Shusenjo: The Main Battleground of The Comfort Women
Issue” examines the debate over so-called “comfort women”, who were forced to
work in military brothels during World War II.
Mainstream historians say up to 200,000 women — mostly from Korea, but
also other parts of Asia including China — were forced to work in the
brothels.
But some nationalists insist the women were prostitutes, claiming there is
no documented evidence that the Japanese military was ordered to recruit
women against their will.
Some of the people interviewed in the film, by Japanese-American director
Miki Dezaki, have filed suit against him, claiming they were not aware the
interviews would be used in a movie for public release.
Kawasaki City on Tokyo’s outskirts, which provided nearly half of the
festival’s budget, reportedly expressed concerns about the lawsuit in its
conversations with organisers.
Local officials however denied pressuring organisers to drop the film, with
one telling AFP they merely questioned “whether showing such a film is
appropriate”.