Berlin caves to demands from Japanese government to remove statue commemorating the sexual enslavement of Korean women and girls by Japanese soldiers during WWII claiming irreparable damage to Japanese-German relations. https://taz.de/Gedenken-an-Trostfrauen/!5719024/

Euphemistically referred to as 'comfort women' some survivors of Japanese military brothels are still alive and fighting to not have history forgotten and repeat itself. The statue in Berlin was supposed to aid international awareness of this violence. https://www.history.com/news/comfort-women-japan-military-brothels-korea

The number of victims of Japanese military sexual slavery is estimated at around 200.000 women and girls between the ages of 11-29. They were Korean, Chinese, Burmese, Eastern-Timorian, Indonesian, Malaysian, Dutch, Papua-Neugenian, Thai and Japanese. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/07/10/an-18-second-clip-released-by-south-korea-appears-to-offer-first-footage-of-wwii-comfort-women/

The reason given for Japanese military sexual enslavement of hundreds of thousands of women and girls mirrors common modern justification for #prostitution: 1) Prevent rape of the rest of population, 2) better control STDs and 3) keep up men's spirits. https://www.koreaverband.de/trostfrauen/ 

There was a lack of volunteers for Japanese military brothels, so they forced women into it. 20-30 men a day. Mandatory condom use was broken at men's will. Forced abortions. Women "working" through periods. These dynamics are still many prostituted women's reality today.

The Berlin city government in trying to shield themselves from public criticism have claimed they thought the statue to be a symbol of peace, not one focused on specifically Japanese war crimes. They also claim that it leaves out the crimes of e.g. the Nazi army.

The truth is that the German government has never adequately adressed its own history of military brothels. There is no commemorative statue anywhere in Germany for women forced into military or concentration camp brothels & few will to take an honest look at our modern brothels.

Modern German #prostitution is built on poverty and organized crime, rather than military might. But it is frequently similiarly brutal and lethal. We have women here unable to leave their brothels. Branded with tattoos. Injured and traumatized for life. https://www.zdf.de/dokumentation/zdfinfo-doku/bordell-deutschland-milliardengeschaeft-prostitution-102.html

No, I am not saying the Nazi and Japanese military brothels are exactly like the modern ones we have. But a lot of what survivors of those historic brothels describe mirrors the reality of modern women. Because they are tied to the nature of #prostitution - not to time and place.

We need to commemorate all victims of sexual slavery & exploitation everywhere and stop it from continuing. Because its not a relic of the past. Just like field & factory slavery are still alive. They've all just transformed and many carry a legal facade. https://dieunsichtbarenmaenner.wordpress.com/establishments/ 

Japan uses its economic might to try and maintain silence around its war crimes, esp. the sexual enslavement of women and girls. Germany uses its economic might to weaken international agreements to combat sexual exploitation because it wants to keep its legal taxed brothels...

Here is what you can do if you want to call on Berlin to keep the statue commemorating victims of Japanese military sexual exploitation and opening up the conversation on how this was (and still is) being done to women all around the world: https://twitter.com/EllyArrow/status/1315264040105541633