Giving Birth Only To Have Your Child Stab You In The Back

Yesterday I spent many hours (10), watching the History Channel. They were showing their series, THE REVOLUTION which covered the how, whys and when this country declared Independence from England.

In one word: Fascinating.

I've always had a passion for history. After I graduated from high school I took a hiatus from book learnin' and didn't go to college until I was 24 or 25. My major was computer programming (insert maniacal laughter here) and that lasted about a year. I became distracted by my history classes and never did get a degree.


All of the founding fathers went to extremes to give this country a solid foundation from which to live and govern. After being the Commanding Officer of the army and the chief architect of the war plan for eight years, without pay - he was called upon to head the constitutional congress and draft the first part of the constitution.

The men who wrote that document worked hard to come up with a form of government that couldn't go off the rails. The colonists had had it with England and their wild taxes and restrictions and these men were careful to line up a set of checks and balances to ensure the new government couldn't do the same thing later on.

But isn't that exactly what is happening now?

I admit I am fascinated with politics and seeing just how far men will go to debase themselves in pursuit of their own ambitions. The moment I think we've hit rock bottom, something new comes along to prove me wrong.

I'm not going to declare my political leanings as I don't feel it is necessary in the context of my next statement - Political Parties aside - what would the founding fathers think of Bush granting a pardon to Scooter Libby? Does this mean it is no longer illegal to lie to the court system? It is no longer illegal to deliberately impede an investigation into possible wrong doings of a political official? According to this latest move - it isn't illegal if you're covering up for someone else.

I think we all know that Libby had little to nothing to do with the un-masking of a CIA agent and that he was the fall guy for someone else. Who? Why? What else is this administration hiding from us?

And where does it stop?

I can't help but think that George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams and all of the founding fathers are screaming for justice from their graves.

Did you know?

AS THE WAR ENDED, JAPAN PROVIDED SEX SLAVES FOR US SOLDIERS

I read this in The Columbus Dispatch, dated April 26, 2007. I've been wanting to post this little piece of Americana since early May but the accident thwarted me - typing with my nose just isn't much fun.

Anyway, On to the actual tidbits of this little known fact.

Japan, with tacit approval from the US occupation authorities, set up a 'comfort women' system for American GI's. It was an actual brothel system that was condoned by the American government irregardless of the fact that women were being forced into prostitution against their will. Tens of thousands of women were involved in this 'trade' until General Douglas MacArthur shut the brothels down in 1946.

The brothels were rushed into operation in August 1945 when the US forces poured into Japan to begin the occupation.

According to the official history of the Ibaraki Prefectural Police Department whose jurisdiction is just northeast of Tokyo - 'The strategy was the hope that the GIs would use these 'experienced' women instead of harrassing the locals.' A dormatory was converted to a brothel and twenty women were 'working' there.

"As expected, after it opened it was elbow to elbow." the history says. "the comfort women...had some resistence to selling themselves to men who just yesterday were the enemy...there was a great deal of apprehension. But they were paid very highly and they gradually came to accept their work peacefully."

Does this make anyone else ill? No woman 'accepts' selling her body to strangers, 'peacefully' - especially when they are being FORCED into it. For example - Natsue Takita, 19 - applied for an office worker job then was told the only positions were for the comfort women. They persuaded her to sell her body and she committed suicide after working there for four days. What is peaceful about jumping in front of a train?

By the time the brothels were shut down, 70k of prostitutes were employed by the system. The fee was 1 dollar for 15 minutes and they were forced to serve between 15 and 60 men a day. Most of the women working there were forced into it due to dire financial circumstances and lack of family. More than 25% of the GIs contracted a veneral disease from the brothels.

In 1993 Japan's Government apologized for its role in the controversy and established a fund (Asian women's fund) to reimburse the women. In January 2007, California Rep Mike Honda offered a resolution in the house to condemn Japan's use of sex slaves, in part as leverage to force the Japanese government to keep the Asian women's fund open.

The fund compensated only 285 women though there were an estimated possibly 200k of women in the system in Japan, South Korea, Phillipines and Taiwan. Each received about 17,800.00. The fund closed on March 31, 2007.

Haruki Wada, the fund's exectutive director said, "No one Japanese women has come forward to seek compensation or an apology. Unless they feel they can say they were completely forced against their will, they feel they cannot come forward."

I can only wonder how many of them stayed prostitutes, became addicts or died in the street - uncounted victims of a society gone mad.