Archie Miyamoto, Lt Col, U.S. Army (retired) Miyamoto served twice in Korea during the Korean War, and during his second tour in Vietnam served with the Korean Tiger Division. He spent two tours as a military advisor in Taiwan, his second as an advisor to says:
January 11, 2016 at 7:46 pm
I welcome and support the Prime Minister of Japan’s apology and the signing of the agreement with South Korea to bring final resolution to the comfort women issue. While South Korea may have entered into this in good faith, it appears unable to overcome opposition and fulfill its obligations to comply with the spirit of the agreement and is seeking refuge in the fine print. This, of course, places the entire agreement at risk which is very unfortunate given the dangerous situation presently facing South Korea.
Koreans find fault with Japan’s apology since it does not acknowledge military or government involvement in the recruitment of comfort women. U.S./Allied military records of WWII, which include the interrogation of Korean comfort women and their operators, identify the women as prostitutes under contract, usually one year, with their operators. Operators were civilians and not employees of nor paid by the Japanese military or government. Military involvement consisted of checking credentials and setting the conditions under which the women would be allowed to conduct business. The military provided transportation, medical treatment, and saw to it that the operators shared earnings equally with the women. Upon repayment to operators of loans advanced to the women and termination of contract, the military provided the women return transportation to their homes. Prostitution at the time was legal and accepted.
There are no records of abduction of Korean comfort women. Korea was an annexed part of Japan, not occupied territory. Policemen in Korea were Koreans and there were hundreds of thousands of Koreans in the Imperial Japanese Army, some estimate as many as half a million, many as officers and even a few generals. There were even a few kamikaze pilots. Abduction of Korean women would not have been prudent or even possible unless Korean men are all meek cowards. To even hint at that is an insult.
The issue is now an internal problem for the Korean government to resolve with the Korean people. Koreans must wake up to reality. There is nothing to be gained by making an enemy of Japan or in turning American public opinion against Japan. Without the U.S.–Japan alliance, U.S. defense of South Korea would be very costly if even possible. A nuclear-armed North Korea is ready to pounce at any sign of weakness. Because of Korea’s warming up to China, American attitude is changing and an increasing number of Americans are calling for withdrawal of U.S. troops from Korea. Also, there is considerable opposition in Japan against improving Japan’s cooperation with the U.S. in the defense of other than Japan and anti-Korean sentiment is at an all-time high. It is imperative that Koreans put the comfort women to rest and join hands in a solid U.S.-Korea-Japan Alliance or it risks once again becoming a killing field.
Large prostitution ring, Bellevue brothels shut down
Originally published January 7, 2016
A Seattle-area investigation has resulted in the shutdown of two sex-trafficking websites, the shuttering of 12 brothels and the arrest of about a dozen people.
By Sara Jean Green
Seattle Times staff reporter
Twelve men and one woman have been charged with promoting prostitution following a wide-ranging investigation that resulted in the shutdown of 12 brothels in Bellevue and the seizure of two sex-trafficking sites, according to police and prosecutors.
The brothels were operated out of high-end apartment complexes in Bellevue, where prostituted women from South Korea were forced to work often for 12 hours a day, seven days a week, to pay off debts, according to Bellevue Police Chief Steve Mylett.
One of the brothel owners is an alleged member of “The League,” an exclusive group of local sex buyers who were also charged with promoting prostitution after being infiltrated by undercover detectives, he said.
Prosecutor Dan Satterberg said King County is the first jurisdiction in the country to charge “an organized group of sex buyers” with promoting the prostitution of women from South Korea, who are brought to the U.S. to work as prostitutes and are shuttled between major cities.
The joint operation between Bellevue police and the King County Sheriff’s Office led to the seizure Tuesday of website TheReviewboard.net and a sister site called kgirldelights.com, with the “K” standing for Korea, officials announced at a news conference Thursday.
TheReviewboard.net, with an estimated 23,000 members, allowed men to post graphic descriptions of their sexual encounters with prostituted women and share tips to avoid police attention and suspicion from wives and girlfriends, according to charging papers.
“This website facilitated prostitution,” Sheriff John Urquhart said at a news conference.
Sigurd Zitars, 61, is the owner and operator of TheReviewboard.net, according to charging papers. Zitars and a group of 50 of his most prolific posters nationwide established themselves as an exclusive, invitation-only group that called itself “The League,” police and prosecutors say.
All but two of the people arrested Tuesday are alleged local members of The League.
Members of The League set up the kgirldelights.com site to advertise South Korean women after Zitars — who goes by the handle “Tahoe Ted” — decided to restrict the number of Asian sex workers on his site to avoid police notice, charging papers say.
Both websites worked with agencies that move women from city to city after they arrived in the U.S. and “bookers” who book appointments for the women, according to the charges.
Members of “The League,” who used anonymous handles instead of their real names, would regularly meet at local pubs or restaurants. Many times “the discussions were so graphic that patrons sitting at tables next to us would get up and leave or move to another table,” an undercover detective, who infiltrated the group, wrote in charging documents.
In many instances, police identified League members by following them to their vehicles and running their license plate numbers. Several of the meetings were also secretly recorded by police, the charges say.
“Many of the members made comments that indicated they were aware these girls were more than likely trafficked and had little choice in choosing to work as prostitutes,” say the charges
Zitars was arrested Tuesday along with alleged League members Charles Peters, 46; Justin Yoon, 45; Stephen Jenkins, 44; Lawrence Masaki, 44; Mark Yamada, 54; Keith Emmanuel, 28; Noah Jorgenson, 27; and Donald Mueller, 58.
Except for Mueller, all of the men are being held in lieu of $75,000 bail. Richard Homchick, 49, has also been charged with second-degree promoting prostitution, but his name does not appear in the King County Jail register.
The men paid an estimated $300 per encounter with dozens, if not hundreds, of women, say the charges.
Mueller, who is also accused of running brothels out of high-end, luxury apartments in Bellevue, is being held in lieu of $150,000 bail, as is Michael Durnal, 47. Durnal was not a member of The League but signed a lease for Mueller before the pair had a falling out and Durnal allegedly started up his own brothel, say the charges.
Mueller is a longtime sex buyer who previously had made his living off illegal marijuana grows, but moved into prostitution when the drug was legalized, the charges say.
Jabong “Crystal” Kim, a Korean national and former sex worker, is the sole woman so far charged in the case, according to charging documents. She, too, is accused of running a brothel and is now being held without bail in the King County Jail, say jail and court records.
Urquhart said the arrests are just the beginning of a very complicated investigation and additional arrests and charges are possible.
Urquhart said detectives also have the names and photos of thousands of men who signed up for accounts on TheReviewboard.net, but he said it’s unlikely those men will face misdemeanor prostitution charges.
Urquhart said the investigation into TheReveiwboard.net and “The League” is “unprecedented in size and scope” in the region. Twelve South Korean women were rescued from the brothels and will be eligible for visas to remain in the U.S., he said.
Urquhart said many of the women were forced to work as prostitutes in order to pay off debt incurred by traveling to the U.S.
“These women are true victims, make no mistake about it,” said Urquhart.
The sheriff’s office, which has been investigating TheReviewboard.net for years, launched an investigation last spring after a sex-trafficking victim told authorities she had been brought to the U.S. from South Korea and coerced into prostitution to pay off a family debt, Urquhart said.
Then in April, a resident of a downtown Bellevue apartment complex contacted Bellevue police to report suspected prostitution activity, said Mylett.
Mylett, noting some believe prostitution is a victimless crime, said one woman killed last April in a Bellevue apartment worked as a prostitute, though her death is unrelated to the current investigation.
Song Wang, 30, is accused of killing a 37-year-old Bellevue woman and torching her apartment. He has been charged with first-degree murder and first-degree arson, accused of fatally stabbing Kittaporn Saosawatsri and torching her apartment.
One former Seattle-area sex worker decried the shutdown of thereviewboard.net, saying it now forces sex workers to go into the street where prospective customers cannot be screened. The website allowed sex workers to vet potential clients
“It (the shutdown) increases the odds a sex worker needing to make rent will take an unverified client,” Savannah Sly, president of the Sex Worker Outreach Project, wrote in an email.
King County Sheriff John Urquhart at a news conference where criminal charges are announced Thurs., Jan. 7, 2016, in Seattle against the operators of an online review board where men can view prostitution ads and post reviews about their sexual experiences with women involved in prostitution. Law enforcement said this display shows a victim from Korea.
Korean sex workers are heading here to work after a backlash against them in Australia, a Korean expert says.
With jobs scarce in South Korea, more women were turning to prostitution, said University of Auckland Korean studies senior lecturer Changzoo Song.
Immigration New Zealand confirmed that in the 12 months to November, 13 South Korean people were refused entry at the border after being assessed as being likely to be travelling here to work in the sex industry. This was up from 10 in the same period last year.
” … prostitution is considered extremely shameful in Korea,” said Dr Song. “For Korean women who become prostitutes, they preferred to travel overseas to work so as not to lose face or bring shame to their families.”
Under the Prostitution Reform Act 2003, only New Zealand citizens and residents can work in the sex industry. Of the 42 foreign nationals on temporary visas found working as sex workers in the last financial year, 18 were from China, 14 from Hong Kong, three from Taiwan and one was from South Korea.
But in the past three months, at least six South Korean nationals were found to be working unlawfully in the local sex industry.
“Australia used to be a popular choice, but recent campaigns and crackdown may have put them off going there,” added Dr Song.
“The Korean communities in Australia considered Korean prostitutes a community and national disgrace.”
A Korean woman, who is facing immigration and other charges, was told she could make $1000 working as a prostitute.
After being recruited through a Korean website, she was paid $600 towards her airfare to Auckland. She was picked up at the airport by a Korean taxi driver and sent to an apartment in Hobson St where she was given a short induction into the sex industry.
According to police records, clients were charged $220 an hour or $180 for half an hour, of which $80 was paid to the brothel operators, who are also Korean nationals.
Catherine Healy, Prostitutes Collective national co-ordinator, said most sex workers would not state on official documents that they worked in the industry.
“It is common sense for most sex workers to avoid stigma and discrimination by not stating that they are sex workers in official documents.”
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