ABSTRACT
In August 1993, I received a telephone call from the office of the consul general of Japan in Kansas City, Missouri, inviting me to meet the consul general for lunch at the elegant Kansas City Club. Having willingly accepted his invitation, I arrived at the appointed date and time to find that this was a luncheon at which only the consul general and I were present. He greeted me warmly, shook my hand, and said in English, “Professor Goodman, thanks to you, the Japanese government has now accepted responsibility for the wartime ianfu“ (“comfort women” or sex slaves). While his statement surprised and, indeed, delighted me, and while I recognized that once again the Japanese government had responded to gaiatsu (foreign pressure), this peculiarly cathartic experience led me to think back to the grandstand of the muddy Santa Ana race track in Manila, where it all began.
