オーストラリアも似たような問題を抱えているのだが、慰安婦問題を考える上でも参考になるはず。
カナダ政府が先住民の子供たちを親元から引き離し、キリスト教系の寄宿学校に入れた。そこで子供たちは性的虐待を含む虐待を受けた。それについて、カナダ政府は総括を迫られている（これとは別に、カトリックの寄宿学校で多発した児童性虐待でバチカンも非難に晒されている）。
慰安所システムにも言えることだが、これらの政策は当時は善意で行われたものだったりする（貧しい先住民族の子供をより良い環境に移し、教育を受けさせる）。しかし、過去の出来事を現在の価値観で裁かれることもあるのである。だから、「慰安婦は金をもらっていた！」と言って国際社会に反論した気になるのは間違い。現在では軍隊による買春はご法度であり、国連はPKO要員の買春スキャンダルに神経を尖らせている。
慰安婦騒動のポイントは、執拗に日本だけをヤリ玉に挙げて糾弾し続けるジャパン・バッシングであるという点だろう。これは、アン・ビョンジクや、C. サラ・ソーも指摘している。つまり、自ら慰安所を運営あるいは利用した韓国やアメリカ（の運動家たち）が、自分達はなんら後始末をすることなしに日本の償いは不十分だと非難しているのである。こういう理不尽を止めさせる為には、カナダ政府がやったような徹底的な洗い直しと、（英語での）事実の公表が必要だろう。もちろん不名誉な発見も覚悟しなければならない。
（オーストラリアやカナダでこの種の総括ができるのは、国内の和解が目的であるという事情もあるかもしれない。他国に対する加害行為となると、ここまで積極的になるかどうか・・・）
Canada commission issues details abuse of native children
From the country's formation in the 19th Century until the 1970s, the children had to attend schools where they were stripped of their identity.
Many of the 150,000 children also suffered physical abuse from the staff at the church-run boarding schools.
An interim report says children left the schools "as lost souls".
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada report, They Came for the Children, says their lives were "soon to be cut short by drugs, alcohol and violence".
It concludes that the schools were an assault on indigenous children, their families, culture and their nations.
Native Canadians remain among the poorest members of society, with many still living on reserves.
The commission was formed as part of a landmark settlement in 2006 that included more than C$2bn (£1.3bn) compensation for surviving former children and their families.
It has already taken 25,000 statements from survivors, visited about 500 communities and has heard from about 100 former school employees.
The schools were set up to assimilate native children into Canadian society.
The report starts with a quote from Hector Langevin, the Public Works Minister of Canada in 1883: "In order to educate the children properly, we must separate them from their families. Some people may say that this is hard, but if we want to civilise them we must do that.''
The federal government acknowledged 10 years ago that physical and sexual abuse in the schools was widespread.
Many students recall being beaten for speaking their native languages and losing touch with their parents and customs.
"It is commonly said that it takes a village to raise a child," said commission chairman Justice Murray Sinclair during a press conference to present the report on Friday.
"The government of Canada took little children away from their villages and placed them into institutions that were the furthest things from a village you could expect," he said
The report said the result was damaged relations within aboriginal families and with Canadian society at large.
It calls for a comprehensive programme of education to help the process of reconciliation.
The report concludes: "There is an opportunity now for Canadians to engage in this work, to make their own contributions to reconciliation, and to create new truths about our country."
A final report is due to be published in 2014.
BBC 2012.2.25
