Reconciliation cannot wait for the ‘comfort women’ victims of wartime Japan
Sylvia Yu Friedman says an unsatisfactory Korea-Japan deal on resolving the painful past must be renegotiated – this time with the participation of all involved – so that those suffering can finally find closure
The ageing survivors deserve a sincere apology from the Japanese government before they die. Time is running out. Illustration: Craig Stephens
With the impeachment of Korean PresidentPark Geun-hye, there is talk of negotiating a new deal between South Korea and Japan to bring closure to the dwindling number of elderly survivors who suffered the unspeakable fate of being sex slaves for the Imperial Japanese military before the end of the second world war. The ageing survivors deserve a sincere apology from the Japanese government before they die. Time is running out. Yet another survivor, Park Suk-yi, died last month aged 94, leaving only 39 alive of the 238 women who are acknowledged as “comfort women” survivors by the government.
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A controversial deal was brokered in December 2015 behind closed doors, without consulting the women, which included an apology from the Japanese prime minister and US$8.5 million in assistance for victims. But the deal only infuriated survivors and their supporters, who demanded a stronger apology and legal reparations.
Gil Won-ok (left) and Kim Bok-dong (second from left), who were forced to serve as sex slaves for the Japanese Imperial Army during the second world war, join a rally in Seoul this week. Only 39 women are still alive out of the 238 who have been acknowledged as “comfort women” survivors by the government. Photo: EPA
Since 2001, I have interviewed dozens of survivors like 80-year-old Kim Soon-duk, who was 16 when she was forced into sex slavery by the Japanese government and military. About 200,000 women and girls as young as 11 were trafficked and forced into sexual slavery, euphemistically called “comfort women” because their role was to “comfort” the soldiers on the front lines. Women were also trafficked from nations considered “racially inferior”, including China, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, East Timor, Singapore and France’s former colonies in Vietnam. There were more than 1,000 “comfort” stations in China and at least four documented military brothels in Hong Kong – at St John’s Cathedral, St Stephen’s Girls’ College, and two locations in Wan Chai’s red-light district.
The comfort women issue has long strained relations between Japan and its neighbours. Recently, a Japanese community group filed a legal complaint to Australia’s Human Rights Commission about a bronze “comfort woman” statue erected in a Sydney church, saying it fans anti-Japanese sentiment. Before that, Japanese Australians had fought against a plan to have the statue placed in a public park.
In the past several years, the Japanese and Korean residents in various Western cities – from Glendale, Californiaand New Jersey to Vancouver and now Sydney – have fought over statues and plaques installed in public places to remember the women’s suffering. The 2015 deal between the two governments included a demand for the removal of the statue placed in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul, where it still stands.
A comfort woman statue at a church in Sydney. A Japanese community group has filed a complaint to Australia’s Human Rights Commission, demanding the statue be removed because it fans anti-Japanese sentiment. Photo: Reuters
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In China, two museums on the issue have opened in the past two years, in Nanjing (南京) and Shanghai.
One possible solution to this stand-off is grass-roots reconciliation. In 2012, I documented a group of courageous Japanese people who personally apologised to survivors in Shanxi (山西) province. Tomoko Hasegawa, the co-leader of the Healing River-Rainbow Bridge, said their simple apologies brought powerful healing to the women. “We need to acknowledge the truth of what happened in history to these sex slaves and honour the victims,” she said.
