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The \u201cComfort Women\u201d Issue Begins to Receive Considerable Attention in the 1990s<\/b><\/h2>\r\nAbandoned (\u2192Introduction 6) by the Japanese military and government and suffering from PTSD caused by their traumatic experiences (\u2192Introduction 7), former \u201ccomfort women\u201d and women who suffered sexual violence were unable to make appeals and remained silent. Furthermore, under the cold war, authoritarian regimes remained in power for a long time in Asian countries and regions which had been invaded by the Japanese military, so the people couldn\u2019t make appeals about war damages from the Japanese military.\r\n\r\nMeanwhile, in Japan, some people were aware of the existence of \u201ccomfort women\u201d since the 1970s through a series of books such as\u00a0<\/span>\u201cComfort Women\u201d<\/i>\u00a0<\/span>(1973) by Senda Kako, a documentary film (\u201cA grandmother in Okinawa\u201d) featuring a victim living in Okinawa, Ms. Bae Bong-gi, and a newsletter by the \u201cAsian Women\u2019s Association\u201d called \u201cAsian Women\u2019s Liberation\u201d. Still, it wasn\u2019t regarded as an issue that needed to be dealt with.\r\n\r\nHowever, a turning point came in the 1990s. Protesting against the Japanese government\u2019s denial of the military\u2019s involvement in the \u201ccomfort women\u201d issue, including statements such as \u201cit was private contractors\u2019 own decision to take [\u2018comfort women\u2019]\u201d (in June, 1990), Korean women\u2019s organizations, which had led the democratic movement in the 1980s, established the Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan to resolve the issue in November, 1991. It was Ms. Kim Hak-sun that began to testify under her real name for the first time in South Korea in August, 1991 in response to a call from the council. Ms. Kim came to Japan in December of the same year and filed a suit against the Japanese government in the Tokyo District Court to claim compensation (Asia-Pacific War Korean Victims\u2019 Compensation Claims Case). With this as a turning point, the \u201ccomfort women\u201d issue became a social problem in Japan and internationally.\r\n\r\nAfter that, women from South Korea (including those living in Japan), the Philippines, Taiwan, North Korea, China, Indonesia, the Netherlands, Malaysia and East Timor came forward and began to testify. Movements and support organizations were established in Japan and other countries to resolve the issue.\r\n![\"\u66f8\u6620\uff11\u308f\u304b\u3063\u305f\"](\"http:\/\/fightforjustice.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/\u66f8\u6620\uff11\u308f\u304b\u3063\u305f.jpg\")
<\/a>The Japanese Government\u2019s Response to the \u201cComfort Women\u201d Issue<\/b><\/h2>\r\nMeanwhile, in response to reports of the discovery of official documents proving the military\u2019s involvement in the Library of the National Institute for Defense Studies in January, 1992 by a researcher of Japanese history, Yoshimi Yoshiaki, the Japanese government, which had denied the military\u2019s involvement at first, reversed its position and admitted its involvement. After that, the Japanese government conducted two research investigations on the issue and released the \u201cKono Statement\u201d in August, 1993, admitting the former Japanese military\u2019s involvement and coercion and expressing its \u201capologies and remorse\u201d. However, the Japanese government refused to pay compensation (national compensation) to individual victims. Payments made by the \u201cNational Fund for Peace in Asia for Women\u201d (1995\uff5e2007) were not national compensation but rather \u201catonement money\u201d that was donated by civilians.\r\n\r\nAlthough some victims accepted the payment, many victims refused to accept it, saying that \u201cthe purpose of the National Fund is not national compensation\u201d and \u201cthe state must pay compensation for crimes committed by the Japanese military, the state organ of Japan\u201d. The international community has also criticized the government, stating for example that the National Fund \u201cdoes not, however, satisfy the responsibility of the government of Japan to provide official, legal compensation to individual women who were victims of the \u2018comfort women\u2019 tragedy\u201d (UN McDougall Report in 1998).\r\n\r\nIn July, 2007, a resolution on \u201ccomfort women\u201d adopted by the plenary session of the United States House of Representatives demanded that the Japanese government apologize \u201cin a clear and unequivocal manner\u201d and in December of the same year, a resolution on \u201ccomfort women\u201d adopted by the European Parliament recommended that the Japanese government \u201cacknowledge victims\u2019 rights to demand compensation\u201d. Thus the Japanese government\u2019s refusal to pay compensation is not acceptable either to victims or to the international community.\r\nHow Should the Issue Be Resolved?<\/b><\/h2>\r\nThen, how should the issue be resolved (For details\u2192Solution 1-5)?\r\n\r\nFirst,\u00a0<\/span>the Japanese government must learly acknowledge that the former Japanese military and government forced women to become sexual slaves against their will and it was illegal even in those days (factual findings).\u00a0<\/span><\/b>Although the \u201cKono Statement\u201d admitted the military\u2019s involvement and coercion, the facts remain vague as to who was actually responsible for the establishment and operation of the \u201ccomfort women\u201d system. This vagueness also seems to have led to a lack of clarity in finding a solution by the National Fund. Both the victims and the international community have clearly stated that the \u201ccomfort women\u201d system is \u201csexual slavery\u201d and that the Japanese military and government is responsible. In order to probe further into the truth of the matter, the disclosure of more materials is needed.\r\n\r\nSecond,\u00a0<\/span>the Japanese government must apologize and, as evidence of its sincerity, pay compensation to the victims (apology and compensation).\u00a0<\/span><\/b>Since the Japanese government has already recognized the issue as \u201can act, with the involvement of the military authorities of the day, that severely injured the honor and dignity of many women\u201d (\u201cKono Statement\u201d), what should be done first is to \u201capologize and pay compensation (national compensation)\u201d to the victims in a clear and unequivocal manner.\r\n\r\nThis can be realized by \u2460making an apology and admitting state responsibility in an official form such as by Cabinet decision or Diet resolution, \u2461sending a letter of apology to each one of the victimized women, and \u2462paying national compensation through legislation. Citizens\u2019 organizations have already proposed legislative solutions.\r\n\r\nThird,\u00a0<\/span>memories of the \u201ccomfort women\u201d issue must be passed down through the teaching of history and human rights so that the same mistake will not be repeated (passing down of memories).\u00a0<\/span><\/b>The Japanese government has already \u201creiterated our firm determination never to repeat the same mistake by forever engraving such issues in our memories through the study and teaching of history\u201d. Based on this, descriptions of \u201ccomfort women\u201d began to be included in junior high school history textbooks starting in 1997. This decision was highly regarded in victimized countries and in the international community.\r\n\r\nRegrettably, since the late 1990s, historical revisionism denying the \u201ccomfort women\u201d issue has arisen in Japanese society, and such descriptions have disappeared from textbooks since 2006. The resolutions discussed above of the plenary sessions of the United States House of Representatives and the European Parliament were adopted out of a concern about the \u201cdenial of memories\u201d. In the 2010s, the Japanese government has made active efforts to deny the \u201ccomfort women\u201d issue and to review the \u201cKono Statement\u201d. However, international opinion of not only the victimized countries but also the United States, European countries and Australia strongly warns against reviewing the statement, which would represent \u201cAnother Attempt to Deny Japan\u2019s History\u201d (Editorial from the \u201cNew York Times\u201d, January 3rd<\/sup>, 2013).\r\n\r\nUnfortunately, it can be said that internationally, the Japanese government\u2019s consciousness of history and human rights suffers from Galapagos syndrome. The Japanese government and society can gain the trust of the victims, the victimized countries, and the international community only if it takes the above measures in response to the \u201ccomfort women\u201d system, which constituted a grave human rights abuse against women. Seriously addressing and overcoming the past could then become the pride of Japan and the Japanese people.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n\u3008References\u3009\r\n\r\n\u30fbThe full text of \u201cKono Statement\u201d\r\nhttp:\/\/www.mofa.go.jp\/mofaj\/area\/taisen\/kono.html<\/a>\r\n\r\n\u30fbCenter for Research and Documentation on Japan\u2019s War Responsibility and Women\u2019s Active Museum on War and Peace,\u00a0<\/span>\u201cIt Was Made Clear to This extent! The Japanese Military \u2018Comfort Women\u2019 System\u201d<\/i>, Kamogawashuppan, 2007.\r\n\r\n\u30fb\u201cViolence Against Women in War\u201d Research Action Center (VAWW RAC), Nishino Rumiko, Kim Pu-ja and Onozawa Akane (Eds.), \u201cBeyond the Bashing against \u2018comfort women\u2019\u2015\u2018Kono Statement\u2019 and Japan\u2019s Responsibility<\/i>\u201d, Otsukishoten, 2013.\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"How should the \u201ccomfort women\u201d issue be resolved? To find the answer, let\u2019s look at some of the reasons that t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":9640,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"swell_btn_cv_data":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[213,216],"tags":[],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fightforjustice.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10426"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fightforjustice.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fightforjustice.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fightforjustice.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fightforjustice.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10426"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/fightforjustice.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10426\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10429,"href":"https:\/\/fightforjustice.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10426\/revisions\/10429"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fightforjustice.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fightforjustice.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fightforjustice.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fightforjustice.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
<\/a>The Japanese Government\u2019s Response to the \u201cComfort Women\u201d Issue<\/b><\/h2>\r\nMeanwhile, in response to reports of the discovery of official documents proving the military\u2019s involvement in the Library of the National Institute for Defense Studies in January, 1992 by a researcher of Japanese history, Yoshimi Yoshiaki, the Japanese government, which had denied the military\u2019s involvement at first, reversed its position and admitted its involvement. After that, the Japanese government conducted two research investigations on the issue and released the \u201cKono Statement\u201d in August, 1993, admitting the former Japanese military\u2019s involvement and coercion and expressing its \u201capologies and remorse\u201d. However, the Japanese government refused to pay compensation (national compensation) to individual victims. Payments made by the \u201cNational Fund for Peace in Asia for Women\u201d (1995\uff5e2007) were not national compensation but rather \u201catonement money\u201d that was donated by civilians.\r\n\r\nAlthough some victims accepted the payment, many victims refused to accept it, saying that \u201cthe purpose of the National Fund is not national compensation\u201d and \u201cthe state must pay compensation for crimes committed by the Japanese military, the state organ of Japan\u201d. The international community has also criticized the government, stating for example that the National Fund \u201cdoes not, however, satisfy the responsibility of the government of Japan to provide official, legal compensation to individual women who were victims of the \u2018comfort women\u2019 tragedy\u201d (UN McDougall Report in 1998).\r\n\r\nIn July, 2007, a resolution on \u201ccomfort women\u201d adopted by the plenary session of the United States House of Representatives demanded that the Japanese government apologize \u201cin a clear and unequivocal manner\u201d and in December of the same year, a resolution on \u201ccomfort women\u201d adopted by the European Parliament recommended that the Japanese government \u201cacknowledge victims\u2019 rights to demand compensation\u201d. Thus the Japanese government\u2019s refusal to pay compensation is not acceptable either to victims or to the international community.\r\n