Another controversial issue that has invited world's attention over the past two decades has been the transnational movement on the so-called comfort women of the Pacific War. Comfort women are the name the Japanese army called the women in Asia region who are forced to sexual slavery. Sexual slavery was justified by Japanese army during the Pacific War because it was believed to have relieved Japanese soldiers discontent and sexual desires and also alleviate their fear of war. In the late 1980s, knowledge about the Japanese military’s forceful recruitment of women for their sexual services during the war time period in the late 1930s and 1945 triggered a transnational redress movement. Between 80,000 and 200,000 comfort women were estimated to have been recruited from Korea and other Asian countries by the Japanese army. The comfort women issue became a main bone of contention between governments of the South Korea and Japan as well as nationalist and feminist activist. These elderly former sex slave survivors, or comfort women grannies, ‘Weeanbu Halmuni’ in Korean, who are willing to face the stigma of sexual defilement have been invited to speak in various forums and tribunals to offer their testimonies. Korean survivors had to bury their experiences in the shameful silence, but now they are vocal and symbolic activists in correcting the past oppression by demanding apology and compensation, and reminding imperialist militarism, colonization, and inhumanity. Comfort women issue gained the public attention after the survivor by the name of Kim Haksoon offered her testimony on August the 14th in 1991. Korea and tran-international activists define the comfort to women issue as a wartime sexual violence. And established organizations such as the Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan. A famous scholar of Japan, Ueno Chizuko, argues that the comfort women system is a crime of double offense. First, rape in war time is a crime. And second, Japanese negligence of this atrocity for over a half of a century is another crime. Also she argues that the current conservative Japanese politicians' denial of the testimonies from the victims of this crime should be considered the third crime. The true form compensation for the victims can only be sincere apology from the offender, and modern nations’ effort to prevent repetition of such crime, and record and never forget the history. Director Byun Youngjoo in her 1995 ‘Murmuring’ illustrate the lives in everyday sadness of these survivors living in the house of sharing, a communal residence for these women. Since then, a series of films about the comfort women issue, such as ‘63 Years On’ ‘My Heart is Not Broken Yet’ and most recently ‘Spirits' Homecoming’ did well at the box office. The Japanese government has insisted that the issue has been closed with the 1965 treaty between Korea and Japan and the following compensations. It further argues that comfort women were not sexual slaves but sex workers who voluntary participated in state regulated licensed prostitution, which is ‘Kongchang’ in Korean. In addition, the Japanese state has asserted that while and apology on humanitarian ground could be given, it does not have any obligation to compensate. And that compensation should be offered to these women via a national funds from South Korea. In December 1996 a conservative group called the Japanese Society for History Textbook Reform was found as it has begun to spread a discourse denying the existence of comfort women system by the Japanese army. The society continues to distort history by denying the existence of the sex slavery and efforts have been attempt to challenge this group. In December 2015, the governments of Korea and Japan agreed to build the Reconciliation and Healing Foundation to proceed with a compensation process and to publicly finalize this agenda. However, the problem remains that both governments closed their discussion without an official apology from Japan. Former sexual slaves were witnesses who demanded a sincere apology from the Japanese government since the beginning of their struggle. And therefore an apology has been the key issue behind all the redress movement until now. The Wednesday assembly which demands for an apology from the Japanese government has protested in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul since January 8th, 1992. And marked it's 1,249th rally on December 28th in 2016. On the 1,000th regular assembly in year 2011, participants and organizers of rally set up the Statue of Peace. A bronze statue of a girl dressed in traditional Korean hanbok symbolizing young girls who were kidnapped for sexual slavery. This is what we call ‘Sonyuhsang’. The motive behind this act was to share this tragic history with the next generations through the public monument. The statue soon became a symbol of comfort women issues with many overtones. Young Korean women have gone to the streets calling for scrapping the Korea-Japan accord in year 2016 on comfort women deal as well. For about a decade the Wednesday Assembly has opened a regular weekly international rally for comfort women whose participants include the big teams of sex slavery around the world, including the United States and Belgium, and many other countries. This shows that the comfort women issue is not only the issue of Korea-Japan relations, or is limited to national history or ethnicity. It is intricately tied to women and gender issues, which has created a strong global solidarity against trafficking of women. The survivors of Japanese sexual slavery are scattered across Asia, in the Philippines, Indonesia, China, North Korea, and elsewhere. Only 39 out of 238 registered survivors in South Korea live today, in December of 2016. Would the issue of comfort women cease to be debated when all the survivors die? What are the social responsibilities and ethical positions for those of us living in this global world? Especially those of us who are not the victims of sexual slavery but are their descendants and part of the humanity at large. What do you think? For those of you who are interested in this topic, please read the following materials.
