The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family Affairs on Wednesday expressed its disappointment with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda’s denial of Korean sex slaves drafted by the Japanese military during its 1910-1945 colonial rule.
“We are more than disappointed about the level of the Japanese Prime Minister’s understanding of the issue. We call for his government’s proactive resolution of the issue to reinstate the honor of these victims of the wartime slavery,” the ministry stated. The ministry is in charge of a slew of commemorative events to stabilize the living of the remaining victims and restore their reputation.
Two days earlier, Noda reportedly said: “a large discrepancy exists when it comes to a question whether the description of the statue of a girl, erected in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul, as an expression of a sexual slave of the Japanese soldiers is accurate.”
The statue was built there to mark the 1,000th rally by comfort women demanding an apology and compensation.
There are 61 comfort women survivors registered with the Korean government. International organizations including the United Nations and the International Labor Organization acknowledge that comfort women were forced to work in Japanese military brothels as sex slaves.
In 1998, a local court in Yamaguchi prefecture acknowledged sexual slavery and ordered the Japanese government to pay 300,000 yen ($3,600) to each of the three plaintiffs who were comfort women, but its ruling was later reversed by a higher court.
The Japanese government has refused to disclose any details or make an official apology for the comfort women issue. Instead, it has claimed that all compensation regarding its colonization of the Korean Peninsula has been offset by the Korea-Japanese treaty in 1965 which offered some indemnity and loans.
On Tuesday, the Japanese government approved 39 high school textbooks, 21 of which claim that Korea’s easternmost islets of Dokdo belong to Japan. The textbooks are to be adopted in the next academic year.
By Bae Ji-sook (
baejisook@heraldcorp.com)
