The government said Wednesday it will soon release teaching aids for school children on Japan's wartime sex slavery.
The move is aimed at properly dealing with the Japanese government's attempt to whitewash its wartime misdeeds and help Korean students better understand the issue of the former sex slaves, the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family and the Education Ministry said.
Historians estimate more than 200,000 Korean and other Asian women were forced into sexual servitude for Japanese soldiers during World War II. Only 54 victims remain alive in South Korea, with their average age standing at 88.
Currently being authored by various history teachers, the materials will be released online by the middle of this month after undergoing reviews by activists and experts of relevant civic and academic groups, as well as the state-funded Northeast Asian History Foundation.
The materials will also be made into books for free release to regional educational offices and major libraries around the country.
They will be composed of workbooks, PowerPoint and Prezi files, and videos about the former Korean sex slaves that can be used optionally as supplementary teaching and learning materials in classes.
Students and teachers can easily download the materials from the electronic history museum for the sex slavery victims at http://www.hermuseum.go.kr or the foundation's history portal at http://contents.nahf.or.kr.
On Tuesday, Tokyo angered South Koreans by approving middle-school textbooks that stepped up its claim over South Korea's easternmost islets of Dokdo.
"We hope the release of the educational materials would serve as a chance to help Korean students more precisely understand the issue of the Korean victims of the Japanese sexual enslavement and learn and put into action the importance of women's human rights and peace," Kim Hee-jung, minister of gender equality, said in a press release. (Yonhap)
