Japanese Military Comfort Women: Political Debate between Korea and Japan
Although discouraged by the Japan and US court decisions, Korean comfort women, supporters, and activists have persistently worked to start a worldwide movement to shed light on the issue of comfort women as a matter of human rights and freedom, rather than a diplomatic conflict between the Korean and Japanese governments. Recently, many countries, including the US, have recognized the important issue of Korean comfort women and support the rationale that it must be protested with regard to human rights and sex crimes.
In 2017, the US Supreme court declined to hear a case calling for the removal of a comfort women statue in Glendale, California.
The city of San Francisco showed its support by permitting the erection of the Statue of Peace, a statue of three girls—from Korea, China, and the Philippines—holding hands as Hak-Sun Kim looks on. Furthermore, Mayor Edwin Lee signed a resolution to turn the statue into a city monument, which negatively affected the city's relationship with Japan. In consequence, the mayor of Osaka, Japan declared a termination of a city tie with San Francisco.
Read about it here:
- 'Comfort Women' Statue in San Francisco Leads a Japanese City to Cut Ties
- An Important Statue for "Comfort Women" in San Francisco
- San Francisco Accepts Comfort Women Statue
- Osaka Mayor to End Sister City Status with San Francisco over 'Comfort Women' Statue
- Why Japan Is Losing its Battle Against Statues of Colonial-era 'Comfort Women'
Read more about it here:A CNN news report explains the diplomatic conflict between Korea and Japan:In 2015, former Korean President Park and Japanese prime minister Abe came together to settle a deal that was described as a final and irreversible resolution. Abe offered "most sincere apologies and remorse" and offered compensation of $8.7 million to help victims, but the apology was deemed a personal expression rather than an official recognition or admission by the Japanese military. During the negotiation process with Japan, Park's administration rushed to settle the deal with the Japanese government but failed to obtain full support from the Korean comfort women and ordinary citizens for the following reasons: 1) the Japanese government was willing to offer monetary compensation to the Reconciliation and Healing Foundation (a Korean organization), but Korean comfort women and human rights activists demanded official reparations for the crimes; 2) the Japanese government expressed moral responsibility, but the Korean comfort women insisted on the admission of the Japanese military's legal responsibility for the crime; and 3) as part of the deal, the Japanese government wanted to eliminate the statue of peace in Korea and prohibit Koreans from using the term "comfort women."
In 2017, the Republic of Korea went through a democratic candlelight protest movement to impeach former President Park and afterwards elected President Moon. President Moon's administration disagrees with the former president Park’s handling of the issue of Korean comfort women. It remains a controversial debate with Japan.
