A South Korean court ordered Japan to indemnify women forced to work in Japanese military brothels during World War II, a historic decision that ignited tensions between U.S. allies shortly before Joe Biden took office.
The Seoul District Court on Friday took what is believed to be the first decision ordering Japan to compensate what euphemistically known as “comfort women” in a case filed on behalf of 12 of the woman. He ordered the Japanese government to pay 100 million won ($ 91,000) each to surviving women and family members of those who died.
“The plaintiffs appear to have suffered extreme physical and mental pain,” said the court in its decision. The claimants filed a lawsuit against the Japanese government in 2013, demanding 100 million won ($ 92,500) each for damages.
The court said Japan had refused to accept documents related to the matter and dismissed claims that Tokyo could invoke state immunity to the case, saying the war trafficking case is “against humanitarianism”.
The Japanese government’s chief spokesman, Katsunobu Kato, told reporters in Tokyo that the decision cannot be accepted and strongly urged the South Korean government to remedy what it called a violation of international law.
“Under the principle of sovereign immunity, the Japanese government cannot be subject to the orders of a South Korean court. The case must be closed, ”said Kato. “It is extremely unfortunate that this type of verdict has been reached,” said Kato.
In 2015, Japan and South Korea announced a “final and irreversible” agreement that came with a personal apology to the women of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, as well as about $ 9.3 million for a compensation fund.
Some of the women protested, arguing that the agreement was made without consultation and violated their constitutional rights. South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who took office in 2017, effectively closed the fund, widening the gap between the two U.S. military allies, crucial to curbing China’s growing global influence and South Korea’s atomic ambitions. North.
In September, Moon suffered a coup when prosecutors filed charges of embezzlement against a legislator from his ruling party, Yoon Mee-hyang, claiming that she illegally diverted government grants and grants to a support group for comfort women when she led him.
Yoon denied the charges in the case that surfaced last year, when a survivor of war trafficking accused the group of raising funds to enrich themselves and do little to help women who were forced into sexual servitude.
Tensions increased even more among neighbors after a series of South Korean court rulings in late 2018 demanding that Japan pay compensation to Koreans recruited to work in Japanese factories and mines during the country’s colonial rule from 1910-1945 over the Korean peninsula.
The U.S. was forced to intervene when South Korea threatened in 2019 to withdraw from a joint intelligence-sharing agreement, with Moon retreating at the last minute after facing pressure from Washington.
Japan says that all claims were “completely and definitively resolved” under a 1965 agreement, which accompanied the treaty by establishing diplomatic ties between the two countries. In contrast, Moon’s administration believes that the individual suffering of many victims was not covered by the treaty.
Japan paid the equivalent of $ 300 million – $ 2.5 billion in today’s money – and provided $ 200 million in low-interest loans. The then-fighting South Korea invested the money in industries that eventually helped turn it into an economic power.
Historians say that between 50,000 and 200,000 women – many of them Korean – were forced to serve in Japanese military brothels.
– With the help of Gareth Allan
(Updates with Japan’s rejection of the action in the fifth paragraph)