SEOUL, South Korea – A South Korean court on Friday ordered Japan to financially indemnify 12 South Korean women forced to work as sex slaves for Japanese troops during World War II, the first decision that should reignite animosities among Asian neighbors.
Japan immediately protested the decision, arguing that all wartime compensation issues were resolved under a 1965 treaty that normalized its ties.
The Seoul Central District Court ruled that the Japanese government should give $ 91,360 each to the 12 women who filed the lawsuits in 2013 for their sexual slavery during the war.
The court said that Japan’s mobilization of these women as sex slaves was “a crime against humanity”. He said the mobilization came when Japan “illegally occupied” the Korean Peninsula of 1910-45 so that his sovereign immunity could not protect him from lawsuits in South Korea.
The court said women were victims of “violent sexual activity” by Japanese troops, which caused bodily injury, venereal disease and unwanted pregnancies and left “major mental scars” in women’s lives.
Observers say Japan is unlikely to comply with the South Korean court’s decision. A Korean women’s support group said it could take legal action to freeze Japanese government assets in South Korea if Japan refuses to compensate women.
Japan’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement that its deputy foreign minister, Takeo Akiba, had summoned the South Korean ambassador, Nam Gwan-pyo, to register his protest against the decision.
The verdict comes as South Korea seeks to repair tense ties with Japan over wartime history and trade, since the departure of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in September, which many South Koreans believe have tried to cover up Japanese colonial abuses.
Bilateral disputes exploded after a 2018 decision by the South Korean Supreme Court, which required Japanese companies to offer damages to elderly South Korean plaintiffs for their forced labor during the war. The dispute turned into a trade war that saw the two countries downgrade the other’s commercial status and then spread to military issues when Seoul threatened to end a 2016 military intelligence sharing agreement with Tokyo.