South Korean judge orders Japan to pay $ 91,000 for each ‘comfort woman’

South Korean judge orders Japan to pay $ 91,000 for each ‘comfort woman’

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Victims sued the Japanese government in 2016 for kidnapping, sexual violence and torture during World War II. They were teenagers and 20 years old during Japan’s occupation of the Korean peninsula, and have been subjected to dozens of forced sexual acts by Japanese soldiers every day, the judge said in Friday’s decision.

These girls and women forced into sexual acts of slavery are known as “comfort women”. The practice was sanctioned and organized by the Imperial Japanese Army before and during World War II.

The Japanese occupation ended in 1945, but the victims suffered great psychological trauma in the years after the war, as well as widespread social stigma, the judge said. The judge granted the total amount of $ 91,000 (100 million won) requested by the plaintiffs, adding that the damages suffered exceeded that amount.

Japanese prime ministers have apologized in the past, and Tokyo believes the issue was resolved in 1965 as part of an agreement to normalize relations between the two countries. But South Korea was a military dictatorship at the time, and many Koreans say the deal was unfair.

Another historic deal in 2015 saw another apology and a $ 8 million pledge to a foundation to support surviving “comfort women”.

Despite existing agreements, claimants have the right to sue for damages, the judge said on Friday.

A woman holds a sign demanding a formal apology and compensation from Japan, at a rally that marks International Memorial Day for Comfort Women in Seoul, South Korea, in 2020.

In a statement after the decision, South Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the government “respects the court’s decision and will make every effort to restore the honor and dignity of the victims of ‘women of comfort'”

He acknowledged the 2015 agreement between the countries and said that the government will also “review the impact of the decision on diplomatic relations and make every effort to continue constructive and future-oriented cooperation between Korea and Japan”.

Japanese authorities strongly criticized the decision, however, with Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato calling it “extremely regrettable” and “absolutely unacceptable”, according to a Reuters feed from the press conference on Friday .

Kato added that the Japanese government is not subject to South Korean jurisdiction and that the country has repeatedly called for the case to be closed. “We strongly demand that South Korea, as a country, give an appropriate response to correct this violation of international law,” he said.

Consoling women from Korea

Experts estimate that up to 200,000 women in South Korea and other Asian countries have been forced into Japanese sexual slavery. The Japanese army recruited women, by mistake, coercion and force, into their brothels, according to a United Nations report on the matter.

“A large number of female victims speak of the violence practiced against family members who tried to prevent the abduction of their daughters and, in some cases, of being raped by soldiers in front of their parents before being forcibly removed,” the report said. .

North Korea and China are big winners in the worsening Japan-South Korea dispute

Despite Japan’s apology and compensation, South Korean activists say the apology has not gone far enough and many demand further redress.

The topic remains a bitter point in the strained relations between the two countries. In 2017, a memorial statue became the center of a diplomatic fight, with Japan interrupting negotiations on a planned currency exchange, delaying economic dialogue and calling back two diplomats from South Korea.
Relations have only worsened since then. In 2018, South Korea’s Supreme Court ruled that its citizens can sue Japanese companies for using Korean forced labor during World War II. Tensions rose in 2019, when the two countries entered a close military dispute. Months later, a trade war broke out when Japan abandoned South Korea as a preferred trading partner, and South Korea downgraded its trade ties with Japan in response.

“As victims of the great suffering of Japanese imperialism in the past, we, for our part, cannot fail to take Japan’s ongoing economic retaliation very seriously,” said South Korean President Moon Jae-in after the economic measures of retaliation. “It is even more so because this economic retaliation is in itself unjustifiable and also has its roots in historical issues.”

'Devil's Symbol': Why South Korea wants Japan to ban the Rising Sun flag from the Tokyo Olympics

Historical animosity is also felt among many citizens; more than 36,000 South Koreans signed a petition during the 2019 trade dispute, urging the government to take retaliatory measures against Tokyo. Many South Koreans have also called for a boycott of Japanese products on social media.

The conflict even reached athletics, with South Korea’s parliamentary sports committee calling for a ban on the Rising Sun flag at the Tokyo Olympics in 2020 (which was postponed until 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic). The controversial flag symbolized Japanese imperialism and war atrocities, South Korean officials argued.

“The Rising Sun flag is similar to a symbol of the devil for Asians and Koreans, just as the swastika is a symbol of the Nazis, reminding Europeans of invasion and horror,” said An Min-suk, chairman of the parliamentary committee of Sports.

But Olympic organizers refused to ban the flag from competition venues, arguing that “the flag itself is not considered a political statement”.

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