Japan issues $11M apology over S. Korean sex slaves
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made a landmark apology to South Korean “comfort women” coerced into Japanese military brothels before and during the Second World War, with his government agreeing to provide one billion yen ($11.5 million Canadian) to a fund for compensating victims. The governments of Japan and South Korea agreed that this would be a final “irreversible” solution to an issue that has dogged bilateral ties for decades. Abe’s message was delivered by Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida at a press conference in Seoul after a meeting with South Korean counterpart Yun Byung-se.
“Prime Minister Abe expresses anew his most sincere apologies and remorse to all the women who underwent immeasurable and painful experiences and suffered incurable physical and psychological wounds as comfort women,” Kishida said.
“The issue of comfort women, with an involvement of the Japanese military authorities at that time, was a grave affront to the honour and dignity of large numbers of women, and the government of Japan is painfully aware of responsibilities from this perspective.”
Resolving the issue might give both leaders a political bounce as they prepare for legislative elections next year, as well as help reinvigorate trade that has declined in recent years. Improved ties would also be welcomed by the United States, which has more than 75,000 troops in the two countries as they deal with a rising China and a nuclear-armed North Korea.
“The worst is over between the two countries,” said Jin Chang-soo, director of Japan studies at the nonprofit Sejong Institute, near Seoul. “The issue of historical disputes can be seen as mostly resolved and it’s now time for the two sides to talk about real issues that affect their interests; not only how they are going to boost their trade, but also how they will work together with the U.S. to reshape the geopolitical order of the region.” South Korean President Park Geun-hye told Kishida later Monday that the agreement could be a new starting point for relations with Japan, according to the website of her office.
The two governments also agreed to avoid criticism of one another on the international stage over the issue. South Korea’s Yun also said that his country would address the question of a comfort woman statue set up by activists outside the Japanese embassy in Seoul.
Last month, the South Korean president and Japanese prime minister held the first bilateral summit between the countries in more than three years, agreeing to expedite a resolution of the issue. While Abe acknowledged the “immeasurable damage and suffering” inflicted by Japan in an August statement marking the 70th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, he said his nation shouldn’t be expected to keep apologizing for the conflict.
Japan colonized the Korean Peninsula from 1910 to 1945. Abe infuriated South Korea’s public in 2013 when he visited a Tokyo war-dead shrine seen by many in Asia as a symbol of past militarism. Historians say anywhere from 50,000 to 200,000 women — many of them Korean — passed through Japan’s military brothels.