Park urges Abe to resolve 'comfort women' issue

Abe should urge Park to apologize for her father's use of the Comfort Women during WWII as an IJA officer.

The sad thing is Japan and Korea could have been very close allies, with a bit of forward thinking from the Japanese government.

If the Japanese Government (not individual PMs) had long ago ratified a position on the issue of imperial war crimes and raised a statue or two in Japan in remembrance of the victims, and spent 10% of its efforts remembering the Japanese victims on remembering the victims of Imperial Japan, the two countries could have helped each other enormously over the course of recent history.

It should also be said that SK haven't exactly approached the issue genuinely seeking reconciliation, but the aggressor should be the one to initiate the reconciliation. Hoping to see the two countries collaborate rather than bicker in the near future.

How can they resolve this issue if neither side will accept a resolution?

The former sex slaves are known as "comfort women" only in Japan, for political reasons. The Japanese would never accept a similar euphemism for atomic bomb victims.

Yeah, the term comfort women would be like calling the hibakusha 'warm people'.

DisillusionedNOV. 14, 2015 - 10:00AM JST How can they resolve this issue if neither side will accept a resolution?

I've yet to see any evidence that this is the case. Oh, no doubt loads of people on JT claim it's the case in order to cast the narrative in a way that presents Korea as a wrong-doer, but we can't exactly test the theory until Japan makes an unambiguous attempt to resolve it. That hasn't happened yet.

They call rape victims comfort women? Disgusting! I wonder what they call Japanese women who are raped? I'll bet it has nothing to do with comfort.

ELeah: They were not rape victim. They were sex slaves. JIA made them serve lined up soldiers all day long every day They had no choice. They were drafted.

Japan is the only country to conduct sex trafficking at the central government level. I bet no one can challenge that.

Most of the sex slaves were raped to death. I total agree with the statement immediately above. I am not a woman, but I can tell you that there’s nothing Comforting to be raped to death. Sick and disgusting savages!

Just admit the truth and move on!

preposterous****

Well done, Ms. Park! Getting Abe to come over and challenging him in front of the world media like this, including giving interviews to international media on the subjects, sets him up to either fail miserably in the eyes of the world and continue to toe the nationalist line that he loves so much, or else he will have to finally and formally apologize. I'm guessing the former; and with the eyes of the world focussed on the it this is going to bring a lot of pressure on Japan to actually try to make amends and acknowledge -- SINCERELY -- that they forced women into prostitution and raped them, etc.

If they don't, and especially if people deny it, there will be hell to pay and the issue will take the forefront again in international relations.

Deniers should be put in prison, as with the Holocaust denier who is 87 years old was sentenced to prison yesterday in German, and not patted on the back like they are in Japan. The denial in itself is a crime.

Most of the sex slaves were raped to death

Statements like this don't help. I agree the term "sex slave" is more appropriate. However, let's not make such statements without providing any proof, any background information.

smithinkorea

Deniers should be put in prison, as with the Holocaust denier who is 87 years old was sentenced to prison yesterday in German, and not patted on the back like they are in Japan. The denial in itself is a crime.

Wow. Are you joking? Do present your explanation how come so much of so-called victims have such discrepancies in their tsestimonies and shifts in contents of those. will you? don't you ever use good execuse like PTSD or they are too old to remember well like in famous discussion manual. They started testimonies when they were early 60's.

Too many difference for the simple-minded to compare between Japan and Germeny, including who and how Germany made apology to for what. Bud

Cheers

Another typical reaction bringing in the cases of Non-Korean victims. For the obvious crimes, the persons in charge punished already to death and cases were closed at trial. I believe the thread is about Korea and the comfortwomen statues.

Stay on topic! as you always blame Japanese right wingers, otherwise let them compare cases against the ones committed by Koreans, Chinese, Russians, Americans, which were all less inhumane.

As for the question about memory of 10, 20, 30years ago, I remeber every details, especially if those are some horrible, terrible ones, remember every inches of details much better than something cheerful, no matter how much I want to forget . Those come along up to the grave, maybe.

Don't you know the most famous victim Lee Yong suh blaming Teitaikyo, NGO supporting them for it's manupulations of contens of each testimonies???

You don't have to depend on their memory. Go to JSDF Library. It has archives of J Govt issued orders. That and collection of old Asahi, Mainichi that stated J IMA statement, "We will have useless female to be used for war cause," J IMA also created Joshi Teishintai for girls who could not go girls middle school and finish schooling after 8th grade of elementary school promising they would be nurse. Until Gen MacArther suggested Japan stops one tradition of by northern poor crop farmers to sell their daughters to southern prostitute house, .HitoKai business existed. Some people think Japanese mukuraey govt hided, No, they were very proud of what they created. Yjrtr str many weeilis in Japan. Memories of returned soldiers used filled pagwa auch aa open sky ceiling, goa hanging as wakks in 4 oikwa, how rhey lined up to wait, etc. We Japanese did not depend on their talks.. We don't know Korean language.

toshiko

So what? what those got to do with lies that IJA forcebly abducted 200k women from the penninsula?

Christopher Glen

How about the large number of crimes Koreans are commiting in Japan now? Koreans criminals is TWICE the Chinese. And SK is sending so many prostitutes to Japan. Why don't you focus on the problems SK is causing now in other countries?

@Die: IJA drafted to convince japanese, My point is that IJA was awfully proud of atrocity they were doing until JAPAN was finally defeated. Some writers comments sound they think IJA officials had guilty conscious.

@Tina: finger pointing at others. Typical response when there are no useful arguments to pose. I am not interested in the current socio-economic climate of Japan and South Korea. I am interested in Japan taking honest, sincere steps to remove this deep stain on its history

toshiko

So you saying IJA had been awfully proud of drafting young girls as Teishintai to be put into sex slavery centers all over SE Asia, and of slaughtering 300,000 more of iinnocnet civilian chinese and of chopping up , torturing live humans for chemical weapons, ... OK I take notes

There are two types of translations. Anyone who had to major Bungaku linguistic knows. About Ianfu, Japan and some people use Ji-yaku Comfort Woman. i usually use IYaku and people get upset. Seiyoku Dorei (Sex Slave) is my Iyaku.

marcelito

I call BS on that. No you don't remember every detail of what happened to you 30 years ago because you are not super human.

Are you me? LOL. In Psycological Trauma, the more terrible your experience is, you either remember every details or completely lose your memory to make testimonies.

sorry you can not deny that JIA had Dutch, Australian etc. sex slaves... Their testimonies and evidence are out there. No its not IJA's sex slaves. Those are crimes commited by soldiers. Where did I deny the Sexual crime victims in the battlefields by Japanese soldiers? Those happened everywhere in WARs including Japanese as victims and Chinese, Korean, Russian, American as the wrongdoers. As far as crimes by some IJA units outthere, they were punished and case closed. Go to AWF degital archives.

War time comfort become peace time grate discomfort and the scream of raped woman is haunting Japan and damaging relations with neighbors.

The other day, North Korean Comfort women also stood up and held press inteview in PyongYang. Their testimonies were like "Japanese soldiers raped and killed young girls and made soup stock out of them after and ate them"

Of course Japan is not allowed to argue or ask for verfication is it?

No. Japan is in no position, shape or form to rebutt what happened. It is like a murderer who was witnessed committing their crime, and still has the weapon in their hand saying "I didn't do it". The actions of the Japanese government since world war 2 have been those of a sulking bully. Giving reluctant apologies in one breath, refuting them in the next, and throwing peanuts at their victims

Christpher Glen

No. Japan is in no position, shape or form to rebutt what happened.

Sounds very much fair! Why don't you all support campaigns to erect more statues of the girls with additional inscriptions such like " IJA raped, killed, made soup stock, and ate up" Please do.

Giving reluctant apologies in one breath, refuting them in the next, and throwing peanuts at their victims

Nope. Thats not appropriate description, that is merely the way you wish those happened.

throwing peanuts at their victims

You are insulting not only Japan but also the victims who had received AWF to rest for the peace. Shame on you!

Thats not conscience, hatred is appropriate expression.

I am not interested in the current socio-economic climate of Japan and South Korea

You said Japan was sulking, so I said if it was only sulking the trade/tourism/investment wouldn't have been affected.

throwing peanuts at their victims

Japan is the victim bullied by Korea so many years.

Nope. My conscience is clear. Revisionists are those insulting the sex slaves and other victims of Imperial Japan

Nothing wrong with revising distorted history when appropriate. ignorant conscience creates false charge and make things worse.

Distorted? See, that's what I mean by living in a parallel universe. Feel free to continue to do so. Reality will do me just fine. Park has every right to keep at Shin-chan about the sex slaves

Distorted minds cannot see distortion or not willing to

marcelito

Those who always blame Japanese use "the traditional"defence line are all hypocrites. Japanese War Crimes and Criminals were punished already including sex crimes. It is questionablbe to pick up Japan only to blame on those sex crimes in the battlefield NOW. Those sex crimes in the battlefield makes real picture of Korean comfortwomen case very unclear.

Organized & Systemic way , Rape ordered from the top down?

The Top, Who? Emperor? Tojo? ordered to abduct women and rape them?

Give us long breaks will you please?