Japan still stubborn on sex slavery issue

The Korea Herald, Asia News Network, Seoul

The latest disclosure of unclassified U.S. and Japanese official documents provides yet more evidence of the heinous crimes against humanity committed by the Japanese imperialists during World War II. Over the decades, Tokyo has consistently denied its involvement in the wartime sex camps organized for frontline troops and industrial laborers. But the recently discovered documents support the heartrending testimonies of inhumane experiences by former sex slaves from Korea and other Asian nations.

A duo of Korean university professors revealed in a press conference in Seoul last week that they had acquired crucial evidence that the Japanese imperial government was involved in the operations of "comfort stations" on various Asian frontlines and at factories for military supplies. Contrary to Japan's persistent position that most "comfort women" voluntarily chose their job for financial reasons, the documents claim they were mostly cheated or coerced into the official brothels to serve the imperial Japan's military objectives.

Among Japan's wartime documents is an army department note informing a coal mining company in Hokkaido, in northern Japan, of a plan to "deploy Korean and Chinese prostitutes to increase the productivity of laborers." Another document of the agency for "greater East Asia" says "the comfort women will be recruited as laundresses so they can be legally mobilized." And still another paper at the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration states that scores of Korean women "became comfort girls under compulsion and misrepresentation."

The statement was based on the testimonies made by 22 Korean women during interrogations in a camp for prisoners of war in Kunming, southern China, in 1945. Of these, the paper says, 15 were recruited through advertisements in Korean newspapers offering employment for girls at Japanese factories in Singapore. They were among some 15,000 young Korean women who worked for Japanese corporations, often tricked into serving as laborers during the day and sex slaves for male workers at night.

Prof. Jeong Jin-seong of Seoul National University and Prof. Edward T. Chang at the University of California at Riverside have been searching for records about Japan's wartime sexual exploitation of women over the years. Much has been disclosed about military sex camps during the past decade, as the former sex slaves in Korea and other Asian countries grew old and brave enough to talk about their once unspeakable experiences. But the existence of similar facilities run by businesses, including such large firms as Mitsubishi, has seldom been discussed.

The two professors said they would continue research in this less debated area of Japan's criminal wartime record. They hope the results of their study will help surviving victims who may want to seek compensation from the Japanese government -- through civil or criminal proceedings, if necessary. Past experiences guard against optimism, however. None of the lawsuits filed by former comfort women since 1991 has led to the desired ruling of an official apology and compensation from Tokyo recognizing its legal responsibility.

It is a mystery how many Japanese recognize the fact they have double standards regarding their ignominious human rights violations committed against millions of other Asians during World War II and North Korea's alleged abduction of a few dozen Japanese citizens in the 1970s to 1980s. This is not to defend the crimes committed by Pyongyang during peacetime. But it may be a little more appropriate if the Japanese earnestly look back on their dark past for a short moment in the midst of their frenzied condemnation of North Korea.