Wartime sex slaves verdict a breakthrough
Wartime sex slaves verdict a breakthrough
TOKYO: In a damning and historic judgment, a Japanese court Monday ordered the government to compensate three former Korean "comfort women" who were forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese army during the World War II.
Judge Hideaki Chikashita said the treatment of the women was "a clear case of sexual and ethnic discrimination as a well as a violation of the human rights enshrined in the constitution".
The court told the government to pay 300,000 yen (US$2,290) in compensation to each of the three women. It was the first ruling in favor of plaintiffs seeking compensation from Tokyo for their suffering during the war.
The judge was scathingly critical of the government's failure to pass laws to provide official compensation, despite admitting its involvement in the women's conscription. Historians estimate that up to 200,000 women, mostly from Korea, were forced to provide sex for Japanese soldiers in military brothels before and during the war.
Although Tokyo admitted in 1992 that the wartime government had helped to set up such brothels, it has refused to pay direct compensation to the women, arguing that the issue was settled by peace treaties. Instead, it has set up a private fund, which has paid former sex slaves more than pounds 45,000 in the past two years.
Many of the women have refused the money, saying the government is evading its responsibility.
Monday's ruling was the first of six suits brought by former comfort women against the government. The rest are still pending. Lee Sun-dok, aged 79, from Kwangju, South Korea, testified that she had been taken to China in 1937 on a false promise of work, then confined and forced to provide sex for Japanese soldiers until the end of the war in 1945.
The judge accepted that she and two other plaintiffs had been "brought to the brothels without knowing their destinations and then made to work as comfort women by force".
They were among 10 plaintiffs demanding $4 million and an official apology from the government. The court rejected the claims of the seven other women, who had been forced to work in factories, and ruled that the government was not obliged to apologize.
At a news conference after the judgment, Ms Lee demanded a "proper apology and compensation". She called the amount awarded an insult to women "who were treated lower than human beings". Human rights groups in Japan and abroad also criticized the amount of compensation, though they hailed the landmark ruling.
"This is a very unusual and encouraging decision. It will help us in our fight," said Koken Tsuchiya, a lawyer who is trying to convince the parliament to pass a law permitting compensation.
The ruling is expected to affect relations between Japan and South Korea, which this month set up its own fund to help the comfort women while repeating demands for Tokyo to pay official compensation.
In Japan, the issue continues to provoke heated debate. A strong rightwing lobby insists that the women were willing prostitutes and demands that the government delete references to the issue from school textbooks, which were only allowed to cover the subject three years ago.
-- Guardian News Service