No Justice for “Comfort Women”

BY SAMUEL LEITER

During the Second World War, the Imperial Japanese Army adopted a policy that forced somewhere between 200,000 and 300,000 women into prostitution. These women came from both Japan and the nations conquered by Japan during World War II, including Korea and China. In 2007, the current prime minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe, denied that Japan coerced women into prostitution, contradicting the Kono Statement of 1993, which admitted that the Imperial Japanese Army had been involved in forcing huge numbers of women into prostitution during the war. There has been a recent shift in Japan towards a more abrasive and nationalistic tone as tensions with China grow. This tone not only harms Japan’s position internationally, but is completely dismissive of international law and human rights.

By refusing to acknowledge comfort women, Japan is ignoring the fact that these were real women who lost their lives or suffered immensely due to forced prostitution. The treatment of these women varied, but was often barbaric—survivors reported that those who got sick, pregnant, or exhausted were killed. The murder of these women was often brutal beyond belief. Survivor accounts include one teenage girl being buried alive, and another being sexually tortured until she died. Those who did survive were often traumatized, infertile, or afflicted by sexually transmitted diseases. After the war, former comfort women were treated terribly by their own countries. One Chinese comfort woman was sentenced to 17 years of hard labor for being a collaborator, and this type of treatment was not uncommon.

Although World War II may seem like a bygone era, the experience of comfort women is still a contentious issue today. As the Wall Street Journal reported, a “dwindling group of surviving comfort women in South Korea, China and other countries are still awaiting justice as politicians wrangle over issues of culpability.” Women now in their eighties and nineties have demanded reparations from both South Korea—which collaborated with the Japanese during the Japanese occupation and the Americans during the American occupation—and Japan, which used its army to force women into prostitution. However, these women have so far been unsuccessful, despite serious concerted efforts. For example, in 2008 several NGOs worked together to create a case for 122 South Korean women who filed a lawsuit for 100 million dollars against the South Korean government because of their mistreatment in the decades following the Korean War. This case has not yet been decided, but is expected to go to trial soon. If past attempts by comfort women to get some sort of justice are any measure by which to predict the outcome the lawsuit, though, its success appears unlikely.

A similar case was struck down in 1998 by a Japanese judge, and 46 Filipino women forced into sexual slavery during World War II were denied justice. One Filipino woman broke down in tears as she recounted her story of being forced into sexual slavery at the age of 13 to a room full of reporters. The case was dismissed because, according to the judge, international law does not provide for individual claims of compensation against a former occupying country. While this is technically true, it does not change the injustice of the situation. Additionally, though individuals have not received compensation by occupying powers, nations have. Most famously, Israel received reparations from Germany after World War II. Compensating a group of people is not unprecedented, and the distinction between a group of people that does not constitute a nation and a group of people that does (i.e. Israel) is fairly arbitrary. The decision against the Filipino women in 1998 followed a decision earlier in the year that granted three comfort women the right to an apology and reparations—the closest any comfort women have come to receiving just compensation. But these women did not receive compensation, as a Hiroshima high court struck down their case in 2001.

Thousands upon thousands were killed, tortured, and punished by their own governments because they were forced to be comfort women by an occupying power. Despite numerous attempts at justice, they have yet to receive any compensation for their suffering. The Abe administration has added insult to injury by refusing to acknowledge such atrocities ever occurred. Even if the 122 women suing the South Korean government today are successful in their lawsuit, little justice will be served to the thousands of women whose lives were destroyed by violence and the stigma of forced prostitution.