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In Unity There is Strength: Monument to Comfort Women Gets a Friend


SEOUL, Oct. 29 (Korea Bizwire) – A monument to comfort women, a statue of a little Korean girl, now sits together with a statue of a Chinese girl.


On October 28, nine girls and three boys wearing black and white traditional clothes pulled on a rope to reveal the statues of a Korean girl and Chinese girl who were sacrificed as comfort women.


The Korean girl statue made by the sculptor couple Kim Woon-sung (50) and Kim Seo-kyung (49) is the same as the one that sits in front of the building that used to house the Japanese embassy. The Chinese girl statue was made by filmmaker Leo Shi-yong (54) and art professor Pan Yi-qun (54). She is wearing a Chinese dress and has braided hair.

Under the Korean girl statue, there is a shadow, but there are four footprints beneath the Chinese girl statue. Officials explain that the footprints are replicas of the footprints of actual Chinese women that were sacrificed as comfort women.


Leo Shi-yong first suggested making the two statues. “Two years ago when I first saw the monument made by Kim Woon-sung, I was very moved. But at the same time I felt very lonely. Since Korea and China both suffered at the hands of the Japanese, I thought that a Chinese girl statue might keep the other statue company.”


In addition, an empty chair has been placed next to the two statues, so that statues of girls that were sacrificed from other countries can also have a place to sit.

The artists that made the statues plan to make another pair of statues at a university in Shanghai next year, and are looking into making another in San Francisco.

Image Credit: Yonhap / photonews@koreabizwire.com

Comforting the comfort women: the tale so far

Lee Yong-soo, a former comfort woman, visits the Japanese Embassy in Seoul on Friday to deliver a letter from civic groups demanding proper settlement on the sexual slavery issue. [NEWSIS]

In Monday’s summit between the leaders of Korea and Japan, the key issue for Seoul is the Japanese military’s forced recruitment of women into sexual slavery during World War II.

President Park Geun-hye will hold a summit meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Monday, the first official bilateral talks between the two leaders since they took their positions.

There is special interest in what the two leaders will say on the euphemistically called comfort women issue.

Ahead of the summit and trilateral meeting among the leaders of China, Japan and Korea in Seoul on Sunday, Park said in a written interview with Japan’s Mainichi Shimbun and Asahi Shimbun published Thursday, “I truly wish for the comfort women issue to be resolved within this year through the Japan-Korea leaders’ summit and to heal the wounds of the victims.

“It is important that the Japanese government presents a plan that can be acceptable to the victims and our people as soon as possible,” Park said, emphasizing that the military sex slave issue is not only a bilateral issue but one of women’s human rights.

In the interview, she underscored that “wrong historical perceptions led to stagnated Korea-Japan relations” and that a correction of those perceptions can enable stable bilateral relations and lead to a new starting point for the future.

A Blue House official said on Thursday that Park is highly likely to take plenty of time during the summit to say that there needs to be “a sincere apology” and “responsible measures” taken on the issue.

Since April 2014, the countries have held nine working-level talks between foreign ministry officials to try to resolve the comfort women issue.

The following are some of the main questions on the issue.

Q. How did the issue of the Japanese military’s sex slaves first surface?

A. The issue began to attract international interest after the late Kim Hak-sun testified in 1991 for the first time about her forced recruitment as a so-called “comfort woman.” The Korean victims began to file compensation suits against the Japanese government. Japan insisted that “private recruiters” rounded up the young women, but more historical evidence was revealed that the Japanese government was involved. In January 1992, Japanese Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa visited Korea for a summit with President Roh Tae-woo and said, “It is an unmovable fact that the Japanese army was involved in the recruiting of comfort women and managing of comfort stations.”

Japan still refuses to accept the forced nature of the recruitment of women into sexual slavery. Regarding compensation, Japan maintains the position that all war-related compensation issues concerning South Koreans, including comfort women, were settled under a 1965 treaty normalizing diplomatic relations between Tokyo and Seoul, and that rights for individual claims have also expired.

What were the initial efforts by both countries’ governments?

In 1993, President Kim Young-sam revealed a policy for the Korean government to directly support the comfort women victims and to stop focusing on Japan paying compensation. Kim urged the Japanese government to acknowledge responsibility after investigating the facts, rather than just compensating with money. In August 1993, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono acknowledged for the first time that the Japanese military installed and managed so-called comfort stations and that there was coercion in recruiting comfort women, which was the backdrop to the Kono Statement of 1993. Sympathetic Japanese set up the Asian Women’s Fund in July 1995 to support comfort women victims. The objective was to deliver an apology letter from the Japanese prime minister with compensation and medical welfare support.

Why didn’t the Asian Women’s Fund resolve the issue?

The Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan and other civic organizations and victims rejected this because the Japanese government would not accept legal responsibility. They refused to receive compensation based on humanitarian grounds rather than legal responsibility. From January 1997, Japan tried to deliver 5 million yen ($41,000) to Korean victims from the fund. But most victims refused to accept it and expressed regret that the Korean and Japanese governments ignored their wishes.

When did individual claims start becoming an issue?

In August 2011, the Constitutional Court ruled that the Korean government’s lack of action to help the comfort women victims get compensation from the Japanese government could be considered as nonfeasance and was unconstitutional. In December 2011, President Lee Myung-bak in his bilateral summit with Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda raised the comfort women issue again.

What is the so-called Sasae proposal, and how did it come about?

In 2012, then-Japanese Vice Foreign Minister Kenichiro Sasae (currently ambassador to the United States) made a three-point proposal during a Seoul visit: that the Japanese prime minister would make a formal apology, the Japanese ambassador to Korea would visit the victims to deliver the apology on behalf of the prime minister and victims would receive compensation on humanitarian grounds.

The Korean government did not immediately accept the proposal because it did not consider it sufficient. Soon after, the Japanese Democratic Party lost power, and the Liberal Democratic Party regained control. In Korea-Japan director-general-level talks to resolve the issue since last year, the two sides have been facing off on which parts of the Sasae proposal needs adjustment.

What is the Korean government’s position and that of civic organizations representing the survivors?

The Korean government’s position is acceptance of the Sasae proposal with some adjustments. It wants the Japanese government’s apology to be more specific than before, including the fact that the Japanese government systematically coerced women into sexual slavery.

The Japanese government says it will never accept legal responsibility. It is working on compensation for victims, but it wants Korea to agree that this would resolve the comfort women issue once and for all. It also requested Korea take down comfort women statues outside the Japanese embassy in Seoul and other locations.

Civic organizations representing comfort women continue to adhere to the position that Japan needs to acknowledge legal responsibility and pay compensation.

BY YOO JEE-HYE, SARAH KIM [kim.sarah@joongang.co.kr]

Q&A: South Korea Says ‘Comfort Women’ Classes Aim to Avert Future Abuses
Gender equality minister wants teaching about forced prostitution by Japanese in WWII held during victims’ lifetimes

By ALASTAIR GALE
Oct. 29, 2015 5:27 a.m. ET


Minister of Gender Equality and Family Kim Hee-jung says the goal of new classroom instruction about "comfort women" is to ensure "there won’t be any more women and children suffering from the same damage in the future." PHOTO: MINISTER OF GENDER EQUALITY AND FAMILY

In September, South Korea introduced a nationwide education program called “Accurate Understanding of Japanese Military Sexual Slavery.”

The program gives children at elementary, middle and high school one-hour lessons on the history of a system of forced prostitution by the Japanese military from the 1930s to 1945. Children are also taught about the dispute with Japan over redress for Korean women used as what has come to be known as “comfort women.”

A spokesman for the Japanese embassy in Seoul said it would be “inappropriate” to comment on another country’s curriculum, but said in a statement, “Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has repeatedly stated clearly that he is deeply pained by the immeasurable suffering experienced by the former comfort women, and that his cabinet continues to uphold the Kono Statement [a 1993 government apology]. In his statement marking the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, Prime Minister Abe said that women’s dignity and honor were damaged during the wars and conflicts of the 20th Century, and that we must make the 21st Century one in which such events are not repeated ever again.”

Japan had taken other steps, the spokesman said, including delivering an official apology to around 60 “comfort women” in South Korea and providing them with ¥2 million of atonement money from private donors, as well as ¥3 million of medical and welfare support from state funds.

The Wall Street Journal spoke with South Korea Minister of Gender Equality and Family Kim Hee-jung about the program. Edited excerpts follow:

WSJ: Why is there a need for this new program?

Ms. Kim: Students only know the word “comfort women” and don’t know exactly what the women experienced. Through this one-hour special class, we are trying to accurately educate students on how we are trying to solve the “comfort women” issue and deliver a message about women and human rights.

Truthfully, this is something that should have been done earlier. We are using the 70th anniversary of Korea’s liberation from Japanese colonization this year as an opportunity to move forward. In order to be future-oriented, we thought we should clearly classify facts. Also, there are not many “comfort women” left; 238 were registered but now only 47 are alive. This is something we should address while these women are still alive.

WSJ: Is this program designed to apply political pressure on Japan?

Ms. Kim: No, this is not a political or diplomatic issue. It’s a human rights issue. An examination of past facts has to be done clearly so there won’t be any more women and children suffering from the same damage in the future.

WSJ: Isn’t there a danger of developing general negative feelings towards Japan among children?

Ms. Kim: The students’ workbooks mention both how the current Japanese government doesn’t properly address this issue, but also how former Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono and others in Japan made efforts to solve the problem. The workbooks are not trying to give a portrait of Japan as collectively bad.

WSJ: How have you ensured that these teaching materials are appropriate for children?

Ms. Kim: This was one of the most difficult things. We made separate workbooks for elementary, middle school and high-school students. We tried to design workbooks with appropriate expressions for each age group.

WSJ: If the dispute with Japan is resolved, will the program continue?

Ms. Kim: The workbooks all have exactly the same details about our requests to Japan to resolve the issue. Firstly to have Japan acknowledge historical facts; secondly for Japan to give a sincere apology in the eyes of the world; and thirdly for Japan to educate people about this. Until all of this is achieved, our education program will continue.


Source: koreabizwire
koreajoongangdaily
thewallstreetjournal
(deleted comment)

Date: 2015-11-01 04:33 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] tree-star123.livejournal.com
erasure of the comfort women in japanese textbooks/education is terrible. sadly all textbook frames information most appealing to the publishing country (ie japanese american internment in usa) yeah just mentioning that even american textbooks minimize it.

the gov't being firm in their framework that their soldiers have not sexually abused korean & chinese (nanjing massacre!!??!) is just stubborn and stupid.

Date: 2015-11-01 05:31 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] lettace.livejournal.com
teachers are fired for teaching things outside of textbooks approved by the japanese gov't
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_history_textbook_controversies
as a teacher, you can get arrested for not singing the anthem if u oppose it and its history
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kimigayo#Controversies

it's baffling, the measures they take... but i feel that it has a lot to do with the form of gov't they established after ww2. but yeah, i'm surprised that they're not criticized more for undermining their actions in the war and for not taking the germany route (not even constantly showing remorse, but just acknowledging what they did)

sorry for riding your comment lol, but it's honestly crazy
Edited Date: 2015-11-01 05:32 am (UTC)

Date: 2015-11-01 10:11 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] spainawards2008.livejournal.com
What were they taught about Pear Harbour? I can't really imagine a lot of different ways of teaching that

Date: 2015-11-01 10:35 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] mentality34.livejournal.com
I would imagine they omitted the Pearl Harbor part completely and just went straight to the atomic bombings.

Date: 2015-11-01 11:00 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] spainawards2008.livejournal.com
And then America dropped atomic bombs on us for NO REASON AT ALL. They're such meanies, my gosh!

Date: 2015-11-01 11:22 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] yakuniku-8.livejournal.com
There's no legitimate reason to drop atomic bombs. no matter what the other side did...

Date: 2015-11-01 11:33 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] spainawards2008.livejournal.com
Oh, I agree that there is no reason to use atomic bombs, especially not on civilian targets like that, but they didn't do it out of nowhere. Something happened that made them do it even though it was a stupid over-reaction to how little was actually done at Pearl Harbour and they were most likely just waiting for an excuse.

Date: 2015-11-01 07:11 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] http://users.livejournal.com/_clochette_/
they're taught that economic pressures and trade embargoes placed on japan by america were acts of aggression that forced them into a position where a strike was necessary. source: my mother teaches japanese wartime history at a tertiary level

in terms of what beliefs the average japanese person actually holds, I think it varies considerably by personal politics, age/generation, time spent outside japan, etc. for example I work in a japanese workplace. I was with my employer once when there was something on TV that made a (gross) joke that referenced the greater east-asian co-prosperity sphere and he was not only embarrassed but pissed, because "that's not something to ever joke about". that's one anecdote, but I absolutely don't believe 100% of japanese people hold the opinion that japanese imperialism was positive/japan has nothing to atone for in terms of WWII, irrespective of what the official government/curriculum stance is.

just the same as american curriculum is in a many aspects frequently shitty regarding issues like slavery, but that doesn't stop a lot of people (and a lot of young people, particularly) from reaching the conclusion on their own that both the history and the curriculum are wrong.

Date: 2015-11-01 11:06 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] mentality34.livejournal.com
I agree with you. I'm sure different Japanese people have different beliefs. One can get around basic history lessons by simply reading books of different perspectives. It's the same way with America.

Date: 2015-11-01 10:41 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] simprov.livejournal.com
could be framed in a necessary evil~ way, like the atomic bombs are treated in american education

Date: 2015-11-01 11:14 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] spainawards2008.livejournal.com
Seriously, America? Your gross over-reaction was a necessary evil?
It's fascinating how things are taught in other countries

Date: 2015-11-01 01:55 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] undeniablysarah.livejournal.com
When i was taking my AP US History course we actually had a legit discussion of why we used the bomb and why it was wrong. No one in the class justified it.
Edited Date: 2015-11-01 01:55 pm (UTC)

Date: 2015-11-01 06:49 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] mycorrhizoid.livejournal.com
American here - I was not taught that it was a necessary evil, but rather that it was a miscalculation on our side due to a lack of understanding the enemy - we thought that the Japanese were refusing to surrender because they intended to continue to fight to the last man. We didn't know that they were only holding out because they were afraid America would demand the emperor's execution as a term of surrender.

Date: 2015-11-01 07:17 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] http://users.livejournal.com/_clochette_/
that's really interesting to me. what level of schooling did they teach you that at?

(I live in australia so we get neither side of this, but rather something in the middle)

Date: 2015-11-01 07:49 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] mycorrhizoid.livejournal.com
I definitely first heard about it in 9th or 10th grade, but those details are probably from the Modern East Asia History course I took in college.

Date: 2015-11-01 03:09 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] leopolitan.livejournal.com
i think its really sweet that they gave the statue 'company'. idk but its a nice gesture

the refusal to take legal responsibility for comfort women is disgusting...fuck japan honestly this reminds me of russias denial of the famine in ukraine

Date: 2015-11-01 05:27 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] lettace.livejournal.com
japan has been going back on forth on this issue a lot. they had a progressive PM in the 90s who acknowledged it and then that point ends up being taken back by the past few cowardly PM's japan has had (especially abe's gov't)

but then again, a lot of these things do. i don't see foreign powers outside of asia acknowledging this and i'm scared that, if they did, they would downplay it. we all know how the issues surrounding the japanese flag/anthem and the sea of japan went. foreign powers basically told koreans to suck it up

these women probably don't have much time left and the fact that their pain can't even be acknowledged is honestly disgusting

Date: 2015-11-01 05:40 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] http://users.livejournal.com/_clochette_/
I think it's unavoidable that it has become a partisan issue in japan because it is connected to nationalism, etc., but the more they waver on it the worse it looks for them.

Date: 2015-11-01 05:38 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] http://users.livejournal.com/_clochette_/
as an art history grad this is like a fascinating use of public art to me

I do agree with the sentiment that the issue should be acknowledged within the remaining women's lifetimes. I do also wonder what is an appropriate age to teach children about this. I'm not sure primary school is it.

Date: 2015-11-01 10:18 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] phililen3.livejournal.com
My Masters dissertation is on wartime sexual violence and I was just reading an article that had this quote from a Lt

Rape (…) there are different types of rape. They are all forbidden. There is the
rape when a soldier is away, when he has not seen his women for a while and
has needs and no money. This is the lust ⁄ need rape [viol ya posa]. But there are
also the bad rapes, as a result of the spirit of war (…) to humiliate the dignity of
people. This is an evil rape (Male, Lt.).



Nationalism will always get in the way when it is people of other nations who are the victims. That or this belief that it is a necessary or inevitable part of warfare when it has been shown in studies that it is not the case.

Date: 2015-11-01 10:21 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ariellm13.livejournal.com
I think this is one of the issues Japan will never concede on. I feel for the victims who were never compensated but Japan is right. It is the government of South Korea that has to take the L in terms of compensation for these women. Japan offered to individually pay the victims during the treaty and Korea decided to accept the money on the victims' behalf and they never payed them.

They should give a really direct apology though. They have before but whatever guy is nice enough to recognize what happened for what it was, is directly followed by a bunch of guys who go "Japan would never" and "Those so called comfort women are tragic but what else can we do?".

Date: 2015-11-01 12:22 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] miwa201.livejournal.com
i'm so baffled at japan's refusal to admit what they did wrong in wwii. and how they still cling to the imperial japan flag. the comfort women, rape of nanking, unit 731.. these are all horrific crimes. why can't they learn from germany? recently when dumbass netanyahu tried to say that the holocaust was palestine's fault, germany immediately answered saying "nope, it was def our fault".

Date: 2015-11-01 12:26 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] misspoirot.livejournal.com
This reminds me of IC's episode where HaHa went to Japan and talked about the slavery and how it's ommitted from their history.

Date: 2015-11-01 01:59 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] undeniablysarah.livejournal.com
The sooner they do something about this the sooner everyone can move on and the region can heal. One of the major things I noticed moving to China is there is so much hatred of Japan like undeniable. Japan needs to address these issue and apologies properly or the hate will just continue generation after generation.

Date: 2015-11-01 04:00 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ashiva.livejournal.com
As an European it's very hard for me to understand why Japan doesn't apologize, but I guess aspect of losing one's face is so bad that financial gains that could be achieved from normalizing the relationships with other Asian countries (many Asian countries have all kinds of bans concerning Japanese products, language, and entertainment) don't matter for them in comparison.

Date: 2015-11-02 04:06 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] unicornios.livejournal.com
I've been wanting to educate myself on this issue. My knowledge about it is very basic.
That sculpture is really nice tho.

Date: 2015-11-02 08:23 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] lilykt7.livejournal.com
This addition is absolutely beautiful. Relations between China and korea itself can sometimes be strained. So it's wonderful to see people come together for a cause bigger than themselves. Ugh im getting misty.

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