South Korean judge decides Japan must pay $ 91,000 to “comfort woman”

The victims sued the Japanese government in 2016 for kidnapping, sexual violence and torture during World War II. They had had adolescence and the early 1920s during the Japanese occupation of the Korean peninsula and were subjected to dozens of forced sexual acts by Japanese troops every day, the judge said in Friday’s ruling.

These girls and women forced to perform sexual acts of slavery are known as “comfort women”. The practice was sanctioned and organized by the Japanese Imperial Army before and during World War II.

The Japanese occupation ended in 1945, but the victims suffered severe psychological trauma in the post-war years, as well as widespread social stigma, the judge said. The judge awarded the total amount of $ 91,000 (100 million winners) claimed by the applicants, adding that the damage exceeded that amount.

Japanese prime ministers have apologized in the past, and Tokyo believed the issue was resolved in 1965 as part of an agreement to normalize relations between the two countries. But South Korea was a military dictatorship at the time, and many Koreans say the deal was unfair.

Another major deal in 2015 was another excuse and a $ 8 million commitment for a foundation to support surviving “comfortable women.”

Despite these existing agreements, the plaintiffs were entitled to sue for damages, the judge said on Friday.

A woman holds a sign apologizing and compensation from Japan at a rally marking 2020 International Memorial Day for comfortable women in Seoul, South Korea.

In a statement after the ruling, the South Korean Foreign Ministry said the government “respects the court’s decision and will make every effort to restore the honor and dignity of the victims of” comfort women “.

He acknowledged the 2015 agreement between the countries and said the government would “also review the impact of the ruling on diplomatic relations and make every effort to continue constructive and forward-looking cooperation between Korea and Japan.”

Japanese officials have strongly criticized the decision, but the chief secretary of the cabinet, Katsunobu Kato, considered it “extremely unfortunate” and “absolutely unacceptable”, according to a Reuters feed of Friday’s press conference.

Kato added that the Japanese government was not subject to South Korean jurisdiction and that the country had repeatedly called for the case to be rejected. “We strongly urge South Korea, as a country, to take an appropriate response to correct this violation of international law,” he said.

Korea’s comfort women

Experts estimate that up to 200,000 women in South Korea and other Asian countries have been forced into Japanese sex slavery. The Japanese military has recruited women through deception, coercion and force for its brothels, according to a United Nations report on the issue.

“A large number of women victims talk about the violence used on family members who tried to prevent the abduction of their daughters and, in some cases, about raping soldiers in front of their parents before being forcibly removed,” the report said. .

North Korea and China are huge winners in worsening Japan-South Korea spit

Despite apologies and compensation from Japan, South Korean activists say the apology has not gone far enough and many are demanding further reparations.

The subject remains a bitter point in the tense relationship between the two countries. In 2017, a memorial statue became the center of a diplomatic spit, with Japan halting talks on a planned currency exchange, postponing economic dialogue and recalling two South Korean diplomats.
Relationships have only deteriorated since then. In 2018, the Supreme Court of South Korea ruled that its citizens could sue Japanese companies for using Korean forced labor during World War II. Tensions rose in 2019, when the two countries entered into a heated military dispute. On Monday, a trade war broke out, Japan gave up South Korea as a preferred trading partner, and South Korea degraded its trade ties with Japan in response.

“As a victim of great suffering from Japanese imperialism in the past, we, in turn, cannot but take Japan’s economic retaliation very seriously,” South Korean President Moon Jae-in said after the economic retaliatory measures. “It is all the more so as this economic revenge is in itself unjustifiable and has its roots in historical problems.”

Historical animosity is also felt among many citizens; more than 36,000 South Koreans signed a petition during the 2019 trade dispute calling on the government to retaliate against Tokyo. Many South Koreans have also called for a boycott of Japanese products on social media.

The conflict took place in athletics, with South Korea’s parliamentary sports committee calling for a ban on the Rising Sun flag at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics (which has since been postponed until 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic.) The controversial flag symbolizes Japanese South Korean officials argued that imperialism and war atrocities.

“The rising sun flag is like a symbol of the devil for Asians and Koreans, just as the swastika is a symbol of the Nazis that reminds Europeans of invasion and horror,” said An Min-suk, chairman of the parliamentary committee on sport.

But the Olympic organizers refused to ban the flag from the competition venues, arguing that “the flag itself is not considered a political statement.”

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