Term paper on Comfort Women highlighting Korean grievance against

Japan.

Comfort women, also called military comfort women, Japanese jugum ianfu, a
euphemism for women who provided sexual services to Japanese Imperial Army
troops during Japan’s militaristic period that ended with ​World War II and who
generally lived under conditions of sexual slavery.​ ​Estimates of the number of
women involved typically range up to 200,000, but the actual number may have
been even higher.​ ​The great majority of them were from Korea (then a Japanese
protectorate), though women from China, Taiwan, and other parts of
Asia—including Japan and Dutch nationals in Indonesia—were also involved.[1]​

Imperial Japan’s military authorizes believed that sex was good for morale and the
military helped control sexually transmitted diseases. ​Both army and navy
trafficked women provided medical inspection, established fees, and built
facilities.​ Most Korean were tricked into the system by promises of jobs with
decent money only to find themselves forced into becoming sex providers. In other
cases, Korean families sold their daughters. Japanese soldiers would raid Korean
villages and took young mothers and teenage girls with them.

Korean or Taiwanese women were considered the subjects of the Japanese’s

government and it was viewed as fulfilling a patriotic duty in supporting japan to
help raise their morale and win the war. Women were taken to the ‘comfort station’
for their service. The comfort stations exist in all Japanese occupied areas and were
also maintain in Japan and Korea. They were forced to attend 20-30 men a day
with little or no rest. ​The women were regularly tested for sexually transmitted
diseases and infections and​ who were found disease-stricken were killed and
buried in unknown places​.​ If there is anyone who resists or gives unsatisfied
intimate, they were heavily beaten or murdered.

At the end of World War II, Japan government destroyed documents about the
existence of Comfort Women, and many comfort women were executed from
japan retreat and other committed suicide. Those who survived suffered from
psychological illness and rejection from their families and communities. After
returning to their home, Korean comfort women lived low profile life and were
almost forgotten in the cold war (also known as Korean War).

In 1990, Japanese administration denies that the Imperial Japan run a system of
human trafficking and prostitution, implying that comfort women were simply
camp following prostitutes and that no one has proved that forced was used against
the ‘comfort women’. This was far from recognizing the responsibility of Japan; it
implies that the women willingly entered in the ‘prostitution’, which would place
the responsibility on the victim. This became the trigger for Kim Hak-sun to take
courage to disclose the truth of Japanese military's comfort station and disastrous
life of victims including herself.

On 6 December 1991, Ms. Kim and two other victims filed a lawsuit at Tokyo
District Court requiring reparation and apology from the Japanese government
(Case on the Claim for Reparations for Korean Victim in the Pacific War). I n
1995, Asian Women's Fund was established in Japan to provide compensation
through private funding for the victims. Japanese government was criticized that it
did not recognize and admit the crime and compensate the victims properly [2]. On
December 28 2015, both country Japan and South Korea settle on a formal
agreement over the issue of comfort women. Japan expresses sincere apologies and
remorse to all women, acknowledging that they had suffered physical and mental
wounds and have immeasurable painful memories as ‘Comfort Women’.

The compensation money was opposed the Comfort women as well as by the south
Korean people and the fund was shut down after two countries failed to hold
customary one-on-one meeting in group of 20 meeting in 2019. Japan argued that
they had settled this matter during 1965 treaty normalizing ties between the two
countries- in which Japan provided US$300 million-US$2.4 billion to South
Korea. In reply South Korea count that it was not compensating the pain and
suffering of the “Comfort Women’.

Notes:

[1] Encyclopedia Britannia (​https://www.britannica.com/topic/comfort-women​).

[2] Wikipedia (​https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Hak-sun​) after testimony.