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Justice Long Overdue for the Survivors of the “Comfort Women” System

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    AISU Editorial
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by Nova Ekelmans


Trigger warning: This article contains detailed descriptions of sexual violence.


This is the private work of Nova Ekelmans, member of the Amnesty Student Group Utrecht (AISU), and does not represent an official Amnesty International analysis.


The image shows the Statue of Peace, located in South-Korea, representing the suffering of the survivors of the “comfort women” system and seeks to address sexual slavery during wartime.
The image shows the Statue of Peace, located in South-Korea, representing the suffering of the survivors of the “comfort women” system and seeks to address sexual slavery during wartime.

A System Built on Deception and Violence

Before and during the Second World War, young women and girls from China, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam were abducted and forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese military.[1] These ‘comfort stations’ were set up across Asia as Japan expanded its colonial territories and military presence. They were established in China, Singapore, Indonesia, Burma, Malaya, the Philippines and several Pacific Islands.[2]  Approximately 200,000 women and girls, with most of them being Korean, were forced to ‘comfort’ the Japanese troops. Most of them were under the age of 20, with some of them not much older than 12 years.[3] Those subjected to this sexual slavery are euphemistically known as the ‘comfort women’.[4]

The Japanese army used both violence and deception to obtain women and girls. They targeted women and girls who were particularly vulnerable to deception and entrapment into the system of sexual slavery due to factors such as their age, poverty, socioeconomic background, family circumstances, level of education, ethnicity and nationality.[5] Like many others, Mun Pil-gi from Korea was deceived into captivity. She was just a teenager when a neighbor told her she could earn money working in a factory. Instead, she was transported to China together with 20 other girls, where she was held in a comfort station for approximately three years. She passed away in 2008 while waiting for justice, having spent her final years calling on the Japanese government to compensate the survivors and apologize.[6]


Finding the Courage to Speak

In 2005, American photographer Paula Allen and Amnesty International campaigner Suki Nagra went to the Philippines and South Korea to interview survivors.[7] Here, they spoke with Lola Pilar, a survivor from the Philippines, who was 79 at the time. Pilar told them: ‘Five men a night raped me, the soldiers alternated, so there were different men each night … If I refused they’d slap and hit me.’[8] Pilar’s testimony in 2005, as horrifying as it was, was only possible because survivors finally started to be listened to after a very long time. It had taken decades for survivors to find the courage to tell their stories publicly at all.[9] Dealing with isolation, shame, mental health and physical health issues and often severe forms of poverty, survivors felt pressured to keep silent for years.[10] In the 1990s, after decades of silence, survivors spoke out about their experiences as a response to Japan’s constant denial of its involvement in the atrocities.[11] It was not until August 1991, forty-six years after the war ended, that Kim Hak-soon became the first survivor to speak publicly of her experiences. At 74, with no family left who could be affected by the societal consequences of her story, she felt like she could share her story and publicly speak out about what had happened to her. [12] By telling her story, Kim was an inspiration for many other women to finally speak up. This includes Lola Rosa Hensen, a survivor from the Philippines who publicly called on survivors on radio and television to set aside their shame, speak up and demand justice.[13] These first testimonies of survivors have led to a global movement demanding the redress of crimes of structural sexual violence.[14]


Japan’s Half-Measures in Solving the Issue

Most of the survivors have passed away without receiving justice from the Japanese government.[15] Japan has long insisted that post-war peace treaties resolved all matters of compensation. However, these treaties never acknowledged the sexual slavery system, nor did they make any reparations for the individual women who suffered under it.[16] In 2015, Japan and South Korea settled an agreement regarding the sexual slavery system claiming it ‘finally and irreversibly’ solves the issue.[17] However, survivors say this agreement was not sufficient, since it denied legal responsibility and lacked a genuine apology. Moreover, the survivors were not involved in the negotiation of the agreement.[18] Despite many failed attempts to sue Japan in their respective courts, the survivors have yet to receive the justice they are entitled to.[19]

Several UN bodies (the Committee for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, the Committee Against Torture and the Human Rights Committee) have repeatedly urged Japan to bring justice to the survivors.[20] Moreover, Amnesty International has stated that by continuing to deny and obstruct justice, the Japanese government has only deepened the human rights violations already inflicted on these women. Had Japan acknowledged its crimes and provided reparations early on, survivors might have been spared decades of shame, poverty and untreated physical and psychological trauma.[21]


Japan Must Act Now

For those survivors who are still alive, every passing year without justice is another failure on Japan’s part to right its wrongs. Japan must act now, not with half-measures or diplomatic agreements negotiated without involvement of the survivors, but with full accountability and genuine reparations before it is too late. As said by Arnold Fang, Amnesty International’s East Asia Researcher: ‘The atrocious crimes committed by the Japanese military against ‘comfort women’ may have taken place more than 70 years ago, but the fight for justice, truth and reparation for the remaining survivors is just as relevant as ever.’[22]




References

Amnesty International (Written Statement for the HRC). Still Waiting After 60 years: Justice for Survivors of Japan's Military Sexual Slavery System

Amnesty International (21 April 2021). South Korea: Disappointing Japan ruling fails to deliver justice to ‘comfort women’

Amnesty International (12 August 2020). South Korea: Lawsuits against Japanese government last chance for justice for ‘comfort women’

Amnesty International (2 September 2015). 70 years on, the “comfort women” speaking out so the truth won’t die

Amnesty International (13 August 2010). Public Statement

Amnesty International (27 October 2005). Japan: New report shows 'comfort Women's rights appeals for compensation fall on deaf ears

Amnesty International (11 August 2005). JAPAN: Waiting for justice for over 60 years

 




 
 
 

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