Those women, victims of horrible atrocities, have been referred to as comfort
women. Many were killed. Those who survived have borne both physical and
psychological scars for the rest of their lives. Occasionally, some survivors
still rattle the door of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul in a desperate attempt
to be heard. But any attempt to make use of them for stirring up indiscriminate
anti-Japanese fever would be a serious diversion from their path.
Why were those responsible for the comfort women atrocity not prosecuted after
the war? The comfort system appeared at a time when the world's organizations
regarded prostitution as a natural byproduct of military movements. The Roman
Empire made use of a similar system for its armies. The Spanish brought more
than 1,000 prostitutes with them when they invaded the Netherlands in the 16th
Century. The British military created a register for prostitutes in India,
providing for compulsory medical examinations and toiletries. During the World
War II, the German Army installed military brothels in occupied territories.
Sexism and racism might have also affected the victorious Allies' decision not
to prosecute those responsible for the comfort women atrocity. For example,
when the Allies returned to Dutch Indonesia, the Dutch discovered that the
Japanese occupying Jakarta, had forced approximately 50 interned Dutch women
and 100 local women into prostitution. The Dutch tried Japanese officers and
agents for the forced prostitution of the Dutch women, but not of the local
women. The Dutch trials, which took place in 1948, did not become common
knowledge until 1992 when the Hague released the trial record to the public
with the condition that the names of the Dutch victims remain sealed until
2025. No other Allied force is known to have considered forced prostitution as
a war crime.
Why has it taken so long for the women to make themselves available for some
sort of restitution? On a personal level, chastity has always been revered in
Asian countries. The loss of virginity meant a life of ostracism with little
chance of marriage. That attitude in turn led to poverty because a women's
major or sole source of support was her husband.
One woman, X, had begun the process of becoming a nun before the war. During
the war, she was one of the Dutch women forced into prostitution. She did not
testify at the war crimes trial, but told the Catholic Church of her ordeal.
Consequently the Catholic Church declared her unacceptable as a nun. Indeed,
most of the victims of forced prostitution seem to have concealed the crimes
committed against them.
More importantly, because of the devastation in the Pacific during the World
War II and the Korean War, the documentation of claims was almost impossible.
Korea and Japan did not finalize a treaty of settlement for Korea's claims
until 1965. Without U.S. involvement, Japan continued to show reluctance to
apologize, presumably on the ground that no state of war between colonized
Korea and imperial Japan ever existed. Korea, like other Asian countries,
agreed to accept economic grants as settlements for all claims, an action Japan
has conveniently used as a shield against any subsequent individual claims.
During 1970s and 1980s, Koreans experienced an economic boom and also the
emergence of women's rights groups in Asia. The plight of the comfort women
became a hot issue in the 1990s. The government seems to be becoming mature
enough to recognize that the comfort women deserve to be given at least a
subsistence level pension to sustain them.
Forced prostitution did not come to an end with World War II. During the
relatively recent Bosnian conflict, the media was full of reports that the
Serbian military engaged in mass rape and forced Bosnian Muslim women into
prostitution.
The Korean comfort women might serve as the example to others of how Korea
brought their brutal suffering to light and provided them with aid at the
governmental level, and also give hope and comfort to other women who have been
similarly brutalized against their will.
Korea Times. The writer, a former SOFA advisor at Camp Casey, lives in
Kangnam, Seoul
