JAPAN-ASIA: ‘Comfort Women’ to be Compensated, But Not Officially

By Suvendrini Kakuchi Reprint | | Print |

Suvendrini Kakuchi

TOKYO, Apr 15 1996 (IPS) - Asian women forced into sexual slavery by Japanese soldiers during the Pacific War may accept compensation raised by a non-governmental organisation in Japan, but that in itself will not put the matter to rest, say activists.

An estimated 200,000 women across Asia are reported to have been forced to cater to the sexual whims of occupying Japanese forces at so-called ‘comfort stations’.

Fifty years later, the Japanese press is reporting that the 300 known surviving victims of this specific war-time atrocity will get about 20,000 dollars each through private Japanese donations to the Asian Women’s Fund.

Masahi Nakagome, spokesman for the Tokyo-based Asian Women’s Fund, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) launched last year with the blessing of the Japanese government, said details of how the money will be disbursed are still being considered. Initial payments are however expected in July.

“There is no definite dateline fixed for compensation because discussions are still underway between women organisations in the respective Asian countries and the Fund,” he explained.

Akiko Yamaguchi, a leading war victims activist, says the plan is to make the payments as soon as possible since many of the aging women are ill.

Indeed, activists say that it is as a result of a combination of these two factors that the ‘comfort women’ will accept the money raised through the Fund, but because it comes from private donations, it will not satisfy demands for official individual apologies and compensation sought from the Japanese government.

“It is a pity that the fund does not carry the momentum we had hoped it would,” explained Mamoru Sato of the Modern Korea Research Institution based in Tokyo.

“Then again it is not only the Asian victims who have lost, but the Japanese people themselves because the Fund would have been a chance to clear up, at last, the squabbling over their past,” Sato added.

In 1992, the Japanese government finally admitted that its Imperial army had forced Asian women into sexual bondage — the admission coming after Japanese researchers documented how tens of thousands of women were recruited for the brothels, some serving up to 30 soldiers a day.

Japan’s has however maintained that all war reparations were settled after its Pacific War defeat, either in the San Francisco Peace Treaty of 1952 or bilateral accords. So that while Japan helped to set up the Fund, Tokyo has refused to accept any further liability.

This line was reiterated last Friday by Chief Cabinet Secretary Seiroko Kajiyama, who was confronted by questions from reporters about a United Nations Human Rights Commission (UNHRC) session in Geneva which is currently addressing the issue.

Earlier this year, a U.N. research team issued a report recommending that Japan apologise and compensate the ‘comfort women’.

The report on war-time sex slavery, issued in February by U.N. special rapporteur on violence against women Radhika Coomaraswamy, says Japan’s running of comfort stations half a century ago violated international laws.

It asks Japan to fully disclose information on the ‘comfort women’ network, apologise publicly and in writing to individual victims, amend textbooks to reflect its war-time offences and punish those who recruited and institutionalised ‘comfort stations’ during the Pacific War.

Last year, the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) also urged Japan to set aside 40,000 dollars for each victim, saying the Asian women’s fund does not provide direct compensation by the Japanese state to the victims.

The international pressure being brought to bear on Tokyo has so far seen no change in official Japanese policy and this is unfortunate says Yamaguchi.

“The whole purpose of the fund is not only financial support but to frankly make the state apologise to individual victims. That has been skillfully avoided by the government by setting up the fund as an NGO,” says Yamaguchi.

The issue remains a sore point between Japan and China and South Korea with the Japanese embassy in Seoul subjected to weekly protests by activist groups representing ‘comfort women’.

Women victims from Taiwan, South Korea, the Philippines, China and Indonesia have also banded together in lawsuits, staged rallies and conferences, lobbied before international bodies and tried to bring pressure on the Japanese government to compensate the victims on a case by case basis.

“By not accepting squarely the nation’s guilt, the Japanese public continues to remain unaware of the responsibilities for the comfort women and other victims,” says Yamaguchi.