뉴스레터

The Research Center on Japanese Military Comfort Women within the Northeast Asian History Foundation hosted an international academic conference under the theme of “Historical Tasks for Resolving Comfort Women Issue” at the conference of the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Aug. 14. The conference, held on the eve of the 74^th anniversary of National Liberation Day, was planned out of necessity to commemorate, academically, Comfort Women Memorial Day, which was celebrated for the second time this year. Those attending the conference to deliver welcome and congratulatory speeches were the foundation president, Kim Do-hyung; Deputy Premier for Social Affairs and Education Minister, Yoo Eun-hae; Kang Chang-il, president of the Democratic Party of Korea’s special committee on historical justice; Choi Jae-sung, head of the DPK’s special committee on Japanese economic regulations; and Cho Kwang, president of the National Institute of Korean History. Senior historian Lee Man-yeol, emeritus professor of Sookmyung Women’s University, opened the conference with his keynote lecture stating that it is essential to pay due honor to the humiliating history of colonialism left behind from the era of imperialism by maintaining the Japanese military comfort women issue as a common issue for the public and an important issue of human rights. 

Disclosed data and testimonies regarding damage inflicted upon comfort women 

In the first session moderated by Do See-hwan, head of the Research Center on Japanese Military Comfort Women, there were four topic presentations examining damage inflicted upon comfort women.

Park Jeong-ae, a researcher with the foundation, introduced data, which is preserved in Korea, related to comfort women and he raised the issue of historical distinctiveness concerning the background of the mobilization of Korean comfort women. Centered on the data preserved at the National Archives of Korea and the National Institute of Korean History, he spoke about how the Japanese Government-General of Korea managed Korean relocation to China during the Sino-Japanese War and the amount of damage inflicted during the course of Korean comfort women mobilization. He did this by using analysis results gleaned from data related to the control of movement and criminal cases. Wang Zhong-ren, researcher at the Dongning Fortress Museum in China’s Heilongjiang Province, disclosed, for the first time detailed data and testimonies regarding Japan’s comfort stations, based on data gathered from the fortresses from the 1930s which belonged to the Japanese Kwantung Army and were scattered across Dongning, the border area between China and the Soviet Union. Of the numerous brutal cases unveiled by Wang related to the comfort women that were held captive in brothels at the Dongning fortresses, a video testimony, from 2000 and given by victim Park Ok-seon, drew keen attention

Kim Jeong-hyun, a researcher with the foundation, gave a presentation on the results of bibliographic data gathered by the foundation and testimonial data given by Korean and Chinese comfort women in connection with the suffering of comfort women in Nanjing, China. He proposed studying and sharing data to reveal the history, characteristics, and truth of the comfort women system and record the plight of victims systematically by preserving the brothels, the birthplace of inhumane and crimes against civilization.

Prof. Zhou Guixiang of Dalian University of Technology spoke about the “Association of Returnees from China,” an organization which was formed in Japan by war criminals released after being imprisoned in Fushun, China, until the 1950s and which has persistently carried out a movement against peace. Zhou said her analysis of 1,148 letters of confession by the Kwantung Army showed that there were 920 cases of wartime rape, 80.1 percent of the confessions. Although Joseon women were mentioned in the confessions several times, the Japanese government denied this fact, saying, “Civilians operated comfort stations and the Japanese military was not involved,” according to Zhou. 

Shedding light on tasks necessary to resolve the comfort women issue 

In the second session moderated by Choi Seung-hwan, a professor from the Kyunghee University, School of Law, there were four presentations regarding how best to resolve the comfort women issue. Lawyer Yamamoto Seita, who has defended victims of Japan’s past misdeeds for 30 years ever since winning the first Shimonoseki-Busan trial in April 1998, explained the legal principles of “lawmaking nonfeasance,” based on the Japanese constitution, which he has employed on behalf of victims to hold the Japanese government accountable. He emphasized that the philosophy of the Korean constitution, on which Korea’s Supreme Court based its ruling that claims for damage regarding illegalities related to colonial rule are not subject to the 1965 Korea-Japan Treaty, does not contradict the Japanese constitution.

In connection with the “completion theory of the 1965 Korea-Japan Treaty” claiming that the treaty settled the issue of colonial forced labor completely, Prof. Yoshizawa Fumitoshi of Niigata University’s International and Information Studies gave a presentation on the assumption that negotiations to normalize Korea-Japan diplomatic ties have not yet been finalized. He underscored the importance of solidarity regarding global human rights with a victim-centered approach and claimed that Japan’s “theory of international law violations,” devoid of historical perception, should be overturned and that the 1965 Korea-Japan Treaty has become the main culprit distorting Japan’s perception regarding colonial rule.

Zhao Wije, a researcher from the archives at Jilian Province, described his analysis of comfort women-related data preserved in the archives and the direction of his future research. Zhao accused Japan’s comfort women system of infringing upon women’s rights in a manner without precedent, saying that Japan’s aim to establish discipline through the system was nothing more than a fantasy and an inhumane act of violence. He also proposed pushing ahead with joint registration for UNESCO Memory of the World. Prof. Jeong Yeong-hwan of Meiji Gakuin University shed light on the tasks necessary to resolving the comfort women issue, focusing on the experiences obtained by organizations of ethnically Korean people in Japan in the course attempting to resolve issues of past concerning Japan. To track down the cause of the failure to resolve the issues, he emphasized the need to understand the fact that negotiations for normalizing Korea-Japan diplomatic ties began in October 1951 and were linked to the suppression of activities by ethnic Koreans living in Japan. In the third session, general discussion, moderated by Do See-hwan, head of the Research Center on Japanese Military Comfort Women; Song Yeon-ok, emeritus professor of Aoyama Gakuin University; and lawyer Lee Sang-hee, member of Korean Bar Association’s special committee on the human rights of victims of the Japanese Empire, commented from the perspective of historical studies and legal disputes, respectively; then all panelists exchanged opinions in general discussion. 

Victim-centered settlement of comfort women issue 

The international academic conference, planned to commemorate the second Comfort Women Memorial Day which was created to recognize the dignity of comfort women and restore their honor, attracted attention from academics and the press for the victim-centered arguments stipulated in the “Basic Principles on Victims’ Rights” adopted unanimously in the U.N. General Assembly in 2005. Based on this year’s results, the conference will contribute its task of creating genuine justice in regards to history and use this as the central axis for resolving the comfort women issue.