Japan lashed over ‘comfort women’
South Korean leader urges Tokyo’s ‘sincere self-reflection’
SEOUL — South Korean President Moon Jae-in described Japan’s wartime use of comfort women as a “crime against humanity” on Thursday in some of his strongest comments yet, sparking an immediate protest from Tokyo.
Moon said during a speech marking a national holiday to mark the 99th anniversary of the March 1 Movement, which was a massive street demonstration on March 1, 1919, by Koreans to fight against the Japanese colonization of the Korean Peninsula — his first since taking office last year — that Japan was in no position to declare the emotionally charged issue settled.
“To resolve the comfort women issue, the Japanese Government, the perpetrator, should not say the matter is closed,” Moon said.
“The issue of a crime against humanity committed in time of war cannot be closed with just a word. A genuine resolution of unfortunate history is to remember it and learn a lesson from it.”
His comments drew an immediate rebuke from Tokyo.
Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga described Moon’s comments as “extremely regrettable”.
Historians say up to 200,000 girls and young women were coerced, kidnapped, or duped into sex servitude for Japan’s military brothels before and during the Pacific War.
In 2015, South Korea and Japan “finally and irreversibly” agreed to the issues on comfort women, in exchange for Tokyo’s offer of 1 billion yen ($9 million) supporting a foundation for the victims in Seoul.
Moon, speaking at the site of a former jail where Korean independence fighters were imprisoned by Japanese forces, said South Korea was not looking for “special treatment” from Tokyo.
However, he hoped Japan pursued “sincere self-reflection” and “squarely face the truth of history and justice with the universal conscience of humanity”.
Japan also formally complained on Monday after South Korea’s foreign minister raised the issue at the top UN rights body, warning that it should not be allowed to harm bilateral relations at a critical time.
A South Korean panel set up to investigate the deal concluded late last year that the agreement failed to meet the needs of the thousands of girls and women forced to work in Japan’s military brothels.
Over the objections of some in his conservative base, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe went on to visit South Korea during last month’s Winter Olympics, but he restated Tokyo’s opposition to revising the 2015 agreement, telling Moon the deal was a promise between nations and the basis of two-way ties.
On Thursday, Moon said South Korea considered Japan one of its closest neighbors and hoped to be able to move forward together.
“I hope Japan will be able to genuinely reconcile with its neighbors on which it inflicted suffering and will walk the path of peaceful coexistence and prosperity together,” he said.