War sex slave wants apology

Korean girls ‘forced’ into Japan brothels

AKOREAN woman forced into sexual slavery for the Japanese military during World War 2 has called on Tokyo to apologise for the suffering caused to tens of thousands of “comfort women”.

At the age of 14, Kim Bok-dong was tricked into becoming a civilian worker for Japan, which at that time ruled the Korean Peninsula, and was shipped to the Chinese city of Guangdong with a group of other women.

Instead of being put to work in a clothing factory, as she had been promised, Kim was given a physical examination and ordered into a “comfort station”, part of a network of state-sanctioned brothels across the Japanese empire.

On weekdays, Kim esti- mates that she was required to have sex with about 15 soldiers. On weekends, it could be 50 or more, she said.

“What we ‘comfort women’ are seeking is very simple,” Kim said at a press conference in Tokyo yesterday.

“We want an official apology from the Japanese government, we want reparations. We are not doing this for the money, but I sacrificed my entire body.

“And we want Japan to take legal responsibility for what happened and tell the truth in front of the world’s media,” she said. “I want my dignity and honour back.”

Shinzo Abe, the Japanese prime minister, travels to Washington next week and will be the first Japanese leader to address a joint session of Congress. His speech will be closely watched for the way in which he deals with Japan’s responsibility for World War 2. Abe is expected to express “deep remorse” about Japan’s conduct in the early decades of last century.

But there are many in Asia – particularly in Korea and China – who say that still falls short of a full and unequivocal apology for their suffering.

They are also angered by nationalists in Japan who deny the Japanese military operated the “comfort women” system and claim the women were merely prostitutes who earned a very good living from the soldiers.

Abe has himself suggested there is no firm evidence that the military and, by extension, the government was involved in the trade and there is therefore no need for an apology or compensation.

But Kim said: “To continue to deny these things is just absurd.” – The Telegraph