Japan: Postwar Silence

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Perhaps due to the stigma attached to them, comfort women have not come forward at the diplomatic talks between Japan and its former colonies after the war. Japan has assumed that these agreements have settled all matters concerning its postwar responsibilities (Soh, “Japan’s Responsibility,” par 4).

It took almost half a century before silence was broken on this issue. Soh confirms that even the US military did in fact know about the comfort women (“Japan’s Responsibility,” par 7). The issue, Soh explains, was overlooked due to the racial discrimination of Westerners against non-whites and the fact that no American women were affected.

Silence Broken

It took the courage of Kim Hak Sun, a Korean ex-comfort woman, to bring forth this issue to the international community (Soh, “Japan’s Responsibility,” par 11). In August 1991, Sun testified before the public to describe her experience. Four months later, a number of Koreans filed a class-action suit against the Japanese Government. With no concrete proof other than personal accounts however, this step only led to the denial of the Japanese Government. After the war, Japan destroyed all its wartime documents to lest investigations on their abuses be conducted (Yoshimi 1135).

Things took a different turn when Professor Yoshimi discovered official documents at the Library of the National Institute for Defense Studies in Tokyo; this discovery was then reported on the January 11, 1992 issue of the Asahi Shimbun (Soh, “Japan’s Responsibility,” par 12). These controversial documents revealed the Japanese Imperial Army’s involvement in the operation and maintenance of comfort stations around Asia. Two days later, the Japanese Government finally issued an official apology to the victims.