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Japan's ‘Comfort Women’: It's time for the truth (in the ordinary, everyday sense of the word)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 May 2025

Tessa Morris-Suzuki
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In August 2000, the German Foundation Act established a fund to compensate tens of thousands of survivors of Nazi slave labour. The 5.1 billion Euro fund was financed jointly by the German government and companies which had been involved in the use of wartime slave labour, and by 2005, over 70,000 claims for compensation had been recognized.

Type
Research Article
Information
Asia-Pacific Journal , Volume 5 , Issue 3 , March 2007 , e7
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Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
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Copyright © The Authors 2007

References

Notes

[1] See International Organization for Migration, German Forced Labor Compensation Program.

[2] Kim Se Jeong. “Comfort Women Testify to US Congress”. Ohmynews International 17 February, 2007.

[3] Mainichi Shimbun, evening edition, 5 March 2005.

[4] See Nikkei Sokuho Nyusu, 5 March 2007.

[5] BBC News, 19 February 2007, “Japan anger at US sex slave bill”

[6] See Statement of Jan Ruff O'Herne AO, Friends of “Comfort Women” in Australia, Subcommittee on Asia, the Pacific, and the Global Environment Committee on Foreign Affairs, U.S. House of Representatives Hearing on Protecting the Human Rights of “Comfort Women”, Thursday, February 15, 2007.

[7] See Soh Chang-Hee, Sarah. “Teikoku Nihon no ‘Jugun Ianfu Seido’ Ron: Rekishi to Kioku no Seijiteki Katto”. In Kurasawa Aiko et al eds. Iwanami Koza: Ajia Taiheyo Senso. Vol. 2. Tokyo: Iwanami, 2005, pp.347-380.

[8] Yoshimi Yoshiaki, Comfort Women: Sexual Slavery in the Japanese Military During World War II. (trans Suzanne O'Brien), Columbia: Columbia University Press, 2000, particularly pp. 58-61 and 113-115.

[9] For a summary of the study's findings see Cabinet Councillors' Office on External Affairs, On the Issue of Wartime “Comfort Women”, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, August 4, 1993.

[10] For the full text of Kono's statement, see Statement by the Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono on the result of the study on the issue of “comfort women”, August 4, 1993.

[11] For the text of the Special Rapporteur's report, see Report of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences, Ms. Radhika Coomaraswamv, in accordance with Commission on Human Rights resolution 1994/45 Report on the mission to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the Republic of Korea and Japan on the issue of military sexual slavery in wartime, United Nations, Economic and Social Council E/CN.4/1996/53/Add. 1/Corr. 1, 7 February 1996.

[12] For details of the Tribunal, see VAWW-NET Japan (Violence Against Women in War-Network Japan), The Women's International War Crimes Tribunal on Japan's Military Sexual Slavery.

[13] Mark Wyman, DP: Europe's Displaced Persons, 1945-1951. Philadelphia: Balch Institute Press, 1989, p. 22.

[14] Tokyo Shinbun, 1 March 2007.

[15] Sankei Shinbun, 3 March 2007.

[16] For the text of the Resolution, see H. Res. 121: Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the Government of Japan should formally…

For video of Honda's testimony to Congress, see Honda Testifies in Support of Comfort Women.

[17] Christopher Reed, “Family Skeletons: Japan's Foreign Minister and Forced Labor by Koreans and Allied POWs”. Japan Focus. 6 May 2006.

See also William Underwood, “Japan Foreign Minister's Visit to POW Remembrance Service Backfires.” Japan Focus. August 2, 2006.

[18] Sankei Shinbun 5 March 2007.

[19] See Tessa Morris-Suzuki, “Free Speech, Silenced Voices: The Japanese Media and the NHK Affair”. AsiaRights. 4, 2005.

[20] On the kidnap issue, see Gavan McCormack and Wada, Haruki, “The Strange Record of 15 Years of Japan-North Korea Negotiations”. Japan Focus, 2 September 2005.