Japanese politicians have been publishing their statements to regret or to apologize for the sufferings that Imperial Japan brought to people in Korean Peninsula, China and other Asian countries in the past. Such statement was made over 60 times in the past. Here is the link for those statements.
I have never heard of apology by the leaders of European countries such as Great Britain, France and Netherlands for their colonial rule in Asia and Africa where huge sufferings were brought by the colonial rule by European Powers. In Western culture, apology means the acknowledgment of their error or guilt. In contrast, we Japanese have a tendency to apologize to “MAKE RELATIONS GO BETTER", regardless of our fault. It was the reason why Japanese politicians had been apologizing a lot in the past. It is a natural part of our culture or a cultural tic.
The vast majority of Korean Comfort Women had been sent to private brokers by their parents in exchange for advance payment or joined on their own, driven by poverty and the patriarchal nature of Korean society, where daughters were often under-appreciated and given little autonomy. The brokers who recruited Korean comfort women were civilians, and many were Korean men; dishonest brokers deceived the women. The Japanese military did NOT systematically dragoon young Korean girls and women.
However, Japanese and our government took the sufferings of Comfort Women seriously, because Japan's wartime conduct resulted in those sufferings. As a morals nation, Japan apologized, paid compensation and even now (as of 2015) is continuing welfare projects for Korean former Comfort Women, although South Korean government and political activists ignore what Japan did and has been kept demanding apology and money.
This chapter explains what Japan did for the former Comfort Women. Please think whether those atonement activities are not enough yet.
Asian Women's Fund
All issues between Japan and South Korea were completely solved by Japan-South Korea Basic Treaty (1965), by which Japan paid compensation for the nation and for all individual victims associated with Japan’s rule of Korean Peninsula (please see a chapter for Japan-South Korea Basic Treaty).
However, Japanese government established Asian Women’s Fund in 1994 to show Japan’s regret for the sufferings of the former comfort women and to pay compensation further. Prostitution was legal in those days, but Japanese government decided based on the ethic sense in present days (in other words, modern values) and apologized for the use of comfort women by Imperial Japanese army and the sufferings of comfort women who worked against their will.
Japanese government funded medical and welfare projects as well as other similar projects that are of service to former comfort women (total 510,000,000 JPN yen) and owed the cost to run the fund (Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan). 6,000,000 JPN yen were collected by donations from Japanese people for compensation to the former comfort women. In case of Korean former comfort women, 2,000,000 yen were paid per person for compensation from Japanese nationals and 3,000,000 yen per person for medical care and welfare support from Japanese government. To all former comfort women, the letter of apology signed by Japan prime minister was given (see below) .
The letter of apology hand-signed by Japan prime minister
South Koreans refused to receive the compensation and apology
The atonement projects of the fund successful did end with Taiwan, Philippine, Indonesia and Netherland. However, the projects failed ONLY in South Korea.
Many former comfort women in South Korea did refuse to receive the letter of apology hand-signed by Japanese Prime Minister and benefits from the Fund's atonement projects. The South Korean Government disfavored the funds, basically because the compensation was paid not from Japan’s state fund but from donations from Japanese people. Because the Japan-Korea Treaty in 1965 already solved the Japan-Korea issues, Japan could not pay directly to the former comfort women. Otherwise, all other international treaty between Japan and other countries would be ruined.
The Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan, or "Chongdaehyop," mounted a vigorous campaign against the Asian Women's Fund. The campaign and the criticism from the media strongly affected South Korea government and the public mind of South Korea. As the consequence, strong pressure was applied against the seven victims who had received Fund benefits.
In addition, a campaign was mounted to collect private donations within the South Korea to persuade women to refuse Fund project benefits. The donations were used to provide victims with a fixed amount of assistance money. Later than that, South Korea government paid living expense subsidies to each former comfort woman who vowed to refuse Asian Women's Fund project benefits, but did not pay it to the seven who had accepted Fund benefits in the early stages, and four others who did not sign the written oath because they had accepted Fund benefits.
Finally, only 61 victims received the Fund benefits and 175 rejected. Thus, the atonement projects did not go successfully in South Korea.
Those who had accepted Fund project benefits sent their thanks, such as: "I never thought that during our lifetime I would receive apologies from the Prime Minister and money. I know they express the feelings of good will of the Japanese people. Thank you very much."
Another person needed money for a medical operation, and decided to accept Fund project benefits. At first she said she did not want to meet a representative from the Fund. But she eventually did, and when the Fund representative read the Prime Minister's letter aloud to her she raised her voice, broke down in tears, hugged the representative, and began to speak through her tears about her experiences as a comfort woman and the suffering she had endured after returning to her own country. Understanding the situation, the representative felt apology and remorse expressed by Japanese Government and people were accepted.
The seven who initially accepted Fund benefits, and the others who did so confidentially, were placed in a psychologically painful situation because of the strong influence of activist groups that regard the Fund's atonement projects in the South Korea as a way for the Japanese Government to avoid responsibility. The Fund kept up its efforts to ensure that all those who accepted atonement project benefits would be socially accepted, but unfortunately the current situation shows that these efforts did not bring positive results.
(Updated on Feb 15, 2016)
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