Op-Ed: 8.3 Million
Kimiko Kaneda recalls her experience as a comfort woman during the Japanese occupation of Korea: “No one talked. All were weeping. That night we slept there and in the morning we were put in those rooms. Soldiers came to my room, but I resisted with all my might. The first soldier wasn't drunk and when he tried to rip my clothes off, I shouted ‘No!’ and he left. The second soldier was drunk. He waved a knife at me and threatened to kill me if I didn't do what he said. But I didn't care if I died, and in the end he stabbed me.”
Without consulting the victims, Japan valued the compensation for such crimes at $8.3 million. The deal indicates an easing of tensions between the two countries, but many believe that $8.3 million represents only the beginning of reparations. Shortly after the striking the deal, Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishido stated that the term “sex slave” did not accurately describe the role of comfort women. Such a statement brings into question the legitimacy of the comfort women deal.
The financial transfer was contingent on South Korea’s promise to not discuss comfort women in the United Nations anymore and on the comfort women statue’s removal from the front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul. Japan must realize that it may have bought Seoul’s silence before the U.N., but it cannot purchase the silence of war crime victims. The deal disgraces young girls that the Japanese enslaved not only in Korea but all over Asia.
For a country that has historically awed the world with its strength in the face of disaster, man-made and natural, Japan’s inability to accept full responsibility for its war crimes is simply hypocritical. From the loss undertaken due to tsunamis to the horrible results from the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan especially must respect the value of human life regardless of the oppressor or the oppressed. Yet, the Abe government refuses to extend this fundamental respect to Korea regarding a war crime that started almost 100 years ago. Japan has nothing to gain by ignoring this dirty truth in its history but misconstrued political pride. The human rights violations that occurred in the comfort women scandal during the Japanese occupation parallel the human rights violations that have scarred Japan itself. This deal reeks of political arrogance from the Japanese government in regards to its own history and must not be accepted as a bribe for silence.
The testimonials of comfort women speak of atrocities that are considered by the U.N. as human rights violations today. One comfort woman, Chong Ok-Sun, recalled that when “one Korean girl caught a venereal disease from being raped so often and, as a result, over 50 Japanese soldiers were infected. In order to stop the disease from spreading and to ’sterilize’ the Korean girl, they stuck a hot iron bar in her private parts.” Hwang So-Gun, another victim, said “one day, a new girl was put in the compartment next to [me]. She tried to resist the men and bit one of them on his arm. She was then taken to the courtyard and in front of all of us, her head was cut off with a sword and her body was cut into small pieces.”
Eight point three million does not compensate for sex slavery and the resulting trauma to those young girls. It does not compensate for decades of trying to whitewash history by denying the very truth of this war atrocity. The comfort women deserve more, Korea deserves more, and the Japanese people deserve more.