Japan’s Kyodo news agency reported on the 18th that it learned from the United Nations Human Rights Council and other sources on the 17th, the human rights council-appointed Special Rapporteur and Working Group on violence against women on the issue of“Comfort women” concluded that“The government of Japan has not fulfilled its obligations under international law,” Letters to the government of Japan and other countries expressing serious concerns.
The letter, reportedly dated 17 July, was signed by eight people, including the Special Rapporteur from Japan. The rapporteurs and working groups heard from victims of “Comfort women” in countries such as South Korea, China, the Netherlands and Indonesia, and discussed the In & Out to date and the UN review. The same letters were sent to the governments of the countries where the“Comfort women” victims lived.
The report also said the special rapporteur and others believe that“Comfort women” victims have the right to full relief and compensation. Regarding the number of women denied by the Japanese government to be victims of“Forced recruitment” and“Comfort women” reaching the scale of“200,000”, the rapporteur stressed that this undermined the dignity of the“Comfort women” victims. With regard to the opposition of the government of Japan to the installation of a statue of a young girl as a symbol of the victims of the “Comfort Women”, the rapporteur and others expressed concern about the lack of efforts by the government of Japan to preserve records aimed at avoiding a repetition of the tragedy. Kyodo news agency said that in its statement of defense, Japan referred to“Letters of apology” from successive prime ministers and the government’s contribution of 1 billion yen (48 million yuan) to the South Korean consortium based on the 2015 japan-south Korea Consensus, to reiterate the position that the issue of“Comfort Women” has been resolved.
However, this position is not universally accepted. Global Times reporters recently visited the women’s War and Peace Archive (WAM) in Tokyo, Japan’s first folk memorial focusing on wartime sexual violence, especially the issue of“Comfort Women.” The museum displays a large number of historical photos and testimonies of victims from China and South Korea.
Public information shows that in 2016, groups and institutions from China, South Korea and other countries concerned applied for the“Voice of the comfort women” as the file named“Comfort Women” and lost the election. The women’s Library of war and peace is one of the groups involved. In an interview with the global times, Fumiko Yamashita, head of the museum, said that in the course of the various efforts to apply for the World Heritage Site, she encountered resistance from the Japanese government. According to her, the obstruction was not directed at the museum, but rather the government’s use of delays and non-payment of dues to pressure the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, leading to the shelving of the application and the inability to move forward with the work so far.
Yamashita said that some victims often said, “Is the Japanese government waiting for us all to die?” Because of this, they need to be more determined to leave historical evidence and properly preserve these records, passed down from generation to generation, so as to live up to the victims of the story and pay. She also said, “I believe that as long as this information remains, it will make it clear to future generations that ‘these things did indeed happen and what Japan did was wrong’ and that we will not allow the voices of the ‘Comfort Women’ victims to disappear under any circumstances.”
During the interview, a Japanese university student who visited the scene told the reporter that he had overheard about the“Comfort women” in the news, but he had never studied this period of history, so I want to visit the library to understand the hidden truth. The young man also said, “Do not understand the ‘comfort women’ issue, including the historical panorama, can not really understand the current international situation.”