The huge gulf of mistrust between South Korea and Japan, triggered as a result of the Japan’s colonial rule of South Korea from 1910 till the end of World War II in 1945, has been historically seen by observers world over as an irrevocable stumbling block preventing a possible diplomatic relationship between the two countries. But in the last week of December, the foreign ministers of both the countries at the behest of South Korean President Park Geun-hye and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe did something unprecedented. They signed a landmark agreement to resolve their dispute over Korean women who were forced to serve as comfort women or sex slaves for Japan’s Imperial Army during the three-and-a-half decades of latter’s rule in South Korea.
The pact was significant for many reasons. For one, Japan made a profound apology. “The issue of ‘comfort women’ was a matter which, with the involvement of the military authorities of the day, severely injured the honor and dignity of many women. In this regard, the government of Japan painfully acknowledges its responsibility,” Shinzo Abe said in the pact.
Aimed at erasing one of the most painful legacies of Japan’s rule in South Korea and lifting an intractable logjam in the relation between South Korea and Japan, foreign ministers of both countries said each side considered the pact a ‘final and irreversible resolution’ of the issue.
While Japan had issued apologies in the past as well—including in a 1993 statement that acknowledged responsibility for the practice— this was a much more candid one, reflecting a deep desire to get rid of its tainted colonial baggage and a sincere attempt to establish bilateral relationship with South Korea. It also promised $8.3 million for rehabilitating and providing care for the surviving South Korean comfort women, most of them are in the eighties and nineties.
Second, the apology and the payment, which, unlike a previous fund, will come directly from the Japanese government, reflecting a clear shift for Abe, who has been reluctant to offer apology for his country’s militarist past as he did not want to be seen compromising his country’s stature, also giving ammunition for the opposition to attack his government.
The pact also elicited positive response from the US which is a close ally of both South Korea and Japan. The US, which has been looking for a breakthrough that improves coordination between its allies in Northeast Asia against rising military threat from North Korea and China’s growing aggression, hailed the pact, saying, it was as strategically important for Washington as the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal.
However, a backlash in Korea and in the US threatens to complicate the future of the fact.A section of former comfort women have been irked by the government’s lack of consultation with them during negotiations with Japan. A few days after the pact was signed, a group of former comfort women joined a protest of several hundred people outside the Japanese Embassy in Seoul against the deal.
Besides, a South Korean court opened a damage suit against the Japanese government on behalf of a group of former comfort women. A statue outside the Japanese Embassy representing a young comfort woman also proved to be flashpoint. While Japan has been asking for the removal of the statue, two-thirds of South Koreans who participated in a survey opposed its relocation.
While many activists groups continue to oppose the agreement, protests have been reported from South Korans residing in the US too. A group calling itself ‘US Citizens of Korean Descent for ‘Comfort Women’, whose identity is yet to be ascertained, launched a website to gather signatures, in a drive addressed to President Obama and Secretary of State Kerry, demanding replacement of Deputy Secretary of State Blinken, who expressed strong support for the pact.
This seems to a reenactment of another incident where a US official was targeted by South Koreans. In March last year, a South Korean with six prior convictions related to bladed weapons came close to assassinating US Ambassador to South Korea Lippert, said to be a close advisor to President Obama.
Having used military comfort women as a tool to support anti-Japanese propaganda in a bid to strengthen their own standing, Opposition parties don’t want the issue to evaporate into thin air, lending an advantage to both South Korean President Park Geun-hye and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Opposing the deal and thus fanning the sentiments of a section of Korean people who think South Korea has been at the receiving end in the comfort women issue, they are also tacitly looking at enhancing their prospects in the elections due in 2017.
Despite the backlash, the agreement is perhaps the best chance for Park Geun-hye and Shinzo Abe to erase a muddied legacy in the relationship between South Korea and Japan and set stage for a new beginning in bilateral co-operation.
The pact was significant for many reasons. For one, Japan made a profound apology. “The issue of ‘comfort women’ was a matter which, with the involvement of the military authorities of the day, severely injured the honor and dignity of many women. In this regard, the government of Japan painfully acknowledges its responsibility,” Shinzo Abe said in the pact.
Aimed at erasing one of the most painful legacies of Japan’s rule in South Korea and lifting an intractable logjam in the relation between South Korea and Japan, foreign ministers of both countries said each side considered the pact a ‘final and irreversible resolution’ of the issue.
While Japan had issued apologies in the past as well—including in a 1993 statement that acknowledged responsibility for the practice— this was a much more candid one, reflecting a deep desire to get rid of its tainted colonial baggage and a sincere attempt to establish bilateral relationship with South Korea. It also promised $8.3 million for rehabilitating and providing care for the surviving South Korean comfort women, most of them are in the eighties and nineties.
Second, the apology and the payment, which, unlike a previous fund, will come directly from the Japanese government, reflecting a clear shift for Abe, who has been reluctant to offer apology for his country’s militarist past as he did not want to be seen compromising his country’s stature, also giving ammunition for the opposition to attack his government.
The pact also elicited positive response from the US which is a close ally of both South Korea and Japan. The US, which has been looking for a breakthrough that improves coordination between its allies in Northeast Asia against rising military threat from North Korea and China’s growing aggression, hailed the pact, saying, it was as strategically important for Washington as the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal.
However, a backlash in Korea and in the US threatens to complicate the future of the fact.A section of former comfort women have been irked by the government’s lack of consultation with them during negotiations with Japan. A few days after the pact was signed, a group of former comfort women joined a protest of several hundred people outside the Japanese Embassy in Seoul against the deal.
Besides, a South Korean court opened a damage suit against the Japanese government on behalf of a group of former comfort women. A statue outside the Japanese Embassy representing a young comfort woman also proved to be flashpoint. While Japan has been asking for the removal of the statue, two-thirds of South Koreans who participated in a survey opposed its relocation.
While many activists groups continue to oppose the agreement, protests have been reported from South Korans residing in the US too. A group calling itself ‘US Citizens of Korean Descent for ‘Comfort Women’, whose identity is yet to be ascertained, launched a website to gather signatures, in a drive addressed to President Obama and Secretary of State Kerry, demanding replacement of Deputy Secretary of State Blinken, who expressed strong support for the pact.
This seems to a reenactment of another incident where a US official was targeted by South Koreans. In March last year, a South Korean with six prior convictions related to bladed weapons came close to assassinating US Ambassador to South Korea Lippert, said to be a close advisor to President Obama.
Having used military comfort women as a tool to support anti-Japanese propaganda in a bid to strengthen their own standing, Opposition parties don’t want the issue to evaporate into thin air, lending an advantage to both South Korean President Park Geun-hye and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Opposing the deal and thus fanning the sentiments of a section of Korean people who think South Korea has been at the receiving end in the comfort women issue, they are also tacitly looking at enhancing their prospects in the elections due in 2017.
Despite the backlash, the agreement is perhaps the best chance for Park Geun-hye and Shinzo Abe to erase a muddied legacy in the relationship between South Korea and Japan and set stage for a new beginning in bilateral co-operation.
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