Why would Seiji Maehara, chairman of the Democratic Party of Japan’s Policy Research Committee, raised the idea of establishing a new fund for South Koreans who acted as so-called comfort women during wartime? We cannot help but question his recent remarks on this matter.

Maehara this month met with South Korean Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Kim Sung-hwan in Seoul and said he wants to renew discussions on the issue of comfort women from a humanitarian point of view.

At a press conference after the meeting, Maehara said he would like to observe the example of the Asian Women’s Fund, which was established during the administration of former Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama, in dealing with the issue.

Maehara’s remarks came after the South Korean side had put the issue back in the spotlight.

Seoul asked Tokyo to hold talks on comfort women after the South Korean Constitutional Court issued a ruling in late August that noted a lack of effort by the South Korean government to assert the right of the women concerned to seek compensation from Japan. Such negligence violates the women’s fundamental human rights, the ruling said.

Last week, the South Korean government raised the issue at a human rights panel session of the U.N. General Assembly for the first time in 14 years, claiming that the issue of comfort women might involve war crimes and that the women have the right to seek compensation from Japan.

However, Japan and South Korea have agreed that Japan already fully compensated South Korea. A bilateral agreement states that the two countries’ disputes over rights of claim over such matters have been conclusively settled. The agreement was signed together with the 1965 treaty that normalized diplomatic relations between the two countries.

Japan’s stance on comfort women is in line with the bilateral agreement, and Maehara told Kim this during their meeting. It is possible that Maehara thought Japan could show consideration for South Korea in some way other than financial compensation, and therefore made the remarks about discussing the issue from a humanitarian perspective.

However, such actions will hardly have a positive effect on the Japan-South Korea relationship.

When the Asian Women’s Fund was established, careful examination of the historical facts was lacking.

The Asian Women’s Fund was established based on a statement issued in 1993 by then Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono. The wording of the statement was such that it could be interpreted as suggesting comfort women were recruited forcibly and systematically by government and military authorities. The statement added to the general misunderstanding that surrounds the comfort women issue.

However, no written material supporting the claim that government and military authorities were involved in the forcible and systematic recruitment of comfort women has been discovered.

The Asian Women’s Fund’s plan to pay former comfort women “atonement money” ― distinctly different to official compensation ― drew an angry response from the South Korean government. Many former South Korean comfort women refused to accept the money, and the fund’s operations in South Korea reached a dead end. The fund collected 600 million yen from private citizens, most of which was given to former comfort women in the Philippines and Taiwan. The fund was dissolved in 2007.

A South Korean private organization now organizes protests over the comfort women issue every week in front the Japanese Embassy in Seoul. The group plans to build a monument for comfort women in front of the embassy.

Japan’s response to such movements in South Korea must be based on a correct understanding of the historical facts.

(Editorial, The Yomiuri Shimbun)

(Asia News Network)