Ministry of Gender Equality and Family Delays for 2 Years After Creating English Testimonial Collection of Comfort Women Victims

Unpublished Due to Privacy and Copyright Dispute Concerns
Author's English Edition Publication Request Also Denied for Korean Version

Testimonies of Victims of Japanese Military Sexual Slavery 'Korean Comfort Women Forcedly Taken 4' History Rewritten Through Memory

[Asia Economy Reporter Han Jinju] It has been revealed that the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family (MOGEF) completed an English testimony collection of Japanese military comfort women victims but has not made it public for over two years, ignoring academic requests for publication.

According to MOGEF and academia on the 24th, MOGEF completed the English translation of the book "Korean Comfort Women Forcedly Taken 4: History Rewritten from Memory," which contains testimonies of nine Japanese military comfort women victims, in February 2019.

This is an English version of the revised edition of the testimony collection with the same title, originally published in 2001 by MOGEF in cooperation with the Korean Council for Justice and Remembrance for the Issues of Military Sexual Slavery by Japan (Jeongdae-hyeop) and Seoul National University.

The Korean version was written by Professor Yang Hyun-ah of Seoul National University Law School and the "Testimony Team of the Korean Committee for the Women's International War Crimes Tribunal on Japan's Military Sexual Slavery 2000" under Jeongdae-hyeop (hereinafter the Testimony Team).

The Research Institute on Japanese Military Comfort Women Issues under MOGEF commissioned the English translation work in December 2018, 17 years after the Korean testimony collection was published, to research and investigate materials related to comfort women victims.

The institute completed the English translation in February 2019 and handed the booklet over to MOGEF, but it has not been made public externally even after more than two years since its completion.

MOGEF is reported to have postponed publication citing concerns over protecting the privacy of comfort women victims and potential copyright infringement or disputes, and also rejected the initial author's request to use the material.

Professor Yang negotiated with the UK-based Routledge publisher to publish the English testimony collection overseas and applied to MOGEF for permission to use the English testimony collection in December last year, but has yet to receive approval.

Despite being fundamental materials to inform the overseas public about the realities of comfort women victims, concerns over copyright disputes are criticized as excessive caution. Recently, controversy has continued, such as when Mark Ramseyer, a professor at Harvard Law School in the U.S., published a paper claiming comfort women victims were voluntary prostitutes.

In response, MOGEF stated, "In October 2020, we received an application for the publication and use of the English translation. We have requested legal advice and consulting regarding the scope of copyright use approval, appropriateness of the usage period, and potential rights disputes in overseas publication. Based on the consulting results, we plan to decide soon whether to approve the use."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.