Grandmother Kim Hak-soon '30th Anniversary of Comfort Women Testimonies' Japan Remains Unmoved

First Testimony in August 1991 Marks 30th Anniversary This Year
Court Rulings Diverge on 'Japanese Government Compensation'
Ministry of Foreign Affairs Also Lukewarm After Korea-Japan Agreement

Statue of the late grandmother Kim Hak-soon, a victim of the Japanese military 'comfort women,' at 'Nanum House' in Gwangju, Gyeonggi.

It has been 30 years since the testimony of Grandma Kim Hak-soon, who revealed the existence of victims of Japanese military sexual slavery. The Japanese government still shows no intention of apologizing to the victims, and only 14 survivors of the Japanese military sexual slavery remain today.

It took 60 years from when Grandma Kim disclosed the fact that she was sexually assaulted by the Japanese military at a press conference held by the Council for the Resolution of the Issue of Military Sexual Slavery on August 14, 1991, until the survivors raised their voices. Since 2018, the government has designated August 14 as the national memorial day called ‘Day of Remembrance.’

Even after 30 years, attempts to distort history continue. Mark Ramseyer, a professor at Harvard Law School, sparked public outrage by labeling the victims of sexual slavery as prostitutes, and the ‘Statue of Peace’ erected worldwide to restore the human rights of the victims has frequently been vandalized.

On the 11th, Lee Na-young, director of the Justice and Memory Foundation, said at the Wednesday demonstration, "Kim Hak-soon boldly revealed that she was a victim of the Japanese military sexual slavery system and demanded historical truth. Sexual violence has become a universal human rights issue, and international legal principles regarding wartime sexual violence have been established," adding, "We will continue to demand until the Japanese government acknowledges the crimes and repeatedly apologizes to the victims."

The 1500th regular Wednesday demonstration held on the 14th in front of the Statue of Peace in Jongno-gu, Seoul is being conducted as a solo protest due to strengthened social distancing measures. Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

The path to compensation is still long. The ‘Korea-Japan Agreement on Comfort Women’ reached in December 2015 under the Park Geun-hye administration was made excluding the victims. The Japanese government contributed 1 billion yen (about 10.8 billion KRW) to establish the Reconciliation and Healing Foundation to provide compensation to the victims, but it was not ‘reparation’ for the damages. Legal efforts for compensation have had mixed results.

In January, the Seoul District Court ruled in favor of 12 plaintiffs, including Grandma Bae Chun-hee, in a damages lawsuit. On the other hand, in April, a damages claim lawsuit filed by 20 plaintiffs, including Grandmas Kwak Ye-nam, Kim Bok-dong, and Lee Yong-soo, was dismissed. The reason was the recognition of the principle of state immunity, which means compensation claims cannot be made. After the April ruling, Grandma Lee Yong-soo raised her voice to bring the comfort women issue to the International Court of Justice, but the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is reportedly lukewarm due to concerns that it could entangle the Dokdo issue in the dispute.

Han Hye-in, a research fellow at the Asia Institute for Peace, explained, "Legal rulings inevitably have many limitations when dealing with historical issues. Since there is no dialogue between the two countries over past issues and no change in attitude, and court rulings have come out differently, it has created room for the Japanese government to deny responsibility."

Efforts to register the comfort women records as a UNESCO Memory of the World heritage are also stalled. Since the decision to defer registration in October 2017, Japan has been delaying by pushing for ‘joint registration.’ UNESCO has started revising the registration process reflecting the standard that ‘issues uncomfortable for the counterpart country should be discussed between the two countries,’ and there are concerns that Japan is demanding retroactive application.

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