What does a sincere apology for the former "comfort women" look like?

 On December 28th 2015, the foreign ministers of Japan and South Korea announced their “final and irrevocable resolution” over the issue of Korean women forced into sexual slavery by the Imperial Japanese military before and during World War II. In this agreement, Japan apologized and promised an $8.3 million for the care of the victims. Yet survivors heavily criticized the deal.

To understand why I will firstly discuss the life of late Ms KIM, Hak-sun, the first former “comfort woman” to come forward in Korea, her demands to the Japanese government, and her envisioned Japanese apology. Secondly, I will discuss the women’s movement with an emphasis on the Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan that supported KIM, Hak-sun. I will explain how the Korean Council was created, the types of people that gathered there, and their purpose.

I then consider the responses of the Japanese and Korean people to this activism. Ever since the comfort women issue was raised by the Korean women’s movement, Japanese historical revisionists have been insisting that the Japanese government has no responsibility over the “comfort women” issue by claiming that “comfort women” were lawful commercial prostitutes at that time. And in Korea, nationalistic discourses on “comfort women” issue have become stronger.

This author aims to clarify what late Ms. Kim HS and the initial Korean Council wished to achieve through their struggles against the male dominated imperialist state of Japan.