Japan and South Korea have never gotten along beautifully at any point in history -- but then again, what two countries really have? Their relations have been more than messy from their respective medieval ages and it's rare for the countries to ever happily agree on anything. This unhealthy relationship was further corrupted by Japanese occupation of the entire country of Korea (not yet separated into North and South) from the end of the Joseon Dynasty in 1910 to 1945 -- a total of 35 years of increasing bitterness. Adding to the already mountainous culmination of problems, Japan was one of the many who participated within WWII. Normally, this would be a little insignificant in the eyes of the Koreans, with the exception of forced labor to fund the endeavor. However, the endeavor was made significant and incredibly tragic by the Japanese government's decision to abduct young Korean girls and force them into sexual slavery. While it was true that Japan did have occupation of other countries at this point in time, Korea was the closest, making ease of access a large factor in their decision. Added to the fact that, because of the extended length of the occupation of Korea by the Japanese, Korean citizens were used to seeing Japanese everywhere and, while they were still not on friendly terms, the people did not expect such an act. These girls would come to be known as 'comfort women', for providing 'sexual services' to those men drafted in the Japanese Army in order to relieve the men's stress of the war through non-consensual sex. Later, the Japanese government would deny any such act whenever they were confronted by the South Korean government and surviving victims with various arguments, stating that they never would have done such a thing, that the claims were fictional. However, there is rather convincing evidence against this and by further acting ignorant to their country's actions, Japan only makes themselves seem stubborn and foolish.

One of the main arguments by the Japanese government as well as scholars to deny the existence of these comfort women is simply by saying 'it never happened'; they even go as far as to write such events out of any historical text available within Japan. It's a rather straight forward argument and reasonable, except for the fact that there have been multiple women -- more than a hundred -- to come forward and deny this with their own testimonies. One woman, for instance, is that of Kim Tokchin (    , with Kim as the surname). Within an article dictating her personal experiences, she explains her ill-fated tale.

Because she was from a smaller village, Tokchin's family was not wealthy; instead of going to school, she worked as soon as she was able, supporting the family in that way instead. While it wasn't lavish in the least, it worked. However, soon Japanese men began visiting villages, promising work in Japan without the need of education. Because those opportunities promised would be better, as well as pay financially better, Tokchin and many other girls accepted the offer, traveling by train and boat until they arrived at Nagasaki. Such sorts of opportunities weren't uncommon, as often people would travel between China, Korea, and Japan in search of work and cultural influence. Many girls too came from a rather impoverished background and, upon being offered (or in some circumstances, 'drafted' by the Japanese Army) to work, it only seemed that they could benefit from their poor circumstances. So girls from as young as twelve to young women at the age of 20, females were coaxed from their homes overseas to Japan. (Kim Tokchin)

In this, those Japanese persons who do admit that 'comfort women' might have existed claim that this proves that the act wasn't unwilling. After all, nobody stopped these women from going -- they traveled of their own volition and nobody, not even the authorities of their village or small government attempted to stop such a thing. This is true; the women did leave with the Japanese of their own willpower and nobody stood against them. However, the reasoning as to 'why' is the important factor in such an equation. The Japanese had occupied Korea for almost five years prior to the beginning of WWII and, while they were still not a welcome presence in the eyes of the natives, Koreans had become used to the idea of Japanese around -- seeing girls with Japanese men wasn't necessarily a strange event, even if it does seem rather unorthodox by modern day standards. In addition to this, travelling between the three dominant East Asian countries was quite common and had been so for centuries prior. Japan and Korea had in fact been established and built on migrants from China and their society structured by those who went back to China and brought back teachings and alterations that became their culture. For a citizen of one to travel to another of the three was common and nothing particularly noteworthy.

However, the key word in that phrase is that of 'willing' -- while the women may have been 'willing' to travel to find this work of which they were promised, they certainly didn't understand what was awaiting them. Because the Japanese 'recruited' through lies and trickery, with false promises to girls who were too young to know better, the girls were left unprepared for what reality held. Kim Youngshil (    ), a surviving Korean comfort woman, describes this shortly but well, as she describes being shipped to an area along the border of China and Russia and the confusion upon being brought to a remote house. 

"The officer who took us to the camp wore a good-looking uniform with a three-star insignia. He came into my room that night. Scared, I jumped up. He sat down, laid his sword on the floor, and proceeded to take off his clothes. Why was he doing this? Where is my job? I start to cry. He shouted. "You obey my orders. I will kill you if you don't." He then held me down and raped me. I was a virgin until that moment." (Kim Youngshil, 50)

The descriptive testimony leaves little question as to whether the act was willing -- Youngshil had not wanted any such thing at all, even going as far as to wonder where her promised job was. 

Treated as nothing but sexual slaves, less than human beings, comfort women were made to sexually service Japanese soldiers from the moment they woke up until the point where they physically couldn't any more. According to Pak Oknyon (    ), the 'schedule' was extraordinarily brutal: the women were required to 'service' men from 7am to noon (though often such events went on longer). While the total for this differed per person, Oknyon says that she could initially 'receive no more than five or six men a day' but later on was able to take up to ten or more soldiers and then ten more officers after that during the day alone. (Pak) Such treatment lasted (for her personally) two and a half years, leaving her to be continuously raped every day for nearly three years. 

While each woman's testimony is theirs alone and much individual to their personal experiences, one of the many common themes of the entire ordeal is that each woman describes their pain, hurt, confusion, and names the act specifically as rape. In this, the mere suggestion of their 'service' being 'willing' is completely inaccurate.

This is an issue that has been debated by Korea (South Korea in particular being the most vocal) and Japan for many years and has yet to be firmly solved. This is partially due to Japan's utmost refusal to even acknowledge such acts ever happening and denying any sort of reparations whatsoever and, in doing so, the rift between the two countries grows even wider. Their efforts include going as far as to write this out of any sort of historical document whatsoever, teaching their newer generations that any such claims are false. 

As well as being a moral and ethical crime against the sufferings of these women, their blatant refusal of the truth complicates things in both an economical aspect as well as political. While the trade and general social relations between citizens of each country is still consistently icy, the political relations are as well. Because of their disagreement on the matter as a whole, the resulting bitterness makes it effectively impossible for the two countries to work together on anything, leaving holes within their political alliance. As two large powers within East Asia, they are allied against that of North Korea and China. However, due to the snags within the relationship caused by the debating of the existence of comfort women, dissent is present on both sides and thus communication is lost. For instance, South Korea currently is trading fire with North Korea and has intel on some of the weapons and general structures of the North Korean forces. But because Japan is being stubborn about the issue of comfort women, South Korea chooses not to readily share such information with them, leaving them vulnerable to either two opposing countries. (Gale) Asian cultures have long held respect for their women, especially as they grow older with age and South Korea has a right to remain standoffish in such a case, as their women were violated wrongfully; just because the passage of time goes by does not make the events any less existent.

A more concrete solution to this issue would benefit both countries general wellbeing at this point. As stated by deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes, "a closer alliance between [Japan and Korea] could help counterbalance China's growing military and economic influence in the region, and help keep North Korean aggression in check" (Eilperin). As well, it would significantly help to heal the wounds still open within the comfort women themselves -- such pain, while not fresh, is still present and deserves treatment

Any previous efforts at an agreement have failed; there were few attempts, most skirting around the issue itself in which Japan metaphorically shrugged and said 'This might have happened', without saying it straight out, leaving South Korea to deny such a watery acknowledgement. There are very few other cases where a Japanese official has admitted that 'Yes, this was an error on our part'; however, in addition to being outweighed by the number of times Japan has denied the entire happening, these officials only admit and do nothing to attempt to remedy those who have been affected and/or traumatized by the actions done to them and their families. (Eilperin) This and the continuous denial and avoidance all together of the issue have created continuous problems, leading to the issue being unsolved for an extensive period of time.

Truthfully, to settle this issue would be a delicate process that would require patience and acceptance; change wouldn't be immediate, but anything at all from where the current standpoint would be an improvement, as the two countries need to address the issue with a lasting solution. At this point in time, it can be argued that Japan is merely waiting for the surviving comfort women, all elderly in age, to die off so the problem just fades into the past. This is morally a terrible course of action, as letting a person die with uncorrected wrongs against them is honestly cruel, especially when the circumstances are known, but not acknowledged.

A suggested proposal from John Lee, a professor at the Australia National University, is that one should absolutely leave the issue alone. He looks at it from the standpoint from the United States itself, saying that it's just a bad idea in general to try and interfere with another countries' business. He further explains, saying "When it comes to the politics of national apologies and victim compensation, things become more complex still. Indeed, the most contentious disagreements today do not concern what Imperial Japanese forces did during the war, but whether a now liberal-democratic Japan has paid a high enough price, to nations and to individuals, in the decades since the war." (Lee) By perpetuating the issue outside of the two feuding countries, Lee argues that Seoul -- referring to South Korea as a whole -- will only use this to perpetuate the argument further and thus leave China and North Korea the only winners in such a fight. In this, I agree that there does not need to be foreign interference; however, I don't think that the two countries should necessarily ignore the issue any further. Rather, I hope that the two countries can solve their own issues amongst the two of them and propose a solution between the two countries and them alone.

One of the first steps absolutely indispensable is that of pure acknowledgement with apology -- a genuine statement conceded by that of the Japanese government that plainly states, without any dodging or 'maybe's that "Yes, the Japanese government forced Korean women into sexual service during this time; it was wrong and we are sorry." So far, even this has been rather impossible to hear from the Japanese government, as there has either been watery acceptance in the form of 'Well, if we did it, then we'd be sorry' or flat out denial. In general, the first step to such a compromise between two countries would be admitting to their wrongs. The Japanese government may continue to argue that such things never happened, but very plainly there is quite a bit of evidence stating otherwise. 

The next step is compensation. It may be a monetary compensation, it may not; as one who was never a comfort woman and never knew any such lifestyle, I feel I have no real right to dictate exactly what is defined as 'compensation'. However, I believe the two countries of Japan and South Korea should come to a consensus -- involving the presence and agreement of the comfort women, as they're usually left out of any sort of agreement involving their own plights -- of what exactly constitutes as proper amends. While apologies and acknowledgement is nice, I believe that it is not necessarily enough. Should the surviving comfort women not wish anything but those two things, then I respect that fully. However, should they wish compensation for their trauma, it should be readily agreed upon, though not an extreme on either side. 

The true last step of the process would be the general acceptance of whatever policy is created. Granted, this is not a perfect policy and could have considerable problems. However one of the biggest problems with policy in this area (aside from the utter denial of the existence of the issue) is that of reaching a fixed compromise that doesn't make one side unhappy. At this point, any faint mention or attempt at addressing the issue has not been deemed enough. As of January 2016, Japan officially acknowledged that comfort women had a high possibility of having existed -- essentially, as close as they've currently gotten to saying 'Yes, this happened'. However, this is all they have done as of record, offering little else in way of apology. Rather than the policy being 'bad' (though it certainly wasn't effective), the levels of dissention towards it were high among Korean citizens. While it's true that you cannot please everybody at once, an important factor of reaching a lasting solution is to have the decision be approved by the people. If the citizens continue to protest the decisions made, the agreement thus becomes less valid and less likely to be upheld as well -- thus is the reasoning behind the destruction of many policies offered to date.

So in making the policy, Japan should admit their wrongdoings, apologize properly and sincerely for their deeds, then seek out any sort of reparations in an agreement with the comfort women themselves (not just the government), and, once an agreement is reached, both sides should be able to accept the made decision. Only then, can the issue, as well as the troubled souls of the surviving comfort women and those who did not live to see it end, finally rest at peace.

Lastly, while the above is extraordinarily important, the simple task of spreading the knowledge of the issue is incredibly vital to the entire situation. Currently, there are not many people outside of South Korea and Japan's news-scope who even know that people such as comfort women existed. Upon discussing with classmates, they were incredibly surprised to find that anything like this had happened and very disturbed that the problem had gone unanswered to for so long. However, it is the lack of awareness that perpetuates Japan's 'getting away with' these crimes against these women. Because there is very little outside knowledge, let alone pressure on them to do something, other than the protests by South Korea and the comfort women themselves, it makes it easier to ignore.

However, by raising awareness in acts, such as this paper, it increases the amount of people who know of the terrible acts that still go uncorrected. Guided by their moral compass, people can build up to be a force and, as word spreads, so does the amount of influence that outsiders have on the topic. If Japan were to have the outside pressure from more countries than solely South Korea and the United States (in government alone, rather than the entire populace), it would expedite the process above significantly.

