Japanese sex slavery not settled, Korean president says

This video says about itself:

02/04/2007

Jan Ruff-O’Herne told her shocking story on Australian Story in 2001 – a secret that took her 50 years to come to terms with before finally, she revealed it in a letter to her two daughters.

An idyllic childhood in Java was brought to an abrupt end by the Japanese occupation during Word War Two. Aged 21, she was taken from her family and repeatedly abused, beaten and raped – forced to be a sex slave for the Japanese military.

The term coined for this brutal sex slavery was ‘comfort woman‘. But since revealing her ‘uncomfortable truth’ Jan Ruff-O’Herne’s suffering has been transformed into something affirmative.

In February this year, this 84-year-old Adelaide grandmother made the long journey to testify before Congress in Washington DC. The Congressional hearing was the pinnacle in her 15-year global campaign to seek justice for ‘comfort women‘. Now six years since Australian Story first aired her story, Jan Ruff-O’Herne feels she is one step closer to finally achieving her ultimate goal.

From daily The Morning Star in Britain:

Friday, March 2, 2018

South Korean President insists sex slave issue is not over

SOUTH KOREAN President Moon Jae In assured citizens today that, whatever Japan may say, the wartime sex slave issue is not over.

In a speech marking a national holiday commemorating Korean resistance to Japanese occupation, President Moon said that Japan cannot declare the issue to have been relegated to history, insisting that Tokyo must apologise and confront its wrongdoings.

“As the perpetrator, the Japanese government shouldn’t say: ‘It’s over’,” he insisted.

“Wartime crimes against humanity can’t be swept under the rug by saying: ‘it’s over’.”

The scandal of what Tokyo refers to euphemistically as “comfort women”, those forced into sexual slavery for Japanese troops, is a sensitive issue for all Koreans.

Park Geun Hye, President Moon’s ousted [impeached] predecessor, negotiated a deal in 2015 under which Seoul promised not to raise the issue again, while Japan paid 1 billion yen (£6.8 million) to a foundation supporting the victims.

Tokyo fell short of taking legal responsibility for Japan’s actions and Mr Moon condemned the deal as “wrongful” and urged Japan to make a “heartfelt apology”.

“The true way of resolving a tragic history is to remember that history and to learn from it”, he said.

He also expressed hopes for strong future relations “with the closest neighbour on the backdrop of a sincere apology”.

Tokyo government spokesman Yoshihide Suga said this “goes against the Japan-South Korea agreement.

“We cannot accept it at all and feel it is extremely regrettable. We immediately conveyed our stance and made a strong protest to the South Korean side through diplomatic channels”.