South Korean court orders Japan to compensate WWII military 'comfort women’

A South Korean court on January 7 ordered Japan’s government to financially compensate 12 South Korean women who fell victim to sex slavery for the Japanese military in World War II. The ruling escalated rift and bilateral tensions between the two Asian nations as Japan debunked the verdict, saying that the matter was resolved under a 1965 treaty that cemented diplomatic ties. A Seoul Central District Court ordered Japan to pay 100 million won ($91,360) to the women victims who were mobilized by Japan’s soldiers as sexual slaves in a horrendous "crime against humanity” when the Japanese military illegally occupied the Korean Peninsula between 1910 to 1945. 

At Imperial Japan's military brothels, the plaintiffs that filed a lawsuit in August 2013 alleged that they were subjected to physical torture and mental abuse after they were forced to be, what was euphemistically termed as. "the comfort women” for the Japanese military forces. According to sources of South Korean news agency Yonhap, and Japanese broadcasting agency Kyodo, the case was heard at a Seoul court after the Japanese courts refused the civil case petition from the victim women who suffered extreme pain and "harsh sexual activities" in hands of Japan’s soldiers that caused injuries, venereal diseases, and unwanted pregnancies. 

Some women, who had succumbed to the sexual trauma, their testimonies were represented by a relative or a friend as they presented before Seoul court evidence backed by relevant materials and proofs. The Japanese government had appealed to suspend the hearing as the military personnel was held under the sovereign immunity that allows a state to shield them against civil suit in foreign courts. But the South Korean court rejected the plea saying that the illegal acts against the women were humanitarian war crimes committed by Imperial Japan. 

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South Korea demanded 'legal responsibility’

The prosecutors noted that the damages suit couldn’t be applied in Seoul-Tokyo deals in 1965 and 2015 that resolved the colonial-era issues between the two nations. Tokyo had offered South Korea 1 billion yen (9.6 million US dollars) compensation to assist the victims. However, the sex slave victims demanded the Japanese government’s ‘legal responsibility’ for the wartime atrocities committed against 238 South Korean women, of whom only 5 were alive. The total former sex slave survivors were 16. 

Women’s lawyer Kim Kang-won who fought for justice for the WWII women victims told reporters that she was proud to have won the fight for the sex slaves who suffered abuse, and trauma at the hand of Japanese troops after they were tricked into sexual slavery. Japan, according to agency sources, did not officially respond to South Korea’s court's correspondence. Japanese military held an estimated  200,000 Asian women hostages, primarily Korean in the wartime brothels and inflicted abuse, according to Korean agency Yonhap’s reports. Japan had summoned South Korea's ambassador to the country to the Foreign Ministry to boycott court proceedings. 

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(Image Credit: AP)