Renegotiation sought for 2015 'comfort women' agreement

As the numbers of comfort women dwindle, activists are urging the South Korean government and its newly elected President Moon Jae-in to renegotiate its 2015 agreement with Japan.

"Time is of the essence. Every month we hear of another grandma's passing," said Phyllis Kim, a comfort women advocate and executive committee member of the San Francisco-based Comfort Women Justice Coalition, on Monday.

"We know justice delayed is justice denied, and the longer justice is denied, the fewer former comfort women will be alive to see it," said Kim.

On Saturday, Huang Youliang, a former comfort woman, died at the age of 90 at her home in China's Hainan province, bringing the total number of survivors to 14 in China.

During World War II, an estimated 400,000 girls and women were forced into prostitution by the Japanese military. Half of them were from China, 140,000 to 160,000 from Korea, and the rest were from Japan and other Asian countries.

Grassroots organizations, including the Comfort Women Justice Coalition, have been raising voices and visibility for the victims justice struggle to preserve history and to seek redress for the human rights violations.

Last month, those groups drafted a joint statement containing "seven demands" to resolve the issue according to international standards.

The demands include a full acknowledgment of Japan's crime, an official apology, direct and legal reparations, a thorough investigation of the crime, prosecution of any surviving perpetrators, ongoing education in Japan's public schools, and the building of memorials and museums.

"In December 2015, the Japanese and South Korean governments colluded and struck a deeply problematic deal that they said would 'finally and irrevocably' resolve and end the issue," the joint statement said.

"However, not only were the Korean survivors never consulted during the negotiation, the survivors in all other affected countries were ignored completely, as were the Seven Demands," it said.

The groups demand that Seoul "take necessary steps to declare the current agreement null and void" and renegotiate with Japan in a manner that meets the survivors' demands.

So far, the joint statement has been signed by more than 70 organizations in the United States, Canada, China, Japan, Australia, Germany and the Philippines.

"A former comfort woman said: 'Our worst fear is that our painful history during World War II will be forgotten'," said Lillian Sing, co-chair of the Comfort Women Justice Coalition.

liazhu@chinadailyusa.com