The presidential address commemorating the South Korean National Liberation Day in August last year lacked a direct reference to the Japanese military sex slaves — commonly known as ‘comfort women’ — for the second time since 2022, when President Yoon Suk-Yeol gave the first speech in honor of the National Liberation Day since his appointment. The fact that the government did not make a formal demand to the Japanese government to settle such a major historical case has disappointed many, who viewed the government’s gesture as forsaking its responsibility to speak for its citizens.

The major consensus is that the wartime sexual violence by the Japanese army began in 1931 with the Manchurian Crisis and ended when it surrendered in 1945. For over a decade, Japanese soldiers deceived, forced, and threatened young women from South Korea and other Asian countries to join one of the army units as comfort women. Women as young as 12 years old were forced into tiny cells and were subject to rape by up to 50 men every day. This exposed them to the dangers of sexually transmitted diseases that weren’t treated properly, unwanted pregnancy and, subsequently, crude abortion operations.

After the end of the war, many comfort women were deserted in Japan. Some of them refused to return to their homeland as they could not bear the humiliation, and those who returned had to face insults from unwelcoming family members and acquaintances. In a considerable number of army units, evacuating soldiers killed all comfort women to remove evidence of sexual violence. 

Though the war crime was carefully systematized and mercilessly condoned by the Japanese army, the Japanese government has hesitated to formally apologize or pay government reparations for decades after the existence of Japanese military sex slaves was uncovered. Moreover, this matter is, unfortunately, but somewhat naturally, not on the Japanese school curriculum, meaning that future generations will grow up without learning why their motherland owes nearly a century’s worth of debt to women from other countries that were of their age.

Individuals like Hak-sun Kim, who was the first South Korean to testify about her experience as a comfort woman, have protested for a long time but were met with no response or even unscrupulous comments. After her, 239 other South Korean women have registered as victims of wartime sexual violence by the Japanese military, but more than 200 have passed away without seeing meaningful closure to the history that has tortured them for their lifetime.

To induce a government-level acknowledgment from Japan, South Korea should persistently demand on a government-level. Reasons not to do so are present; for instance, this could lead to a diplomatic dispute and foster hostility between the two nations. But this concerns values so important that even the most pragmatic justification cannot defy them. Which government would put the direct protection of their citizens as a peripheral task? 

Moreover, the concern is rather untimely, considering the mutual relationship between South Korea and Japan; in fact, in 2019, when the South Korean court declared that Japan was responsible for compensating comfort women, the Japanese government disapproved of the decision but did not put forward any tangible retaliation. As such, it is reasonable to argue that, at this point, an overly cautious and submissive attitude is rather unnecessary.

The president referred to Japan as a “partner” during his South Korean National Liberation Day speech, but a true partnership only begins when both sides stand on equal grounds and resolve any issues that might evoke distrust. As of now, Japan owes South Korea a sincere apology. Reparations that make sense. The admission of their past crimes and the promise to work towards atonement.

There are facts, like that our government could not protect young women during the war, that are discomforting to accept. However, as long as we know that our women were manipulated and exploited for the ‘comfort’ of foreign soldiers but have not done anything to resolve their resentment, we deserve the discomfort. Even for the most conscious Japanese, admitting that their past governments have let go of mass-scale sexual violence by their soldiers would be aching. But still, if they know their country has failed to move forward with the issue even after sufficient time, they, too, deserve the discomfort.

Doing something that an individual cannot effectively do, like urging the criminals to undertake the responsibility that they have been disregarding, would only be the first step to addressing this discomfort. We have the duty to advocate for whom we failed to comfort eight decades ago.