With the last post for this year, it is time to delve into something of a touchy subject vis-à-vis bilateral relations between Japan and South Korea (particularly this week), that being the issue of “comfort women.

Why, some will ask, have you put that term in inverted commas? Do you not think it is a legitimate term, invoking some of the tragic history that has impacted so greatly on Japan-South Korea relations?

Far from it.  It is simply to illustrate how this subject raises raw emotions; emotions that continue to influence the issue of reconciliation and whether both countries can ever find common cause with one another.  

Among certain sections of the right wing of Japan’s media and political elite, there is no such thing as “comfort women”. The term is ahistorical, and no records exist proving that the involuntary prostitution of Korean women was either 1) institutionalized, or 2) involuntary, or 3) ever condoned by the military government of Japan during the colonial occupation of the Korean peninsula.   

Yet the issue is an open wound to the people of South (and one presumes North) Korea, given the level of references made to it in South Korean media and literature, and the existence of memorials within South Korea (including one located across the road from the front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul) to the girls (as many of them were) taken to serve as prostitutes to the Imperial Japanese military are a physical reminder of the degree of anger and humiliation felt by the Korean people.

The fact that both countries signed an agreement in 2015 that, ostensibly, was meant to resolve the issue of “comfort women” was never going to succeed in bringing the issue to a close. The agreement was too convenient, too cased in bureaucratic language meant to lessen any emotional reaction to it, and too distant to the events of more than 75 years ago to last any longer than a change in government.

It appears as though South Korea will believe the issue resolved if Japan, in addition to providing compensation to those “comfort women” still alive and the families of those who have passed away, produces an apology that unequivocally admits to the existence of the systematic sexual enslavement of Korean women, and uses the term “comfort women”. This would need to be supported by a public education program in Japan, of open, official acknowledgment that this system existed in Imperial Japan, and that it was perpetrated with the approval of the Japanese government and military at the time.  This might then be accompanied by a public gesture, such as the establishment of a memorial to those who perished under this system, to be dedicated by a senior Japanese official – presumably meaning the prime minister. 

There would also need to be a pledge, a solemn promise by the Japanese government, to honour the memory of the victims of this system, to never again perpetrate such a system, and compel all public officials to uphold this promise. 

Yet these measures will never be taken by Japan.  To admit that Japan utilized a system of forced prostitution would be to admit that the state acted immorally, that those who perished in war fought to perpetrate a system of institutionalized cruelty, and that successive governments have sought to obfuscate the issue rather than deal with it directly.  It would mean sacrificing reputation, accepting that past policies were gravely mistaken in their intent, and that those who created such policies and carried them out were utterly wrong in purpose and execution.  It would be dishonorable, humiliating even, to make such concessions, and so they will not be made. 

So there will be no resolution of the issue of “comfort women” so long as it remains a very real, very painful episode that neither side will concede ground in interpreting.   And so the cycle of suspicion and doubt will continue until all living memory of the “comfort women” fades into the dark recesses of history.   

Over the past two weeks, a number of reports have emerged from Japan of wooden vessels (mainly fishing boats) of North Korean origin landing on the shores of prefectures facing towards the Sea of Japan, with the crews of these vessels hungry, emaciated or dead (according to this report, by the end of November there were 28 such incidents – and 64 overall this year). Those crews found alive state that they have often been forced to take shelter because of bad weather, or because of a lack of provisions they have made their way to shore to try and find food, or have sought out electrical equipment (such as TVs and fridges). This phenomenon, which has escalated dramatically over the last month, points to the dire situation facing North Korean citizens in areas outside of Pyongyang as winter closes in on North Korea.

Poor weather in the Sea of Japan, coupled with the continuing effect of sanctions applied against North Korea, has meant that many residents of coastal towns and villages in North Korea who have taken to the sea in what North Korea refers to the ‘winter fishing onslaught’ have been carried out to sea by strong winds and high waves only to end up on uninhabited islands in the Sea of Japan, or else in Japan’s EEZ and territorial shoreline. They have then either been picked up by the Japan Coast Guard or spotted by Japanese fishermen.  Some, however, have not been as fortunate, and have apparently died at sea before the boats carrying their corpses have landed on Japanese territory.

This harrowing state of affairs is set to become more dreadful as the month progresses, with expectations that there will be another spike in sightings before the year has ended. The combined effects of the above factors, coupled with the deterioration in the state of North Korea’s fishing fleet, will force more North Korean vessels to either seek shelter on Japan’s shores or risk trying to haul in a catch and return to North Korea in the face of bad weather.  The more episodes of ‘ghost ships’ turning up on Japan’s shorelines will, however, focus attention on the plight of the North Korean people, whose fate has been somewhat consumed by the larger issue of North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.