A small but angry group of South Korean activists gathered outside the Japanese embassy in Seoul on Tuesday to express their anger over Japan’s wartime atrocities.
(May 21)
SHOTLIST:
1. Wide of protesters in front of Japanese embassy holding banner reading (Korean) “Japan, completely denying invasion, should utter its deeply remorseful apologies to the Korean women, who were despised as international call girls”
2. Close-up of protester chanting
3. Medium of protesters chanting
4. Zoom in to protester cutting a condom filled with water whilst standing on a flag with a portrait of Osaka mayor Toru Hashimoto, who made comments about “comfort women”
5. Close-up of another protester cutting a condom filled with water on a portrait of Hashimoto
6. Close-up of protester cutting a condom
7. Wide of protesters throwing eggs on a flag with Japanese politicians and the Japanese rising-sun flag
8. Close-up of photo of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe covered in egg
9. Medium of the flag covered in egg
10. Pan of a protester stabbing the portraits of Japanese politicians with scissors
11. Wide of protesters chanting, while one of the protesters cuts the portrait of Hashimoto
12. Wide of protesters chanting, facing the police
13. Wide of protesters chanting behind a banner
14. Medium of protesters chanting
STORYLINE:
A small but angry group of South Korean activists gathered outside the Japanese embassy in Seoul on Tuesday to express their anger over Japan’s wartime atrocities.
Protesters were reacting to recent comments by a Japanese mayor that the forced prostitution of Asian women before and during World War II was necessary to “maintain discipline” amongst soldiers.
The protesters cut water-filled condoms over pictures of Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto, and threw eggs at portraits of several Japanese officials, including Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
Hashimoto, co-leader of an emerging nationalist party, said last week that there wasn’t clear evidence that the Japanese military had coerced women into working as “comfort women”.
Historians say up to 200-thousand women, mainly from the Korean Peninsula and China, were forced to provide sex for Japanese soldiers in military brothels.
While some other World War II armies had military brothels, Japan is the only country accused of such widespread, organised sexual slavery.
Hashimoto’s comments came amid continuing criticism of Abe’s earlier pledges to revise Japan’s past apologies for wartime atrocities.
Before he took office in December, Abe had advocated revising a 1993 statement by then-Prime Minister Yohei Dono acknowledging and expressing remorse for the suffering caused to the sex slaves.
Abe has acknowledged “comfort women” existed but has denied they were coerced into prostitution, citing a lack of official evidence.
He also said recently that the definition of “aggression” was still not established, inviting criticism from Japan’s neighbours.
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