It’s good news, of course, that the Japanese government has agreed to acknowledge the plight of the comfort women; the tens of thousands of women, many of whom who were Korean, who were forced into sex slavery by the Japanese military in the first half of the twentieth century. Japan has now apologized, and will pay reparations to the 46 of them who are still living. Geopolitically, this is good news – the rise of China demands a stronger Japanese/South Korean alliance – but of course the moral claims are of greater weight. And on that score, this is undeniably salutary: The abused women are finally getting some recognition.
This is something of a “Sister Souljah” moment for Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, whose political base tends to be, er, shall we say “revisionist” in its historical outlook. And it’s potentially politically risky for South Korean president Park Geun-hye as well. For accepting Japan’s apology, some of the more nationalistic elements in South Korea could accuse her administration of weakness, or of selling out. (And given her family’s complicated history with Japan, that could be a tricky issue.)
The question now, as always, is whether the apology sticks. As many Koreans have noticed, Japan has often gotten in itself in the habit of apologizing for its past crimes, only to later renege, or at least hedge. And it’s clear that broader strains of revisionism remain in rude health in Japan. To that end, it’s not a particularly good sign that that the day after the deal was struck, Prime Minister Abe’s wife visited Tokyo’s Yasukuni Shrine, which contains the souls of 14 class-A war criminals.
