Email this article “COMFORT WOMEN” ISSUE AND RELATIONS BETWEEN SOUTH KOREA AND JAPAN: HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL ASPECTS
- Authors: Dyachkov I.V.1
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Affiliations:
- Moscow State Institute of International Relations MGIMO University
- Issue: Vol 21, No 10 (2016)
- Pages: 104-109
- Section: FOREIGN COUNTRIES’ HISTORY
- URL: https://journals.rcsi.science/1810-0201/article/view/300861
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.20310/1810-0201-2016-21-10(162)-104-109
- ID: 300861
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Abstract
Issues of the past often hinder political cooperation between the Republic of Korea and Japan. The problem of “comfort women”, or wianbu , Korean women recruited to work in Japanese military brothels during World War II, is a major source of controversy. During the last 25 years South Korean non-governmental organizations and official Seoul both brought up this topic quite often, pointing out that the women were coerced into serving in the brothels and Japanese authorities must admit responsibility for it. South Koreans interpret Japan’s usual lukewarm response to their claims as arrogance towards a former colony and proof of Tokyo’s revisionist approach to World War II and its outcome. The 2015 agreement aimed at putting an end to the political conflict. Nevertheless, given the usual place issues of the past occupy in East Asian political culture, the future of this agreement is unclear and will depend on the general state of relations between South Korea and Japan. the history of Japanese “comfort stations”, is briefly covered, how the “comfort women” issue transformed into a political one is analyzed. The impact of politicization on related research is examined.
About the authors
Ilya Vladimirovich Dyachkov
Moscow State Institute of International Relations MGIMO University
Email: dyachkov@naver.com
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