 World War II was one of the most terrible wars in human history. Never before had so many men, women and resources been devoted to military effort. Now, one result was the carnage and the battlefields, but another involved brutal war crimes and atrocities against women in many parts of the world. In this video, I want to draw your attention to the issue of comfort women. And I'm going to focus on Korea. Now, the term comfort women is a euphemism for the girls and women who were forced to provide sexual services to Japanese soldiers during World War II. Before I address the issue of comfort women, I want to talk a little bit about what was happening in Korea at the beginning of the 20th century. In 1910, Japan annexed Korea and the Japanese wanted to make Korea its model colony. They invested very heavily in the mining industry, set up fertilizer and hydroelectric power plants. And by the 1930s, all large-scale industries in Korea were Japanese-owned. But this colonial transformation was not just a matter of economics. The colonial government was authoritarian, education in Korea was Japan-oriented, and instruction was given in Japanese. The Japanese in Korea received better salaries, medical care, education and jobs than Koreans. Now, of course, all of this was very similar to what Europeans did in their colonies in Africa and Asia. But after 1937, the Japanese policy of assimilation became very harsh. Koreans were pressured to adopt Japanese names, they were drafted to fight in Japan's wars, and they were sent to work in factories in Japan. So we need to understand the issue of comfort women in this context of Japanese colonization. In other words, the issue of comfort women is part of this legacy of Japanese imperialism in Korea. Now in 1945, after Japan was defeated in World War II, Soviet forces took control of the northern part of Korea and American forces took control of the southern part. The 30th parallel was the agreed upon dividing line. Then in June 1950, North Korean forces invaded South Korea and they were driven back. And finally, a ceasefire was agreed upon in 1953, which is still in effect, and the 30th parallel remains the boundary between North and South Korea. Now a series of bilateral talks were then held between South Korea and Japan from 1951 to 1965 in an effort to normalize the diplomatic relations between the two countries. And in 1965, both nations signed the treaty on basic relations between Japan and the Republic of Korea. And at this time, both Korea and Japan also agreed to resolve several issues concerning wartime property, individual claims for compensation, and economic cooperation. Now according to the terms of this treaty, Japan provided South Korea with economic aid and loans as compensation for colonial rule. And in return, South Korea agreed not to demand further compensation either at the government or individual level. Since 1965, the official policy of the Japanese government has been that such issues had been settled completely and finally. Now the South Korean government has argued that the 1965 agreement was not intended to settle individual claims against Japan for war crimes or crimes against humanity. And Korean activists have demanded the re-establishment of justice meaning that this issue is really about the rights of ordinary people who have been exploited by a repressive colonial power and they want to set history right. Now let's look at the timeline of events. In 1932, the first comfort station was set up in China. Then in 1937, after the Nanjing Massacre, the comfort women system was institutionalized. And during the war, the Japanese recruited thousands of women in Korea between the ages of 16 and 40 to offer sexual services to the Japanese soldiers. Now typically these young women were taken from poor Korean families by trickery or they were kidnapped and their job was to provide sexual services to many men. Now needless to say, this was a blatant violation of human rights. Typically these comfort stations were opened from about 9 a.m. until late at night. And in some comfort stations, soldiers might have paid a certain sum of money either directly or indirectly, but the women had absolutely no choice or freedom. And when the Japanese military retreated or moved to another location, the women in these comfort stations were either abandoned or left to share their fate with the defeated army. Very few escaped. And then when the war ended in 1945, most of these women could not return home. Some of them of course had given up the idea of even going back home out of a feeling of shame. And some Korean women were sent to China. Many of them stayed there until the 1990s. Now as you can imagine, these women suffered greatly from physical injuries, venereal diseases and just plain cruelty. They could not conceal their experiences and trauma or shame or even share their pain. In some ways, and that was perhaps the heaviest burden to bear. So the question is, how did this issue come to light? If the Japanese government wanted this to remain a secret, now it's not that people in Japan were completely unaware of the comfort stations and the plight of these women, but perhaps there was no awareness or recognition of the issue as a social problem. And as a human rights violation. So this issue was taken up and discussed publicly in South Korea only in the late 1980s and early 1990s. And a series of articles focusing on this issue were then published in Korean newspapers that led women's organizations in Korea then to draft a document that listed six demands. And then they presented this list to the Japanese government, mainly to acknowledge that these comfort women were taken away forcibly. They also wanted the Japanese government to issue an official apology. They wanted the Japanese government to conduct an investigation and disclose the findings. They wanted the Japanese government to construct a monument to commemorate the victims. They wanted the Japanese government to pay compensation to the victims or their surviving heirs. And they wanted the Japanese government to establish educational programs to create an awareness about this issue. But what really gave this issue momentum was that in 1991 one of the victims, a woman named Kim Huxin, came forward and testified in public. And at the time I think she was the only victim who used her real name in a lawsuit. So in 1992 then Japan released the first report and admitted the establishment of comfort stations but refused legal responsibility. Japan released a second report on this issue. The Japanese admitted that many of the women were forcibly taken but it shifted the responsibility to private recruiters. Then in 1995, 50 years after World War II, the Japanese government set up the Asian Women's Fund to provide assistance to poor women. It was a private fund, not state compensation for the victims. In 1997, Kim Huxin passed away. Then in 2007 the US House of Representatives adopted Resolution 121 which demands a formal apology from Japan. The Netherlands, Canada, the EU and the Philippines also passed similar resolutions. Now although such resolutions are not legally binding, they put a significant amount of pressure on the Japanese government. And in 2015 the leaders of Japan and Korea resumed formal talks to resolve the issue of comfort women. Japan paid 8.3 million to a fund supporting victims and South Korea agreed to stop criticizing Japan and to remove a statue in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul, memorializing the victims. Now to this day the issue has not been fully resolved because the Koreans feel that the 2015 talks failed to take a victim oriented approach and that the issue has still not been resolved. Now more recently in 2016-2017 the Korean American Forum in California and the Comfort Women Justice Coalition led campaigns to install a peace monument in Glendale and they also led a successful campaign to include the topic of comfort women in history and social science curriculum in California schools. In the description box below you'll find links to the websites of the Korean American Forum in California, Comfort Women Justice Coalition and the Asian Women's Fund. Take a look at the documents in their archives and you can also read some of the testimonies of the victims there. Thank you.