Yi Whan-woo is a Korea Times journalist primarily covering finance. He writes in-depth articles on macroeconomy and financial markets and previously covered sports, politics, diplomacy and inter-Korean affairs, among others. Feel free to contact him at yistory@koreatimes.co.kr.
US scholars ask Abe to apologize for sexual slavery
By Yi Whan-woo
Jeffrey Hornung
By Yi Whan-woo
Michael Auslin
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is facing growing calls from U.S. scholars to settle the conflict between Tokyo and Seoul over its wartime atrocities during WWII.
In their contribution essays this week, the two scholars ― Jeffrey Hornung and Michael Auslin ― claimed that Abe should sincerely inherit Tokyo’s landmark apologies issued in the 1990s toward Korean victims.
Hornung is a professor at the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies (APCSS).
Auslin is the director of Japan Studies at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI).
In particular, Hornung said that Abe should visit the statues of the comfort women in the U.S. and Korea as a gesture to the victims of Japan’s sexual slavery. “Comfort women” is a euphemistic term for those forced to work in brothels serving the imperial Japanese soldiers. It is estimated that up to 200,000 women, mostly Korean, were victimized.
“Abe needs to realize that this is a lose-lose issue for Japan,” Hornung wrote in his essay issued online by Foreign Affairs, Tuesday. He referred to the ongoing debate between Korea and Japan over historical issues, amid frayed diplomatic relations between the two sides.
“Abe should first reaffirm his strong commitment to the 1993 Kono Statement by reissuing it as a Prime Minister’s statement.”
Named after former Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono, the Kono Statement offered an apology for the sexual enslavement of the women. It has been a key element of relations between Seoul and Tokyo ever since, alongside the broader 1995 apology for colonial occupation, known as the Murayama Statement.
“Perhaps most difficult, Abe should embrace the comfort women statues that have been erected in the United States by Korean civic groups,” Hornung wrote.
“Many Koreans lament that Japan needs to be more like Germany and show sincere repentance for its wartime actions, like West German Chancellor Willy Brandt falling to his knees at a memorial for the Jewish ghetto in Warsaw.
“Abe needs a similarly bold, meaningful act,” he added.
Auslin voiced a similar view in his essay published by The Commentator, Tuesday.
“There was no ambiguity in the Murayama’s Statement, as he used the Japanese phrase ‘owabi,’ meaning apology,” he wrote.
“Abe has raised doubts about his true feelings over wartime issues with remarks that have been both inept and offensive, and people close to him have also raised doubts about their belief in Japan’s wartime guilt.
“Abe must put all this behind him this year.”
Hornung also stressed that Korea should “play its part” to improve its ties with Japan.
“If Japan is to act more like Germany, South Korea needs to act more like France by accepting reconciliation efforts.
“South Korea should refrain from playing politics with Abe’s outreach, as it has in the past, and acknowledge Japan’s past apologies, reparations paid, and postwar record of peace.
“South Korean reciprocation would make it difficult for reconciliation critics to attack Abe.”