Japan protests comfort woman statues on bus

By Kim Bo-eun

A high-level Japanese government official denounced a Korean bus company Tuesday for putting "comfort woman" statues on its five buses running in Seoul, urging the Korean government to take “appropriate measures.”

“We are concerned this move could put a damper on efforts between Korea and Japan to develop a future-oriented relationship,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Suga Yoshihide said at a press briefing, according to Kyodo News Agency.

“We have conveyed Japan’s stance through a diplomatic channel to Korea, requesting adequate measures to be taken,” Japan’s national broadcaster NHK reported Suga as saying.

Suga is regarded as the Japanese government’s spokesperson.

A day earlier, Suga also made comments on the comfort woman statues on a TV program on satellite channel BS Fuji. “This cannot happen,” he said.

Dong-A Transit put a comfort woman statue on five of its number 151 buses, marking International Memorial Day for Comfort Women. The statues will remain on the buses until Sept. 30.

The statues on the bus are among many statues recently created, symbolizing the plight of former sex slaves to the Japanese military during World War II.

Criticism of the comfort woman statues also came from Park Yu-ha, a controversial scholar on the issue and author of the book “Comfort Women of the Empire.”

At a recent seminar hosted by a conservative academy in Seoul, Park criticized the growing number of statues “idolizing the sex slave victims.”

“We need to take a critical approach to the way people perceive the statues _ it is a problem that uncritical support is growing for civic groups for comfort women.”

Park is known for her controversial views on the issue of sex slavery.

In her book, she wrote that some of the women were voluntary “prostitutes,” that they “were in companionship with Japanese soldiers,” and that both Korean collaborators and Japanese private agents were involved in getting the women to work in brothels for the Japanese military.

Park is currently on trial for defamation. A local court ruling acquitted Park, but prosecutors appealed and the case is being reviewed by the Seoul High Court.