By Lee Kyung-min
College students in Korea and Japan show a wide disparity in their perceptions of the “comfort woman” issue, a study showed Wednesday.
While most students here believe that Japan did not take full responsibility for wartime atrocities committed by its military, their Japanese counterparts think their government has apologized adequately.
In a study conducted by Sungshin Women’s University Professor Seo Kyung-duk and a research team, they interviewed 500 students equally sourced from Seoul and Tokyo, from Jan. 13 to 23.
Seo is a noted activist for promoting Korean sovereignty over Dokdo against Japanese territorial claims on the easternmost islet in the East Sea.
According to the study, 38 percent of Japanese respondents said their government has already apologized enough. Thirty percent said they do not want the issue discussed further.
Their response is in stark contrast to the opinions of students here. Almost all Korean students, 95 percent, called for Japan to issue a formal apology and compensation. Thirty-three percent of Japanese students agreed with this.
Seo attributed the stark disparity to Japan’s systematic move to prevent schools from teaching about the subject. It does so mainly by revising the content of history textbooks.
He said that some of the Japanese students asked him to explain what comfort women meant. Seo said this shows that the students were a product of the Japanese government’s comprehensive scheme to erase, or re-write history.