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Comfort Women "Settlement" Forgets and De-Legitimizes the Victims (January 20, 2016)

Category: Human Trafficking/Exploitation

Who are the women referred to as "Comfort Women?"  Under Japanese colonial rule, they were kidnapped Asian women predominately from South Korea, who were forced into sexual slavery for Japanese soldiers.  It is estimated that there were at least 200,000 women, 46 of whom are known to be living today.  They did not report the crimes, but instead, lived in silent shame.   Then, in the 1990s, some broke their silence and demanded an apology and reparations from Japan.  Their story like other sexual assault stories emerging recently have an all-too-familiar narrative:  the violation of women's bodies by those in power and societies' failure to acknowledge such violations.  There are other historical accounts of sexual assault and sexual slavery in times of war, including by groups such as Boko Haram, ISIS, and even the Allied powers at the end of World War II in Germany.

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