1. Justice Delayed: Case of the Korean Comfort Women
Yong Soo Lee, 86

2. Justice Delayed Comfort Women – (com for-te woo m-uh n) n. pl.
A group of women abducted from all around the world that were systemically used by the Imperial Army of Japan for solely sexual service during World War II
A fictitious account by women around the world about a natural consequence of World War II that places undue shame on the men that served the Japanese Imperial Army
Present Situation
Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg – U.S. Ambassador to Japan interview (Apr 12, 2015)
Washington Post Article, “Japanese Historians contest textbook’s description of ‘comfort women’” (Anna Fifield, Wash Post, Mar 17, 2015)

3. Historical justifications
1932
National General Mobilization Law – all help war effort
Lieutenant-General Okamura Yasuji – send Korean girls from North Kyushu to base in Shanghai
Rape of Nanking 1937
Rape and slaughter of 200,000 people within first 6 months of occupation

4. Logic behind Comfort Stations
Localize incidents of rape – less ire of local Chinese
Increase moral of Imperial Japanese combat soldiers
Protect against venereal disease
Protect against potential espionage/spies of brothels

5. Treaties of Pacific Theater
San Francisco Treaty of 1945
Culmination of judgments from Tokyo Tribunal
Nuremberg Charter Art. 6/Tokyo Tribunal Art. 5(c) – Crimes Against Humanity
Not list rape as a crime
Hague Convention of Regulations 1907 – “Immoral attack on a woman’s honor”
Slavery Convention 1926
Japan/Korean Peace Treaty 1965
Settle economic claims from World War II
Comfort Women crime not listed in treaty
Settle torts claims with other Western nations – “Datsua ron” theory

6. Comfort Women’s Claims
Acknowledgment & apology of Comfort Women Crime by Japanese Diet
Inclusion in Japanese educational historical texts
Compensation is an afterthought – theories of tort

7. Accountability Thus Far
Japan
1989 – Lustration: Former Imperial Army members now high ranking members of Diet claim comfort women were voluntary prostitutes
3 Korean women brought suit in Japan
1998 Yamahuchi District Court – Judge Hideaki claim it was the 50 year failure of the Diet to enact legislation to redress crime is the offense
Prof. Yoshimi Yoshiaki – Jan. 11, 1992 Asahi Shimbun publish National Institute Defense archive documentation more vast than acknowledged (127 documents)
Asian Women’s Friendship Fund Prime Minister Murayama establishes private fund to help compensate women, due to Diet’s recalcitrance

8. International Accountability
Special Rapporteur Reports
Coomaraswamy Report 1996 – Fact-finding
McDougall Report 1998 – Legal framework
ICC
Art. 11 of Rome Statute (1998) - Not retrospective
Japan not a signatory to Rome Statute (Neither is the US)

9. US Approaches to Accountability
Nazi Watch List
Holtzman Amendment, INA §237(a)(4)(D) (1978) – bar former Nazi war soldiers from entering the US
Yoshio Shinozuka - Buddhist custom of admitting past wrongs, denied entrance
Alien Tort Act
Alien Tort Act 28 U.S.C. §1350 (1988) - grants US district courts jurisdiction to hear suits alleging torts committed anywhere against aliens in violation of the law of nations (jus cogens)
US as world police man

10. The Future ?