2015年CRI China Responds to Japan-South Korea Sex Slavery Deal

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Chinese Foreign Ministry¹ spokesperson Lu Kang says the forced recruitment of "comfort women" was a serious crime.

"The conscription of 'comfort women' is one of the grave crimes against humanity committed by the Japanese military against the people of Asian countries during the Second World War. China always maintains that Japan should face up to and reflect on its history of aggression², and properly deal with the relevant issues with a responsible attitude."

Japan and South Korea are calling the agreement an historic consensus³.

Following a meeting between the country's two foreign ministers in Seoul on Monday, Japan issued a formal statement from Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

In it, he's quoted as saying "the Japanese government strongly feels responsibility" for the comfort women issue.

A pledge of nearly 8 million US dollars to create a foundation to help provide support for the victims, euphemistically called "comfort women," was part of Monday's deal.

Abe's statement also includes an apology.

Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida told a press conference in Seoul that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe expressed apology and remorse⁴ from the heart for all the people suffering wounds and pains.

The statement, however, doesn't clearly stipulate⁵ a "legal responsibility," which the few surviving comfort women and their families have been demanding.

Survivors⁷ of wartime sex slavery in South Korea expressed disappointment over the deal

Yoo Hee-nam is a Korean woman forced into a Japanese military brothel during WWll.

The survivor⁶ said she accepts her government's decision but would not be satisfied until Japan takes full legal responsibility for its wartime actions.

"I cannot be satisfied for now (because the Japanese government did not mention legal responsibility or legal compensation in the agreement with South Korea). Because thinking about all those years we have lived so far, money does not matter for now, but what matters is that we have not been given human rights as human beings."

Historians say tens of thousands of women from around Asia, many of them Korean, were sent to front-line military brothels to provide sex to Japanese soldiers.

It's an issue which has held back ties between Japan and South Korea for years, and is also a sticking point in Sino-Japanese ties, as Chinese women too were also forced to work in brothels.

History professor Feng Wei with Fudan University says the United States play an important role in facilitating the agreement.

He believes Japan's compromise comes from its own military purposes.

"Japan made the compromise not because it was persuaded by the U.S. It is to adopt a rebalancing strategy to realize it's purpose of building a strong army with the help of the US "return to Asia" strategy. So we can expect a series of military operations by Japan and the US. Japan has set its target of military defense⁸ to the whole world."

For CRI, I'm Guo Yan.