The comfort women : Conciliatory Shinzo Abe fights to atone for Japan's ruthless past

Prime minister Shinzo Abe of Japan

Japanese prime minister to confront president Moon of South Korea over a controversial agreement about wartime sex slaves.

It was estimated that the number of those forced into sexual servitude by the Japanese Imperial Army during WW2 could be as high as 200,000.  Thousands of women from China, Indonesia, Taiwan, the Philippines and the Netherlands, as well as North and South Korea, came forward to identify themselves as survivors.

Many of these women went on to describe their sufferings, which included rape, beatings, forced abortion, and venereal disease.  In South Korea, 238 overcame fear of stigma to register as victims, and just a few dozen of those are still alive, with an average age of 90.

Japan responded appropriately.  In 1993 the Japanese government admitted the existence of the “comfort stations” and apologised for them.

Shinzo Abe had been expected to miss the opening ceremony of next month’s Olympics in Pyeongchang after President Moon of South Korea raised doubts over a 2015 agreement between the two countries about the so-called comfort women. 

In the deal, Mr Abe apologised for Japan’s treatment of the women, and Mr Moon’s predecessor promised to drop all further complaints.  This caused anger in South Korea.

The 2015 agreement represented a compromise intended to prioritise good relations with Seoul, and to resolve one of the last pieces of unfinished business from the Second World War.

Despite demands by angry conservatives at home that he boycott South Korea’s Winter Olympics, the Japanese leader will attend.  He has promised to confront the country’s president over a controversial agreement about the wartime sex slaves.