Japan Institute for National Fundamentals

　　　　　Based on a Tokyo-Seoul agreement late last year, the South Korean government launched the Reconciliation and Healing Foundation on July 28 to support former comfort women. At a ceremony to inaugurate the foundation, however, activists against the agreement staged a protest and sprayed pepper on the foundation’s head Kim Tae Hyun, a professor emerita at Sungshin Women’s University.
　　　　　Those opposing the Tokyo-Seoul agreement including the Korean Council for Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan raised objection to the inauguration of the foundation insisting that the accord ignores the will of former comfort women. However, it has been revealed that nearly 80% of former comfort women have supported the Tokyo-Seoul agreement and the foundation’s financial aid to them.

Seoul’s persuasion growing successful
　　　　　On July 29, Chung Byung Won, director-general of the South Korean Foreign Ministry’s Northeast Asian Affairs Bureau, made the following points in a Korean CBS Radio news program:
　　　　　“Forty-six (former comfort women) were alive at the end of last year when the agreement was made. The foundation head Kim Tae Hyun has met around 37 of them and their families to explain the significance of the agreement and the foundation’s operation policy.
　　　　　“Many of the old women said that (1) they would abide by what the government had done, (2) they are not satisfied with the agreement but hope to resolve the issue while they are alive, and that (3) they would like the foundation to be established at an early date to start operation.
　　　　　“Some groups’ assertion that all former victims oppose the agreement differs from the fact. More than 70%, or around 80%, have expressed support for the agreement.”
　　　　　In the meantime, Seoul has vowed to use 1 billion yen (around $ 10 million) in Japanese contributions to the foundation exclusively for supporting former comfort women, rather than for the maintenance of the foundation.
　　　　　When the Japanese government of socialist Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama established the Asian Women’s Fund in 1995, former comfort women declined to receive aid money from the fund but received the same amount of money the South Korean government paid under the pressure of the Korean Council. This was the reason why most of former comfort women refused to secede from the council at that time.
　　　　　This time, however, former comfort women, if declining to receive aid money from the foundation created by the South Korean government, will never receive money separately from the government. A foundation that the Korean Council has created to counter the government-launched foundation has garnered only about 100 million yen (around $ 1 million).
　　　　　A former comfort woman told The Mainichi Shimbun dated June 18 that she would use aid money from the Reconciliation and Healing Foundation as security deposit for a rental house where she would “live and die.” On a comfort woman statue erected in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul to symbolize the comfort women issue, she said, “the South Korean government claims it has not owned the statue and we (former comfort women) have not owned the statue. Since the statue was established by a private group, it should be moved to Namsan (another location in central Seoul).”

Japan should promptly disburse 1 billion yen
　　　　　I have asserted that (1) I welcome the South Korean government’s decision to refrain from raising the comfort women issue in diplomacy with Japan in defiance of opposition mostly from the Korean Council that has tied up with North Korea to deteriorate Japan-South Korea relations and that (2) the future challenge is to eliminate slanderous words such as “200,000 sex slaves” and “coercive recruitment” that have been spread in the international community.
　　　　　Given my position, now is a good time for the Japanese government to disburse 1 billion yen as promised and help the South Korean government hand over the cash to many former victims as Seoul has successfully separated about 80% of them from the Korean Council. If Japan does so, the Korean Council will lose power rapidly, paving the way for the comfort woman statue to be moved to a facility that the Reconciliation and Healing Foundation will create to remember comfort women. Weakening the Korean Council serves Japan’s national interests.

Tsutomu Nishioka is Planning Committee Member, Japan Institute for National Fundamentals, and Professor at Tokyo Christian University.