#23: Apology and Atonement (PART 3)

【Admit It】
​So then, what should both governments have done to face squarely the women whose human rights and dignity were gruesomely violated? How can we bring about a truly sincere, heart healing resolution for the victims? Quite clearly, that is, to admit fault, apologize, and make atonement. Because in light of human morality, that’s the path to be taken.
 
Until 1992 when the Japanese government finally began facing the darkest hours of its history, it denied the Comfort Women issue altogether on grounds of “No evidence found.” That is, despite deliberately destroying its own evidence. What’s more, it refused to investigate the issue nor examine the official wartime documents under its possession. All these denials and refusals came despite the fact that almost all Japanese war veterans knew about the existence of Comfort Women.
 
Nevertheless, as both domestic and international pressures mounted, the government couldn’t continue to refuse investigation. And just as we now see in the Moritomo and Kake scandals embroiling Abe administration, as the government investigated, many documents and evidence surfaced. The “inconvenient truth” to the government was exposed.
 
Once the truth was exposed, the tide turned rather quickly. In 1992, then-Chief Cabinet Secretary Koichi Kato admitted systematic involvement of Japanese military and apologized. Then-Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa followed suit in the same year. In 1993, as we’ve already noted here, the government investigation ensued including examination of the wartime documents as well as hearings from the surviving Comfort Women. As a result of this investigation, then-Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono delivered a formal statement admitting fault and extending sincere apologies and deep remorse.

Furthermore, in this so-called Kono Statement, Kono pledged his unflagging resolve to “Face squarely the historical facts instead of evading them, and take them to heart as lessons of history. We hereby reiterate our firm determination never to repeat the same mistake by forever engraving such issues in our memories through the study and teaching of history.” In 1994, then-Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama followed suit by admitting fault and apologizing.
 
Admission and apology for the unspeakable human rights violations. Such path appeared to have opened up its way, bringing renewed hope for a brighter chapter ahead. Regrettably, however, not a few lawmakers and politicians still denied the facts in whole or in part, and they continued in their attempt to diminish this human rights abuse.
 
And in 2007, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe delivered a serious blow to this renewed hope by commenting, “There’s been debate over the question of whether there was coercion to the so-called Comfort Women . . . there isn’t any need of mention about Comfort Women [in our school textbooks] if there was no coercion, and the fact is, there is no evidence to prove that there was any coercion." In the same year, he questioned the integrity of the surviving Comfort Women by accusing, “By claiming to be one of the surviving Comfort Women . . . there are considerably many people who are obviously lying. Therefore, we can’t help but to think that there’s something fishy going on here.” On the contrary, again in the same year, he stated, “My administration has consistently pledged to honor the Kono Statement. We feel responsible for having coerced these women to go through such hardship and pain under the circumstances at the time.”
 
To make such fundamentally contradictory remarks in the same year about the same issue. To deny the need of educating future generations about these past atrocities just because there’s no document found yet which explicitly states “coercion,” while conveniently choosing to ignore ample evidence of this repulsive cruelty. To question the integrity of 50 thousand to 200 thousand women just because he doubts a few testimonies, while again conveniently choosing to ignore ample evidence of this heinous crime. How long will he continue to trample over the dignity of these women whom sexual slavery was forced upon them by the Japanese government and military?

The young girls and women trapped in vulnerability, including those who were abused and sold into sexual slavery by their own cruel parents. There’s absolutely nothing honorable about the Japanese government and military systematically taking advantage of such vulnerable women as sex tools. It’s an outright human rights violation and a clear case of “sexual slavery” in every sense of the word according to international standards. As such, regardless of how they were taken, this atrocity must be emphasized in history textbooks and taught to future generations in order to ensure that such tragedy will never again fall upon anyone, anywhere.

Also, as we've already noted here, countless air raids burned troves of documents into ashes, the Japanese government destroyed evidence and incinerated truckloads of official documents in an attempt to escape prosecution, and the Japanese government continues to withhold most of its wartime documents from the public. Under such circumstance, only a corrupt mind would insist on a wicked logic of “Show me the document, the evidence of proof. If you can’t, then there was no coercion. There was no such fact.”

​In light of solemn admission and deep apology concerning this unspeakable human rights violation, Abe’s two-faced attitude and approach are appallingly disingenuous. As such, the recent settlement on the Comfort Women issue is deemed as lacking empathy and compassion in the truest sense, even more so because it was negotiated and signed by Abe.
 
Admission and apology. Although the 1990s presented us with a renewed hope for advancing on the right track, to our dismay, we’ve sorely derailed since 2007.
 
“How long do we need to keep on apologizing? When will the victims heal?” some may wish to ask. Naturally, making apologies isn’t easy. It’s emotionally punishing and draining at times, especially when it’s for someone else’s past crimes. Surely, people of the past committed these crimes, not us. Yet, it punishes and drains because it often requires us to look at things that we wish we’d never seen, and listen to things that we wish we’d never heard.
 
Nonetheless, the Japanese government continued to deny – for half a century – its systematic and gruesome human rights violations involving its military and sexual slavery during the war. Despite the apologies in the subsequent 12 years, who are we to say, “Already enough done for the victims to heal?” The women who were forced to endure the unspeakable despair of sexual slavery – the harrowing reality that no one wishes to see or hear about. Can anyone other than these women rightfully say, “Already enough done to heal?” 
 
And the fact that the Japanese government called off the investigation after just one year despite revelations of the long-denied truth. And the fact that the government continues, even to this day, to withhold most of its wartime documents from the public. These insincere decisions are further exacerbating the present state of the Comfort Women issue.  
 
And most of all, the chief culprit of this misguided present state is the choice deliberately made not to educate the future generations about these past atrocities.

Read Next: Apology and Atonement (4)【Victim/Aggressor】
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