S. Korea shifts focus of 'comfort women' debate to Japan's colonial rule

By Lee Haye-ah SEOUL, Feb. 1 (Yonhap) -- South Korea has set out to quash renewed controversy over whether Korean women were forced into sexual slavery for Japanese troops during World War II by highlighting the fact that the Korean Peninsula was under Japanese occupation at the time. Although Japan disputes the fact that the women were taken away by force, citing the lack of documentary evidence, Tokyo's brutal occupation of the Korean Peninsula from 1910-45 effectively created the conditions for their forcible recruitment, according to Seoul's Foreign Ministry. "(Korea) was already under colonial rule ... so it wasn't necessary for the (Japanese) soldiers to wield violence to forcefully take them away," said a senior ministry official, who spoke to reporters on the condition of anonymity. "Under that large colonial structure and administrative regime, they could easily take them away against their will." As Japan continues to deny the forcible recruitment of the sex slaves, euphemistically called "comfort women," some right-wing Japanese politicians have labeled them mere prostitutes, prompting fierce backlash in South Korea and the wider international community. Critics have denounced the move as an attempt to whitewash Japan's wartime atrocities. On Dec. 28, South Korea and Japan reached a landmark deal in which they agreed to resolve the issue through Tokyo's formal recognition of responsibility, an apology from Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and the Japanese government's offer of 1 billion yen ($8.29 million) in reparations to 46 surviving Korean victims. Some historians estimate that as many as 200,000 women, mostly from Korea but also from the Philippines, Taiwan and other nations, were forced to work in front-line brothels for the Japanese military during the war. The government said it has no official data on the number of victims. On Jan. 18, less than a month after the deal, Abe reiterated his government's earlier stance that there is no evidence to prove the women were forcibly brought to Japan by the military during the war. Stoking anger in the South, Japan also submitted a document to the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, saying "forceful taking away of comfort women by the military and government authorities could not be confirmed in any of the documents" in a "full-scale fact-finding study on the comfort women issue since the early 1990s." The report was sent ahead of the 63rd meeting of the committee to be held in Geneva from Feb. 15 to March 4. South Korea's basic stance is that it won't be swayed by the Japanese government's deliberate attempts to dispute the forced nature of the comfort women's recruitment, the official said. South Korea has also urged Japan to refrain from any actions or statements that could mar the spirit and purpose of the agreement. According to a recent survey by Japan's Mainichi Shimbun newspaper, 72 percent of those polled expressed doubt that the deal could lead to a final resolution of the issue. Only 19 percent said it would be resolved, according to the survey conducted by phone between Jan. 30 and Jan. 31. Still, 65 percent expressed support for the agreement, compared with 25 percent who dismissed it. hague@yna.co.kr (END)