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On Dec. 27, a woman puts a scarf on a statue of a comfort woman sitting in an installation of empty chairs symbolizing the victims in Seoul. (AP)

On Tuesday, the South Korean government wrapped up a months-long process of reviewing a landmark 2015 agreement with Japan over the “comfort women” issue. In the agreement, Japan apologized for the sexual enslavement of Korean women in military brothels before and during World War II. It also offered for the first time government money to support surviving victims through a foundation run by the Korean government. Both sides pledged to stop criticizing each other on the comfort women issue. They pronounced the deal a “final and irreversible resolution” to the issue.

However, the deal quickly faced backlash in South Korea and was further delegitimized when President Park Geun-hye was impeached last year.…  Seguir leyendo »

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has said he plans to revise — likely backtracking from — a 1993 statement that acknowledged government complicity in Japan’s World War II sex slave program. Around the world, advocates of truth-telling and atonement were outraged; at home, Abe’s conservative allies celebrated. Ironically, those conservatives should be among the most chagrined.

Japan’s conservatives increasingly worry about the danger brewing in East Asia from a rising China. But their denials and equivocations about the past undermine the political and military support that Japan will need to manage the troubles ahead.

Japanese conservatives value love of country as an important part of national strength.…  Seguir leyendo »

This month 75 years ago, the people of Nanking, China's ancient capital city, were in the midst of one of the worst atrocities in history, the infamous Rape of Nanking. The truth of what actually happened is at the center of a bitter dispute between China and Japan that continues to play out in present-day relations. Many Chinese see Japan's election last month of ultraconservative nationalist Shinzo Abe as prime minister as just the latest in a string of insults. And it was recently reported that Japan is considering rolling back its 1993 apology regarding "comfort women," the thousands of women the Japanese army sexually enslaved during World War II.…  Seguir leyendo »