Rising hate and cycle of impunity: Content warning – disturbing image

The past few days are difficult to put into words, with children in Texas killed by senseless gun violence, days after black elders and diaspora Koreans and Taiwanese were killed in tragic hate crimes across the country.

This followed weeks of reports of horrific violations being committed by Russian forces against Ukrainian children, women, men, families, communities. Watching the news, we could not help being reminded of the testimonies of “comfort women” from Korea, Taiwan, China, Japan, East Timor, Indonesia, Netherlands, Malaysia and throughout the Asia Pacific.

Amid the news of present-day wartime sexual violence, we watched in real-time as a Japanese politician, Sasami Horikiri, boasted on social media about an exhibit fetishizing the sexual violence committed by his country’s imperial military forces during World War II. The exhibit portrays Korean “comfort women” as inflatable sex dolls, where visitors can literally blow up the dolls.

We have seen some disturbing acts, but this display descends to an unprecedented level of hate enabled by decades of denial and historical revisionism by the government of Japan.

The through line of minimizing rape, torture, and exploitation of humans in the name of territorial dominance runs straight to Japan’s Foreign Ministry website, which declares that it is *not* historical fact that “comfort women” were taken by force and sex slaves.

The issue of “comfort women” will never be resolved so long as Japan ignores the demands of Lee Yong-soo and the individual survivors.

With sexual and gender-based violence on the rise in Ukraine and conflicts around the world, Japan’s government should seize the opportunity to break the cycle of impunity and to face squarely the historical facts and forever engrave such issues in its national memory, as promised nearly 30 years ago in the 1993 Kono Statement.

Now is the time for Japan’s government to take responsibility for WWII military sexual slavery and finally right this historic wrong by honoring the promise in the Kono Statement never to repeat such mistakes again.

Comfort Women Action for Redress and Education