hankyoreh

The official title of the “review report” that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s administration put out on June 20 was “Details of Exchanges Between Japan and the Republic of Korea (ROK) Regarding the Comfort Women Issue: From the Drafting of the Kono Statement to the Asian Women’s Fund.” It is 25 A4 pages long, cover included. Two of those are the main text, a section titled “The Study Team on the Drafting Process of the Kono Statement etc.: Study Conducted at the Study Meetings.” Attached to this is a 22-page appendix (with table of contents) that describes the circumstances of the statement’s drafting and the Asian Women’s Fund project in South Korea.

Just from the way the report is organized, it’s apparent that the things Japan really wanted to say are to be found in its lengthy appendix. Indeed, the main text itself merely notes that the Study Team “concluded that the content of the report was valid, insofar as the documents that were made available during the study process.” The appendix, in contrast, goes to great lengths to show deep South Korean involvement in the Kono Statement’s drafting and the creation and operation of the Asian Women’s Fund, with references to statements made by Presidents Roh Tae-woo (in office from 1988-1993) and Kim Young-sam (1993-1998). It also goes into the details of diplomatic negotiations that Japan itself had proposed keeping confidential, and cherry-picks the parts that make its case best. These tactics are more than just a breach of diplomatic protocol - they’re a show of naked contempt toward South Korea, a declaration of diplomatic warfare.

Japan’s provocations on the comfort women issue demand a response from the South Korean government. What’s clear at this point is that we cannot simply respond with some pro forma diplomatic gesture like a statement or an in-person protest to the Japan ambassador. For all its surface talk about keeping the Kono Statement in place, Tokyo’s actions have been all about utterly undermining it. In addition to its announcement, the Japanese Foreign Ministry has also put an English version of the report up on its home page. The implication is that it now plans to try and parlay its unilateral and arbitrary report findings into an international public relations campaign.

The main thing that Seoul needs to do now, though, is invest effort in developing its own report, a solid point-by-point refutation of Tokyo‘s claims. One good approach might be to organize a national taskforce including representatives from academia and civic groups. They should approach this task with a commitment to producing an internationally authoritative white paper on the comfort women issue, incorporating all the data and research findings that have emerged here and abroad since the Kono Statement in 1993. It should also apologize for its inconsistency on the issue over the years.

Japan’s provocations are also a challenge to the global consensus on the comfort women issue. Seoul should seriously consider joining forces with other countries that were victimized, such as China.

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]