[Editorial] Attempts to distort the Yoon Mee-hyang scandal to rewrite history are unforgivable

Posted on : 2020-05-22 17:32 KST Modified on : 2020-05-22 17:32 KST

Far-right forces are making a concerted effort to seize the Yoon Mee-hyang scandal as an opportunity to rewrite history. Far-right groups in South Korea and the Japanese right wing are calling for the removal of the comfort women statues and the cancellation of the Wednesday demonstrations while attempting to distort the facts of history. This all-out attempt by the far right to subvert the comfort women movement and the cause of historical justice is both hypocritical and deplorable.

Far-right groups affiliated with the “New Right” account for a significant number of the organizations that have submitted complaints against Yoon, a newly elected proportional lawmaker for the Democratic Party’s satellite Together Citizens’ Party, and former chair of the Korean Council for Justice and Remembrance for the Issues of Military Sexual Slavery by Japan (Korean Council). One of the groups in the vanguard of these efforts is the Joint Action Committee for Investigating Anti-Japanese Statues, which accuses the Wednesday demonstrations of indoctrinating young people about sex slavery and gang rape. In a breathtaking leap of logic, the committee claims that the demonstrations constitute “child abuse.”

On May 19, the day before a Wednesday demonstration, the Joint Action Committee held a press conference aimed at “learning the truth about the comfort women” that doubled as a rally against the comfort women statues, which it denigrates by using a term favored in Japan. The committee was set up on Dec. 2 last year by the Group Opposed to Anti-Japanese Tribalism and the Group Opposed to Erecting Statues for the Comfort Women and Workers Drafted for Forced Labor, and it has close ties to the Syngman Rhee School and the Nakseongdae Economic Research Institute, which published the book “Anti-Japan Tribalism” and its sequel.

“Anti-Japan Tribalism” is full of factual distortions that promote a pro-Japanese narrative of history. The book downplays the imperial Japanese army’s responsibility for the compulsory mobilization of the comfort women, and it insults the former comfort women with the bizarre claim that comfort stations were a profitable marketplace. Lee Woo-yeon, a coauthor of the book and a researcher at the Nakseongdae Economic Research Institute, is well-known for making offensive statements at the UN and other gatherings, claiming that Korean labor conscripts “earned high wages and lived in comfort.” Another member of this group is Ju Dong-sik, editor-in-chief at news website The Third Way, who has made derogatory remarks about the victims of the Gwangju Democratization Movement and has mocked the tragic Sewol ferry sinking.

Since the end of last year, these groups have been holding demonstrations calling for the comfort women statues to be removed and the Wednesday demonstrations to be halted, which happen to be the central demands of the Japanese right wing. On May 20, Japan’s far-right newspaper the Sankei Shimbun called for the swift removal of the comfort women statues, which it described as a symbol of anti-Japanese hate. It’s obvious that South Korea and Japan’s far-right groups are trying to rewrite history and compel the erasure of Japan’s responsibility for its colonial occupation.

The Korean Council and Yoon Mee-hyang need to be transparent about the allegations that have been raised, and if any wrongdoing comes to light, they must take responsibility for it and make corrections. But we must not tolerate any attempt to launch an over-the-top political attack at a time when trust in the Korean Council is eroding while misrepresenting history and insulting the victims.

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

button that move to original korean article (클릭시 원문으로 이동하는 버튼)

Related stories

Most viewed articles