
Japan’s latest apology to ‘comfort women’ just empty words without a full admission of responsibility
David Tolbert says Tokyo’s ‘remorse’ over the involvement of its military authorities in forcing Korean women into sexual slavery falls far short of what is needed

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The Japanese apology, which some have seen as part of a geopolitical deal struck between Japan and South Korea, has led to protests among the 46 surviving South Korean victims as well as victims in other countries occupied by Japan during the war. After working for 15 years on reparations for victims in over 50 countries, the International Centre for Transitional Justice found that many victims feel an apology unaccompanied by other forms of reparation does not constitute justice, even as material reparations, such as compensation, without a meaningful acknowledgement of responsibility also fall short.

Various expressions of regret and statements acknowledging the role of the Japanese military in operating the “comfort women” system have been made by government officials, but none, including the latest, has expressed an unconditional acknowledgment that Japan as a state was responsible.
As part of the latest “apology”, Japan pledged 1 billion yen (HK$65.2 million) for the creation of a South Korean foundation to support the surviving South Korean victims with medical, nursing and other support services. South Korea, in turn, pledged to “irreversibly” drop its demand for reparation, end all criticism of Japan on the issue and remove a memorial constructed by Korean “comfort women” survivors in 2011 in front of Japan’s embassy in Seoul.

Apologies for massive and systematic war crimes should come as a result of consultations with survivors and victims’ families
Our recent report, “More Than Words: Apologies as a Form of Reparation”, explains that the most meaningful public apologies clearly acknowledge responsibility for the violations and recognise the continuing pain of survivors and victims’ families. As it points out, apologies for massive and systematic war crimes and human rights violations should come as a result of consultations with survivors and victims’ families about the form, content and timing.

The centre’s report emphasises that apologies should not end truth-seeking nor stifle truth-telling by victims. Instead, an apology should encourage a collective reckoning by society of conflict-related crimes or human rights violations carried out in the name of the state. An apology should open up space for accountability rather than close it.
Memorials built by victims are not for the government of the day, let alone a foreign government, to remove
Certainly, apologies should not be used to remove or devalue measures, such as memorials or monuments – especially those established by victims themselves – to ensure that violations are not forgotten. Memorials built by victims that are strongly supported by society are not for the government of the day, let alone a foreign government responsible for war crimes, to remove. That only adds grave insult to irreparable injury.

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Finally, apologies should not be instrumentalised for other purposes that are inconsistent with the “never again” promise that they are meant to symbolise. Here, the apology for past crimes arguably does not reduce present regional security tensions – and may even escalate them. This not only diminishes its significance but turns the apology on its head by devaluing the victims’ decades-long demands for justice.

Japan has shown that it recognises the importance of the need for reparations
The Japanese government has played a constructive role in promoting reparations as an element of transitional justice in the Rome Treaty that created the International Criminal Court. In 2014, it made a significant financial contribution to the Trust Fund for Victims that was created by the treaty as its reparations mechanism. Japan even asked that the donation be “earmarked for victims of sexual and gender-based violence”. In other words, despite political, diplomatic and security challenges that have marked Japan’s refusal and reluctance to apologise to the “comfort women”, it has shown that it recognises the importance not only of addressing sexual and gender-based violence in armed conflict but of the need for reparations to be made to victims.
The UN and national governments should now step in and ask Japan, after so many years, to unequivocally acknowledge its responsibility to “comfort women” for past sexual slavery crimes with a full and meaningful apology coupled with effective reparations.
David Tolbert is president of the International Centre for Transitional Justice
