Justice from Japan: China’s first ‘comfort women’ lawsuit faces long slog

The lawsuit filed in Shanxi by the families of 18 women forced into sexual slavery by the imperial Japanese army is the first such challenge in a Chinese court
It marks a critical moment in the movement, but success will depend on domestic and international support

Ming Gao

Published: 5:30am, 10 May 2024

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In April 1941, 16-year-old Zhao Runmei was raped by a group of Japanese soldiers invading China. Seconds ago, they had killed her foster parents in front of her. In an account published in a book, she said: “Right there, beside the bloody corpses, I was gangraped by them right away on the spot. Afterwards, I was taken as a ‘comfort woman’ to be raped every day.”

The late Zhao is among 18 women whose families recently filed a lawsuit against the Japanese government in a court in Shanxi province. They seek compensation of up to 2 million yuan (US$276,600) each and a public apology for the suffering the women endured, which included being kidnapped, raped, beaten and tortured, and contracting sexually transmitted diseases.

The euphemistic term “comfort women”, from the Japanese word ianfu, has been used to describe the countess women, mostly Korean and Chinese, forced into sexual slavery under a system implemented by the imperial Japanese military between 1932 and 1945. In China, the system is associated with the aftermath of the 1937 Nanking massacre.

The Shanxi lawsuit, the result of a campaign spearheaded by activist Zhang Shuangbing, is groundbreaking. This is not simply because it represents China’s first domestic legal challenge of Japan’s wartime atrocities after decades of largely unsuccessful transnational battles for justice, with dozens of cases filed in Japan from 1995 to 2007. It is also because it signifies a critical moment in the movement to win justice for Chinese comfort women.

Crucially, the lawsuit marks a shift from seeking redress abroad and draws inspiration from precedents in South Korea.

Last November, the Seoul High Court ordered the Japanese government to pay 16 former comfort women in South Korea 200 million won (US$146,500) each. In 2021, the Seoul Central District Court ruled that Tokyo had to pay 12 former comfort women 100 million won each.

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Importantly, the Shanxi legal action could ignite a series of domestic lawsuits against Japan by other Chinese victims of wartime atrocities, including “Unit 731” experiments in biological and chemical warfare, forced labour and poisoning from abandoned chemical weapons. Japanese chemicals and weapons left behind at the end of World War II still affect lives and livelihoods in some parts of China.

But the obstacles to justice remain formidable and the path ahead is challenging.

First, the government’s attitude matters. Unlike in South Korea, the Chinese government’s attitude to the issue has been seen as ambiguous. This adds another layer of uncertainty to the lawsuit’s outcome.

Second, even if the Chinese court rules in favour of the Shanxi plaintiffs, an execution of the judgment would be challenging given the legal argument for state immunity. Despite winning their case in 2021, the South Korean plaintiffs have yet to receive a cent from Tokyo.

Third, China lacks an expansive civil support network for the cause. It would take decades to develop anything like the network in South Korea, where strong intellectual support can be traced back to the 1980s, after gender and women’s studies began to be taught in universities, starting with Ewha Womans University in Seoul in 1977.

These institutions have been key to providing education and crucial insights into gendered violence, sexual exploitation and contemporary gender relations in South Korean society.

Protesters hold a regular Wednesday rally, the 1,600th of its kind, near the Japanese embassy in Seoul, on June 14, 2023, to call for Japan’s apology and compensation for women forced to work in Japanese wartime brothels. Photo: EPA-EFE

In contrast, China established its first women’s studies course at a university in 2001 and enrolled its first batch of undergraduates in 2006. As late as 2022, there appeared to be only three mainland universities offering such courses. Compared to Indonesia, where activism for comfort women goes back to the 1990s, China’s movement lags behind.

This lack of a broad intellectual base and support is a major reason it has taken so long for such a lawsuit to emerge in China, and why even then, it is inspired by and modelled on South Korean examples.

On the diplomatic front, the matter has long and visibly dogged relations between Japan and South Korea. For all countries whose women have suffered, it remains deeply entangled with issues of nationalism, imperialism and the politics of remembering.

But while China now has its first high-profile case, it is unlikely to become a prominent part of the Sino-Japan diplomatic agenda, given the Chinese government’s stance over the past decades. It is highly improbable that the situation will escalate into the diplomatic wrangling seen between South Korea and Japan.

So, can China’s plaintiffs hope to reproduce the courtroom successes of their South Korean counterparts and find justice for comfort women?

Yes, but it will require, at the very least, support both domestically and internationally. We have seen how Japanese grass-roots support for the Chinese victims of poisoning in 2003 from chemicals left behind by Japanese troops in Qiqihar, Heilongjiang, helped to push their claims in a Japanese court.

Hitoya Yaguchi, who heads a support group for victims of poison gas produced by the Japanese imperial army during World War II, shows photos of the Qiqihar victims after drums of mustard gas dumped decade ago were dug up, sickening at least 34 people, at a press conference in Tokyo on August 13, 2003. Photo: AP

We have also seen how Indonesian comfort women have broken their silence with the help of transnational activism, including support from South Korea and Japan.

In China’s case, the Shanxi lawsuit has quickly gained international support. Soon after the filing, a civil society group led by Japanese historian Ishida Yoneko issued a statement supporting the plaintiffs in their pursuit of justice for the atrocities committed by Japan. But strong Chinese grass-roots support is also needed in the long run.

In China, women studies courses offered by mainland universities confer bachelor degrees in law. This distinction, perhaps, captures the essence of women’s studies in empowering and protecting the weak as we wrestle with the shadows of historical injustice.

Dr Ming Gao is a scholar of modern East Asia at Australian Catholic University and Monash University