South Korea intends to build a museum in memory of wartime sex slaves for Japanese troops, a government minister said Monday, re-igniting a perennial diplomatic thorn in the two neighbours’ sides. The plight of the so-called “comfort women” who were forced into…
South Korea intends to build a museum in memory of wartime sex slaves for Japanese troops, a government minister said Monday, re-igniting a perennial diplomatic thorn in the two neighbours’ sides.
The plight of the so-called “comfort women” who were forced into sexual slavery for Japanese troops during World War II is a hugely emotional issue that has marred ties between the U. S. allies for decades.
Mainstream historians say up to 200,000 women — mostly from Korea but also other parts of Asia including China — were forced to work at Japanese army brothels across the region during the 1939-1945 conflict.
“We are planning to build a ‘comfort women’ museum in Seoul, ” said new gender equality minister Chung Hyun-Back at a shelter for a shrinking number of survivors, who now number only 38 in total.
The “House of Sharing”, in a rural area south of Seoul, has a memorial hall but Chung said the country needed a museum in the capital with better public access.
