Buses installed with a statue symbolising South Korea’s wartime sex slaves began running through the capital Seoul on Monday, a day before the anniversary of independence from Japan’s 1910-45 occupation. Mainstream historians say up to 200,000 women, mostly from Korea but also other…
Buses installed with a statue symbolising South Korea’s wartime sex slaves began running through the capital Seoul on Monday, a day before the anniversary of independence from Japan’s 1910-45 occupation.
Mainstream historians say up to 200,000 women, mostly from Korea but also other parts of Asia including China, were forced to work in Japanese military brothels during World War II.
The plight of the «comfort women» is a hugely emotional issue that has marred ties between the two Asian neighbours for decades. For many South Koreans it epitomises the abuses committed under Japanese rule.
Activists have in recent years set up dozens of statues — typically a young, barefoot girl wearing a traditional hanbok outfit with her hands on her knees — in public venues as a symbol of the victims.
The statues have drawn the ire of Tokyo, which has pressed for the removal of one of them outside its embassy in Seoul after Japan signed a deal with South Korea in December 2015 offering an apology and one billion yen ($9 million) to open a foundation for those sex slaves still alive.
