Whilst the North Korean government will likely continue to focus on its military capabilities in 2023, life for ordinary people is unlikely to improve significantly.
By telling the story of the comfort women and identifying all responsible parties, a future world can be built where all women will experience dignity and respect.
Evidence is manifest that many tens of thousands of Korean women were deceptively recruited or forced into sexual servitude in the years leading up to and throughout WWII.
This book explains, critiques, and expands on the narratives regarding the memorials erected in the US to honor female victims of the comfort women system established by the Japanese military from 1937 to 1945.
Bilateral relations reached an impasse after the impeachment of Park Geun-hye in 2017, unsettling further progress with Japan.
If the Koreas gain greater harmony they may focus more overtly on Japan’s past deeds and its present ambitions, directly impacting upon Japan’s ‘middle power‘ status.
The US is culpable in this issue because of its use of the comfort women system and because of U.S. forces’ continued use of a prostitution network across Korea and Japan.
For decades, the comfort women remained in the shadows because of the deep shame and guilt that they felt as a result of their experiences at the hands of Imperial Japan during the Second World War.
A Korean woman or girl who responded to an ad for work rarely had any idea of what awaited her when she arrived at a military camp in the Pacific War theater.
At least a dozen memorials have been established in the United States with a few more remaining in mothballs, waiting for a home in a park or in some other venue.
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