Protesters form vigil for Asian 'comfort women' in Berlin

On August 10th 2011, more than fifty people from Germany, Japan and Korea assembled on Wittenbergplatz in the heart of Berlin to raise awareness for the issue of the so-called "comfort women", women mostly from Korea and South East Asia, who were forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese military during World War II. The vigil commemorated both the 66th anniversary of the t of hostilities in the Asian-Pacific War 1931-1945 and the date Mrs. Kim Hak-soon, a former "comfort woman" from Korea, publicly addressed her plight as the first victim ever 20 years ago. The protesters were mostly members of different German groups and Korean and Japanese groups in Germany, who - together - try to advance the claims towards the Japanese government to come to terms with the Japanese war crimes of the past and to acknowledge the approx. 200.000 women's suffering and demands for compensation.