Justice for 'comfort women' in Korea is long overdue

The issue was wartime crimes, especially the system of sexual slavery that Japan institutionalized. It planned, set up and ran a system of military brothels that enslaved 200,000 girls and women, aged 11 to 20, euphemistically called “comfort women.”

All confidential documents were destroyed as surrender to the Allies became imminent. Thus, Japan was able to deny that its “comfort stations” and the “comfort women” had ever existed.

In 1991, however, a document entitled Regarding The Recruitment Of Women For Military Brothels was unearthed at the Self-Defense Agency archives. It proved that in 1944, Emperor Hirohito promulgated Imperial Ordinance No. 519 to legalize the system of sexual slavery.

Faced with incontrovertible evidence, Japan apologized to South Korea for the first time ever in 1993. But it has insisted till today that no reparations are due since its normalization treaty with South Korea signed in 1965 settled all issues.

Could one be unfairly judging Japan's wartime conduct by today's standards? That is, did Japan's wartime government know that sexual slavery was criminal?

To answer this, legal experts suggest, the domestic and international norms in the pre-war period must be established.

Domestically, the Meiji Constitution of 1889 guaranteed that all “Japanese subjects ... enjoy the liberty of speech, writing, publication, public meetings and associations.” The arrest, detention, trial or punishment of all subjects must proceed according to the law. From 1910 to 1945, the then unified Korean peninsula was a colony of Japan, so Korean women were legally protected subjects.

Still, the Constitution permitted “the Emperor, in times of war or in cases of a national emergency,” to supersede its provisions. Even so, the Emperor promulgated Imperial Ordinance No. 519 only in 1944. Thus, the “comfort women” system was technically illegal from 1931, when it was first planned, to the very day in 1944 when it was thus “legalized.”

Internationally, the established laws of nations are embedded in treaties in force at any particular time. In a 1928 case, Japan's highest court ruled that treaties had “domestic validity.” As such, experts suggest looking at what treaties Japan was already a party to when its “comfort stations” were being planned in 1931.

First, while today's notion of “crimes against humanity” had not emerged by name yet, it was arguably nascent within the existing notion of “crimes against the peace, namely ... waging aggressive war.” That norm was suggested at the post-war Paris Peace Conference of 1919.

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