jueves, 18 de octubre de 2012

Summary from a career-related article


The article I chose was titled "Anger of wartime sex slaves haunts Japan and South Korea" and it was written by Justin McCurry on October 18, 2012.

This text called my attention because I think that war victims never receive a direct satisfaction after all the horrors they live. Usually the countries make postwar peace treaties that are may be an economical solution for the nations, but the people doesn’t get anything but traumas and pain they will never forget. It is connected with my future career because I’ve always been worried about women and their (our) legal protection. I think even in XXI century we are discriminated in many ways, so the abuses to woman during the war and sexual exploitation are topics I’m interested.

The abuses started in 1943, When the Japanese forces invaded South Korea. A lot of women were sent to China and were forced to have sex with the soldiers. Along with being sex slaves, they were beated.  But, afraid of ostracism in their own countries, Asian women kept silence and didn’t talk about it until 1991, several years after the abuses.  Kim Hak-soon, a South Korean, was the first one that dared to reveal the truth. After her, more women could start talking. They are still waiting for an official apology or compensation from Japan.

South Korea is still asking for compensation. They argument that there is legal responsibility that hasn’t been settled, and those war crimes were crime against humanity. But Japan refuses to pay compensations directly, because they say all claims were settled by postwar peace treaties. One of their leader even claimed that there was no evidence of the sexual slavery. In 1997, Yohei Kono, then the chief cabinet secretary, acknowledged that the Japanese military had forced Asian women into sexual slavery. He apologized for all the physical and psychological pain and damage caused to the woman.

But that apologizes are no well received and women are still waiting for an official apology and compensation directly from the Japanese government.



http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/oct/18/forced-prostitution-wartime-japan-korea

1 comentario:

  1. This is a very interesting article, good choice. I think there has been an evolution in human rights, and women has been included in the catalogue of new laws. The compensations for tort will be always polemic. The oriental paradigm is far different though.

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