Japan Will Give $1 Billion for War's 'Comfort Women'
International Herald Tribune
August 31, 1994
Steven Brull  

Hoping to silence criticism that Japan has yet to atone fully for its World War II aggression, Tokyo will announce a 10-year, $1 billion program Wednesday that will provide symbolic compensation for women used as "sexual slaves" by Japanese soldiers.

Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama, who returned Tuesday from a tour of Southeast Asian capitals, will announce the program, which will center on "comfort women" from Korea, the Philippines and other countries who, historians say, numbered as many as 200,000. The program will also refer to Taiwanese conscripts whose savings were confiscated and South Korean laborers who were marooned on Sakhalin Island after the war.

The program, which follows years of increasingly strident demands from nations in Asia as well as England and Holland, will mark a major reversal in Japan's position.

For years, the conservative Liberal Democratic Party maintained that the issue of wartime compensation had been completely settled by the 1951 San Francisco peace treaty. The government feared that paying additional reparations would open a floodgate of new demands.

But with the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II approaching next year, and Japan increasingly seeing its economic future linked to growth in Asia, Tokyo is making an effort to put the issue to rest.

The money will pay for the construction and operation of vocational centers for women in several Asian countries, as well as for additional research on World War II. Mr. Murayama may also announce a separate plan to set up a $100 million, privately financed endowment that would make payments directly to victims, Japanese news organizations reported. The grants would be classified as "gifts of atonement," not compensation for sexual slavery.

Japan's chief cabinet secretary, Kozo Igarashi, said last week that Japan had done virtually nothing, compared with Germany, in compensating individual victims of its wartime aggression.

But critics have already attacked the program as another attempt by Tokyo to avoid fully facing its responsibility. Although the funding for women's centers is welcome, they say, the problem is that Japan is trying to avoid legal responsibility for its actions by offering only symbolic compensation to victimized women, whose numbers are rapidly dwindling.

"A Reparations Washout," screamed a headline in the newspaper Asahi. Mr. Murayama apologized for Japan's wartime aggression as he visited the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Singapore over the past eight days. But Prime Minister Mahathir bin Mohamad of Malaysia told Mr. Murayama to ease up.

He said Japan should put the past behind and play a more active role in promoting regional peace and stability. He also offered to support Japan's bid for a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council.

"I don't understand why Japan keeps apologizing for what happened 50 years ago," Mr. Mahathir said.

Copyright © 2006 The International Herald Tribune