Seoul court orders Japan to pay damages over wartime sexual slavery | Japan | The Guardian

Japan has denounced as “utterly unacceptable” a South Korean court ruling ordering it to pay damages to women who were sexually enslaved by the Japanese military before and during the second world war.

The Seoul central district court on Friday said Japan was liable to compensate 12 women who were forced to work as so-called “comfort women”, in a ruling that is expected to inflict further damage on the countries’ already fraught ties.

Some historians say that as many as 200,000 women – mostly Koreans, but also Chinese, south-east Asians and a small number of Japanese and Europeans – were coerced or tricked into working in military brothels between 1932 and Japan’s defeat in 1945.

While some survivors of wartime sexual slavery have accepted “humanitarian” payments from the Japanese government, many others have called for formal compensation and an official apology.

Source: Seoul court orders Japan to pay damages over wartime sexual slavery | Japan | The Guardian

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