About 300 people, including survivors of these wartime sex crimes, came to the Kim Koo Museum and Library in downtown Seoul to attend the national ceremony led by the government, according to the Yonhap news agency.
In the course of World War II, when the Korean Peninsula was under Japanese rule, about 200,000 women were forced into slavery in military brothels, according to historians.
08.14 일본군 '위안부' 기림의날 🙏 pic.twitter.com/BvUmMj3W20
— 루잇🥕 (@lovabl_it) August 14, 2019
This is the second year Seoul is hosting this event, which falls on the date former comfort woman Kim Hak-sun first publicly testified against Japan in 1991 about an organised wartime military brothel program.
According to the minister of gender equality and family, Jin Sun-mee, the government is planning to expand the issue of comfort women to a women's rights movement.
8월 14일(수) 1부 방송(18:20~18:55)
— 시사자키 정관용입니다 (@sisajk) August 14, 2019
위안부 피해자 기림의 날, 한일관계를 생각하다｜이종걸 의원
Post 8.15 모색｜윤태곤 실장
정신 못 차리는 DHC/2022년 병장 월급 등｜서연미 아나운서
건설노동자들, 폭염 작업 중지권 있으나 마나｜강한수 부위원장 pic.twitter.com/hDneSsD7L0
The ceremony is receiving more attention this year in light of the Seoul-Tokyo trade conflict, which worsened after Japan removed South Korea from its export list of trusted partners, followed by a similar measure by its neighbour.
Relations between Japan and South Korea soured when the latter’s top court ruled earlier this year that a number of Japanese companies could be sued for their use of forced labour during World War II. Tokyo views South Korea’s claims as unfounded, recalling that Japan paid $500 million to Seoul in 1965 to establish diplomatic relations and finally close the issue of compensation.
