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Comfort Women: WWII Sex Slaves, History, Legacy, and Impact on East Asian Relations

Bonnie Oh, Georgetown University

Bonnie Oh is a retired Distinguished Professor of Korean Studies at the Walsh School of Foreign Service. She has written extensively on issues relating to not only Korea but the wider Northeast Asia region. She is a sought-after speaker on the Comfort Women and other subjects on Korean history.

About the Lecture

The phrase, “comfort women” is a euphemism for sex slaves of the Japanese military during WWII in Asia. As the former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said in 2012, “comfort women” is too kind an expression for the estimated 200,000 teenage girls and young women who were forced into military sex slavery.

The women were from all over Asia: China, Taiwan, the Philippines, Indonesia, as well as New Zealand and Australia, but 80% of them were Korean. At present only 53 of over 250 registered comfort women in South Korea are still living, hoping for the day they receive an official apology or official compensation from Japan.

The current conservative Japanese government continues to deny the official involvement in creating the system, the coercive nature of the recruitment of women, and the veracity of their story. Such statements by Japan, the perpetrator of the war crime, are threatening the peace among its neighbors, South Korea and China.

Although the number of survivors are dwindling and their years on this planet are numbered, their legacy lives on -- as our continuing struggle for human and women’s rights, for correct historical records for the posterity, and for fostering amicable relations in the Northeast Asian region.