Ten Years after the Women's International War Crimes Tribunal: International Symposium

Haengri LEE
Graduate School of Language and Society, Hitotsubashi University

【The article below is the same as the article that appears in the fourteenth issue of the CGS Newsletter.】

　Ten years have passed since the Women's International War Crimes Tribunal on Japan's Military Sexual Slavery (hereafter, the Tribunal) fought to restore justice and dignity to victims of the Japanese military's sexual slavery by exposing the unlawfulness of its latent violence. This people's tribunal was held in December 2000 in Tokyo to adjudicate the Japanese military's enforcement of sexual slavery. On December 5th, 2010, "Ten Years after the Women's International War Crimes Tribunal on Japan's Military Sexual Slavery: International Symposium on the Tribunal's ndings and the changes it brought about - sexual violence, racial prejudice, and colonialism," was held at the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies. About 500 people participated in this event, which reected on the signicance of the Tribunal and summarized the situation and activism regarding the problem of "comfort women."
　In the first session, "What was the Women's International War Crimes Tribunal?" one of the Tribunal's chief prosecutors, Patricia Viseur-Sellers, declared that its ruling was epochal in stating that sexual slavery based on gender constituted a crime against humanity, because the issue had not previously been addressed at the Tokyo Tribunal (1946-1948). She also stressed the need for the compensation and reparations recommended by the Tribunal to be carried out by civil society.
　In the second session, "Testimony of the Victims of the Japanese Military's Sexual Violence in Asia," testimonies were heard from two Chinese victims, Wei Shao-Lan and her son Luo Shan-Xue. During Japan's invasion, Wei was taken by the Japanese soldiers, and forced to become one of many comfort women. Luo, who was born as a result of the countless rapes she endured, grew up being taunted and excluded by others for being "the son of a Japanese." The fact that he had to bear the blame for Japan's wrongdoing illustrates the deep-rooted problem of comfort women: not only are the survivors themselves traumatized by the past, but succeeding generations are also subject to suering and pain from it.
　At the third session, "The Tribunal's Ruling: How We Can Continue the Testimonies," a video was screened in which Lisa Yoneyama criticized the national Japanese network NHK's modied coverage of the Tribunal in 2001. NHK omitted references to the Tribunals' fundamental principle that "there can be no peace or reconciliation without clarifying responsibility," the testimonies of victims, and the nal verdict that found the Emperor Hirohito ultimately responsible for the sex slave policy. Furthermore, it failed to convey the Tribunal's critical feminist ideology, the view that gender relations are constrained by colonialism, racism and social discrimination. Yoneyama then posed the following two problems: 1) the question of how the listeners would face the testimony, and 2) the need to reflect more deeply on the idea that "there can be no peace or reconciliation without justice."
　The difficulty for survivors is not caused simply by the lack of awareness in society regarding sexual violence or by Japan's unwillingness to acknowledge its responsibility for war crimes. Other important factors are the split between North and South Korea caused by colonial independence, and the economic and social gulf that exists between Japan and other East Asian countries. Amidst a backlash against questioning the history of Japan's invasion and its colonial rule, the Japanese government is pushing for a multi-national military policy, which will strengthen its militarism. Without criticizing this continuation of colonialism, these problems can never truly be overcome.
　In order to realize the ndings of the Tribunal in Japan, we must continue to investigate the relationship between sexual violence, racism, and colonialism, which was discussed at this symposium, and to conduct further research with a view to problem resolution.