Tokyo and Seoul may believe they have resolved the "comfort women" problem after signing a joint agreement in December, but it's wishful thinking and confronts mounting evidence that this diplomatic deceit is already unraveling and falls short of the grand gesture needed to restore dignity to these victims or indeed Japan.
Through deception and intimidation, many women were dragooned into wartime brothels to provide sex for the Japanese military, an indelible stain that our implacable state seeks to expunge.
The United Nations has issued a yellow card to Tokyo on the accord, with the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) stating that it "did not fully adopt a victim-centered approach" and was evasive on responsibility for the human rights violations endured. In its March 2016 report, CEDAW also admonished Japanese leaders for ongoing disparaging statements about the comfort women and urged their reinstatement in junior high school textbooks. Subsequently, on March 11, a group of U.N. human rights experts issued a statement rebuking the Japanese and South Korean governments for the diplomatic chicanery, insisting that they "should understand that this issue will not be considered resolved so long as all the victims, including from other Asian countries, remain unheard, their expectations unmet and their wounds left wide open."
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