The New York Times ad calling on the Japanese government to apologize for World War II sex slavery. (Yonhap News)
Singer Kim Jang-hoon and Sungshin Women’s University professor Seo Kyoung-duk placed an advertisement in the New York Times on Wednesday, requesting compensation or a public apology from the Japanese government to former sex slaves for the Japanese military.
Headlined “Do You Hear?,” the ad shows a photo of Korean elderly women who were forced to serve as sex slaves for Japanese soldiers during World War II and explains that they have been holding weekly protests outside the Japanese Embassy in Seoul since 1992. It adds that the number of attendants at the gatherings has grown to about 1,000.
Kim, known as the “Dokdo guardian” for his role in promoting Korean sovereignty over the group of rocky islets in the East Sea, sponsored the ad while Seo took charge of the details. The two have printed several ads in foreign newspapers together. They placed the same “Do You Hear?” ad in the Wall Street Journal last December and the “Visit Korea” ad, about Dokdo and Ieodo, in the New York Times in February last year.
The New York Times’ publication of the latest ad is notable because there had been reports that the newspaper decided not to print Dokdo and comfort women-related ads anymore due to complaints from the Japanese Embassy.
“According to what I’ve found out through several sources, the New York Times never said that it would not print the Dokdo ad. Yomiuri’s report turned out to be false and the Japanese Embassy was only humiliated in public,” said Seo.
“A few days ago, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda said that there is a big gap between what is being expressed about the ‘comfort women’ and the truth, and I am appalled. Hindering ads and making such reckless remarks only prove that Japan is not so clean about Dokdo and the military sex slave issue,” said Kim.
By Park Min-young (
claire@heraldcorp.com)