Japan's prime minister should meet South Korean women who were sexually enslaved during the colonial rule period, which will help cap the long-festering wound that has weighed down bilateral relations for the past seven decades, the head of a local foundation tasked with helping victims said.
"The establishment of the foundation can lay to rest the 'sexual slavery' issue, but it is not the end of the agenda," Kim Tae-hyun, the first board director of the Reconciliation and Healing Foundation, said in an interview with Yonhap at the foundation's head office in central Seoul late last week.
"Ultimately, it is necessary that the Japanese Prime Minister visit South Korea to meet with the victims. We wish that he will hold the hands of those elderly ladies (as a gesture of hearty apology)," she said.
The foundation launched on July 28 in Seoul will strive to cure the injuries committed against sex slaves, euphemistically called comfort women. She said such progress will require Korean acceptance of Japan's apology, as well as effective use of the compensation fund to help the victims recover their honor and dignity.
Kim's remark came more than seven months after the historic Korea-Japan ministerial talks held on Dec. 28, 2015.
In the talks the two sides reached an agreement that the Japanese government pay 1 billion ($9.8 million) to the non-profit foundation that can support the comfort women who were victimized when the whole of the Korean Peninsula was under Japanese rule (1910-1945).
The foundation is exclusively responsible for tending to 245 Korean victims who were sexually enslaved, of whom only 40 are alive at present.
The 66-year-old foundation chief, who is an honorary social welfare professor at Sungshin Women's University, dismissed the skepticism that Japan's words of atonement during the December agreement lack legal ground.
She said, "For the past 24 years, Korean people demanded an apology from the Japanese government, without getting a response. But Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made a formal apology to the world and the S. Korean victims."
"Abe acknowledged the Japanese military's involvement in the wartime sexual enslavement during the colonial rule period. In addition, the Japanese government gave its word to pay 1 billion yen. We understand that these two changes fall short in making full compensation to the victims, yet at least it completes one of the small missions of the reconciliation process."
Kim has been under an intense spotlight since her candidacy for the committee chief's post, which came with daunting historical weight. The long-stalled feud about Japan's wartime sexual exploitation of Korea women surfaced in 1991, when an elderly South Korean woman called Kim Hak-soon called out to the world for justice. The victim revealed herself as one of the sexual slaves of Japanese soldiers during the war. Before her public admission, no survivors of the wartime atrocities ventured to seek justice by opening up painful memories of forced prostitution.
"It was a Korean woman who first came out of the closet to voice this historic tragedy, while the victims of other countries, even China, chose to stay mute. I was overwhelmed at her courage. Now it is our duty to echo her unprecedented bravery."
Kim is expected to face a particularly hectic week as South Korean and Japanese officials are slated to hold a follow-up meeting in Seoul to get tough on issues agreed upon last December.
In the director-general-level meeting, the two parties are expected to touch on details related to the foundation's budget plan.
During the upcoming meeting, the Japanese officials will have a chance to meet with the victims face to face, a move to look into their most pressing needs, according to the senior welfare expert here said.
About concerns that Japan will not follow through on its payment pledge, Kim assured, "There will be no withdrawal of the payment with the director-generals' meeting or other follow-up discussions in the pipeline."
Kim estimated that the delivery method of Tokyo's fund will be detailed in bilateral talks.
"The foundation's launch took two full months after the South Korean task force began the preparatory work on May 31. Similarly, we expect a certain processing period for the Japanese government to deliver the fund," she pointed out.
Amid ongoing preparations for the Korea-Japan meeting, the foundation's budget plan drew much attention from the South Korean public.
With 33 years of welfare-related experience under her belt, Kim said the money from Tokyo must be used "in a tailored way to suit the individual needs of the victims."
"When I met with almost all of the living victims, they longed for a true cure," she said. Making a quick fortune out of the compensation money is far from what these victims want, the scholar pointed out.
"Of the victims that I met face to face, some were upset about registering their 'painful past' with UNESCO. Some abhorred the thought that their children may find out about their disgraceful experiences some day. Except for those that have spoken out, the rest are still hiding themselves in the closet."
Kim estimated that most the the foundation's funds would be used for the victims' nursing expenses.
"Some of the elderly ladies have health conditions and need 24-hour nursing care. Some have asked for medical treatment and surgery costs. Some wanted to use the compensation money to move to a better home," she said.
Some victims wished to donate their share of the compensation fund.
"One of the victims I met offered her savings of 20 million won (US$18,000) to a scholarship fund. The lady wanted her savings used in educating future generations so that they don't ever see the horrible history repeat itself. The lady said when she receives a compensation payment from the Japanese fund she will continue to save it for needy students. This is what I understand as a 'true cure.'"
The foundation's office is small, with the rooms only big enough for six or seven employees and the chief's office. Kim and the three foundation employees -- two from the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family and one from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Kim estimated that the foundation would not be able to hire much staff since she does not want to spend any of the Japanese government's fund other than to provide welfare support to the victims.
"The December pact allows for some flexibility about the foundation's operational budget, so that we could set aside some of the 1 billion yen fund for staffing and transportation costs. But the board members came to the consensus that the entire fund must be used for and only for the victims, to the last penny."
The South Korean government will shoulder some of the operating costs, as it has prior to the Dec. 28 bilateral agreement.
"Part of the foundation's mission is to track the survivors and the families of the deceased victims, which means we will need more manpower."
Kim wished that the public will "put themselves in the shoes of the victims and understand the agenda through their perspective."
"All of us need the courage to look straight into the wartime tragedy, as much as the victims themselves," she said.
Lack of such courage and those misconceptions had manifested themselves when a 21-year-old man attacked her with pepper spray during the foundation's launching ceremony.
About her attacker she commented, "He was overwhelmed with hatred, but he never once met any of the old ladies, (nor did he understand the true wishes of the victims.)"
The foundation will finish its mission after it spends all of the 1 billion yen fund on the victims. But Kim did not know exactly how many years it would take.
"I believe the foundation's activities will contribute to bringing a tighter Korea-Japan relationship, which is why we specified the word 'reconciliation' in the foundation's name. The foundation should fuel harmony in trilateral Korea-Japan-China ties as well."
"The Japanese citizens with Korean heritage that I met also showed strong support for mending fences between the two countries. I believe the foundation will provide a valuable precedent for the future generations of both Korea and Japan." (Yonhap)
