The Politics of an Apology: Japan and Resolving the "Comfort Women" Issue (World IN REVIEW‪)‬

Last August, Australia's Senate considered a motion calling for Japan's full acceptance and adequate compensation for "comfort women" forced into sexual slavery during World War II (WWII). While having failed at vote, the resolution would have added Australia to the list of various other bodies such as the European Union, Canada, and the United States, that have pressured Japan concerning the Imperial Government's involvement in institutionalizing wartime sexual slavery. Despite what the Japanese Embassy describes as having "acknowledged the comfort women issue and extended official apologies on many important occasions," most survivors and their advocates reject such statements on the grounds that these gestures were short in both legitimacy and reparations. The subject matter lives on as a contentious topic in social and political dialogue between Japan and other East Asian countries, and while some activists may overemphasize its individual political clout in foreign relations, it has been a hot-button issue in the Far East that continually simmers in the background, proving easily volatile in conjunction with other current events. Sixty-four years after the conclusion of WWII, the "comfort women" question remains largely unresolved, going beyond the realm of human rights and striking deeper chords of nationalism, memory, and the politics of apology. Background