South Korea to build 'comfort women' museum in Seoul

The First Art Newspaper on the Net    Established in 1996 Friday, March 29, 2024


South Korea to build 'comfort women' museum in Seoul
A file photo taken on June 23, 2015 shows South Korean former "comfort women" Kim Bok-Dong (L) and Gil Won-Ok (R), who were forced to serve as sex slaves for Japanese troops during World War II, outside the Japanese embassy in Seoul. South Korea intends to build a museum in memory of wartime sex slaves for Japanese troops, a government minister said June 10, 2017, re-igniting a perennial diplomatic thorn in the two neighbours' sides. JUNG YEON-JE / AFP.



SEOUL (AFP).- South Korea intends to build a museum in memory of wartime sex slaves for Japanese troops, a government minister said Monday, re-igniting perennial tensions in the two neighbours' relationship.

The plight of the so-called "comfort women" who were forced into sexual slavery for Japanese troops during World War II is a hugely emotional issue that has marred ties between the US allies for decades.

Mainstream historians say up to 200,000 women -- mostly from Korea but also other parts of Asia including China -- were forced to work at Japanese army brothels across the region during the 1939-1945 conflict.

"We are planning to build a 'comfort women' museum in Seoul," said new gender equality minister Chung Hyun-Back at a shelter for a shrinking number of survivors, who now number only 38 in total.

The "House of Sharing", in a rural area south of Seoul, has a memorial hall but Chung said the country needed a museum in the capital with better public access.

She did not elaborate on when it will open or what kind of materials it will display.

But it is likely to worsen the relationship between Seoul and Tokyo, two US allies whose co-operation Washington needs as Donald Trump seeks to address the threat from nuclear-armed Pyongyang.

Japan maintains that there is a lack of documentary proof that the women were forcibly made to work at the brothels.

In late 2015, under now-ousted president Park Geun-Hye, Seoul and Tokyo reached what they described as a "final and irreversible" agreement under which Japan offered an apology and a one-billion yen ($8.6 billion) payment to South Korean survivors.

Critics of the accord, including some survivors, say the deal did not go far enough in holding Japan legally responsible for wartime abuses during its 1910-45 colonial rule over the Korean peninsula.

Tension escalated further after South Korean activists refused to remove a statue of a girl erected in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul to symbolise the victims of sex slavery.

Tokyo has pressed Seoul to remove it, but activists have since put up more statues -- including one outside the Japanese consulate in Busan.

Tokyo recalled its ambassador in protest in January, and he did not return for three months.

New South Korean President Moon Jae-In has repeatedly voiced criticism of the 2015 deal, suggesting a potential push by Seoul to renegotiate it.

Monday's comments came after South Korean researchers last week unearthed what they described as rare footage of the sex slaves during the war.

The 18 seconds of film, discovered at the US national archive and believed to be taken in 1944, shows a group of seven women standing in front of a hotel used as a Japanese military brothel in Songshan, China.

They were not named, but some of them were identified as the same women featured in another rare photo showing Korean comfort women, according to researchers at the Seoul National University.


© Agence France-Presse










Today's News

July 12, 2017

Sotheby's London to offer the collection of Hollywood icon and star Vivien Leigh

Tate Modern opens 'Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power'

Sketches in the Royal Collection re-attributed to Thomas Gainsborough

Christie's appoints Giovanna Bertazzoni and Adrien Meyer Co-Chairmen of Impressionist and Modern Art

Met Museum welcomes 7 million visitors; Highest fiscal year attendance in The Met's recorded history

Legendary Magnum Photos forced into historic shake-up

Beggars Banquet - with July's major auctions, now's the time to buy rock collectibles

Nanne Dekking to succeed Willem van Roijen as Chairman of TEFAF

Exhibition of Alan Vega's final work on view at Invisible Exports

Boogie Woogie, Baby!: Dutch infants take a shine to Mondrian

Rare view of 1773 Charleston, South Carolina, acquired for the Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg

The rainbow flag and David Bowie's Blackstar album acquired for the Design Museum's permanent collection

Philippe Parreno's first solo exhibition in China on view at the Rockbund Art Museum in Shanghai

This summer art meets history in two new exhibitions at Tacoma Art Museum

Winning artists of the Harley Open Biennial Art Competition revealed

Major works by Chinese artist and political activist Ai Weiwei on view in Austin

South Korea to build 'comfort women' museum in Seoul

Memphis Brooks Museum of Art honors Dolph Smith with new exhibition

Artcurial announces sale of jewellery, watches and Hermès Vintage in Monte Carlo

Jan Boelen appointed Curator of the 4th Istanbul Design Biennial

Game of Thrones ignites new collector interest in Viking jewelry and medieval relics

Field Museum hosts 'Jurassic World: The Exhibition'

Deutsche Bank KunstHalle exhibits works by artist and landscape architect Roberto Burle Marx

1,200 Fiat 500s mass for iconic car's 60th birthday




Museums, Exhibits, Artists, Milestones, Digital Art, Architecture, Photography,
Photographers, Special Photos, Special Reports, Featured Stories, Auctions, Art Fairs,
Anecdotes, Art Quiz, Education, Mythology, 3D Images, Last Week, .

 



Founder:
Ignacio Villarreal
(1941 - 2019)
Editor & Publisher: Jose Villarreal
Art Director: Juan José Sepúlveda Ramírez

Royalville Communications, Inc
produces:

ignaciovillarreal.org juncodelavega.com facundocabral-elfinal.org
Founder's Site. Hommage
to a Mexican poet.
Hommage
       

The First Art Newspaper on the Net. The Best Versions Of Ave Maria Song Junco de la Vega Site Ignacio Villarreal Site
Tell a Friend
Dear User, please complete the form below in order to recommend the Artdaily newsletter to someone you know.
Please complete all fields marked *.
Sending Mail
Sending Successful