The cause of South Korea’s comfort women has fallen hostage not only to nationalistic interest groups, but also to the country’s fractious domestic politics. But Mr. Abe’s wording hewed close to an official declaration from 1993, which some comfort women had found lacking in sincerity. But any account that strays from exalting the purported purity of comfort women remains controversial. The first known footage of comfort women surfaced last month, and it shows, standing next to Chinese soldiers, a half-dozen cowering women, not girls. In East Asia and elsewhere, next to chaste bronze statues that both do and do not represent the plight of comfort women, loudspeakers and banners blare out a version of history that cannot contemplate its own complexity.

Source: New York Times August 14, 2017 09:22 UTC