Korean/Japan Comfort Women Agreement

Guest: Mark Peterson, PhD, Professor of Asian Studies and Korean Language at BYU  Japan and South Korea have settled a dispute that has, for decades, stirred animosity between them. At a meeting in Seoul just before the new year, Japan agreed to contribute $8 million to a fund for women who, during World War II, were forced to work in Japan’s brothels. Only a few dozen of these women known euphemistically as “comfort women” are still alive. But the agreement is as much about symbolic repentance as it is about the money. For its part, South Korea promises to stop bringing up the issue of Japan’s war-time sex slaves.