Victims running out of time to get justice

• Published date: 12 July 2021
• Date: 12 July 2021
• Publication title: Otago Daily Times (New Zealand)

FIGHTING disease, death and disillusionment, members of South Korea’s rapidly dwindling sisterhood of surviving ‘‘comfort women’’ say they are facing the twilight of their lives with diminished camaraderie and will to wage political battles.

Only 14 of the 240 registered survivors of Japan’s wartime brothels are still alive in South Korea, nearly half the number who were alive just three years ago.

One major organisation that advocated for them was brought down by a corruption scandal last year, and in April a South Korean court dismissed a case some of the women brought against Tokyo.

That has left the women more divided than ever over whether to keep seeking greater compensation and contrition from the Japanese Government, an issue that has helped sour relations between Seoul and Tokyo and brought intense...