Interview: "Comfort women" records as UNESCO heritage to spur vigilance: scholar

The records of Japan's wartime exploitation of forced sex slaves, known as "comfort women," should be preserved as a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Memory of the World to spur much-needed vigilance, a South Korean scholar and activist has said.

Dr. Ahn Shin-kwon, director of the House of Sharing, a non-governmental group providing shelter and counseling for comfort women in South Korea since 1992, said the comfort women records should fall under the Memory of the World Program, one of the categories of UNESCO World Heritage.

"Such records, like the genocide of Nazi Germany, serve as a reminder for us to stay vigilant and prevent the atrocities from occurring again," Ahn said in a recent written interview with Xinhua.

According to Ahn, the House of Sharing has played a significant role in advocating a bid to have the comfort women records designated a UNESCO Memory of the World. The UNESCO World Heritage typically includes three categories: great achievements of humankind, key historic events and human atrocities in the past.

The bid to have the comfort women records listed as a UNESCO heritage originated partly from an image exhibition at the Museum of Japanese Military Sexual Slavery, a unit of the House of Sharing. Its aim is for visitors, especially foreigners, to learn about the sufferings of the comfort women, the traumatizing experience of war and the value of peace.

The latest bid for comfort women records to be designated as a UNESCO heritage was jointly made in May this year by civil groups from countries including South Korea, China, Japan and the Netherlands.

The records, aimed to preserve the voices of the victims of Japan's wartime sexual slavery, comprise 2,744 documents, including testimonies of the victims, their medical records and investigation reports.

However, a reconciliation has yet to be reached on the comfort women issue more than 70 years after the end of World War II, as the Japanese government continues to attempt to deny the despicable chapter in its wartime history, with its apologies falling short of admitting Japan as a state was responsible, and hampering the latest UNESCO heritage bid.

Ahn said the Japanese government and some groups still attempt to distort history by claiming that the comfort women had not been forced into sexual slavery but were women who wanted to make money, with some even saying the victims had fabricated the stories.

The House of Sharing has received threat letters from some extreme right-wing groups and politicians, Ahn said.

"It is inhumane of the Japanese government to deny historical facts, to attempt to hide that particular part of history by hampering and blocking the UNESCO heritage bid, and it is against human rights for Japan to hamper efforts by civil groups to present history as it is," Ahn said.

It is estimated that hundreds of thousands of women and teenage girls from occupied countries and territories in Asia and the Netherlands were forced to serve as sex slaves for Japanese soldiers during World War II. Only 42 comfort women are alive now in South Korea, most in their nineties.

Eleven of the comfort women now live in the House of Sharing, which has provided help to 60 comfort women since it was established in 1992.

Ahn said it is important for the victims of Japan's wartime sexual slavery in different countries, including South Korea and China, to work together to seek justice and a conclusion on the comfort women issue.

"We should spread the truth and expose the atrocities committed by militarist Japan in its invasion of other countries. We shall seek an apology as well as compensation through legal means. Only by doing this can we prevent a repeat of the war by the invaders," Ahn said. Endi