Sorry but Not Sorry: Politics of Apology over Comfort Women between Japan and South Korea

Abstract

This study examines the politics of apology between South Korea and Japan over the issue of comfort women. The subject has been one of the primary sources of the intractable relationship between the two countries since the early 1990s when former comfort women broke their silence for the first time in South Korea. Drawing upon English translated materials from Korean and Japanese sources, including academic articles, testimonies of victims and government documents as well as sources from the United States, this research scrutinizes the milestone events in the evolution of the thorny politics related to the issue. These include the ever-problematic 1965 normalization of relations between Japan and the ROK, the bravery of those who brought the first “Me-too” movement to South Korea, and several (dis)agreements that have strained diplomatic relationships between the two countries and caused public frustration in both. In conclusion, this study argues that the gravest hindrance toward reconciliation is the Japanese government’s apathetic attitude toward the victims and its shortsighted, insincere apologies, whose attitude appear as “sorry, but not sorry” to South Korea.