A New Interpretation of Korea-Japan Relations: ‘Rights Revolution’ of Sex Slaves and Forced Laborers in the Courtroom

Abstract

Despite significant commonalities such as shared threat perceptions, democratic consolidation, and socioeconomic interdependence, Korea and Japan have failed to find a deeper level of reconciliation. To solve this puzzle, in this article I introduce and illuminate the features of an 'ideational reconciliation process', which captures the dynamics created by the main actors in the process people. Through this analytical framework I explain how and why Korea and Japan failed to achieve a deep level of reconciliation by analyzing the sophisticated features of a flawed ideational reconciliation and the 'rights revolution' brought about by the sex-slave victims and forced laborers' transnational litigations. Contrary to the liberalist prediction of unconditional cooperation between Korea and Japan, this study foresees an era of new dynamics surrounding historical contentious issues in the Korea-Japan relationship.

Korean NGOs and Reconciliation with Japan

“…In early 1990, Professor Yun Chung-ok of Ewha Womans University authored a series of articles bringing public attention to the experience of women coerced to provide sex for Japanese soldiers 5 . Contrary to South Korean media coverage focused on right-wing activism in Japan, Japanese and Korean civil society groups coordinated transnational advocacy for recognizing and compensating survivors (Chun 2015). Japanese government recognition of this painful history was encouraged by Japanese citizens corroborating the women's testimonies (Soh 2008) and culminated in Chief Cabinet Secretary Kono Yohei's statement in 1993: The [Japanese] Government study has revealed that in many cases [the “comfort women”] were recruited against their own will, through coaxing, coercion, etc., and that, at times, administrative/military personnel directly took part in the recruitments.…”

“…These include a coalition of labor unionists and NGOs known as Gangjejingyong Nodongjasang Geonlib Chujin Wiwonhoe. Wartime labor survivors and their families brought over 60 cases to Japanese courts, with substantial support from attorney associations focused on Japan's wartime responsibility (Chun 2014, 265). Japanese courts mostly dismissed the cases pointing to the finalization of claims clause in the 1965 treaty.…”

The Mechanisms behind Litigation's “Radiating Effects”: Historical Grievances against Japan

“…In the past decade, Korean plaintiffs have turned to Korean courts to pursue historical justice, with more success (Chun and Kim 2014). The legal opportunity structure opened considerably in 2005 when President Roh Moo-hyun decided to declassify all records related to the 1965 normalization of Japan-ROK relations and the associated claims agreement.…”

“…As such, they deserve more attention. Scholarship on movements for historical redress in East Asia usually mentions litigation only in passing or focuses on the legal merits of specific cases (e.g., Boling 1994;Totsuka 1999;Gao 2006;Levin 2008;Kim 2014;Chun and Kim 2014). But this article asks: What radiating effects have lawsuits against the Japanese government or Japanese firms had, and what mechanisms produce these effects?…”