Footage of Korean women sexually enslaved by Japanese soldiers in WWII revealed for the first time
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Japan's sexual enslavement of Korean women
during World War Two is one unresolved issue
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that continues to strain relations between
the two countries.
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However, all these decades later,.... the
Japanese government still tries to whitewash
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its wartime atrocities.
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At long last evidence has been found that
should aid Seoul's efforts to corner Tokyo
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into facing reality.
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Lee Ji-won tells us more.
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Women,... with faces full of fear,... are
lined up against a wall.
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A man, presumed to be a Chinese officer, talks
to them.
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This short 18 second video is of seven Korean
women sexually enslaved by the Japanese soldiers
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in Yunnan province, southwest China, around
the end of World War II.
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It is the first-ever video footage of Korean
victims that has been found.
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On Wednesday, Seoul city and Professor Chung
Chin-sung of Seoul National University unveiled
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the video from 1944,... which had been stored
in the National Archives and Records Administration
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of the United States for over 70 years.
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Previously,... footage of Chinese comfort
women had been found,... but there were only
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pictures and documents on the Korean comfort
women.
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But after the professor and his research team
were certain that a video on the Korean victims
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existed, they spent two years searching for
the footage,... and they finally found what
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they were looking for amongst hundreds of
film reels last month.
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The footage was taken by an American combat
photographer just after the region was reclaimed
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from Japan by the Chinese.
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During World War II, an estimated 200-thousand
women, mostly Koreans, were kidnapped and
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forced to become sex slaves for Japanese troops.
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While an agreement between Korea and Japan
was made by the previous Park Geun-hye administration
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in 2015,... where Japan financially compensated
the victims with one billion yen, or about
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8-point-9 million U.S. dollars, thousands
of citizens and the surviving victims criticized
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and refused the deal as Tokyo claimed there
was no evidence of the Japanese military forcing
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the enslavement of women.
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But with Korea's newly elected President Moon
Jae-in calling for renegotiation of the deal,...
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the research team says that they hope the
footage will work as a tool to open up such
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talks.
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"We hope the new findings will bring the public's
attention and interest on the matter,... so
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that when President Moon has his first bilateral
talk with the Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzo
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Abe, at the G20 summit later this week, an
atmosphere for renegotiation can be made."
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With only 38 Korean victims still alive,...
the research team stressed their determination
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to uncover this video evidence of Japan's
sexual slavery so that there's a chance for
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the issue to be resolved within their lifetimes.
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Lee Ji-won, Arirang News.
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