The war seems to never end between South Korea and Japan. After Japan recently restricted critical exports needed in South Korea’s high-tech industry, the South Korean public is further boycotting all Japanese products.
What is all this fight really about? The damaged relationship between Korea and Japan started back in the Japanese colonization of Korea from 1910 to 1945. Korean men were used in forced labor. Korean women were used as comfort women, young girls who were forced to engage in sexual activity with Japanese soldiers. This was part of a system of brothels operated by the Imperial Japanese Army in its occupied territories. Korean activists that fought for independence were tortured in inhumane ways. However, Japan continues to distort their crimes in history, while surviving victims in Korea continue to protest and demand for an apology.
The new documentary film: The Main Battle Ground of the Comfort Women Issue stands on the center of the controversial comfort women issue. The comfort women issue has remained unresolved up till now, as the Japanese government denies testimonials, and bans its mention in national textbooks.
Interestingly, Miki Dezaki, the director of The Main Battle Ground of the Comfort Women Issue, is a Japanese American himself. After the release of the film, Japanese politicians threatened Dezaki to take legal action against him, unsuccessfully attempting to ban screenings.
"As you can see in the film, I don't twist their words, I don't cut them off. And so I don't understand why they wouldn't want the people that follow them to see the film," Dezaki responded in his interview with The Korea JoongAng Daily. "Everything they've said in the film
What is all this fight really about? The damaged relationship between Korea and Japan started back in the Japanese colonization of Korea from 1910 to 1945. Korean men were used in forced labor. Korean women were used as comfort women, young girls who were forced to engage in sexual activity with Japanese soldiers. This was part of a system of brothels operated by the Imperial Japanese Army in its occupied territories. Korean activists that fought for independence were tortured in inhumane ways. However, Japan continues to distort their crimes in history, while surviving victims in Korea continue to protest and demand for an apology.
The new documentary film: The Main Battle Ground of the Comfort Women Issue stands on the center of the controversial comfort women issue. The comfort women issue has remained unresolved up till now, as the Japanese government denies testimonials, and bans its mention in national textbooks.
Interestingly, Miki Dezaki, the director of The Main Battle Ground of the Comfort Women Issue, is a Japanese American himself. After the release of the film, Japanese politicians threatened Dezaki to take legal action against him, unsuccessfully attempting to ban screenings.
"As you can see in the film, I don't twist their words, I don't cut them off. And so I don't understand why they wouldn't want the people that follow them to see the film," Dezaki responded in his interview with The Korea JoongAng Daily. "Everything they've said in the film