Up to , women, many of them Korean, spent the second world war as captives in brothels run for Japanese troops. The plight of these women has been the subject of endless political and diplomatic dispute, with some even attempting to deny the reality of their ordeal. Among the many horrors of the war in the Pacific and of the Japanese occupation of many countries and territories, the story of these women has long needed to be acknowledged, and those responsible for their enslavement held to account.
Certainly, an unequivocal apology from Japan has been long overdue. Strategic considerations have certainly helped the two countries to reach this point, after decades of strained relations over the wartime record.
Japan and South Korea have come to recognise they need better security cooperation in the face of an increasingly assertive China and an unpredictable North Korea — something their mutual ally the United States has wanted to encourage.
Laying some of the ghosts of the past to rest can help create a basis for such cooperation in a region where territorial disputes and nationalist tensions can threaten stability at any moment.
On the opposite side, some Japanese feel their government has been short-changed. Still, a clear step forward has been taken. Squarely confronting its colonial and military past is essential if Japan wants to build new relations with nations upon which its army inflicted such terrible damage before and during the second world war.
