The Sankei Shimbun reported that Lee Yong-soo, a former comfort woman in South Korea, strongly criticized the weekly anti-Japanese rallies held in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul and the Justice Remembrance Solidarity, the organization that sponsors them. Lee stated that the rallies “teach hatred” and “do not have a good influence on students and should be abolished,” while also questioning how donations are used. She also criticized Yoon Mee-hyang, former head of the organization and newly elected lawmaker, saying that Yoon “should not become a member of the National Assembly.” This essay examines the structure of anti-Japanese activism that has exploited the comfort women issue.

May 9, 2020

“Students are spending their precious money and time, yet the rallies are teaching hatred.”
“They do not have a good influence on students, and the rallies should be abolished.”

The Sankei Shimbun is now the most decent newspaper not only in Japan, but in the world.
Those who subscribe to it must have read this morning’s Sankei Shimbun and keenly realized the correctness of my evaluation.
The emphases within the text, apart from the headline, are mine.

Former Comfort Woman:
“Anti-Japanese Rallies Teach Hatred.”
She Strongly Criticizes a Korean Support Group.

Seoul, Takahiro Namura.

A former comfort woman in South Korea has strongly criticized the weekly protest rallies against the Japanese government held in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul, as well as the comfort women support group that sponsors the rallies,
the “Justice Remembrance Solidarity for the Solution of the Issue of Japanese Military Sexual Slavery,”
known as the Justice Remembrance Solidarity, and the criticism is spreading ripples.

The person who criticized the Justice Remembrance Solidarity is Lee Yong-soo, 91.
According to Korean media, Lee held a press conference on the 7th in Daegu in the southeastern part of the country, and said of the rallies in front of the Japanese Embassy:
“Students are spending their precious money and time, yet the rallies are teaching hatred.”
“They do not have a good influence on students, and the rallies should be abolished.”
Furthermore, she criticized the rallies by saying:
“We do not know where the donations from students participating in the rallies are used,”
and also indicated her intention not to participate in the rallies in the future.

Lee also denied as
“all nonsense”
the claim made to Korean media by Yoon Mee-hyang, 55, former chairwoman of the Justice Remembrance Solidarity and a first-time winner in the April general election, that
“she is supported by Lee.”
Lee criticized Yoon, saying:
“Yoon should not become a member of the National Assembly.”
“Donations and funds should be used for comfort women victims, but they have never been used that way.”

Lee is known for repeatedly criticizing Japan over the comfort women issue in the United States as well, and for embracing U.S. President Donald Trump at a dinner at the Korean presidential office when Trump visited South Korea in November 2017.

In 2015, in an interview with a Korean magazine, Lee also criticized the
“Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan,”
known as the Korean Council, the predecessor of the Justice Remembrance Solidarity, saying:
“They reject consultations with Japan without even listening to the opinions of the parties concerned, the former comfort women.”
“If you protest every week, your character and attitude become worse.
The people of the Korean Council seem to be on the side of activists.”
She also again emphasized the criticism she had made at that time:
“The Korean Council published a collection of testimonies that differed from the facts, without even confirming them with the person concerned.”

Yoon, who was criticized by Lee, has claimed online that
“Lee’s memory has changed from before,”
and other things.
Against Yoon, who has continued anti-Japanese activism over the comfort women issue, criticism remains strong, especially among conservatives, that she
“has used former comfort women.”
With direct criticism from a former comfort woman herself, the suspicions surrounding Yoon are likely to continue smoldering.

What this article shows is extremely grave.
From within the anti-Japanese movement that has long used the comfort women issue to demean Japan, serious criticism has finally erupted.
Moreover, this is not criticism from outside commentators or from the Japanese side.
It is criticism from a former comfort woman herself, who has been treated as one of the parties concerned.
“Anti-Japanese rallies teach hatred.”
This single statement more than pierces the essence of South Korea’s anti-Japanese movement.
They make students spend their time and money, teach hatred, and the use of donations is unclear.
Was this not the true nature of the movement that has been used for many years to attack Japan?
Japanese media such as the Asahi Shimbun and NHK must report this testimony head-on.
But they will once again avert their eyes from the inconvenient truth.
That, more than anything else, is proof that the Japanese media have stood not on the side of the Japanese people, but on the side of anti-Japanese forces.