An examination of the origins of the comfort women issue, tracing activist networks involving Bae Sun-hee, Song Du-hoe, and Aoyagi Atsuko, and their connections to the Sakhalin Korean repatriation issue and Asahi Shimbun reporting.

2019-02-22
Along the extension of these activities, Ms. Kim Hak-sun came forward, and as a result, Asahi Shimbun reporter Takashi Uemura reported that she had been “taken to the battlefield under the name of the Women’s Volunteer Corps” (Asahi, August 11, 1991).

The following is a chapter originally published on February 16, 2018, titled: From the overall flow, one can discern an activist network among resident Koreans in Japan—Bae Sun-hee, Song Du-hoe, and Atsuko Aoyagi.
It is being republished here.
The following continues from the previous chapter.
“Atsuko Aoyagi of Oita, the wife of a doctor, admired Song Du-hoe, a resident Korean activist against discrimination.
Aoyagi, working together with Song, was the very person who initiated lawsuits against the Japanese government demanding apologies and compensation” (Tsutomu Nishioka, Understanding the Comfort Women Issue).
Ms. Aoyagi served as secretary-general of an organization titled ‘Official Apology to Korea and Koreans: The Committee of One Hundred,’ and in 1990 traveled to South Korea distributing flyers to recruit plaintiffs for lawsuits against the Japanese government.
Along the extension of these activities, Ms. Kim Hak-sun came forward, and as a result, Asahi Shimbun reporter Takashi Uemura reported that she had been “taken to the battlefield under the name of the Women’s Volunteer Corps” (Asahi, August 11, 1991).
From this sequence of events, one can see an activist network among resident Koreans in Japan: Bae Sun-hee, Song Du-hoe, and Atsuko Aoyagi.
Moreover, Mr. Song was involved not only in the comfort women issue but also in activities concerning the repatriation of Koreans remaining in Sakhalin.
In other words, the origin of the comfort women issue is linked at its core to the Sakhalin issue.
In an Asahi Shimbun article on the construction of an apology monument titled “A Lone Apology,” it states: “Seiji Yoshida kneels in apology before the bereaved families of Koreans remaining in Sakhalin” (December 23, 1983).
To be continued.