LONDON ¨C There is an old fairground game called Whac-a-Mole. You whack a (fake) mole on the head and drive it down into its hole ¡ª and instantly one or more other moles pop up out of other holes. It¡¯s an excellent metaphor for humanity¡¯s inability to abolish sexual slavery.
Late last month, we had the long-overdue full apology by the Japanese government for the enslavement of up to 200,000 young ¡°comfort women¡± from countries conquered by Japan to provide sexual ¡°comfort¡± to Japanese soldiers before and during World War II.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe¡¯s government finally ended decades of haggling over the scale of Japan¡¯s crime and the form of words in which it should apologise. It simply said we did it and we¡¯re sorry, and here¡¯s one billion yen ($8.5 million) to make restitution to South Korea¡¯s surviving comfort women.
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.