During WWII, the Japanese army (like other armies) operated brothels in the other Asian countries it occupied.
They were staffed mainly with unwilling women ("comfort women") who had been tricked or coerced into giving themselves to Japanese soldiers. Estimates of the number of these women range from 20,000 to 300,000.
In 1995, the Asian Women's Fund was set up to compensate the exploited victims. However, many of the women are still waiting for an official apology and compensation from the Japanese government.
It's not surprising, really. I have 6 and 7 year old students who break out into the 'Dokdo-neun uri ddang' (Dokdo is our land) song at the first mention of dokdo. I replaced 'ddang' with 'ddong' one day (making it 'dokdo is our poo') and drew two cartoon blobs of poo in the sea. Most didn't find it funny at all (7 year old kids not laughing at poo?) and one girl just shouted at me 'Canada is poo', 'foreign countries are poo'. Yup, she's being educated very well... They get this 'poo' drilled into their heads from an early age.
K: if you have really smart korean freind, you might understand why korean hate japanese. もし、アナタに本当に賢い韓国人の友達がいるのなら、 なぜ韓国人が日本人を憎んでいるのか分かるよ。
S: I see... then Korea must be right, and Japan must be wrong. 分かるよ。 韓国は正しくなれけばならない。 そして、日本はまちがっていなければならない。
K: I don't want to talk you about that kind of stuff. あんたとは、この事を話したくない。
K: Japan insists us our small island is their land. Japan is one of powerful country . And they are really good relationship with America. So they are doing crazy action. 日本は、我々韓国の小さな島を、日本のものだと主張している。 日本は、強国だ。そして、日本人は、アメリカとイイ関係だ。 だから、日本人は狂った行動を起こす。 -------- K: so i don;t want to talk you anymore. sorry. and i think you don't have to talk this kind of stuff with any korean. they might be really upset. だから、アンタとは、もう話したくない。 ゴメン アンタは、この種のことを、他の韓国人と話す必要はない。 韓国人は本当にビックリするでしょう。
