Comfort workers' fight for compensation to continue

A former Filipina comfort woman protests the Japanese court's decision

In this story: Vindicated 'Step backward' RELATED STORIES

SEOUL, South Korea -- Supporters of women who were forced into sexual slavery during the Second World War have promised to continue the fight for compensation.

But South Korea's Foreign Ministry said it had no official reaction to Thursday's ruling, which struck down a 1998 decision ordering the Japanese government to give money to the former sex slaves.

The decision had ordered the government to pay the three plaintiffs $2,426 each.

The women had appealed, saying they had a right to higher compensation, while the government told the appeal court that it did not need to pay at all.

"For the Japanese government to become a true member of the international society, it must quickly live up to its legal responsibilities," Yang Mi-kang, head of a South Korean group that supports the comfort women said.

"In order to achieve this, the victimized nations of Asia will gather their strength and fight until the day that the Japanese government provides compensation," Yang said.

Vindicated

But Japan's government said the ruling had vindicated their position on the subject, that the government need not pay compensation to the comfort women directly.

"We believe that the defendant's (the government's) views were upheld," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda said.

Japan had been reluctant to acknowledge the existence of sex slaves, and only admitted in 1992 that its wartime military had forcibly conscripted women to serve in brothels.

But even with the admission, Tokyo has refused to pay direct compensation to an estimated 200,000 women. Instead, it chose to set up a private fund to offer reparations to the women.

'Step backward'

But one U.S. lawyer suing Japan in a class action lawsuit in behalf of a group of comfort women called the ruling "a step backward," and that Japan had yet to understand the human rights issues involved.

"The court's decision is inconsistent with the current thinking and decisions that have been made in international human rights law," Michael Hausfeld said.

Hausfeld has filed his suit in the United States. He's hoping to deprive Japan of its sovereign immunity, and make its government accountable in courts outside the country for what happened to the comfort women.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Japan court rules against 'comfort women'

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