Why Japan s feud with South Korea isn t going away
Isabel Reynolds and Youkyung Lee, Bloomberg
Jan. 8, 2021
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File photo shows protesters who claim they served as comfort women in brothels run for Japanese military personnel during World War II shouting slogans in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul, South Korea, on June 27, 2007.Bloomberg photo by Seokyong Lee.
Japan s colonial rule over the Korean Peninsula ended more than seven decades ago, yet that legacy still roils everyday politics. South Korea and Japan, major trading partners and both U.S. military allies, have been at loggerheads over what constitutes proper contrition and compensation for Koreans conscripted to work in factories and mines that supplied Japan s imperial war machine, and those euphemistically called comfort women, who were forced to work in military brothels. Japan contends all claims were settled under a 1965 bilateral agreement and a fund set up in 2015. Seoul argues Japan h