Politics of Redress: Analyzing the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 as a Model to Resolve the "Comfort Women" Issue Between Japan and South Korea

The "comfort women" issue continues to impact Japan and South Korea's relationship almost eighty years after the Pacific War ended. Much scholarship has studied the "comfort women" system and the redress movement, but few have proposed solutions to the "comfort women" issue other than continuously criticizing the Japanese government or the presence of nationalism in "comfort women" issue discourse. In 2007, the US House of Representatives passed a resolution condemning the Japanese government's inability to resolve the issue. Congressman Mike Honda—a sponsor of the resolution—argued that Japan needed to take "historical responsibility" for the "comfort women" issue and suggested the US government's apology for Japanese-American internment (the Civil Liberties Act of 1988) as an example to follow. This paper examines whether the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 could serve as a feasible model to resolve the "comfort women" issue between Japan and South Korea. In its examination, this paper first contrasts the Japanese government's past apologies and resolution attempts to the Civil Liberties Act of 1988's measures. Second, this paper analyzes Japan's current political context to identify reasons to be pessimistic or optimistic a resolution modeled after the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 could be passed today. Ultimately, this paper argues that legislation modeled after the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 could resolve the "comfort women" issue between Japan and South Korea, and this paper posits numerous reasons to be optimistic that such legislation could be passed by the Japanese government today.