Seoul plans museum for Korean 'comfort women' victims of Japanese WWII sexual slavery

South Korea's gender equality minister Chung Hyun-Back announced plans to build a larger, more organized museum in Seoul to honor the memory of Korean women forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II. The new museum would replace the small 'Memory Hall' located in a rural area outside the capital. Between 20,000 and 200,000 Korean women are estimated to have been victims, many dying from malnutrition and violence. The announcement was made during a meeting with the 38 surviving victims. The plan risks reopening tensions with Japan, which has consistently refused to admit its war crimes. In 2015, the two countries reached what was called a 'final and irreversible' agreement, under which Japan offered an official apology and compensation of 1 billion yen ($8.6 billion) to the survivors. The museum would serve as a memorial and symbolic sanctuary, potentially drawing global attention to Japan's wartime atrocities at a time when Tokyo seeks to gain Western support amid US isolation at the G20. The article also discusses Japan's post-1950s nationalist resurgence, permitted by the US as an anti-communist measure, and the suppression of revisionist views, including violent attacks on those who acknowledge Japan's military responsibilities.