Its our government, not japan

Decades have past and all the wounds are now scars since the historical World War II happened.  Enemies have already become allies; one of those is the Philippines after all the damage it is all known to us that japan is one of the best ally our country have, but what if the remnants of the past still sit around some victims that cannot get over on what happened which is now part of the history of our world.

During the occupation of japan in Asia aside from engaging in battles, the imperial army of japan forced young women to into sexual slavery that are called “Comfort Women”. In japan prostitution is well organized and legal where they openly engage and the government allows prostitution. During wartime the Japanese aimed to reduce the rape crimes committed by the imperial army and came up with the solution of organized prostitution to provide comfort to the Japanese soldiers before and after going to the battle thus, coining the word comfort women.

After the war where the Japanese was already defeated, a treaty of peace was formed for the purpose of formally ending the World War II and to allocate and compensate for the people, who suffered war crimes, became prisoners of war, and other civilians that are victims. The Philippines received a significant amount of compensation followed by repeated apologies from japan.

Decades after the war, comfort women in the Philippines formed a group and insisted claims of compensation from japan and that the suffering they incurred should be acknowledge. However, the group of comfort women in the Philippines insisted that japan is never sincere on its apology and should grant their claim.

On the December of 2015, Japan and Korea came up with a deal of apology and payment to fund for Korea’s comfort women in exchange of Korea’s silence on criticizing on the given issue. The deal resulted outrage in the part of our country’s comfort women.

The question raised in this matter is that whether the comfort women in the Philippines can still demand from japan after all the compensation and repeated apology the country received.  

In my opinion, Japan has already compensated the comfort women when the treaty in San Francisco was made. Japan cannot reparate every individual comfort women that suffered war. I believe Japan’s action to have a deal with Korea is all out of its moral sense of obligation and japan wanted to stop the criticisms from Korean victims of war. It does not mean that Japan should do the same thing to Filipina comfort women since japan's obligation has ended when the treaty was made.

Since reparation of japan is on a state-to-state negotiation, it is really the obligation of the state to give what the victims deserve. The Philippine government should’ve made a body (similar to PAVAO) that will oversee and fund its comfort women from what compensation the country received from japan.

Japan I believe has suffered the consequences of their action during the war and already sincerely apologized to all the victims. Decades have now past and it is all part of history now. In the case of the comfort women in the Philippines our government now has the obligation to give what they deserve. Although many of the comfort women already died fighting, it is never too late to give what is just to them and to their families. Everyone of us should look forward on what our country may face in the future and not dwell in the past since it is only a reminder of how strong our country was.