Before and during the Second World War, Japan established a legalised system of sexual slavery, in which approximately up to 200 000 women, euphemistically known as ‘comfort women’, were exploited. Although the victims came from all the regions of the Japanese Empire, the majority of them were Korean. While initial reconciliation attempts were met with refusal, a seemingly positive step was taken in December 2015, when South Korea and Japan announced that they had reached an agreement which would ‘finally and irreversibly’ resolve this issue. The main argument developed throughout the present article is that the agreement does not do justice in addressing the victims’ needs and rights in many ways, with the need for acknowledgement and memorialisation being primarily neglected. A critical evaluation of the 2015 agreement is particularly important in light of its suspension due to the dissolution of the Reconciliation and Healing Foundation.

二战前和二战期间，日本建立了合法化的性奴役制度，大约有多达 20 万名妇女被剥削，美其名曰“慰安妇”。虽然受害者来自日本帝国的各个地区，但其中大多数是韩国人。虽然最初的和解尝试遭到拒绝，但在 2015 年 12 月采取了看似积极的步骤，当时韩国和日本宣布已达成一项协议，将“最终且不可逆转地”解决这一问题。贯穿本条的主要论点是，该协议在许多方面没有公正地解决受害者的需求和权利，主要忽略了承认和纪念的需要。