Long after the end of World War II, the “comfort women” issue remains an open wound — one that polite diplomacy keeps trying to bandage without ever healing.

“Nearly 80 years on, victims and their families continue to face the denial of their right to truth, justice, reparations and memorialization,” a group of United Nations experts said at the ongoing 61st session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

Up to 200,000 women and girls were reportedly subjected to trafficking, rape and sexual slavery, as well as to arbitrary deprivation of liberty and, in certain cases, to enforced disappearance, in the “comfort women” system operated by Japan from the early 1930s to the end of World War II. Most of the survivors from China, the Republic of Korea, the Netherlands, Timor-Leste, Indonesia and the Philippines, among others, have passed away, but those who remain alive are still denied their rights to truth, justice and reparations, as the experts said.

They rightly called on Japan to recognize and fulfill the survivors’ rights to justice, reparations and full and effective remedy, including through formal apologies, adequate compensation, preservation of historical records, and education that ensures future generations understand what happened.

As they urged, it is also important to preserve historical memory through educational materials, memorials and commemoration.

The Japanese government continues to issue deceptive statements in a bid to wash its hands of the issue. But the UN experts rejected “sovereign immunity” as grounds to waive accountability for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Law, at its best, is supposed to serve justice, not outmaneuver it.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun called the historical evidence of Japan’s ugly role in the “comfort women” issue ironclad and undeniable, and he urged Japan to engage in serious soul-searching.

Decades of archival discoveries, survivor testimonies and field research across Asia have established the existence of the “comfort women” system that was organized, regulated and sustained by the Japanese government and military departments. It was a system that relied on forced not voluntary participation.

When such atrocities are systemic, they demand systemic accountability.

Yet within Japan, certain political and intellectual circles have sought to distort the historical truth, portraying the system as “l(fā)ess coercive, less systemic, less damning”. As noted by the UN experts, the denial of atrocities by high-level officials and the harassment of victims, survivor-led organizations, academics and journalists, seriously undermine efforts toward accountability and redress, for if the past cannot be erased, it can at least be blurred.

And that distinction matters. The “comfort women” issue demands acknowledgment and redress. Not vague expressions of regret, but clearly worded statements that leave no room for reinterpretation.

The experts urged action “without further delay”, yet delay has been the defining characteristic of the past 80 years. It is as if time itself has become a strategy for Japan — wait long enough, and soon there will be no survivors left to speak for themselves. When that happens, the burden of memory will shift entirely to documents, historians and collective conscience. And collective conscience, as history has shown, can be alarmingly amnesic.

This is not just about the past. How a nation confronts its history shapes how it is trusted in the world. As Guo suggested, reckoning with historical wrongdoing is not merely an act of reflection for Japan — it is a prerequisite for credibility.

The tragedy of the “comfort women” issue is a double wrong — not only what happened, but what has happened since: decades of denial and whitewashing, contested narratives, and justice deferred.

Atonement cannot be engineered through diplomacy; it requires honesty, humility and a willingness to confront uncomfortable truths.

The surviving women are still waiting for that moment.