A Messenger from Rome to the Comfort Women

July 3, 2014

As the world prepares for ceremonies next year commemorating the 70th anniversary of the conclusion of the most horrendous war in all of human history, the time is long overdue for closure in Asia. Reconciliation was dramatically advanced over four decades ago in Europe. It was in December 1970 that former West German Chancellor Willy Brandt knelt in a gesture of deep remorse at the Warsaw Ghetto Memorial.

The recent report on the re-examination of the 1993 Kono Statement to the Japanese Diet, however, indicates that no contemporary Japanese leader will likely have the courage and compassion necessary to follow the example of Willy Brandt. That may require a visitor from the Eternal City of Rome. It could be part of Pope Francis’s mission when he visits Seoul in August, during the 69th anniversary of the end of the Second World War.

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