California is on the path to become the first state in the country to add the story of the comfort women to its curriculum in public schools, reports the Korea Herald.
The story of the sex slaves held by the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II would be taught to 10th graders in 2017 under the plan expected to be finalized in May.
“‘Comfort women’ can be taught as an example of institutionalized sexual slavery, and one of the largest cases of human trafficking in the 20th century,” stated documents posted on line by the California Department of Education. ““Most argue that hundreds and thousands of women were forced into these situations.”
It is estimated up to 200,000 women mostly from Korea and China were forced to work as sex slaves for Japanese soldiers during the war.
Korea has pushed for a stronger apology from Japan, but Japan counters that is has already paid restitution and has apologized repeatedly. The controversy over the comfort women remains a major divide between the two countries. The division has also spilled into the United States with San Francisco being the latest to consider building a memorial to the comfort women. Cities in California, New Jersey, Virginia and Michigan have all built comfort women memorials over the objection of the Japanese.
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