hankyoreh

A participant in the Wednesday Demonstration on July 13 in downtown Seoul holds up their hand in the foreground as a memorial banner for Shinzo Abe hangs in the background. (Kang Chang-kwang/The Hankyoreh)

On Wednesday, the 1,552nd Wednesday Demonstration calling for the resolution of the issue of wartime sexual slavery by the Japanese military took place in front of the former Japanese Embassy in Seoul’s Jongno District — the first to take place since former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was fatally shot during a streetside campaign rally.

“Although the issue of wartime sexual slavery by the Japanese military is a human rights issue, Japan is refusing to make a sincere apology, and the honor of victims still remains unrecovered,” Suwon Women’s Human Rights DoDum, the host of this week’s protest, criticized in a statement. “Instead, the Japanese government has distorted even this fact and denies its crimes, degrading the honor of victims.”

Having gathered despite the rain, citizens and students said, “The world we want is a peaceful one where individuals’ rights are protected.” They urged the South Korean government to “proactively resolve the issue of wartime sexual slavery by the Japanese military so that such human rights violations are never repeated.”

Here are some photos from the demonstration.

Participants in the 1,552nd Wednesday Demonstration hold umbrellas to shelter them from the rain. (Kang Chang-kwang/The Hankyoreh)

Members of a university student group take part in the Wednesday Demonstration on July 13. (Kang Chang-kwang/The Hankyoreh)

The Statue of Peace, a memorial to victims of the comfort women system of sexual slavery, sits in the rain on July 13 in downtown Seoul. (Kang Chang-kwang/The Hankyoreh)

By Kang Chang-kwang, senior staff writer

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