The "Comfort Women."

The “Comfort Women” were Korean women forced into sex slavery by the Japanese during World War II. Some of these women are still alive, and demand both recognition and high level acknowledgement and apologies for their abduction, enslavement, and great suffering in the name of the Japanese people as well as reparations for their ruined lives.

Since 2003, the Center has been meeting with the Japanese and the Korean sides of this conflict. Details...

North and South Korea dialogue

The issues between two countries that were once one are numerous and complex. Besides the very different ideologies each country has come to epitomize, differences which in and of themselves provide potential for acrimony, the Koreas' position within the US-Soviet battleground further intensified and stratified these differences. The possibility of “reunification” brings up many painful memories of families torn in two and, in many cases, its members cast on opposing sides of bloody war.

Should there be any large scale emigration from North to South Korea or pressure for political reunification, as it stands now, historical issues that are likely to explode under conditions of "unification" with North Korea are not being dealt with in any adequate way. The Center’s goals in Korea are to help Korean leaders of the young generation to work out the steps they need to take to support social integration in the event of future reunification of the North and the South, and to focus them on the importance of historical conciliation to the future of their country. Details...