Comfort women solution

            In “Reconsidering the Comfort Women Case,” the authors say, “The second approach to address reparations for historical injustices is focused on the establishment or reestablishment of current and future bilateral relations without resolving the historical injustices themselves.” I do not think that this approach is possible because in order to reach true bilateral relations they have to address the problems that caused their relations to fail. Without reaching mutual agreements about what has happened and how the events will be taken care of now and in the future, bilateral relations will not last long because the same thing can happen again, which is one of the concerns the authors have about this approach. Moreover, if the problem itself is neglected, those who are trying to establish bilateral relations will not know what has to be done to reach trust because without understanding the problem they will not have the solutions to go forward.

For example, you have a sister who has a very different personality from you and often had arguments about small things when both were young and lived at the same house. You are a positive thinker while your sister is very negative. Now that you and your sister go to different colleges, you do not see her that often and so little things that bothered you before do not bother you anymore. However, you still want her to stop being so negative so as to enjoy each other. These past feelings are preventing you from having bilateral relations with your sister and so in order to establish bilateral relations you have to confront your feelings so that she knows how you feel and so that she can explain her feelings. Without such a discussion you may be misunderstanding her thoughts and even if you try not to feel sad by thinking it is her life or whatever reason you can come up with, the problem itself is not solved and so whenever you see her negativity it will remind you about your feelings. Even if the problem itself cannot be solved by talking, each will at least know how the other feels and can act upon that to reach better bilateral relations.