Yamamoto Yumiko
Director
International Research Institute of Controversial Histories
The United States President Trump himself spoke to the Republic of Korea President about the “comfort women” issue between Japan and South Korea. It was during the first U.S.-South Korea top meeting between President Trump and President Lee Jae-myung of the Republic of Korea held in the White House on August 25, 2025. During the nearly an hour-long meeting, the comfort women issue was covered for about four minutes at the end. However, President Trump exactly conveyed what the late Mr. Abe Shinzo presumably had told President Trump to the South Korean president. While thanking President Trump for mentioning the issue, we must bear it in mind that those are words Mr. Abe left regarding the friendly relationship between Japan and South Korea.
President Trump himself mentioned “comfort women”
The trigger was a question that a Korean reporter asked President Trump:
Before visiting the United States, President Lee visited Japan. So, is there something to discuss regarding the cooperation among South Korea, U.S. and Japan?
President Trump himself mentioned “comfort women”:
“I had a little bit of a hard time getting you (Japan and South Korea) together because you’re still thinking about comfort women. Right? Comfort women. That’s all they wanted to talk about, comfort women. And I thought that was settled a few times over the decades.”
“And it was a very big problem for Korea, not for Japan. Japan was...wanted to go. They want to get on. But Korea was very stuck on that.”
President Trump kept talking about the Japan-South Korea relationship:
“Japan wants to get along very well with you. And I find them to be great people, great country, obviously, and they want very much to get along with South Korea. And you have something in common. You know, you want to solve the North Korea problem. Japan very much wants to get along with you, and I’m sure they will. I find the people that I deal with to be wonderful people, as they do with you.”
Lastly, President Trump mentioned the late Prime Minister Abe and concluded that Japan and South Korea will cherish a wonderful relationship:
“And, you know, if you look at Prime Minister Abe, who was a great man, he was a great friend of mine, and he was assassinated. But he felt very warmly toward your country, I can tell you that. And the current Prime Minister, who I’ve gotten to know very well, feels the same way. So, I think you’re going to have a great relationship with Japan.”
Abe-Trump and the comfort women issue
Prime Minister Abe met Trump for the first time in November 2016 before Trump became President during his visit to Trump Tower in New York. For nearly three years and eight months since Trump became President in January 2017 until Prime Minister Abe’s resignation in September 2020, they were the United States President and Japanese Prime Minister and counting days until July 8, 2022, when Abe was assassinated, they were very good friends for nearly six years.
Meanwhile in South Korea, the Moon Jae-in administration started in May 2017. Although the comfort women issue was settled “finally and irreversibly” by the agreement reached between Japan-South Korea foreign ministers meeting in December 2015, movements to nullify the agreement went on.
In January 2018, the then diplomatic director Kang Kyung-wha announced the South Korean Government’s position that the 2015 agreement cannot be the true solution of the issue. In November of the same year, the South Korean Ministry of Gender Equality and Family announced the dissolution of the “Conciliation and Healing Foundation” established with one billion yen contributed by Japan.
In January 2021, in a lawsuit filed by former comfort women and others against the Japanese government, the South Korean Seoul Central District Court ruled to deny the application of the sovereign immunity rule in the international law and order the Japanese government to pay compensation to the plaintiffs.
Overseas, South Korean groups led the movement to install comfort women statues and monuments worldwide. Since 2017, among installations in overseas public sites, there are monuments and statues installed in Brookhaven, Georgia, San Francisco, California and Fort Lee, New Jersey, USA, and Berlin, Germany, and Stintino, Italy.
To President Trump, the fact that he came to know after the event that a woman who passionately hugged him during the state dinner held at the South Korean Presidential Residence Blue House while he was visiting South Korea in November 2017, was Ms. Lee Yong Soo, self-claimed former comfort woman, perhaps sparked his interest in the “comfort women” issue.
National leaders’ bond and historical controversy
It is widely known that President Trump and Prime Minister Abe enjoyed close relationship both officially and privately through official meetings, phone talks and playing golf together. It is reportedly said that there were 30 to 40 meetings while they held their respective offices.
Even with such close relationship, I suppose it was not easy for Mr. Abe to explain the “comfort women” in terms of the Japan-South Korea relationship to President Trump. Overseas, the “comfort women” is viewed not as a historical issue but as a women’s human right issue. There must be pressure toward sympathizing with allegedly victimized women, and it is presumably unforgivable to deny their statements. Professor Mark Ramseyer at Harvard University Law School, who published an essay depicting the historical truth about the labor contracts of the comfort women and faced the severest bashing from all over the world, is a good example of such a hard reality.
The fact that during the U.S.-South Korea top meeting this time, President Trump himself brought up “comfort women” and talked about the issue with the South Korean President shows that President Trump deeply trusts the late Prime Minister Abe and fully understands Mr. Abe’s message.
Now that the Prime Minister is gone, the statement made by President Trump can be a message to us in Japan and South Korea from the bond between the two leaders of the United States and Japan. I presume Mr. Abe Shinzo in heaven smiles and says, “Thank you, President Trump.”