“The Korean Council for Justice and remembrance for the Issues of Military Sexual Slavery by Japan (Korean Council)” and “House of Sharing”, private organizations that have led the resolution of the Japanese Military Sexual Slavery(JMSS) in World War II during the past 30 years, have been surrounded by suspicions such as fraudulent accounting.
The Korean Council has been organizing the “Wednesday demonstration” since 1991. The Wednesday demonstration is a rally regular held every Wednesday to demand the apology from the Japanese government for the JMSS and to condemn the unfairness of the JMSS in front of the Japanese Embassy in Korea.
The House of Sharing is a representative space for victims of the JMSS since its opening in 1991. It is a shelter for the victims and a place to publicize the atrocities of Japanese imperialism.
At a press conference held on May 7, Lee Yong-soo, a victim of the JMSS, raised questions about the use of the money for the Wednesday demonstration and said, "I will not attend the (Wednesday) demonstration anymore." Lee asserted that "We must eliminate the demonstration at the press conference. We do not know where the donations are used". Lee, the model of the main character of the movie "I Can Speak” (2017), testified directly to the JMSS during the US House of Representatives Foreign Relations Committee in 2007.
On May 19, employees of the House of Sharing filed additional charges against the management. In February, the employees claimed that "the management team did not use the donations properly for the lives and welfare of the victims." They also claimed that the donations to be used for victims were attributed to corporations and not to the facility. The employees pointed out that the money spent on victims last year was only 64 million KRW out of 6 billion KRW of cumulative donations.
The prosecution searched the office and the museum operated by the Korean Council, which raised suspicions of accounting fraud. Many cases have also been confirmed that the House of Sharing improperly used donations and did not comply with the law.