新闻万花筒：VOA视角之首尔民众要求日本为侵略道歉和赔偿

Spiiker新闻万花筒，VOA新闻，带您看世界，听世界，

感受世界的点点滴滴。

练听力，提能力，小编与您共努力！

Weekly Korea Protests Keep Japanese WWII Atrocities Alive

Protesters gather in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul every week to demand an apology and reparations from Tokyo for the thousands of South Korean women who were forced into prostitution during World War II. Although this year marks the 70th anniversary of the end of the war, these protesters have helped keep the issue of comfort women alive and made it difficult for Japan to move beyond its past wartime atrocities.

There are only a few surviving elderly women in South Korea who were forced into sex slavery during World War II. But the demonstrations in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul are attracting more young people, like 16-year-old Kwon Oh-ryung, who have become passionate about the issue.

“Japanese doing this is such a crime to us, so we couldn’t stand it. We couldn’t bear it,” she said.

It is estimated that over 200,000 women from across Asia were forced to become comfort women for occupying Japanese soldiers during the war.

Rally organizer Yoon Mi-hyang, with the Korean Council for The Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan, said they have been protesting now for nearly a quarter century.

"The reason why we stand here until now is that the Japanese government has not accepted its crime and not offered an official apology and legal compensation which victims have been asking for,” she explained.

The comfort women issue has become even more contentious since Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe adopted a less apologetic tone toward Japan’s wartime past. His visit to a war memorial last year that included the names of war criminals angered his neighbors.

Abe also alienated China, South Korea and other Asian countries by questioning Japan’s past apologies on the comfort women issue. Some of his conservative allies have suggested that not all the women were forced into prostitution.

More recently, South Korea criticized Abe’s visit to Jerusalem, including a holocaust memorial for victims of German war crimes, saying that he will be taken seriously when he addresses Japan’s atrocities.

Prime Minister Abe suggested he may alter a 1995 statement from former Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama, giving a broad apology for wartime damage and suffering, when he makes his own statement in August on the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II.

"As it is now 70 years since the end of [the second world] war, the Abe cabinet will be reflecting on what we did wrong in the last war and also on our progress as a peace loving nation,” he said.

At the rally, a chair was left empty for a comfort women victim who recently passed away. Yoon Mi-hyang said this new generation of protesters would not let Korea’s sense of outrage dissipate after all the survivors die.

“The purpose of our activity is to not repeat such a tragic event like the comfort women issue, and it is also what the victims want,” said Yoon.

The protesters said they would not forget and not forgive until Japan makes amends.

词汇解析

yearly

难度：3星常用词汇，属常用6000词

英汉解释

adj.每年的

adv.每年地；一年一次地

参考例句

用作形容词 (adj.)

Many Greek cities had to send yearly tribute to Athens.

许多希腊城市不得不每年向雅典进贡。

用作副词 (adv.)

I get a physical examination yearly.

我一年做一次身体检查。

************************

execute

难度：4星核心词汇，属常用3000词

英汉解释

vt.执行；实行；处决；完成

参考例句

用作及物动词 (vt.)

Congress makes the laws; the President executes them.

国会制定法律，总统执行法律。

************************

exception

难度：3星常用词汇，属常用6000词

英汉解释

n.例外；不合规则；反对；[律]异议

参考例句

用作名词 (n.)

All students without exception must take the English examination.

所有的学生毫无例外，都必须参加英语考试。

Until today germanium is the present substance on earth with no exception.

直至今天锗才毫无异议地成为地球上是纯净的物质。

************************

debt

难度：4星核心词汇，属常用3000词

英汉解释

n.债务；恩情；负债状态；义务；罪

参考例句

用作名词 (n.)

He promised to pay his debt within a month.

他保证在1个月内偿还债务。

Liabilities are the obligatio or debt that a busine must pay in money or services at some time in the future.

负债是指将来需用货币或服务偿还的债务或履行的义务。

************************

convince

难度：4星核心词汇，属常用3000词

英汉解释

vt.使确信；使信服；说服

参考例句

用作及物动词 (vt.)

I try to convince him of the reality of the danger.

我试图使他相信危险的确存在。

Your argument is too weak to convince me.

你的论点太薄弱了，说服不了我。

************************

respond

难度：4星核心词汇，属常用3000词

英汉解释

v.回答；响应；反应；反应灵敏；反响

n.[建]壁联；[宗]应唱圣歌

参考例句

用作动词 (v.)

I invited her to dinner but she did not respond.

我请她吃晚饭，但她未作回答。

The professor lectured with a beaming countenance, but the students didn't respond much, only agreeing with what he said.

教授讲得眉飞色舞，学生们却没有太大的反响，只是随声应和。

************************

involve

难度：5星基本词汇，属常用1000词

英汉解释

vt.包含；使忙于；牵涉；使卷入；使陷入

参考例句

用作及物动词 (vt.)

A letter of credit will involve unnecessary extra charges.

信用证包含有不必要的额外开支。

See more information, you can visit us

英语口语测试  http://www.spiiker.com/daily/
 
在线学英语口语 http://www.spiiker.com/english-plaza.jsp