BBC News Online: World: Asia-Pacific

Japan found 'guilty' of sex slave crimes

Former victims hold regular protests in South Korea

The tribunal described the wartime system, whereby an estimated 200,000 women from across Asia were forced to work in Japanese military brothels, as "state-sanctioned rape and enslavement".

The Women's International War Crimes Tribunal is a self-appointed group which has no judicial authority.

Judges' ruling

But the judges hope they will put pressure on the Japanese Government to atone for its wartime past.

"Most of the victims were very young and most were in a perpetual state of exhaustion, pain, malnutrition, depression and deteriorating health," the judges said.

Japan has not offered an official apology to the women involved, but gives some compensation through a partly private fund. The tribunal said that was not enough and called for "an amount adequate to redress the harm and deter its future occurrence."

The judges said Japan should "acknowledge fully its responsibility and liability for the establishment of the comfort women system" and "issue a full and frank apology."

Victim's story

Many of the victims are now in their 70s but are still determined to get an official apology.

"We have had wishy-washy unofficial apologies, I want an official apology and I want compensation," said Jan Ruff-O'Herne, a 78-year-old Dutch woman who was 19 when she was forced to work as a prostitute for the Japanese army in Indonesia.

"We were loaded on to a lorry and dropped off at a brothel in Semarang, on the island of Java," she said. "Nobody understands how much we suffered, only the women who went through it with us."

She said it had taken her 50 years to be able to speak out about her experiences.

"Nobody wanted to hear about the war and we were so ashamed," she said.

The tribunal is issuing its complete findings following a hearing held in Tokyo last year.