@Moth, it does seem quite tangential to my point. I was specifically referring to the situation in this novel and assessing how likely the situation shown by the manhua was given the limited info we have on the story. Yet strangely you bring up the horrors perpetrated by the IJA on Korea. There are significant differences between the situation presented in the manhua and the situation of the Korean Comfort women.
1. The IJA was a brutal and savage occupying force that saw anyone that was not Japanese as sub-human. This isn't really the situation that occurs in the manhua as this is a domestic entity perpetrating a major crime that is not very easy to hide nor too small to ignore against an individual of some standing in the community. I don't think the scholar's status was considered sub-human by the Viceroy or anyone around him.
2. Korea was an occupied territory. Outside of their home country armies and officials tend to abuse their powers. This is primarily due to a lack of oversight and distance from the seat of power. The farther you are from your home country, the easier it is to get away with crimes, to put it simply. To give an outside example, you hear of the US army torching entire villages and dropping agent Orange in the Vietnam War killing thousands of innocent civilians. Of course, mass protests against the war in the USA eventually led to the end of the Vietnam war, but imagine if this was before television and radio where news was transferred slowly. Information about the war would've been tightly controlled through propaganda and not enough people would know what was really happening to organize a meaningful protest. This isn't the case in the novel, it'd be very easy for the news of the event to spread to other officials and common citizens. I doubt there'd be protests but I'd expect some kind of sanction or punishment on the Viceroy, to save face if nothing else.
3. Nobility and status in one country is meaningless to another country. Simply being Korean Nobility would offer no protection or rights from the Japanese army. I am unsure of whether or not the Scholar in the manhua is a foreigner (doubtful) or a citizen of some standing in the country, but I would bet he is an actual citizen of the country given his obvious wealth and status and the fact that he owned a house in what I assume is the Capital of the country where he has servants to take care of his needs. I still believe my point stands that his status (and wealth, mostly the wealth) should've offered him some protection, no king or government could allow an official to be so blatantly and obviously criminal against the middle or upper class, especially against a scholar (scholars have a rather high social position in societies with Confucian ideals. Though I think you are aware of that.)
Personally I am quite familiar with how terrible the IJA can be and how shameful it is that their politicians ignore the cries of their victims hoping that the problem will go away. For my motherland, it's a particular point of contention between them and Japan, particularly how they refuse to acknowledge or even show sincerity in their regret over the atrocities that they had perpetrated. I don't particularly hold that against the current generation of Japanese, I just feel that Japanese politicians could be more diplomatic (not sure that's the word I'm looking for, but it'll do.) Still, I commend you for trying to spread the knowledge, though it has little to do with the story.