Taiwan protest urges Japan apology
Print Edition
Around 200 Taiwan protesters gathered in Taipei yesterday, demanding Japan apologize and compensate women forced to work as sex slaves during World War II.
The demonstrators held up portraits of Japanese politicians, including Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto, marked “shameless” and “hypocritical.”
“We urge the Japanese government to sincerely apologize,” said Kang Shu-hua, director of the Taipei Women’s Rescue Foundation which organized the protest.
“Don’t think they can get away with it after the elderly ‘comfort women’ pass away as we will continue to seek justice for them,” she said.
Up to 200,000 Asian women, mostly from Korea but also from China, Indonesia and the Philippines, were forced to serve as sex slaves in Japanese army brothels during the war.
Over the past 20 years, 58 former Taiwan “comfort women” have died, leaving only six known survivors.
The surviving women, now in their late 80s, were unable to attend the protest due to poor health, the foundation said.
In a 1993 statement, the then chief Japanese government spokesman Yohei Kono apologized to former “comfort women” and acknowledged Japan’s role in causing their suffering.
But in remarks in 2007 that triggered uproar, Abe, who was then also serving as prime minister, said there was no evidence that Japan had directly forced women to work as sex slaves.
Hashimoto sparked anger earlier this year when he suggested that “comfort women” served a “necessary” role in keeping soldiers in line during the war.
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