60 years on "comfort women" speak out against Jap injustice

84mmrr SG

From Amnesty International
Japan: Appeals for compensation fall on deaf ears
press release, 10/28/2005

http://www.amnesty.org/resources/slideshow/comfortwomen
http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/ENGASA220122005

Amnesty International today called on the Japanese government to accept full responsibility for crimes committed against women condemned to sexual slavery by their Japanese captors -- so-called "comfort women" -- before and during the Second World War.

In a comprehensive report entitled "Still Waiting After 60 years: Justice for Survivors of Japan's Military Sexual Slavery System", the organization outlines the brutal treatment suffered by "comfort women" and the excuses given over the years to deny responsibility for their suffering. Up to 200,000 women were sexually enslaved by the Japanese military before and during the Second World War, many of whom were under the age of 20, with some as young as 12. The report also provides recommendations to the Japanese government and the international community on ensuring justice for the remaining survivors.

"The Japanese government must finally right the wrongs of over 60 years by providing full reparations to the survivors of this horrific system of sexual slavery," said Purna Sen, Director of Amnesty International's Asia-Pacific Programme.

Survivors of the "comfort women" system are now elderly and unknown numbers have died without justice, an adequate public apology or direct compensation from the Japanese government. For years, the Japanese government consistently denied responsibility for its system of military sexual slavery and only when evidence directly linking the Japanese government's role came to light did the government finally admit responsibility.

"Apologies offered to former "comfort women" have been inadequate, vague and unacceptable to survivors. Moreover, the Asian Women's Fund fails to meet international standards of reparation and is perceived by survivors as a way of buying their silence," said Purna Sen.

"This is a current human rights issue that should not be relegated to the past -- it is about lives that have been destroyed and the continued denial of justice and reparation," said Purna Sen. "Reparations in this case are not just a moral obligation. Any state that commits war crimes and crimes against humanity such as rape and sexual slavery also has a legal obligation to provide full reparations and a promise of non-repetition directly to the survivors."

The Japanese government has argued that rape was not a war crime until 1949, when it was incorporated into the Fourth Geneva Convention. Amnesty International argues in its report, however, that there is a wealth of evidence that rape in the context of armed conflict was a crime under customary international law during the entire period in which the Japanese government operated its system of sexual slavery.

"I was taken to China when I was 16 years old," says South Korean national Lee Ok-sun, now aged 79. She was abducted and taken to Yanbian, north-eastern China -- where she was forced into sexual slavery in a "comfort station".

"The age range of the girls was from 14 to 17 and they forced us to serve 40 to 50 soldiers a day," she says. "It was impossible to serve that many men, so I refused and was beaten. If a woman refused they cut her body with a knife; some girls were stabbed. Some girls got diseases and died... It was a painful experience -- there was not enough food, not enough sleep and I couldn't even kill myself. I desperately wanted to escape." Lee Ok-sun was in China for 58 years before she was able to return to South Korea.

"We want our experience to be written in history so that the next generation and people in other countries will know what happened to us and for us to be given justice," said Lola Pilar of the Philippines, in the Amnesty International report. "The Japanese government has to admit to what the Japanese soldiers did. We need an apology and compensation from the Japanese government""

"I want justice more than the money," echoes survivor Lola Amonita, also of the Philippines. "I want a public apology from the Japanese government."

Background

"Comfort women" is a term used to euphemistically refer to young females from the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, China, South and North Korea, Japan, Indonesia, the Netherlands and other Japanese-occupied countries or regions who were forced in to sexual slavery by Japanese troops before and during the Second World War.

The abuse took place at "comfort stations" established by the Japanese authorities wherever they were based during the course of the wars. Women were brought to the stations often through abduction or deception; sometimes they were bought from their destitute parents.

Despite the widespread prevalence of what was essentially institutionalized rape, the issue of "comfort women" was ignored by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, set up after the Second World War to prosecute Japan's war criminals. Only during the Dutch military tribunal in Indonesia were prosecutions made -- for the sexual enslavement of Dutch women only; similar crimes against Indonesian women went unpunished.

Humiliated and ashamed, "comfort women" survivors remained silent for decades before finally speaking out in the early 1990s in response to persistent denials by Japanese government of its involvement in the system. Survivors are severely traumatized, many never married and many were unable to have children as a result of injuries sustained through repeated rape or due to contracting sexually transmitted diseases.

The Japanese government denied responsibility for the "comfort women" system until evidence directly linking the Japanese government's role was discovered by Professor Yoshimi Yoshiaki in 1992; the Japanese government subsequently issued several official apologies but these have not been acceptable to the survivors. Moreover, the Japanese government, in response to tireless campaigning by survivors of the sexual slavery system and their supporters and to international criticism, introduced the Asian Women's Fund in 1995. However the fund is perceived by survivors as a way for the Japanese government to evade its international legal responsibilities towards them.

LazerLordz SG

For once this is an AI cause many will support.

dragg SG

the japanese wont admit directly.

reyes SG

few comments to make about this issue:

1.most jap public dont know about what happen during WW2. thus if govt pay compensation. it admits indirectly what it taught in the text is wrong and admit what it had done in WW2.

2.the reason why Jap govt dare not admit or pay compensation is because americans fail to force Japan to prosecuted all those guilty in the war in fear of public backlash. hope u guys know who i mean.

3. it so long ago. that we shall forget and forgive. long gone the imperialism and facism of ww2. Thus why must the present govt pay for what been done in the past?
4.there are meant to be casulties of war. russians rape and kill thousands of innocent civilians in the siege of berlin and many millions more die due to hatred and frustration by both russians and germans armies in the battle of the eastern front.

not to mention the 6millions jews who had die during the " final solution".
they have move on, so should we.

Salman SG

I think China should just forgive and forget.
The Chinese communist party killed more Chinese than the Japanese.
The reason why China continues to hype on thsi is because they try to rally the country against an enemy so that public anger will not be directed at the communist party.

84mmrr SG

You got it wrong. First, Amnesty International is not a Chinese organisation. Next, majority of the victims are Koreans and they are the ones filing law suits against Jap govt in Japan.

pearlie27 SG

no doubt there are bond to be rape, torture and killing of innocent civilians in any war but the "comfort stations" were actually set up by the Japanese govt. It was institutionalized rape committed by the govt of a country and not by an individual. That country should take responsibility. Moreover, without a proper apology how do you expect the victims and their families to forget and forgive?

maybe you are made differently, but the thought that each female was made to service 40 to 50 soldiers a day really makes me shudder. i think it is the worst kind of torture and humiliation to humanity

those who were responsible for the "final solution" of the 6 millions Jews were brought to trial and dealt with. It is because Germany had apologized that the victims' families can move on.

stellazio SG

so what they want for justice if its not in monetary term?make the japs come out and admit they're wrong? Laughing

sgdiehard SG

Yes, learn from the Germans, the japs government must officially admits their mistakes and apologize, make a monument in their own turf to remind their people of the atrocities, then china, korea and go on, and Japan will be respected.

Singapore has accepted money as compensation so singapore should move on. Not everybody wants to accept money in place of apologies, especially in institutionalized rape. If you accept money for a rape on you, you can't call that rape, it is prostitution; whether you accept $10 or a $1000, you are still a prostitute; and $1000 does not make you a high class prostitute, it just means the guy is a "gong gia". Laughing

84mmrr SG

What does your mean?!! Read again and tell me it's all about money? some were only 12 when they became sex slaves

The impact of sexual enslavement was devastating for many women, particularly when they faced rejection by their family, friends and community Nearly all Korean survivors Amnesty International met had been unable to have children due to internal injuries caused by mass rape, or contracting STDs which went untreated.

Lee Young-soo, 78, never married: "I was too scared, I wasnt pure I dont envy people who are living in a happy marriage. I feel free alone". Lee Ki-sun, 83, was kept in a "comfort station" for seven years where she was raped every day. She was unable to have children and never married. She told Amnesty International:

"Sometimes I want to be reborn, reincarnated as a woman and have a baby and a happy life. Whenever I see other people visited by their grandchildren, I wish I had some, I feel envious of themI feel lonely".

Kang Soon-ae, 77, was abducted by Japanese military police when she was 13 years old. Her ordeal left her deeply scarred:

"The soldiers went mad; they cut the breast off the girls and stuck them to the wall of a cave. They took my clothes off I was so small, they were so big, they raped me easily. I was bleeding, I was only 14; I was seriously hurt. They all raped me. I cant describe what happened; I dont know when these feelings will pass. I cant feel any pain now - my flesh is all dead. My life was ruined, totally ruined. I couldnt even control my own body. I was so ashamed I could not depend on anybody, so I lived alone in life.

In 1961, I tried to kill myself, I jumped in the Mapo River but a man saved my life, he was fishing at the time, I thought about killing myself oftenI feel tired, really tired; nobody knows my pain. I can smell the men, I hate men. The Japanese government should see me, realize what they did. They have to admit what they create".