President Ma Ying-jeou has demanded that Japan compensate and issue an apology to “comfort women” forced into sex slavery during WWII. Ma was speaking Tuesday.
The president said the government’s stance remains unchanged and that Japan must do justice to those sex slaves and honor them with dignity.
Ma’s comments came after Japan and South Korea reached an agreement to settle the issue of Korean comfort women forced to work in Japanese brothels during the war.
Meanwhile, Foreign Minister David Lin said the government will continue negotiating with Japan though he said Taiwan must have a consensus first.
“About the deal between Japan and South Korea, did Japan redeem itself or compensate for its [wrongdoing]? Is the foundation set up by South Korea what we want?" said Lin. "Is that something our government task force finds acceptable? We must study related issues. As we make requests to Japan, we must have a clear stance, be it the stance of the Taipei Women’s Rescue Foundation, comfort women, the foreign ministry or the interior ministry.”
Also on Tuesday, the foundation’s executive director Kang Shu-hua demanded that Japan do soul-searching on sex slavery and violence against women during WWII.
Kang said, “[The issue] must be included in Japanese textbooks so that the younger generation has an understanding of it. The [deal] with South Korea is only a beginning. Japan must ponder how to compensate and meet the expectations of comfort women in Taiwan, China, the Philippines and Indonesia. Only a few of the elderly comfort women are still alive today."