This year marks the 50th anniversary of the diplomatic ties between Japan and South Korea. Relations between the two sides have been strained in recent years due to Japan’s attitudes towards its role in the war, especially the issue of comfort women. It is estimated that about 200,000 Korean women were forced to be sex slaves at that time. Japan has agreed to give South Korea one billion Japanese yen or about US$8.3 million to set up a fund to heal the physical and psychological wounds of the surviving sex slaves. Many of the women are in the late 80s or over 90 years old.
In Taiwan, President Ma Ying-jeou has demanded that Japan compensate and issue an apology to Taiwanese “comfort women” forced into sex slavery during the war. Earlier this week, the president said the government’s stance remains unchanged and that Japan must do justice to those sex slaves and return dignity to them.
Meanwhile, Taiwan’s foreign ministry is set to hold a meeting with the Taipei Women’s Rescue Foundation next week to discuss the requests Taiwan will make to Japan so that a consensus can be reached beforehand.
The executive director of Taipei Women’s Rescue Foundation, Kang Shu-hua, called the deal between Japan and South Korea the biggest breakthrough in recent years.
Kang said Taiwan should reach a similar deal with Japan. She also demanded that Japan do soul-searching on sex slavery and violence against women during WWII. What’s more, Kang said the issue must be included in Japanese textbooks so that the younger generation has an understanding of it. Kang said Japan’s deal with South Korea is only a beginning as Japan must ponder how to compensate and meet the expectations of comfort women in Taiwan, China, the Philippines and Indonesia.
Of the women in Taiwan that have come forward admitting they were forced to be comfort women, four of them are still alive in Taiwan. Some of them are now over 90 years old, including a 94-year-old woman who went to Japan to lodge a protest two years ago. The woman once said “It can be forgiven as long as Japan issues an apology.” The others have passed away.