Politics

President Ma backs justice for comfort women

ROC President Ma Ying-jeou hugs a comfort woman at the Presidential Office May 31 in Taipei City. (Courtesy of Presidential Office)

• Publication Date：06/01/2012
• Source： Taiwan Today
• By  Grace Kuo

ROC President Ma Ying-jeou said May 31 that the central government would do its utmost to ensure the painful history of military sex slaves is not forgotten or distorted.

“We cannot let this history be forgotten, for that would be extremely unjust to the grievances these women experienced,” Ma said.

The president made the remarks while receiving former comfort women and representatives of the Taipei Women’s Rescue Foundation at the Presidential Office in Taipei City.

Ma said the government would also make sure that inaccurate and misleading accounts of the history of comfort women are excluded from the nation’s textbooks.

“Over the past decades, I myself, the government and people from all walks of life have been fighting for the rights and dignity of these grandmas,” Ma added.

He said that after the Japanese government established the Asian Peace and Friendship Foundation in 1995, it offered each of the comfort women NT$500,000 (US$16,667), in exchange for their agreement to drop all claims against Japan.

This offer was rejected by the comfort women, and the ROC government gave them the same amount of money as a show of support. Additional help from private donations brought the total each woman received to NT$1 million, Ma noted.

“Regrettably, although the U.N. officially termed comfort women as military sex slaves in 1995, the women lost the lawsuit [they subsequently brought against Japan], and the Japanese government never extended an official apology,” Ma said.

“All we can do now is to do our best to take care of these female elders, allowing them to feel the support and encouragement of the entire country.”

The term “comfort women” refers to women in various parts of Asia who were forced by the Japanese army into sexual slavery during World War II. (HZW)

Write to Grace Kuo at mlkuo@mofa.gov.tw