The comfort women issue has been in the news for quite a few years. But it has again become a hot topic after a row over On Taiwan (
I believe this change will have a negative effect on Taiwan society because the Japanese army was not the only place Taiwanese women worked as comfort women. In fact, an even larger number did so in the ROC army. They could one day be incited to become the next wave in the comfort women issue.
After the KMT government and its 600,000-strong army retreated to Taiwan, the government set up "military paradises" to fulfill the sexual needs of its soldiers, who were mostly young lads, and to "stabilize the army's heart." In particular, paradises mushroomed in front-line areas like Kinmen, Little Kinmen, Matsu and Wuchiu. Some comfort women even travelled around carrying their belongings and providing "comfort" on the spot (that is, inside the fortifications) on small islands that had no paradises. Such operations gradually ended, as that generation of soldiers aged over the 1960s and 1970s. An estimated 30,000 to 50,000 women worked as comfort women at one point or another over two decades (authorities at the Combined Services Force headquarters may have the statistical details).
The paradises had several sources for women. The largest source was perhaps illegal prostitutes caught and sent to the military camps. When I was working as a guard at a paradise on Kinmen in those days, I met a 16-year-old, who had been caught while working as an illegal prostitute in Taipei's Paotou Borough (寶斗里). She once told me, crying, that she had to accommodate 70 to 80 soldiers a day -- too much for her to endure, with no chance even to put on her pants, she said. Her physical and mental agony never failed to arouse my compassion.
Today, most of the women who worked as comfort women in the Japanese military have died. Only a small number of them remain. By comparison, most of the women who worked in the Taiwan military are still alive. If one day a women's organization creates a media furor over these several tens of thousands of women, then the resulting explosion could shake the heavens and earth. For the sake of social harmony, I hope the people of Taiwan will stop harping on about the comfort women issue and instead let it pass on into history.
Yao Chi is a medical worker.
Translated by Francis Huang
On Sept. 3 in Tiananmen Square, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) rolled out a parade of new weapons in PLA service that threaten Taiwan — some of that Taiwan is addressing with added and new military investments and some of which it cannot, having to rely on the initiative of allies like the United States. The CCP’s goal of replacing US leadership on the global stage was advanced by the military parade, but also by China hosting in Tianjin an August 31-Sept. 1 summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), which since 2001 has specialized
In an article published by the Harvard Kennedy School, renowned historian of modern China Rana Mitter used a structured question-and-answer format to deepen the understanding of the relationship between Taiwan and China. Mitter highlights the differences between the repressive and authoritarian People’s Republic of China and the vibrant democracy that exists in Taiwan, saying that Taiwan and China “have had an interconnected relationship that has been both close and contentious at times.” However, his description of the history — before and after 1945 — contains significant flaws. First, he writes that “Taiwan was always broadly regarded by the imperial dynasties of
A large part of the discourse about Taiwan as a sovereign, independent nation has centered on conventions of international law and international agreements between outside powers — such as between the US, UK, Russia, the Republic of China (ROC) and Japan at the end of World War II, and between the US and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) since recognition of the PRC as the sole representative of China at the UN. Internationally, the narrative on the PRC and Taiwan has changed considerably since the days of the first term of former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) of the Democratic
A report by the US-based Jamestown Foundation on Tuesday last week warned that China is operating illegal oil drilling inside Taiwan’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) off the Taiwan-controlled Pratas Island (Dongsha, 東沙群島), marking a sharp escalation in Beijing’s “gray zone” tactics. The report said that, starting in July, state-owned China National Offshore Oil Corp installed 12 permanent or semi-permanent oil rig structures and dozens of associated ships deep inside Taiwan’s EEZ about 48km from the restricted waters of Pratas Island in the northeast of the South China Sea, islands that are home to a Taiwanese garrison. The rigs not only typify
RSS