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
Yesterday’s recall and referendum votes garnered mixed results for the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT). All seven of the KMT lawmakers up for a recall survived the vote, and by a convincing margin of, on average, 35 percent agreeing versus 65 percent disagreeing. However, the referendum sponsored by the KMT and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) on restarting the operation of the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant in Pingtung County failed. Despite three times more “yes” votes than “no,” voter turnout fell short of the threshold. The nation needs energy stability, especially with the complex international security situation and significant challenges regarding
Most countries are commemorating the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II with condemnations of militarism and imperialism, and commemoration of the global catastrophe wrought by the war. On the other hand, China is to hold a military parade. According to China’s state-run Xinhua news agency, Beijing is conducting the military parade in Tiananmen Square on Sept. 3 to “mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II and the victory of the Chinese People’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression.” However, during World War II, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) had not yet been established. It
A recent critique of former British prime minister Boris Johnson’s speech in Taiwan (“Invite ‘will-bes,’ not has-beens,” by Sasha B. Chhabra, Aug. 12, page 8) seriously misinterpreted his remarks, twisting them to fit a preconceived narrative. As a Taiwanese who witnessed his political rise and fall firsthand while living in the UK and was present for his speech in Taipei, I have a unique vantage point from which to say I think the critiques of his visit deliberately misinterpreted his words. By dwelling on his personal controversies, they obscured the real substance of his message. A clarification is needed to
There is an old saying that if there is blood in the water, the sharks will come. In Taiwan’s case, that shark is China, circling, waiting for any sign of weakness to strike. Many thought the failed recall effort was that blood in the water, a signal for Beijing to press harder, but Taiwan’s democracy has just proven that China is mistaken. The recent recall campaign against 24 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators, many with openly pro-Beijing leanings, failed at the ballot box. While the challenge targeted opposition lawmakers rather than President William Lai (賴清德) himself, it became an indirect
RSS