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
“Si ambulat loquitur tetrissitatque sicut anas, anas est” is, in customary international law, the three-part test of anatine ambulation, articulation and tetrissitation. And it is essential to Taiwan’s existence. Apocryphally, it can be traced as far back as Suetonius (蘇埃托尼烏斯) in late first-century Rome. Alas, Suetonius was only talking about ducks (anas). But this self-evident principle was codified as a four-part test at the Montevideo Convention in 1934, to which the United States is a party. Article One: “The state as a person of international law should possess the following qualifications: a) a permanent population; b) a defined territory; c) government;
The central bank and the US Department of the Treasury on Friday issued a joint statement that both sides agreed to avoid currency manipulation and the use of exchange rates to gain a competitive advantage, and would only intervene in foreign-exchange markets to combat excess volatility and disorderly movements. The central bank also agreed to disclose its foreign-exchange intervention amounts quarterly rather than every six months, starting from next month. It emphasized that the joint statement is unrelated to tariff negotiations between Taipei and Washington, and that the US never requested the appreciation of the New Taiwan dollar during the
Since leaving office last year, former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has been journeying across continents. Her ability to connect with international audiences and foster goodwill toward her country continues to enhance understanding of Taiwan. It is possible because she can now walk through doors in Europe that are closed to President William Lai (賴清德). Tsai last week gave a speech at the Berlin Freedom Conference, where, standing in front of civil society leaders, human rights advocates and political and business figures, she highlighted Taiwan’s indispensable global role and shared its experience as a model for democratic resilience against cognitive warfare and
The diplomatic spat between China and Japan over comments Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi made on Nov. 7 continues to worsen. Beijing is angry about Takaichi’s remarks that military force used against Taiwan by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) could constitute a “survival-threatening situation” necessitating the involvement of the Japanese Self-Defense Forces. Rather than trying to reduce tensions, Beijing is looking to leverage the situation to its advantage in action and rhetoric. On Saturday last week, four armed China Coast Guard vessels sailed around the Japanese-controlled Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台), known to Japan as the Senkakus. On Friday, in what
RSS