Premier Chang Chun-hsiung (張俊雄) yesterday asked the Japanese government to offer an apology for the humiliation inflicted on Taiwanese comfort women during World War II, as commotion triggered by the controversial comic book On Taiwan (台灣論) continued to spread across the political arena.
The information recorded in the book, in which Japanese author Kobayashi Yoshinori (小林善紀) quoted senior adviser to the president Shi Wen-lung (許文龍) as saying that the women had become sex slaves voluntarily, misrepresented the facts, Chang said.
"This is a very serious distortion of the facts. The [Taiwan] government will help the comfort women win their due justice. Also, we hope the Japanese government will offer an apology on this matter," Chang said.
"As a matter of fact, they were coerced to become comfort women," Chang added.
Chang promised that in six months the Executive Yuan will complete a compilation of the data already collected by private human rights groups, to make available an official record of the historical facts.
Chang made the remarks while answering questions from lawmakers including the New Party's Hsieh Chi-ta (謝啟大) and Levy Ying (營志宏) as well as the People First Party's Diane Lee (李慶安), during an interpellation session at the Legislative Yuan.
While the legislators pressed Chang to make a public, official refutation of the book's contents, they expressed great disapproval of Shi for "humiliating the Taiwanese people."
Chang said he was unsure as to whether Shi had indeed given Kobayashi the incorrect information, or if Shi was misquoted.
Chang, however, said he would pass the materials provided by lawmakers, along with their doubts concerning Shi, to the Presidential Office.
"I believe the Presidential Office will handle the matter properly once it has a better understanding of it," Chang said.
Shi has so far refused to comment on the controversy. Officials at the Presidential Office said they would deal with the matter as soon as they receive the materials from the premier.
In a joint statement issued by opposition caucuses in the legislature yesterday, lawmakers demanded that the Presidential Office immediately set up an investigative task force to check if Shi had actually made the remark about the former comfort women.
They said if Shi is proven to have done so, he should be dismissed from his position.
"As national senior adviser, it is very inappropriate for him [Shi] to say such nonsense. This is a very severe insult to ... Taiwan's women and the former comfort women," said KMT caucus whip Cheng Yung-chin (
The opposition lawmakers also demanded that the Executive Yuan start a probe to see if any government officials have been involved in what they called "practices disgracing the nation."
According to the comic book, foreign affairs officials, including Taipei's representative to Japan, Lo Fu-chen (
The banquets and tours for Kobayashi were arranged by Chin Mei-ling (金美齡), a national policy adviser. Kobayashi plans to visit Taiwan again next month.
The opposition lawmakers yesterday asked the Executive Yuan to list Kobayashi as a persona non grata and ban him from entering Taiwan again.
Also yesterday, two former comfort women, 80-year-old Liu-Huang A-tao (
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