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`Comfort women' demand Japanese apology
STILL ANGRY:
The women marched to the Interchange Association to protest Japan's use of a private fund to compensate former comfort women, instead of making an official apology
DPA, TAIPEI
Tuesday, Apr 30, 2002, Page 4
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Former comfort women, who were forced into sexual slavery by Japanese forces during Japan's occupation of Taiwan, yesterday demanded a formal apology from the Japanese government as well as official compensation from Japan.
PHOTO: CHU PEI-HSIUNG
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Five former Taiwanese "comfort women" -- forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese Imperial Army before and during World War II -- marched to Tokyo's unofficial embassy in Taipei yesterday to demand an official apology and compensation from Japan.
Wiping tears and shouting slogans, the five women -- who are now in their 80s -- marched to the Interchange Association to protest Japan's use of a private fund to compensate former comfort women, instead of making an official apology and providing official compensation.
"The private fund has failed," the women said. "We want an official apology and compensation."
Matsumura Toshio, general affairs director of the Interchange Association, received the five women and said he will pass on their request to Tokyo.
Lawyer Wang Ching-feng (¤ý²M®p), who accompanied the women to the Interchange Association, said that immediate action is necessary.
"We have fought for 10 years and can wait for another 10 years for Japan's apology and compensation. But these grandmothers cannot wait because they are old," she told reporters.
Of the 58 registered former comfort women in Taiwan, 21 have died from old age or illnesses.
Japan, using public donations, set up the Asian Women's Fund in 1995 to pay each former comfort woman in Taiwan, South Korea and the Philippines ?2 million (US$14,700).
Ten former South Korean and 68 Filipino comfort women have accepted the pay-out, but Taiwan's former comfort women have rejected it. The fund will cease existing on May 1.
Taiwan's government paid each woman a pension of NT$500,000 (US$147,000) in 1997 and pays them a monthly allowance of NT$15,000.
On Thursday, representatives of former comfort women from Taiwan, China, the Philippines, North and South Korea, Indonesia and the Netherlands will gather in Pyongyang, North Korea to discuss how to demand an apology and compensation from Japan.
The May 2-6 meeting will try to push the Japanese parliament to pass a bill on compensation for war-time sex slaves, the Taipei Women's Rescue Association said.
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