In the past two weeks, two more "comfort women," who were forced to provide sex services to Japanese soldiers during World War II, passed away, leaving only 22 victims in Taiwan to continue the ongoing battle for justice and dignity.
Li Wen Hung-shi (
The other woman, Chen Mei, 85, died after a seizure early this month. She had been imprisoned on the Chinese island of Hainan from 1943 to 1945.
The remaining comfort women are all in their 80s or 90s. Several lawsuits to win an apology from the Japanese government have failed, but they refuse to give up.
"With one foot in the grave, what can they do with the compensation?" asked Graceia Lai (
The foundation is planning to stage a fundraising fair in Taipei's Yongkang Park today.
Several former comfort women will be present at the fundraiser.
The goal is to raise NT$5 million (US$162,000) for a "virtual museum of women's rights" on the Internet to expose the crimes committed against comfort women. It will also be a place for all women to express themselves, Lai said.
It is estimated the Japanese army abducted at least 400,000 women in China, Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia and the Philippines to provide sexual favors to its soldiers during World War II.
In Taiwan, the estimated number of victims varies from 1,200 to 2,000, but only 58 have been confirmed by the foundation, and now only 22 are still alive.
China has reserved offshore airspace in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported yesterday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. These alerts, known as Notice to Air Missions (Notams), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert is
South Korea is planning to revise its controversial electronic arrival card, a step Taiwanese officials said prompted them to hold off on planned retaliatory measures, a South Korean media report said yesterday. A Yonhap News Agency report said that the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs is planning to remove the “previous departure place” and “next destination” fields from its e-arrival card system. The plan, reached after interagency consultations, is under review and aims to simplify entry procedures and align the electronic form with the paper version, a South Korean ministry official said. The fields — which appeared only on the electronic form
A bipartisan group of US senators has introduced a bill to enhance cooperation with Taiwan on drone development and to reduce reliance on supply chains linked to China. The proposed Blue Skies for Taiwan Act of 2026 was introduced by Republican US senators Ted Cruz and John Curtis, and Democratic US senators Jeff Merkley and Andy Kim. The legislation seeks to ease constraints on Taiwan-US cooperation in uncrewed aerial systems (UAS), including dependence on China-sourced components, limited access to capital and regulatory barriers under US export controls, a news release issued by Cruz on Wednesday said. The bill would establish a "Blue UAS
More than 6,000 Taiwanese students have participated in exchange programs in China over the past two years, despite the Mainland Affairs Council’s (MAC) “orange light” travel advisory, government records showed. The MAC’s publicly available registry showed that Taiwanese college and university students who went on exchange programs across the Strait numbered 3,592 and 2,966 people respectively. The National Immigration Agency data revealed that 2,296 and 2,551 Chinese students visited Taiwan for study in the same two years. A review of the Web sites of publicly-run universities and colleges showed that Taiwanese higher education institutions continued to recruit students for Chinese educational programs without
RSS