With several countries adoptingresolutions urging the Japanese government to apologize to comfort women — those who were forced to provide sexual services for Japanese soldiers during World War II — a Taiwanese women’s rights group yesterday urged legislators to pass a similar resolution. The subject is expected to be discussed next week.
The resolution aims to demand that the Japanese government “formally recognize, apologize for and accept the historical responsibility for its army’s sex-slave system during World War II with a clear attitude. [It should] apologize to and indemnify the survivors to restore the victims’ reputation and dignity,” the Taipei Women’s Rescue Foundation said.
The resolution, proposed by four legislators from both the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Democratic Progressive Party with the support of another 23 legislators, also demands the Japanese government change its education system to present information about its wartime practice.
“So many years have passed. Taiwan, as a victim, needs to adopt the resolution [to speak up for the survivors’ human rights],” said Graceia Lai (賴采兒), the foundation’s international affairs department director.
She said that South Korea’s National Assembly adopted a resolution late last month urging Japan to apologize.
Taiwan’s resolution is expected to be approved on Tuesday in the Legislative Yuan.
In Taiwan, the estimated number of victims varies from 1,200 to 2,000, but only 58 have been confirmed by the foundation, with only 20 of those still alive, Lai said.
Nine of the comfort women in Taiwan filed a lawsuit against the Japanese government in 1999, but the lawsuit was dismissed by the Japanese Supreme Court in 2005.
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