When the Tokyo High Court rejected a lawsuit by a small group of elderly Taiwanese “comfort women” in 2004, Cheng Chen-tao (鄭陳桃), one of the plaintiffs, burst into tears in the courtroom.
Six years later, 89-year-old Cheng is still angred by the defeat, but said she and other comfort women would continue the decade-long legal battle against the Japanese government.
“I will not acknowledge defeat even though the court rejected our claims. I was forced to be a comfort woman when I was a student and I suffered all my life. It’s unacceptable that the Japanese government still refuses to apologize for what it did,” she said yesterday at an exhibition at the Taipei City Police Department’s Datong (大同) branch chronicling the women’s legal battle.
Photo: Wang Min-wei, Taipei Times
Cheng is one of 13 Taiwanese comfort women still alive. She joined eight other women to file a lawsuit against the Japanese government in 2001 for “recruiting” — most often through deception and coercion — tens of thousands of women from its colonies and occupied areas to serve as military sex slaves during World War II.
Cheng said she traveled all the way from Pingtung to attend the opening of the exhibition and asked for President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) assistance to help the surviving comfort women find justice and dignity.
“We flew to Japan several times, but they would not let us victims testify in court,” she said.
With the assistance from the Taipei Women’s Rescue Foundation, a non-profit organization that helped support the women’s case, the plaintiffs demanded ￥10 million (US$80,300) each in damages and an official apology from the Japanese government. However, Tokyo refused to admit it had recruited comfort women and has declined requests for an apology or compensation.
“These grandmothers don’t want monetary compensation from the Japanese government. They only ask for an official apology,” foundation chairwoman Liao Ying-chih (廖英智) said.
Speaking at the opening of the exhibition, Ma said he regretted the Japanese government’s failure to acknowledge its mistakes and promised to seek justice for the women.
“It is the responsibility of the Japanese government to admit its mistakes and apologize … The battle is not over yet and it is regretful that the Japanese government still refuses to face its mistakes,” he said.
Germany has made efforts to confront its historical atrocities and even puts details of concentration camps in history textbooks, Ma said.
“It is a great pity that there are places or nations that have not achieved this stage,” he said.
Ma said it was important for governments to address their mistakes and promised that as president he would not avoid major incidents in Taiwan’s history, including the 228 Massacre and the White Terror era.
“We can forgive historical mistakes, but history cannot be forgotten. The government should not be afraid [to face] disgraceful events and it should not avoid its responsibility to offer a formal apology,” he said.
Ma praised the three comfort women who were present yesterday for their courage and held a private discussion with them after the ceremony.
Liao said that during the past year, the foundation has been seeking assistance from the Japanese Diet in the hope that laws can be passed to oblige Tokyo to apologize for the country’s treatment of the comfort women.
The number of comfort women conscripted by the Japanese government during World War II is estimated to stand at 500,000, with women and girls taken from Taiwan, Korea, China, the Philippines and other countries, Liao said.
Titled A Long Way Gone, the exhibition features documents and media coverage of the women’s lawsuit against the Japanese government, which marked its 10th anniversary this year. The exhibition runs until Feb. 28.
Additional reporting by CNA
Taiwan is to commence mass production of the Tien Kung (天弓, “Sky Bow”) III, IV and V missiles by the second quarter of this year if the legislature approves the government’s NT$1.25 trillion (US$39.78 billion) special defense budget, an official said yesterday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, a defense official with knowledge of the matter said that the advanced systems are expected to provide crucial capabilities against ballistic and cruise missiles for the proposed “T-Dome,” an advanced, multi-layered air defense network. The Tien Kung III is an air defense missile with a maximum interception altitude of 35km. The Tien Kung IV and V
The disruption of 941 flights in and out of Taiwan due to China’s large-scale military exercises was no accident, but rather the result of a “quasi-blockade” used to simulate creating the air and sea routes needed for an amphibious landing, a military expert said. The disruptions occurred on Tuesday and lasted about 10 hours as China conducted live-fire drills in the Taiwan Strait. The Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) said the exercises affected 857 international flights and 84 domestic flights, affecting more than 100,000 travelers. Su Tzu-yun (蘇紫雲), a research fellow at the government-sponsored Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said the air
Taiwan lacks effective and cost-efficient armaments to intercept rockets, making the planned “T-Dome” interception system necessary, two experts said on Tuesday. The concerns were raised after China’s military fired two waves of rockets during live-fire drills around Taiwan on Tuesday, part of two-day exercises code-named “Justice Mission 2025.” The first wave involved 17 rockets launched at 9am from Pingtan in China’s Fujian Province, according to Lieutenant General Hsieh Jih-sheng (謝日升) of the Office of the Deputy Chief of the General Staff for Intelligence at the Ministry of National Defense. Those rockets landed 70 nautical miles (129.6km) northeast of Keelung without flying over Taiwan,
City buses in Taipei and New Taipei City, as well as the Taipei MRT, would on Saturday begin accepting QR code payments from five electronic payment providers, the Taipei Department of Transportation said yesterday. The new option would allow passengers to use the “transportation QR code” feature from EasyWallet, iPass Money, iCash Pay, Jkopay or PXPay Plus. Passengers should open their preferred electronic payment app, select the “transportation code” — not the regular payment code — unlock it, and scan the code at ticket readers or gates, General Planning Division Director-General Liu Kuo-chu (劉國著) said. People should move through the
RSS