The recent denials made by some of Japan’s leading political figures that the Japanese military had forced women into sex slavery during World War II were “deplorable,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said in a statement yesterday.
The ministry said that it deplored the comments for dismissing the fact that women in some of Japan’s neighboring countries were either duped or forced into becoming “comfort women” during the war.
The statement was made in response to comments by Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara and Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto. The ministry said the Japanese officials have disregarded the facts.
Their comments were at odds with those made by then-Japanese Cabinet secretary Kono Yohei, who apologized for the “comfort women” in 1993, the ministry said.
That year, Yohei acknowledged that “comfort stations” had existed and that Japanese military and government officials directly or indirectly engaged in the establishment and management of the stations and in the recruitment of sex slaves.
Yohei’s apology came after Tokyo conducted a one-and-a-half-year-long investigation into the issue that revealed in many cases, women had been recruited to serve as “comfort women” against their will through coaxing and coercion, as well as that, at times, government and military personnel directly took part in the transfer of such women.
According to a report published earlier this week by the South Korean daily Chosun Ilbo, Hashimoto said on Tuesday that “there is no evidence that ‘comfort women’ were assaulted and threatened by the [Japanese] military and taken captive.”
Hashimoto made the remarks when he answered questions from the Japanese press about South Korean President Lee Myung-bak’s demand that the Japanese emperor apologize for his country’s wartime atrocities if he wished to visit South Korea.
On Friday, Ishihara reportedly said at a press conference that wartime “comfort women” volunteered for the job motivated by profits and were not coerced to do so.
The ministry’s statement said that the comments made by Ishihara not only sullied the character of the victims who are already mentally and physically ravaged, but also made them to suffer another aggravated assault.
“[We] called on Japanese politicians to face up to the issue of ‘comfort women.’ They should respect the women who have suffered and listen to their appeals. The Japanese government should restore their reputations and give them justice,” it said.
Taipei has repeatedly called for the Japanese government to apologize to the victims with sincerity and provide them compensation and will continue to do so to seek justice on behalf of Taiwanese victims, the statement added.
The Taipei Summer Festival is to begin tomorrow at Dadaocheng Wharf (大稻埕), featuring four themed firework shows and five live music performances throughout the month, the Taipei Department of Information and Tourism said today. The festival in the city’s Datong District (大同) is to run until Aug. 30, holding firework displays on Wednesdays and the final Saturday of the event. The first show is scheduled for tomorrow, followed by Aug. 13, 20 and 30. To celebrate the 30th anniversary of Disney Pixar's movie Toy Story, the festival has partnered with Walt Disney Co (Taiwan) to host a special themed area on
Aftershocks from a magnitude 6.2 earthquake that struck off Yilan County at 3:45pm yesterday could reach a magnitude of 5 to 5.5, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Seismological Center technical officer Chiu Chun-ta (邱俊達) told a news conference that the epicenter of the temblor was more than 100km from Taiwan. Although predicted to measure between magnitude 5 and 5.5, the aftershocks would reach an intensity of 1 on Taiwan’s 7-tier scale, which gauges the actual effect of an earthquake, he said. The earthquake lasted longer in Taipei because the city is in a basin, he said. The quake’s epicenter was about 128.9km east-southeast
BE CAREFUL: The virus rarely causes severe illness or death, but newborns, older people and those with medical conditions are at risk of more severe illness As more than 7,000 cases of chikungunya fever have been reported in China’s Guangdong Province this year, including 2,892 new cases last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday said it is monitoring the situation and considering raising the travel notice level, which might be announced today. The CDC issued a level 1 travel notice, or “watch,” for Guangdong Province on July 22, citing an outbreak in Foshan, a manufacturing hub in the south of the province, that was reported early last month. Between July 27 and Saturday, the province reported 2,892 new cases of chikungunya, reaching a total of 7,716
STAY VIGILANT: People should reduce the risk of chronic liver inflammation by avoiding excessive alcohol consumption, smoking and eating pickled foods, the physician said A doctor last week urged people to look for five key warning signs of acute liver failure after popular producer-turned-entertainer Shen Yu-lin (沈玉琳) was reportedly admitted to an intensive care unit for fulminant hepatitis. Fulminant hepatitis is the rapid and massive death of liver cells, impairing the organ’s detoxification, metabolic, protein synthesis and bile production functions, which if left untreated has a mortality rate as high as 80 percent, according to the Web site of Advancing Clinical Treatment of Liver Disease, an international organization focused on liver disease prevention and treatment. People with hepatitis B or C are at higher risk of
RSS