The Taipei Women’s Rescue Foundation yesterday confirmed that the oldest comfort woman in the world, Huang Wu Hsiu-mei (黃吳秀妹), passed away from respiratory failure on Oct. 3 at the age of 96.
“Before she did not want to talk publicly about her experiences, out of concern for her family’s feelings, but after receiving positive responses from many people, she became more willing to speak for all the comfort women and attended events in Japan, Australia, and South Korea,” foundation chairperson Huang Shu-ling (黃淑玲) said.
According to the foundation, Huang Wu Hsiu-mei was forced to become a comfort woman by the Japanese colonial government in 1940 and was sent to China’s Guangdong Province to serve the Japanese Imperial Army.
Photo: EPA / Taipei Womens Rescue Foundation
Speaking about her experience, she once said: “I was mistreated badly and my health has been poor since then. The Japanese government may forget, but I will never forget [what happened].”
“Grandma Hsiu-mei” was an active spokesperson seeking justice for comfort women and demanding compensation from the Japanese government.
Foundation officials said about 50 comfort women have passed away in the past 20 years; only eight are now left in Taiwan, with an average age of 87. They have yet to receive an apology or admission of wrongdoing from the Japanese government, foundation officials said, so there is still much work to be done to seek justice for these elderly victims.
The foundation is planning a memorial for “Grandma Hsiu-mei” on Dec. 9, which is to coincide with the 20-year anniversary event to commemorate the start of the movement in support of Taiwanese comfort women.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) today issued a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-wong effective from 5:30pm, while local governments canceled school and work for tomorrow. A land warning is expected to be issued tomorrow morning before it is expected to make landfall on Wednesday, the agency said. Taoyuan, and well as Yilan, Hualien and Penghu counties canceled work and school for tomorrow, as well as mountainous district of Taipei and New Taipei City. For updated information on closures, please visit the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration Web site. As of 5pm today, Fung-wong was about 490km south-southwest of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan's southernmost point.
UNILATERAL MOVES: Officials have raised concerns that Beijing could try to exert economic control over Kinmen in a key development plan next year The Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) yesterday said that China has so far failed to provide any information about a new airport expected to open next year that is less than 10km from a Taiwanese airport, raising flight safety concerns. Xiamen Xiangan International Airport is only about 3km at its closest point from the islands in Kinmen County — the scene of on-off fighting during the Cold War — and construction work can be seen and heard clearly from the Taiwan side. In a written statement sent to Reuters, the CAA said that airports close to each other need detailed advanced
Tropical Storm Fung-Wong would likely strengthen into a typhoon later today as it continues moving westward across the Pacific before heading in Taiwan’s direction next week, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 8am, Fung-Wong was about 2,190km east-southeast of Cape Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, moving westward at 25kph and possibly accelerating to 31kph, CWA data showed. The tropical storm is currently over waters east of the Philippines and still far from Taiwan, CWA forecaster Tseng Chao-cheng (曾昭誠) said, adding that it could likely strengthen into a typhoon later in the day. It is forecast to reach the South China Sea
Almost a quarter of volunteer soldiers who signed up from 2021 to last year have sought early discharge, the Legislative Yuan’s Budget Center said in a report. The report said that 12,884 of 52,674 people who volunteered in the period had sought an early exit from the military, returning NT$895.96 million (US$28.86 million) to the government. In 2021, there was a 105.34 percent rise in the volunteer recruitment rate, but the number has steadily declined since then, missing recruitment targets, the Chinese-language United Daily News said, citing the report. In 2021, only 521 volunteers dropped out of the military, the report said, citing
RSS