The government earlier this week repeated its call for Japan to formally apologize to Taiwanese women who were forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II and offer compensation to the women, known euphemistically as “comfort women.”
“Over the past years, our stance has been that Japan should issue a formal apology and offer compensation to comfort women,” said Shyue-yow (周學佑), deputy director-general of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of East Asian and Pacific Affairs.
Chou refuted comments made by former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) in an article in the latest edition of the Japanese monthly magazine Voice. Lee said the comfort women issue was settled in Taiwan and did not have to be raised further.
“It is untrue that the issue has been resolved,” Chou said, adding that Taiwan has never reached an agreement with Japan on the issue of comfort women.
The government is to continue its efforts to help Taiwanese comfort women demand a formal apology and compensation from Japan, he said.
Chou said the government has also taken action to help women who suffered from Japan’s wartime atrocities.
In 1992, the government set up a cross-agency task force to tackle comfort women-related issues and the task force allocated NT$21 million (US$640,791) in compensation to Taiwanese comfort women in 1997, Chou said.
In January 1998, each of the 42 people identified as comfort women received NT$500,000 in compensation, he added.
The manufacture of the remaining 28 M1A2T Abrams tanks Taiwan purchased from the US has recently been completed, and they are expected to be delivered within the next one to two months, a source said yesterday. The Ministry of National Defense is arranging cargo ships to transport the tanks to Taiwan as soon as possible, said the source, who is familiar with the matter. The estimated arrival time ranges from late this month to early next month, the source said. The 28 Abrams tanks make up the third and final batch of a total of 108 tanks, valued at about NT$40.5 billion
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