South Korean women forced into wartime sexual slavery held their 1,000th weekly protest outside Japan’s embassy yesterday, demanding compensation and an apology from Tokyo as they have since 1992.
“Apologize!” shouted five women in their 80s or 90s and an estimated 500 supporters, waving banners reading “Compensate” and “Admit the war crime.”
Demonstrators campaigning to publicize World War II crimes braved near-freezing temperatures to unveil a “peace monument” across the street from the mission, despite protests from the Japanese government over the statue.
Photo: AFP
The five former sex slaves known euphemistically as “comfort women” hugged the replica of a teenage Korean girl in traditional costume.
“Young girls were dragged to other countries as slaves of the Japanese military,” said a frail Kim Bok-dong, 85. “I demand that the ambassador of Japan tell the Japanese government to apologize before we all die.”
The oldest of the Korean former “comfort women” died earlier this month aged 94 and another aged 87 died on Tuesday, leaving just 63 survivors out of 234 who had registered with the Seoul government.
In a rare move, a North Korean association for former comfort women sent a letter of support.
“The Wednesday demonstration that has lasted for 20 years is an unbearable blaze of anger against sexual slavery crimes committed by Japan that have trampled on national pride,” the group said in a faxed message.
Historians say that during World War II, about 200,000 women from Taiwan, Korea, China, the Philippines and other countries were drafted to work in Japanese military brothels.
The issue came to widespread notice in the early 1990s after some victims found the courage to go public.
Japan has apologized for the military’s crimes against the women, but denies official responsibility for running the brothels. It has rejected South Korea’s proposal of bilateral talks about the women’s demands.
South Korea’s foreign ministry said on Tuesday it was inexcusable that the issue was still not settled.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘POINT OF NO RETURN’: The Caribbean nation needs increased international funding and support for a multinational force to help police tackle expanding gang violence The top UN official in Haiti on Monday sounded an alarm to the UN Security Council that escalating gang violence is liable to lead the Caribbean nation to “a point of no return.” Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Haiti Maria Isabel Salvador said that “Haiti could face total chaos” without increased funding and support for the operation of the Kenya-led multinational force helping Haiti’s police to tackle the gangs’ expanding violence into areas beyond the capital, Port-Au-Prince. Most recently, gangs seized the city of Mirebalais in central Haiti, and during the attack more than 500 prisoners were freed, she said.
RSS