Former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has unveiled a memorial to Taiwan’s “comfort women” next to the party’s Tainan branch.
At the event, he expressed regret that the Democratic Progressive Party government has not followed through on the passage of the Act on Promoting Transitional Justice (促進轉型正義條例) by asking the Japanese government for compensation on behalf of these women.
Whether the government should demand such compensation from Japan merits discussion. However, if Ma and the KMT are not lying through their teeth, they must be well aware that “comfort women” is a system of military prostitutes and that the KMT used to have just such a system, called “831 special teahouses” (八三一特約茶室).
UNDERAGE
The system was established while former president Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國) was in charge of the Ministry of National Defense’s Political Warfare Bureau.
The KMT says that “comfort women” were “cheated, forced and kidnapped” into service, but media reports from the time show that underaged women were often forced into prostitution at the “special teahouses.”
However, the KMT has never shown any intention to apologize or pay compensation for this system, and it refuses to mention its own role as a perpetrator of the “special teahouses.”
Absurdly, it constantly criticizes Japan for its “comfort women” system.
Numbers speak louder than words: The “special teahouses” system was in place from 1952 to 1992 — a span of 40 years. That is more than five times as long as the Japanese “comfort women” system, which means that it brought even greater harm to Taiwanese adult and young women.
SHAMELESS
For any civilized person, it is difficult to understand how Ma and the KMT can be so shameless as to erect a memorial to “comfort women” at their Tainan party branch. It is like the thief crying: “Thief!”
If the KMT really is concerned about the suffering of women under the system of military prostitution, it should help the government set up an “831 Special Teahouse Hall of Tears.”
It should also consider moving all statues depicting Chiang — the man who set up these “special teahouses” — and exhibit them in the “Hall of Tears” so that surviving victims and their family members will not be reminded of the tragedy and inhumane treatment that they or their older kin were subject to.
COMPENSATION
The KMT should be asked to stop pretending that it is deaf, mute and completely unaware of its own dirty business here in Taiwan while demanding an apology and compensation from the Japanese government on behalf of the “comfort women.”
The KMT should apologize and compensate victims so that all Taiwanese women who suffered under the system of military prostitution are given the justice they deserve.
Lastly, social campaigners who have expressed their concern for “comfort women” should direct even more of their attention to the even larger number of victims of the “teahouses.” Many of these women are still alive and we should take this opportunity to get them the justice they deserve.
Do not allow politicians to erase this dark chapter in Taiwanese women’s history.
Vincent Tsai is a deputy sales manager in the semiconductor industry.
Translated by Perry Svensson
A gap appears to be emerging between Washington’s foreign policy elites and the broader American public on how the United States should respond to China’s rise. From my vantage working at a think tank in Washington, DC, and through regular travel around the United States, I increasingly experience two distinct discussions. This divergence — between America’s elite hawkishness and public caution — may become one of the least appreciated and most consequential external factors influencing Taiwan’s security environment in the years ahead. Within the American policy community, the dominant view of China has grown unmistakably tough. Many members of Congress, as
The shifting geopolitical tectonic plates of this year have placed Beijing in a profound strategic dilemma. As Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) prepares for a high-stakes summit with US President Donald Trump, the traditional power dynamics of the China-Japan-US triangle have been destabilized by the diplomatic success of Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi in Washington. For the Chinese leadership, the anxiety is two-fold: There is a visceral fear of being encircled by a hardened security alliance, and a secondary risk of being left in a vulnerable position by a transactional deal between Washington and Tokyo that might inadvertently empower Japan
After declaring Iran’s military “gone,” US President Donald Trump appealed to the UK, France, Japan and South Korea — as well as China, Iran’s strategic partner — to send minesweepers and naval forces to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. When allies balked, the request turned into a warning: NATO would face “a very bad” future if it refused. The prevailing wisdom is that Trump faces a credibility problem: having spent years insulting allies, he finds they would not rally when he needs them. That is true, but superficial, as though a structural collapse could be caused by wounded feelings. Something
Former Taipei mayor and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) founding chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) was sentenced to 17 years in prison on Thursday, making headlines across major media. However, another case linked to the TPP — the indictment of Chinese immigrant Xu Chunying (徐春鶯) for alleged violations of the Anti-Infiltration Act (反滲透法) on Tuesday — has also stirred up heated discussions. Born in Shanghai, Xu became a resident of Taiwan through marriage in 1993. Currently the director of the Taiwan New Immigrant Development Association, she was elected to serve as legislator-at-large for the TPP in 2023, but was later charged with involvement
RSS