Marking 60 years since the end of World War II and following the release last week of Silent Scars, a book dealing with the Japanese military's history of sexual slavery during the war, an exhibition of images entitled "The Resilience of Life: Sixty Years of Taiwanese Comfort Woman Survivors" opened in Taipei yesterday.
The exhibition will run until Aug. 31 in the pedestrian zones of Taipei Warner Village and in Ximending.
According to the organizers -- the Taiwan Women's Rescue Foundation and the Taipei City Department of Cultural Affairs -- the goal of the exhibition is to remind people of the suffering of "comfort women" and demonstrate their spirit.
PHOTO: FANG PIN-CHAO, TAIPEI TIMES
"We don't act out of anti-Japan sentiment when we hold these activities and exhibitions. However, it's all about human rights and forcing women to serve as sex slaves for troops is definitely a war crime and a violation of human rights," said Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday at the exhibition's launch.
"In 1968, the UN's Convention on the Non-Applicability of Statutory Limitations to War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity had already considered that war crimes and crimes against humanity are among the gravest infringements of international law. They also recognized that no expiry period should apply for lawsuits, irrespective of the date of their commission," Ma said, quoting the UN charter. He said that people should never give up trying to redress grievances.
The number of comfort women still alive to tell their story is rapidly dwindling. According to the Taiwan Women's Rescue Foundation, there are now only 30 surviving Taiwanese comfort women.
In an explanatory note accompanying the images in the exhibition, one former comfort woman recalled that she and a handful of other women were tricked into doing laundry, housekeeping and nursing chores at first, but were then forced into prostitution. Another said that they had no idea about the reality of their prison home, but they knew it was "a place for accommodating women" and only Japanese imperial troops had access to the women's quarters. Civilians were prohibited from entering.
"War is in fact a behavior stemming from patriarchy. We can easily find many examples of women being suppressed during the war. Those who suffered after the atom bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki received lots of attention, whereas these women with excruciating memories of sex slavery still struggle for justice," said Liao Hsien-hao (廖咸浩), head of the Taipei City Government's Department of Cultural Affairs.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
RESPONSE: The government would investigate incidents of Taiwanese entertainers in China promoting CCP propaganda online in contravention of the law, the source said Taiwanese entertainers living in China who are found to have contravened cross-strait regulations or collaborated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could be subject to fines, a source said on Sunday. Several Taiwanese entertainers have posted on the social media platform Sina Weibo saying that Taiwan “must be returned” to China, and sharing news articles from Chinese state media. In response, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has asked the Ministry of Culture to investigate whether the entertainers had contravened any laws, and asked for them to be questioned upon their return to Taiwan, an official familiar with the matter said. To curb repeated
Myanmar has turned down an offer of assistance from Taiwanese search-and-rescue teams after a magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck the nation on Friday last week, saying other international aid is sufficient, the National Fire Agency said yesterday. More than 1,700 have been killed and 3,400 injured in the quake that struck near the central Myanmar city of Mandalay early on Friday afternoon, followed minutes later by a magnitude 6.7 aftershock. Worldwide, 13 international search-and-rescue teams have been deployed, with another 13 teams mobilizing, the agency said. Taiwan’s search-and-rescue teams were on standby, but have since been told to stand down, as