A documentary chronicling the later years of six Taiwanese women forced into sexual slavery by Japanese forces during World War II will be screened across the country this weekend.
Song of the Reed, which premiered in Taipei last month, features six former comfort women.
Beginning on Saturday, four showings of the 80-minute documentary will be held in Greater Taichung, Greater Tainan, Taipei and Hualien, said the Taipei Women’s Rescue Foundation, the group behind the documentary.
The project documents the recent lives of the comfort women and their participation in the foundation’s activities designed to help heal their wounds, it said. The film also tells the stories of how the women moved on with their lives despite their painful memories, it added.
The project aims to send the message that “their roles as ‘victims’ have changed to the roles of ‘fighters for life,’” foundation executive director Kang Shu-hua (康淑華) said.
Filmed over three years starting in 2010, the project was a race against time, as the former comfort women are now mostly in their 90s. Four of the six women documented in the film died before its release.
The film is part of the foundation’s efforts to raise public awareness of the issue. More than 2,000 Taiwanese women were forced into sexual slavery by Japan, it said.
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