A Taipei-based group is to hold an exhibition on “comfort women” aimed at urging the Japanese government to offer a formal apology and compensation for forcing thousands of women into sexual slavery during World War II.
The “814 Special Exhibition” is to open on Nov. 25 and run through Dec. 10, which is Human Rights Day, said the show’s organizer, the Taipei Women’s Rescue Foundation.
The foundation is inviting the public to write messages or draw pictures that convey their feelings on the issue to the Japanese government and express their support to surviving comfort women.
The messages and pictures can be sent to the foundation and are to be used in banners and animations that will be displayed at the exhibition, the foundation said.
“We are hoping that we will receive 814 messages and pictures,” foundation executive director Kang Shu-hua (康淑華) said, referring to the title of the show.
The foundation said it is raising funds for the event, which is to be held in cooperation with Hong Kong artist Phoebe Man.
The foundation has joined organizations in other countries whose nationals were also forced to work in military brothels in an international campaign to have Aug. 14 designated global memorial day for comfort women.
On Thursday last week — Aug. 14 — the foundation held its annual protest outside of the Taipei Office of the Interchange Association, Japan, to demand a formal apology from Tokyo for the World War II atrocities the Japanese Imperial forces committed and offer compensation to comfort women. The association represents Japan’s interests in Taiwan in the absence of diplomatic ties.
Over the past two decades, the foundation has been dedicated to helping surviving Taiwanese comfort women cope with their mental anguish and seek compensation from Japan.
The foundation has launched several initiatives to attain justice for the more than 2,000 Taiwanese women forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese Imperial Army in World War II, it said.
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