The government earlier this week repeated its call for Japan to formally apologize to Taiwanese women who were forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II and offer compensation to the women, known euphemistically as “comfort women.”
“Over the past years, our stance has been that Japan should issue a formal apology and offer compensation to comfort women,” said Shyue-yow (周學佑), deputy director-general of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of East Asian and Pacific Affairs.
Chou refuted comments made by former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) in an article in the latest edition of the Japanese monthly magazine Voice. Lee said the comfort women issue was settled in Taiwan and did not have to be raised further.
“It is untrue that the issue has been resolved,” Chou said, adding that Taiwan has never reached an agreement with Japan on the issue of comfort women.
The government is to continue its efforts to help Taiwanese comfort women demand a formal apology and compensation from Japan, he said.
Chou said the government has also taken action to help women who suffered from Japan’s wartime atrocities.
In 1992, the government set up a cross-agency task force to tackle comfort women-related issues and the task force allocated NT$21 million (US$640,791) in compensation to Taiwanese comfort women in 1997, Chou said.
In January 1998, each of the 42 people identified as comfort women received NT$500,000 in compensation, he added.
A recently discovered supernova is the brightest and closest to Earth identified in the past decade, and can be observed with basic equipment, the Taipei Astronomical Museum said on Wednesday. The supernova has an absolute magnitude of 14.9 in luminosity and is in the Pinwheel Galaxy (M101) about 21 million light-years from Earth. It was discovered early on May 20 by Japanese amateur astronomer Koichi Itagaki, who immediately reported the finding to the International Astronomical Union, the museum said. The supernova was designated SN 2023ixf following the astronomical naming conventions for supernovas, it added. The museum said that it observed
Tropical storm Guchol is moving in a northeasterly direction off the east coast of the Philippines and will not hit Taiwan, but will impact local weather starting on Friday, the Central Weather Bureau said Thursday. The storm would bring a low-pressure system northward toward the vicinity of Taiwan, forecaster Chao Hung (趙竑) said. Northern Taiwan will see intermittent rain showers in the morning, and thunderstorms in the afternoon on Friday, he said, adding that rain would be heavier on the east coast and in the central-southern mountainous areas. Rainfall would continue into Saturday, and would spread throughout Taiwan proper, he
Exiled Chinese democracy advocate Wang Dan (王丹) yesterday denied an accusation by former Taiwanese political worker Lee Yuan-chun (李援軍) that Wang had sexually harassed him in a hotel room in New York nine years ago. There was a huge gap between Lee’s accusation and his own understanding and memory, Wang wrote on Facebook, adding it was hard for him to respond further regarding a “unilateral description” made by someone else. Wang made the remarks after his initial response on Facebook was met with criticism, with people saying he did not directly address the allegation. Lee on Friday wrote on Facebook that he
A man was arrested in Hsinchu on Saturday on suspicion of filming women in the women’s washroom of a shopping mall in the city, local Chinese-language media reported on Thursday. The man was arrested at around noon on Saturday when a woman using a stall in the mall’s washroom noticed a cellphone being held above her from the neighboring stall, reports said. The woman ran out of the washroom and yelled to her husband to help her, after which the suspect – who was dressed as a woman – attempted to flee, but was subdued by other men until police
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