The history of Taiwanese “comfort women” — whom the Japanese military forced into sexual slavery during World War II — should be listed as a specific subject in the 108 School Curriculum Guidelines, the Taipei Women’s Rescue Foundation said yesterday as the world observed International Comfort Women’s Day.
Foundation chairwoman Tsai En-chia (蔡恩加) told a news conference in Taipei that this year was the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II.
“People in Taiwan have the right to know the truth about Taiwanese comfort women, which was part of Taiwan’s history, as well as World War II history,” Tsai said.
Photo courtesy of the Taipei Women’s Rescue Foundation
The foundation has advocated for years that the government include Taiwanese comfort women as a specific subject in the 108 School Curriculum Guidelines, which govern the compilation of materials to be taught in elementary, junior high and high schools.
The topic should not simply be listed in the additional information section of the guidelines, she said.
However, the Ministry of Education has been slow in ensuring that the history of military sex slaves be included in textbooks and that teachers have guidelines to design relevant courses, she added.
The foundation and other women’s rights groups have been urging the government to build a museum honoring women’s rights and gender equality, but the government has yet to respond to such a proposal, Tsai said.
National Alliance of Taiwan Women’s Associations founding chairwoman Yu Mei-nu (尤美女) said women and children suffer the most in wars around the world.
A museum honoring women’s rights and gender equality would let the people sense the brutality, and learn important lessons through historical documents and artifacts, she said.
The foundation released the results of a survey on people’s knowledge of history related to comfort women and military sex slaves.
The survey, which was conducted from July 16 to Sunday, garnered 814 valid responses.
About 98 percent of the respondents knew about the history of comfort women, while 64.9 percent knew that they were also called war-time military sex slaves, the survey showed.
On sources of their knowledge about comfort women, 71 percent of the respondents said that they knew about it through history textbooks, while 67 percent of those cited “television, news and online videos” as sources.
Sixty-five percent said that they learned about the subject online.
In a similar survey in 2022, the results showed that most learned about the subject through television and other media, followed by those who learned through watching documentaries and reading textbooks.
Meanwhile, 70 percent of the respondents said they remembered being taught about comfort women in school, while about 20 percent said they were not sure or did not remember if the subject was taught.
The previous survey showed that only 46.7 percent remembered learning about the history of comfort women.
Asked why Taiwanese women became sex slaves for the military during WWII, 94 percent said they were forced into sexual slavery, while 86 percent said they were deceived into the trade.
About 60 percent said they were drafted by the military and 27 percent said they volunteered to work as comfort women.
Aside from Taiwan, historical accounts exist for women from Korea, China, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Myanmar, Indonesia and other areas under Japanese occupation, including parts of Papua New Guinea.
Except comfort women in South Korea, who were given some compensation and official apologies by the Japanese government and private foundations, most survivors from other nations did not receive the same formal compensation.
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