Former 'comfort women' demand more from Japan 60 years after WWII
Wed Aug 10, 2:01 PM ET
TOKYO (AFP) - Former "comfort women" and activists demonstrated in parts of Asia, demanding that Japan do more to compensate the former sex slaves for the imperial army before the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II.
A government-established but private fund has compensated hundreds of former sex slaves but Japan argues that bilateral treaties rule out any official payouts to individuals.
An activist group, Violence Against Women in War-Network Japan, said demonstrations were slated for 24 cities across the world Wednesday, mostly in Asia, but it did not immediately know how many went ahead.
"I am angry against both the Japanese and South Korean governments," said Lee Yong Su, 76, a former comfort woman from
South Korea who was among 200 people protesting outside parliament in Tokyo.
"The bilateral treaty they signed in 1965 sealed the question of compensation for individuals," she told AFP.
Historians say at least 200,000 young women, mostly Korean but also from Taiwan, China, the Philippines and Indonesia, were forced to serve as sex slaves in Japanese army brothels during the war.
A compensation fund was established in 1995 by a left-leaning Japanese government but it uses money collected by donations.
The fund is to be wound up in March 2007 after helping more than 360 women and determining that most other victims eligible for compensation will not come forward.
Many women remain too ashamed to discuss what happened to them. China has refused to take part in the program.
"Why should they stop paying?" Lee said. "The fund should keep paying as the victims are still suffering and they are getting older and older."
The fund provided compensation and medical benefits worth five million yen each (about 45,000 dollars) to victims from South Korea and Taiwan and 3.2 million yen to each Filipina victim. Dutch victims in what is now Indonesia were granted medical support only.
Kazuko Miyake, a Japanese activist supporting comfort women, said she had helped opposition lawmakers draft a bill to provide more compensation but it could not be considered before new elections were called on Monday.
"Our bill was abandoned as the lower house was dissolved, but we will never give up. We'll file it again in the next session," she said.
In Manila around 150 former sex slaves protested outside the Japanese embassy and near the presidential Malacanang palace Wednesday, demanding justice including an official apology.
Riot police forcibly pushed back the elderly comfort women who converged in an area near the palace, but no one was injured.
Another group of former sex slaves, wearing bright yellow dresses and headbands, trooped to the Japanese embassy and issued to a statement saying that 60 years after World War II, "justice continues to escape the victims."
Japan surrendered on August 15, 1945.
The former sex slaves carried slogans condeming Japan's war past. Some read: "Justice for all comfort women of World War II" and "Justice to all victims of military slavery."