adminAround 200 Taiwanese activists protested outside Japan’s de facto embassy in Taipei yesterday, demanding Tokyo apologise and compensate women forced to work as sex slaves during World War II. The demonstrators, largely from women’s groups, held portraits of Japanese politicians including Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Osaka mayor Toru Hashimoto marked “shameless” and “hypocritical”.
“Justice for all comfort women”, read one placard, while another demanded: “Return my dignity”.
Women’s groups in Taiwan demonstrate against Tokyo every year around the anniversary of Japan’s wartime surrender. “We urge the Japanese government to sincerely apologise,” said Kang Shu-hua, director of the Taipei Women’s Rescue Foundation which organised the protest. Don’t think they can get away with it after the elderly ‘comfort women’ pass away as we will continue to seek justice for them,” she said.
Historians say up to 200 000 Asian women, mostly from Korea but also from China, Indonesia, the Philippines and Taiwan, were forced to serve as sex slaves in Japanese army brothels during the war.
Online Reporter
derick.khumalo