‘Comfort women’ urge EU to pressure Japan

Three survivors of Japanese ‘comfort stations’ have appealed to the EU to encourage Japan to grant them legal compensation and issue a formal apology.

As part of Amnesty International’s ‘Stop violence against women’ campaign, the three women, from the Philippines, Korea and the Netherlands, will testify in the European parliament on Tuesday to urge the EU to make a public statement on the issue.

Seventy-eight-year-old Menen Castillo, the national representative of the Filipino survivors, was 13 when she was taken by Japanese soldiers raiding the village of Pampanga in the northern Philippines in 1942.

“If the world turns a deaf ear, it is like condoning what has been done,” she said at Amnesty headquarters in Brussels on Monday.

“By helping me, by punishing those who have done wrong, we are promising a safer world.”

The term ‘comfort woman’ is a translation of the Japanese ‘jugun ianfu’ and is a euphemism for sexual enslavement.

The Japanese imperial army, in countries including China, the Philippines, Korea, Burma, Singapore and Indonesia, reportedly enslaved up to 200,000 women before and during the second world war.

Victims are unanimous in their condemnation of the Japanese authorities turning a blind eye to the ‘comfort women’ system. It wasn’t until 1992, after historical evidence was uncovered by historian Yoshimi Yoshiaki, that the Japanese government was forced to admit its involvement.

Jean Lambert MEP, who is chairing the hearing in the parliament on Tuesday, said: “Sixty-two years on, the ‘comfort women’ are still waiting for justice, many having suffered a life blighted by physical and mental ill-health as well as isolation, shame and extreme poverty.”

There has yet to be a judicial tribunal or inquiry into the system, and according to a 2005 Amnesty International report, “military control of the ‘comfort women’ system was organised at the highest level”, including as far up as the war ministry , who are quoted as being involved in a “recruitment process” for the ‘comfort stations’.

The three women will continue their speaking tour in London and Berlin, in advance of UNIFEM’s international day for the elimination of violence against women on 25 November.

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