台湾議会決議報道ですBelow are the news clippings about Taiwan’s legislature passing
resolution to urge Japan to apologize and compensation to the “comfort
women” following a similar resolution adopted last month by South
Korea’s National Assembly.
Thekla Lit
President of B.C.ALPHA & Co-chair of Canada ALPHA (Association for
Learning & Preserving the History of WWII in Asia)
www.alpha-canada.org <http://www.alpha-canada.org/>
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Taiwan Legislature ratifies comfort women resolution
Central News Agency
Page 4
2008-11-12 01:09 AM
http://www.taiwannews.com.tw/etn/news_content.php?id=786297&lang=eng_news&cate_img=49.jpg&cate_rss=news_Society_TAIWAN
<http://www.taiwannews.com.tw/etn/news_content.php?id=786297&lang=eng_news&cate_img=49.jpg&cate_rss=news_Society_TAIWAN>
The Legislative Yuan yesterday adopted a resolution on comfort women,
demanding an apology from the Japanese government to the women who were
forced to provide sexual services to its army during World War II.
Taiwan's legislature became the second country in Asia whose leading
representative body expressed its position on comfort women, following a
resolution adopted last month by South Korea's National Assembly that
urged Japan to apologize to the comfort women.
Taiwan's resolution asked the Japanese government to "formally
recognize, apologize for and accept the historical responsibility of its
army's sex-slave system during World War II with a clear attitude."
The resolution, proposed jointly by four legislators from the ruling
Kuomintang and opposition Democratic Progressive Party with the support
of 23 other legislators, also requests that the Japanese government
educate present and future generations on Japan's wartime practices with
accurate historical facts.
"Now that the resolution is adopted, we hope that the historical truth
can be recorded accurately in history textbooks, " said Cynthia Kao,
executive director of the Taipei Women's Rescue Foundation (TWRF).
According to the foundation, existing textbooks have only limited and
vague passages on comfort women.
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Tuesday November 11, 5:10 PM
Taiwan OK's bill seeking Japan "comfort women" apology
Tuesday November 11, 2008
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/11/11/worldupdates/2008-11-11T144054Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_-364401-1&sec=Worldupdates
<http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/11/11/worldupdates/2008-11-11T144054Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_-364401-1&sec=Worldupdates>
http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/Asia/Story/STIStory_300988.html
TAIPEI (Reuters) - In another sign of Taipei's toughening stance toward
Tokyo, Taiwan's parliament on Tuesday passed a resolution asking Japan
to apologise for forcing women into sex slavery during World War Two and
to compensate victims.
Legislators voted unanimously on the resolution, which demands an
unspecified payout for Taiwan "comfort women" who worked for the
Japanese military. Japan colonised Taiwan from 1895 through World War Two.
"We still need to work hard at getting the justice and respect for these
women," said Hsu Ming-mei, office manager for legislator Yang Lee-huan,
a co-sponsor of the bill. Those women, she said, "will be happy the
government is willing to help them."
"Comfort women" is a Japanese euphemism for the estimated 200,000 women
forced to provide sex for Japan's soldiers at battle-zone brothels
during World War Two. About 50 Taiwan women worked in sex slavery, Hsu
said, and 20 are still alive.
Japan set up the Asian Women's Fund in the 1990s to compensate former
sex slaves. It has already apologised to Taiwan, said an official in
Tokyo's de facto embassy in Taipei.
"The past is the past, and the Japanese government has given nobility
and respect to these women," the official said.
Taiwan's ruling Nationalist Party (KMT), which also dominates
parliament, has become tougher on Japan than the island's opposition
party when it ruled from 2000 to 2008.
Under the KMT, which fought Japan in World War Two when it ruled all of
China, Taiwan recalled an envoy from Japan after a boat collision near a
group of disputed islands in June, and this month it rebutted a Japanese
air force chief of staff's comment that Tokyo was not a World War Two
aggressor.
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Taiwan demands Japanese apology, compensation for comfort women
Posted : Tue, 11 Nov 2008 07:18:09 GMT
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/241057,taiwan-demands-japanese-apology-compensation-for-comfort-women.html
Taipei - Taiwan on Tuesday demanded that Japan make a formal apology and
pay compensation to women who were forced to serve as prostitutes for
the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II. The Taiwan parliament
passed a resolution demanding Japan apologize for forcibly recruiting
the women, who were euphemistically called comfort women, and pay them
compensation.
"We demand that Japan assume historical responsibility for sexual
slavery and apologize and make compensation directly to the victims,"
parliamentary speaker Wang Jin-pying said.
"We also demand that Japan must educate this and the next generation of
Japanese so that such crimes won't happen again," he said.
Taiwan's former comfort women welcomed the parliamentary resolution.
"We have been waiting for many years," Hsiu Mei, 92, said at a news
conference held by the Taipei Women's Rescue Foundation, which looks
after former comfort women in Taiwan. "Now, finally, our government has
made a formal demand."
According to a foundation survey in 1992, 58 women admitted having
served as comfort women in the Japanese army during World War II. Since
then, 38 have died.
The topic has long been a taboo subject, and many victims kept silent
out of shame.
"We hope Japan will hurry up in offering apologies and compensation to
the former comfort women because if it keeps delaying, they will not
live to receive them," said Lai Tsai-er, a foundation staff member.
During World War II, Japan forced about 200,000 mostly Asian women to
become prostitutes for the Japanese Imperial Army.
Japan claimed the women voluntarily provided sexual services, but
surviving comfort women in China, Taiwan, South and North Korea, the
Philippines, Indonesia and the Netherlands have refuted Tokyo's claims,
saying they had been forced into sexual slavery.
In 1995, Japan established a private fund to compensate the women. Some
accepted compensation while others rejected it, saying it was an insult
while vowing to carry on the fight for a formal apology and compensation.
None of Taiwan's former comfort women have accepted compensation from
the private fund. They live on a 15,000-Taiwan-dollar (460-US-dollar)
monthly subsidy from the Taiwan government and receive free medical care.
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LEAD: Taiwan resolution calls on Japan to compensate comfort women
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D94CICE80&show_article=1
<http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D94CICE80&show_article=1>
<http://www.breitbart.com/partner.php?source=ap>
Nov 11 02:25 AM US/Eastern
TAIPEI, Nov. 11 (AP) - (Kyodo)―(EDS: ADDING DETAILS)
Taiwan's parliament adopted Tuesday a resolution seeking an apology and
compensation from Japan for forcing women into sex slavery
<http://search.breitbart.com/q?s=sex%20slavery&sid=breitbart.com> during
World War II.
<http://search.breitbart.com/q?s=World%20War%20II&sid=breitbart.com>
In a rare show of unity, the island's ruling and opposition parties
passed by a unanimous vote the Taiwan Comfort Women Resolution, calling
on Tokyo to "accept historical responsibility for its World War II sex
slavery institution, and apologize to and compensate surviving victims."
Japan came under fire from resolutions passed last year by the United
States and European Union calling on Tokyo to own up to its wartime
military brothel program that allegedly forced hundreds of thousands of
women to become prostitutes, euphemistically referred to as "comfort
women
<http://search.breitbart.com/q?s=comfort%20women&sid=breitbart.com>" in
Japan.
"I don't think the resolution will have any specific impact on Taiwan's
relations with Japan. We just hope Japan will begin to hear the voices
of the world on this issue," said Huang Sue-ying, an opposition
Democratic Progressive Party legislator and co-sponsor of the resolution.
Taiwan's parliament, or Legislative Yuan, Huang said, timed the
resolution to roughly coincide with a similar resolution passed by South
Korea's National Assembly last month. That resolution calls on Japan to
apologize to and compensate surviving comfort women in South Korea.
Taiwan, Huang said, has about 20 aging survivors for whom the resolution
"is their last chance to voice their requests to Japan."
"I fear that the survivors will all pass on in the next two years," she
added.
慰安婦問題で日本は賠償を＝台湾立法院、決議採択
http://www.jiji.com/jc/c?g=pol_30&k=2008111100372
【台北１１日時事】台湾立法院（国会に相当）は１１日、第２次大戦中の従軍
慰安婦問題に関し、日本に公式の謝罪と国家賠償を求める決議を採択した。法的
拘束力はないが、日台関係に微妙な影響を与えそうだ。
超党派の女性議員や元慰安婦の台湾女性らが立法院に提出した決議文は、台湾
の旧日本軍が大戦中、慰安婦を従軍させたことを「性奴隷制度」と批判するとと
もに、元慰安婦の名誉と尊厳を回復するよう要求。「日本政府はきっぱりとした
態度で歴史的責任を認めるべきで、謝罪と賠償を求める」としている。
元慰安婦の女性（９２）は同日、台北市内で記者会見し「決議が採択されて安
心した。立法委員（議員）の努力に感謝する」と述べた。（了）（2008/11/11-
12:24）
