From the China Post:
Philippine women activists slam Abe’s denial of forced wartime sexual slaveryAbe’s behaviour is a reversal of earlier Japanese government policy in this, according to Bloomberg news agency:2007/3/2
MANILA, Philippines (AP)
Women’s rights activists in the Philippines on Friday denounced a comment by Japan’s prime minister that there was no evidence Japanese soldiers forced women into sexual slavery during World War II.
“We are enraged,” said Rechilda Extremadura, executive director of Lila Pilipina, an organization of rights activists and former Filipino wartime sex slaves.
Thousands of women from the Philippines and other Japanese-occupied nations were forced to work in brothels run by Japan’s military during WWII.
“We will not allow them to deny it just like that,” Extremadura said.
“For us, good or bad, it is your history. If you are a responsible government, you are responsible enough to accept, acknowledge and be accountable.”
Responding to a recent U.S. congressional resolution calling for Japan’s leader to formally acknowledge and apologize for the wartime sexual slavery, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told reporters in Tokyo on Thursday that “there was no evidence to prove there was coercion as initially suggested.”
Rep. Liza Maza of the left-wing Gabriela women’s party said Abe’s statement was “an affront to all women victims of Japanese military sexual slavery” during the war.
“My God! There are so many living survivors of such atrocity,” she said.
Extremadura said 120 are still alive among 174 documented Filipino “comfort women,” the term used to refer to sex slaves provided to Japanese troops, who invaded the Philippines in 1942.
“Our women here, the grandmothers, said that they were forced, that they were coerced into rendering sexual servitude inside the garrisons, inside the ‘comfort stations,”‘ Extremadura said.
“Now, let the Japanese government prove that they went there willingly … so that they can be labeled as prostitutes. That is where this is heading.”
Japan’s military seized thousands of women from Korea, China, the Philippines and other places during the war and shipped them across Asia to provide sex for their troops.
Historians say up to 200,000 women were involved.
Tokyo has generally refused to pay damages to individuals for the war, and says the issue was settled between governments in postwar treaties.
Japanese courts have rejected a number of lawsuits brought by former sex slaves.
A private fund, set up by Japan in 1995 to compensate sex slaves, will expire this month.
The Asian Women’s Fund, created by the Japanese government but independently run and funded by private donations, has provided a way for Japan to extend aid to former sex slaves without offering official government compensation.
More than 80 Filipino women, now mostly in their 80s, have accepted money from the fund out of poverty, but all still seek legislated compensation from the Japanese government.
The statement indicates Abe’s administration may repeal a 1993 government study that the military, both directly and indirectly, forced women in occupied areas to serve in brothels as “comfort women.'’See also here.
Apparently, this hardline revisionism on World War II is part of the Japanese ruling party’s turn to the Right and militarism.
Including sending soldiers to Iraq (withdrawn later).
Pro ‘comfort women‘ rally in Australia, 7 March: here.
See also here.
MEDIA STATEMENT
25 September 2008
Reference: Emmi de Jesus, Secretary General, 3712302 / 0917322-1203
ON THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON GENDER, MIGRATION AND DEVELOPMENT
With the International Conference in Gender, Migration and Development
on-going today under the theme “Seizing Opportunities, Upholding
Rights,” President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, shamelessly claims that
our country is the appropriate venue for the conference for having
ranked sixth in the world in closing the gender gap. What President
Arroyo failed to mention is that the Philippines also ranked 5th among
the countries world wide with the largest incidents of human
trafficking. Almost half a million Filipinos have been victims of
human trafficking worldwide, 20% are minors who end up prostituted.
The President lies through her teeth, in its yet another attempt to
cover up its government’s failure to address the vital problems of
Filipino women.
The diaspora of Filipinos to other countries is being spurred by a
desperation for livelihood that the government has failed to provide
its people. Majority of Filipino women are contractual workers and
plantation workers or peasants who live under conditions of seasonal
work, low wages, absence of benefits and job insecurity. Because
family income fails to meet the daily needs and growing financial
necessities of the family, more and more women are being forced to
seek jobs abroad.
This is the true state of Filipino women. This is the basis of the
phenomenal outmigration of Filipino women. More than opportunity, the
desperation for livelihood leading to forced migration only places
women migrants in a position open for exploitation and abuse. Worse,
the Philippine government, led by Arroyo, profits from this
exploitation and abuse through state exactions while it is liable for
the criminal neglect of women migrants victims of violation.
Most women migrant workers are working as domestic helpers, caregivers
or entertainers abroad. These are work that capitalizes on the
traditional feudal stereotyping of women as homemakers and sex
objects. As such, the very premise of their jobs abroad – that of
lowly servants and objects for entertainment – makes women vulnerable
to abuse.
In the Middle East alone, where there are 25,000 Filipino workers, 90%
are domestic helpers. A great majority of this number is women. The
Department of Foreign Affairs has admitted that more than 1,000
migrant workers have been repatriated after experiencing maltreatment
from their employers.
This is the stark naked truth about women and migration which clearly
debunks any claim that migration leads to development much less has
the potential in advancing gender equality and women’s empowerment. ###
GABRIELA Philippines
35 Sct. Delgado St, Brgy. Laging Handa
Quezon City, 1103 Philippines
TeleFax: (632) 374 44 23
E-mail: internationalrelations@gabrielaphilippines.org
GABRIELA is a grassroots-based alliance of more than 200 women’s organizations, institutions, desks and programs in the Philippines. We seek to wage a struggle for the liberation of women and the rest of our people.
Comment by Administrator — September 26, 2008 @ 10:11 am