The
Women’s Active Museum of War and Peace is a place where the reality of war crimes is recorded and
kept for posterity. We come here to remember historical facts about “comfort
women,” and to listen to their stories. And we raise our voices and say, “Never
Again, anywhere in the world.”
The 11th Special Exhibition - July 6, 2013 - June 29,
2014
TAIWAN - "COMFORT WOMEN" & FORCED
ASSIMILATION BY JAPANESE - EXHIBIT OF PAINFUL MEMORIES
After colonizing Taiwan at the end of the Sino-Japanese war in 1895, for more than
half a century Japan strove to turn the people into model “Japanese” through
assimilation policies and education designed to create subjects loyal to the
emperor. From the Second Sino-Japanese War through Japan’s plunge into
hostilities in the Pacific, Taiwan became for the military an important “base
for southern advancement,” a “treasure house” supplying raw materials and human
resources. Under the campaign for the “General Mobilization of the National
Spirit,” men were mobilized as soldiers and civilian workers of the Japanese
military and women were taken through deception or by force to “comfort
stations” scattered across Asia. On the island
of Taiwan itself, police and others forced indigenous women to work
for the Japanese troops where they were kept in facilities on military grounds
and suffered being raped day after day by Japanese soldiers.
After the end of the turbulent postwar period, Taiwan’s women victims broke their prolonged silence in the mid
1990s. Since then, they have taken on the Japanese government in the courts
and, with help from supporters and one another, been taking action to reclaim
their lives. The lines deeply engraved in the faces of the Ah-ma (Ah-ma means
“grandmother” in Taiwanese), the gentleness of each smiling face, convey the
strength of women who have fought to demand the restoration of their dignity.
(PDF)
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Main Exhibit Contents:
·
Aggressive implementation of Colonial
Assimilation Policies and Education for Creating Imperial Subjects
·
Taiwan as a “comfort women” supply base: from where to where
the women were sent (map)
·
Han Chinese Women who were taken to
Combat Zone “Comfort Stations”
·
Indigenous Women who were Raped on
Japanese Military Grounds in Taiwan
·
The Opposition Movement to the “Asian
Women’s Fund” and the Taiwanese “Comfort Women” lawsuit
·
Energized Ah-ma! The Attempt of the
Therapy Workshop
·
Taiwan’s Postwar: Relations with Japan and China, Democratization, and the issues of Postwar Compensation
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This Special Exhibition is made possible through the
cooperation of the ‘Committee to Support Court Cases of Taiwan’s Former
“Comfort Women”‘ and Taipei Women’s Rescue Foundation.