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CHINA - COMFORT WOMEN SURVIVORS OF WORLD WAR II JAPANESE SEX SLAVERY STRUGGLE FOR JUSTICE

 

August 5, 2014 - By Zhang Yiqian - Editor: Frank Zhao

 

Chinese Survivors of WWII Japanese Sex Slavery Struggle to Get Their Due

The "comfort women" were women forced into sexual slavery by Japanese soldiers during World War II in both China and South Korea. [Women Images]

Huang Youliang has spent 10 years suing the Japanese government. She has yet to succeed.

Huang is one of only eight remaining "comfort women" in Hainan Province. Many of her peers already have passed away.

The "comfort women" were women forced into sexual slavery by Japanese soldiers during World War II in both China and South Korea. While in Korea these women are now cared for by the government and grass-roots organizations alike, in China those that have not already passed away struggle to get by and to make sure their history is remembered.

Lin Yajin was born in 1924 in Baoting, Hainan Province. In 1943, she was captured by Japanese soldiers who invaded the island and forced her to work as a comfort woman. As a result of torture during her captivity, she could no longer conceive children, according to the Hainan Daily.

In October, 2013, Lin passed away. A month before, Wan Aihua, another comfort woman, passed away in her home at Taiyuan, Shanxi Province at 84 years old.

Chen Houzhi, a volunteer who often visited these women, told the Hainan Daily that when she was conscious, Lin would frequently say that she "couldn't forget the miserable time and the shame."

There are very few comfort women still alive in China now, only 23 in total, including the eight in Hainan. Those that are left are not well off. The suits they've brought against the Japanese government have come to nothing, and even their own province's government claims not to have any documentation on them.

Hainan's 'Comfort Women'

Su Zhiliang, a professor studying the history of comfort women at Shanghai Normal University, told the Global Times that during World War II, about 200,000 Chinese women were forced to be sex slaves for Japanese soldiers. About 75 percent of them were tortured to death.

Su has been doing research on comfort women since 1992, first in Tokyo, then in Shanghai. According to him, those of the women still left alive are an average of 87 years old.

"These women are at this old age, they are scarred by the war, some don't have their own children. Many are living in retirement homes. Some have children but can't recognize them. That's just the way their lives are now," he said.

The Hong Kong-based Wen Wei Po reported in June that many of these comfort women suffer from their experience in the war time, both physically and mentally.

Lin Aiying, an 89-year-old woman in Hainan, used to be a member of the provincial guerilla force, fighting against the Japanese. In 1941, she was captured by Japanese soldiers who wanted to rape her, the Wen Wei Po reported. The soldiers beat her and broke her left leg. She has been confined to a wheelchair since.

When she sleeps at night, she always keeps a wooden chair next to her bed, with a knife strapped to it, so that she can feel safe.

Hu Ya, the son of Huang Youliang, the former comfort women suing the Japanese government, feels awkward when outsiders come to visit his mother. He told the Wen Wei Po that villagers attack his mother for "having served the Japanese." He remembers that when he was young, whenever he made a mistake, he was reprimanded for being the son of a "comfort woman."

Su, the professor and expert on comfort women, said that after Japanese soldiers occupied Hainan, the Japanese government used the island as a strategic ground for invading Southeast Asia, stationing troops there. The soldiers took many women, including Li, Miao and Han ethnicities.

Compensation Attempts

In 1995, the first four comfort women, Liu Mianhuan, Li Xiumei, Zhou Xixiang and Chen Lintao, filed a lawsuit against the Japanese government.

Kang Jian, a Beijing-based lawyer who has represented clients in a number of cases concerning the comfort women and wartime slavery, told the Global Times that she began helping the women file lawsuits after a Japanese lawyer asked the help of Chinese lawyers at a conference in 1995. Since then, Kang has participated in three of the four comfort women suits brought against the Japanese government.

In 2001, eight comfort women in Hainan, including Huang and Lin, initiated a lawsuit against the Japanese government, asking it to apologize and provide each of the women with 20 million yen ($194,000) in compensation. They were the fourth group of comfort women to bring suit against the Japanese government.

But after many years of litigation, the result of their suit was the same as previous ones.

"In 2007, the Tokyo Supreme Court ruled against the plaintiff, on the basis that in a 1972 joint statement by the Chinese and Japanese governments, [the Chinese government] declared that China will abandon any compensation," Kang said.

The articles concerning war compensation in the 1972 declaration has met with controversies, as human rights researchers and legal experts questioned the legitimacy of the government renouncing the rights on behalf of individuals.

Kang asked for a psychiatric expert to be sent to Hainan to examine the women, and the court agreed. The expert concluded that the survivors not only have severe physical wounds, but also had suffered severe psychological damage, some of which was untreatable.

In 2009, a second trial of the case acknowledged this fact, but still ruled against the women.

Kang said the acknowledgement at least provided the basis to pursue the issue further in the future. Together with a group of other lawyers, Kang continues to research the case, filming the women's stories and making them available for the public to view on the internet.

In Hainan, the media and the provincial government have done much to preserve a record of the women's experiences. In the mid-1990s, the province's Chinese People's Political Consultative Committee (CPPCC) and Committee on Cultural and Historical Data conducted their first official research the comfort women in Hainan, during which more than 20 women spoke about the horrors they experienced.

However, the lack of a central government policy means that the women are still not cared for as they deserve.

Needing Society's Care 

Su is pessimistic about the comfort women's lawsuits against the Japanese government, specifically citing the lack of specific policies from the Chinese government.

"When the Chinese and Japanese governments are friendly with each other, this kind of research would be like spoiling the relationship and is not encouraged," he said. "Also the [Chinese] government has a lot on its plate and can't possibly deal with every remaining war issue. It was only in 2005 that the government started paying attention to the remaining soldiers."

Support from the government side is not enough, Su said. Foreign ministry spokespersons often comment on the issue, condemning the Japanese government.

In January, spokesperson Hong Lei said that China will work with South Korea in urging Japan to understand and reflect on the "comfort women" issue. He said that forcing women into sexual slavery was a war crime on the part of the Japanese, and an area where China and South Korea's concerns and experiences overlap.

China has also applied to register at UNESCO's Memory of the World program, which was launched in 1992 to preserve heritage from around the world. The State Archives Bureau contacted Su at the beginning of this year, and has begun pulling files from six archives around the country.

However, there are no files at the Hainan Provincial Archives, so the stories of the comfort women there will not be included, the Hainan Daily reported.

The help given to these women by local governments varies from person to person. The civil affairs bureau in Lin's town lets her live in a retirement home for free and gives her 450 yuan per month.

In Korea, former comfort women receive about 5,000 yuan every month from both the central government and grass-roots organizations, Su said. But in China, since the government mainly focuses on research and publicity, the task of actually helping the women is left up to grass-roots organizations.

He began donating 100 yuan to the survivors each month in 2000. In 2005, he increased the amount to 200 yuan. He has also run fund-raising drives, receiving donations from Christian groups, retired couples, and overseas organizations, but said that there's much more to be done.

"In a few years, they will all be gone. We don't want people to only acknowledge them then," he said.

(Source: Global Times)