Seeking Comfort

Some human rights are never addressed for years after they happen. Victims were devastated and silenced and the perpetrators want to bury their misdeeds so they cannot be held responsible. In the early 1990’s though, one of these atrocities was to light almost 50 years after the abuse. In World War II, Japanese and other Eastern and Southern Asian women were forced to perform sexual acts for the Japanese military. These “comfort women” as they were called were kept in unsanitary conditions, forced into sexual slavery, and often left unable to bear children. Most of the more than 200,000 women were younger than 20 years old and some were as young as 12 typically kidnapped from their own homes. They were starved, beaten and raped by 10 to 100 men a day. Some estimate only 25 to 30% of the women who went to the “comfort stations” survived them. Now these women are old and dying off quickly, but before the last one of them is gone they want an apology from the Japanese government that state that what happened was the fault of the Japanese government.

The sexual slavery that took place during World War II particularly in the Pacific Sphere has been erased from history. The women were silenced by the expectations of their society which caused shame and blame on themselves for what happened. This is in addition to the governments attempts to bury the tortures they committed. Today the elderly survivors of the “comfort stations” want the Japanese government to own up to what they did. The government has given insincere remarks in the past and claims what was done was necessary and that Japan is being unfairly targeted for their use of human trafficking in war. This is not enough especially for the survivors whose suffering is still being ignored and downplayed.

They are asking for an official apology and the funds allotted to them to come from the government. Currently, the compensation given to the women who are still alive comes from a private fund and this is part of the  government way of distancing themselves. It is time to for the Japanese government to take responsibility for what they did. It is time for them to apology for the inhumane treatment of their women during World War II before it is too late.