-
Bill Siksay, MP of Burnaby-Douglas
-
Cindy Patten
who met a former Korean "comfort woman" in China
on July 13, 2005 as a teacher participant of the Peace &
Reconciliation Study Tour in China for Canadian Teachers
-
Rhodora Aberin – Board member
of the Kalayaan Centre, Home of the Filipino Women Centre
-
Ellen Woodsworth, Councillor
of Vancouver City – read by Mable Elmore, Co-chair of StopWar.ca
-
Hon. Hedy Fry, MP of
Vancouver-Centre and Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Citizenship
& Immigration - read by Joie Warnock of Canada Asia Pacific Resource Network
******
Excerpts of 3
survivors’ testimonies on DVD are available for electronic media’s use.
Click on the following links to view online.
To save a copy, right-click on the link and
select "Save Target As" from the pop-up menu.
For more information,
please contact bcalpha@shaw.ca.
******
Proclamation of
August 15, 2005
as Day of Peace in the Pacific
******
Testimony - HWANG So Gyun, former Korean
"comfort women"
Excerpt from the
testimony of Madam HWANG So Gyun who testified at the Commission on Human
Rights of the United Nations 1995 when she was 77 years old.
Madam HWANG is a survivor of Japanese military sexual slavery, the
so-called “comfort women”.
“I was born on
the 28th
of November 1918 in
Korea
as the second daughter of a day laborer. When I was
seventeen years old, in 1936, the head of our village came to our house and
promised to help me find a job in a factory. Because my family was so poor, I
gladly accepted this offer of a well-paid job. I was taken to the railway
station in a Japanese truck where twenty or so other Korean girls were already
waiting. We were put on the train, then onto a truck and after a few days
travel we reached a big house at the River Mudinjian in
China.
I thought it was the factory, but I soon realized that there was no
factory.
Each girl was assigned one small room with a straw bag to sleep on, with a
number on each door. After two days of waiting, without
knowing what was happening to me, a Japanese soldier in army uniform, wearing
a sword, came to my room. He asked me, “will you obey my
words or not?” then pulled my hair, put me on the floor and asked me to open
my legs. He raped me. When he left, I saw there were twenty or thirty more men
waiting outside. They all raped me that day. From then on, every night I was
assaulted by fifteen to twenty men.
We had to undergo medical
examinations regularly. Those who were found disease-stricken were killed and
buried in unknown places. One day, a new girl was put in the compartment next
to me. She tried to resist the men and bit one of them in his arm. She was
then taken to the courtyard and in front of all of us, her head was cut off
with a sword and her body was cut into small pieces.”
Madam HWANG was one
of the estimated 400,000 women and girls kidnapped by the Japanese Imperial
Army from
Korea,
the
Philippines,
China,
Burma,
Indonesia
and other Japanese occupied countries. They were forced to
serve as sex slaves in brothels sanctioned and run by the Japanese army.
Less than 30% of them survived the War.
******
Solidarity Message
from the Korean survivors of
military sexual slavery by
Japan
2005 marks the 60th
anniversary of
Korea’s
liberation from Japanese colonialism. We, however, have yet to feel fully
liberated from the after-effects of Japanese colonial rule.
The memories of military sexual slavery continue to plague us even
though we do not want to relive or even discuss them. Ever
since we came home, we have lived as if we had committed unmentionable sins.
We, however, have finally decided to break the six decades of silence after
having witnessed the Japanese government repeatedly refuse to admit to its
wartime crimes.
For the past 14 years, we
have been staging a protest rally every Wednesday at
noon
in front of the Japanese embassy in
Seoul.
Each week we demand that the Japanese government formally apologize and
legally compensate the victims of military sexual slavery. Most of us are
elderly women in our 80s and 90s and our health is deteriorating rapidly. Many
of our friends have already passed away. We often become frustrated and
despondent at the lack of action by the Japanese government. However when we
hear words of encouragement from young students or our friends from overseas,
our frustration and despair turn into hope. We also feel encouraged by news
that the international community is also demanding that the Japanese
government address its past wrongdoings.
Our demand is
very simple. We want the Japanese government to apologize to us of its wartime
atrocities. Such actions will send a clear message to the world that no one
should fall victims to such heinous crimes. We would like to show our sincere
appreciation to our partners from around the world who joined us today to mark
the Global Action Day for justice to “comfort women”. We will never cease to
fight until the day we die so that our struggle leads to peace and justice for
all the victims of wartime crimes. Thank you very much.
******
Justice to the
victims of the Japanese military sexual slavery!
Legal
compensation by
Japan
to the survivors!
No permanent
seat for
Japan
on the U.N. Security Council!
During the 2nd
World War, crimes against humanity and war crimes drove the whole of
Europe
and
Asia
into indescribable human sufferings and atrocities. Today, six decades after
the War, we see two contrasting cases of state accountability for the crimes
committed during the War.
Germany
has consistently prosecuted wartime criminals and compensated to the wartime
victims.
Japan,
however, has done little to address its past wrongdoings, especially regarding
its crimes of sexual slavery for the then Japanese Imperial Army. Far from
offering sincere apologies or legal compensation to the victims,
Japan
has avoided its state responsibility and has continued to distort history.
Today marks Global
Action Day where the world comes together to demand justice for the survivors
of Japanese military sexual slavery. Today, people from around the world join
the survivors in
South
Korea
and the Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by
Japan
to show our support for their 14-year long struggle. Since
8 January 1992,
they have been continuing the weekly protest rally in front of the Japanese
embassy in
Seoul
every single Wednesday, demanding official apology and legal compensation from
Japan.
In sisterhood and
solidarity, we declare today a true liberation to the victims of the Japanese
military sexual slavery from their emotional and physical pain and trauma they
have long endured. In order to restore honor and dignity to the victims and
the survivors, we demand the following:
1.
Japan
should pay legal compensation to ‘comfort women’.
During
World
War II,
Japan
murdered, raped and enslaved hundreds of thousands of Asian women into sexual
slavery for its army.
Japan,
however, denied thorough investigation, refused to accept its state
responsibility and tries to hide the historical truths by distorting its
history textbooks.
We strongly oppose
Japan’s
bid for a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council. Before
Japan
makes any moves to become a world political leader, it should conduct thorough
investigation into wartime atrocities, offer an official apology for the
victims and pay the due compensation. In order to prevent such heinous crimes
from happening again, it should teach the young generations the truth in
history and build a war memorial.
2. The UN and ILO
should enforce
Japan’s
implementation of their recommendations.
The special
rapporteurs of the UN Human Rights Commission and its Sub-Commission, as well
as the ILO Committee of Experts on Application of Conventions, have
investigated the issue of Japanese military sexual slavery and concluded that
Japan
violated the international human rights laws and recommended
Japan
to pay legal reparation to the victims. However, the Japanese
government refused to implement these recommendations. As called for by the
Global Petition to the UN and ILO signed by 548,724 people, the UN and ILO
should take action to enforce the
Japan’s
implementation of their recommendations.
3. A global
solidarity against violence against women should be strengthened.
The world is still
plagued by war, and women’s human rights continue to be violated.
Japan
distorts history, glorifies its past aggression and continues to build
military power, posing serious threat to peace in
Asia
and the world. We ask peace-loving people to join in our fight for resolving
the issue of military sexual slavery by
Japan,
in our the fight for women’s human rights in all armed conflicts and wars, and
in our fight to end all violence against women whether in war or peacetime.
Let’s continue our action to stop and prevent violations of human rights,
bring the perpetrators to justice, and eradicate violence against women.
|
Issued by
the Participants in the Global Action Day
August 10,
2005 |
|
해방(종전)
60주년
일본군‘위안부’ 문제 해결을 위한 세계 연대의 날
성
명
서 |
|
“ 일본군‘위안부’ 피해자에게 정의를
! ”
Justice to the
victims
of
Military
Sexual
Slavery
by
Japan
! |
- 해방(전후)
60주년,
일본군‘위안부’ 에게 정의를!
- 일본정부는
UN의
권고대로 일본군‘위안부’ 피해자들에게 법적 배상 실시하라!
- 전쟁범죄
청산없는 일본의 유엔안전보장이사회 상임이사국 가입을 적극 반대한다 !
독일과 일본에 의해 저질러진 제2차
세계대전으로 인해 참혹한 인권유린과 인간존엄의 말살을 경험했던 세계는 전쟁이 끝난후 다시는 이 땅에 전쟁이 일어나지 않기를 바랐다.
그 후
60년
동안 독일은 나치전범자들을 색출하여 처벌하고,
피해자에게 물질적, 정신적 배상을 시행하는 등 전쟁범죄에 대한 법적책임을 다하고,
유사범죄 재발방지를 위해 꾸준히 노력해 왔다. 그러나 일본군에 의해
저질러졌던 전쟁범죄는 전후
60년이
지난 지금까지 진상규명도 범죄자 처벌도 이루어지지 않은 채 역사속에 은폐되어 왔다.
피해자들은 사죄도, 법적 배상도 받지 못한 채 상처와 고통으로 얼룩진
60년을
살아왔다.
오늘은 해방
60주년을
맞이하여「일본군‘위안부’문제 해결을 위한 세계연대의 날」로 지키며 행동하는 날이다.
이것은
1992년
1월
8일부터
14년간
대한민국 서울의 일본대사관 앞에서 끈질기게 시위를 하며 일본군‘위안부’ 문제 해결을 촉구해 온 한국의 일본군‘위안부’ 피해자들과 정대협의
운동을 지지하며 함께 연대하는 세계연대 행동이다.
우리는 다시 한번 세계 시민의 힘으로,
전쟁 속에서 고통당해온 일본‘위안부’ 피해자들에게 해방을 선포하고자 한다.
일본군국주의에 의해 인권과 명예를 유린당하고, 삶을 송두리째 빼앗겼던
성노예 피해 여성들에게 정의를 회복시키고자 한다. 지난
60년
동안의 고통의 세월, 상처로 얼룩진 역사를
깨트리고 희망을 향해, 진정으로 해방된 세상을 향해 나가고자 한다.
1.
일본정부에게 요구한다.
일본은 수많은 아시아인들을 납치?학살하고,
강제노역으로 인권을 유린하고, 여성들을 성노예로 이용하여 인생을
송두리째 짓밟았던 과거의 범죄에 대해 반성하고 있는가? 반성도 법적 책임도 지지 않으면서,
일본군 성노예 피해자들에게 사죄와 배상을 하라는 유엔의 권고도 준수하지 않으면서 어떻게 유엔안보리 상임이사국이
되어 세계의 평화를 논할 수 있단 말인가?
우리는 세계 시민의 힘으로 반대한다.
전범국 일본정부는 유엔안보리 상임이사국이 될 자격이 없다. 일본정부는
먼저 과거에 저질렀던 일본군 성노예 범죄와 모든 전쟁범죄에 대한 진상규명과 사죄, 법적 배상을
실시하라. 그리고 다시는 이러한 범죄를 저지르지 않기 위해 올바른 역사교육,
추모관 건립 등을 추진하라!
2.
유엔과
ILO에
촉구한다.
1990년대
초 일본군‘위안부’ 문제가 국제사회에 알려지면서 유엔 인권위원회와
ILO
기준적용위원회에서도 일본군‘위안부’ 문제는 중요한 문제로 다뤄져 왔다.
그리고 여성인권의 문제로, 강제노동의 문제로 일본정부에게 법적 배상을 권고했다.
그러나 그 권고들은 거부당했다. 그동안 유엔과
ILO는
일본정부가 권고를 받아들이도록 어떤 적극적인 역할을 했는가?
일본의 재정적 기여도 때문에 일본의 눈치만을 살피며 관망만 하지는 않았는가.
우리는 요구한다. 일본정부가 유엔의 권고를 받아들일 것을 촉구하라!
돈이 아닌 진실이, 무책임이 아닌 정의가 확립되는 그런 국제질서를
만드는 일에 앞장서라!
3.
세계 시민사회의 연대를 희망한다.
세계는 여전히 전쟁이 계속되고 있고,
그 전쟁들 속에서 여성들은 또다시 성폭력의 희생자가 되고 있다.
역사왜곡과 침략전쟁 찬양 등 과거로의 회귀를 꿈꾸며 군사대국화하고 있는 일본 군국주의 또한 여전히 아시아와 세계 평화의 위협이 되고 있다.
우리는 희망한다. 이 땅에서 일본군‘위안부’ 문제가 완전히 해결되는 그
날까지!! 전쟁과 폭력이 끝나고 평화가 실현되는 그 날까지!!
세계시민들이 정의의 감시자로 인권수호자로 일본군‘위안부’ 피해자들의 기나긴 싸움에 함께 연대해주길 바란다.
우리 또한 일본군‘위안부’ 피해자들에게 정의가 회복되는 그 날까지,
전쟁과 여성폭력이 없어질 때까지 끝까지 연대할 것이다.
|
2005년
8월
10일.
해방(전후)60주년,
일본군‘위안부’ 문제 해결을 위한 세계연대의 날 참가자 일동 |
******
Notes for Remarks by Bill
Siksay, MP to the Demonstration on the Global Day of Action in Support of
Redress for Comfort Women and other Asian Holocaust Victims
Vancouver, Wednesday, 10 August 2005
It is an honour to stand in solidarity with those of you
present here today who lived through the horrors of World War II in Asia, and
with those of you are working to see that the survivors of those horrors are
heard and remembered, and with those here who are working to ensure that a war
like World War II never again takes place.
I also bring greetings from my colleagues Peter Julian,
MP for Burnaby-New Westminster, and Libby Davies, MP for Vancouver East, who
are unable to be here today.
World War II was a time of terrible horrors in Asia. The
atrocities that took place are a reality, and there reality is that terrible
atrocities took place. The fact that hundreds of thousands of girls and women
in Asia were forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese Imperial Army cannot
be ignored.
Solutions to these situations do not come easily and
reconciliation is elusive. We in Canada know this all too well. Look how long
it is taking us to deal with the legacy of our society’s attempts at genocide
of aboriginal people—unsettled land claims, lack of treaties, and the sorry
legacy of the residential. We remember this history as we remember that today
we stand on the traditional territory of the Coast Salish Nation.
As Canadians, we have made some attempts toward
remembering and reconciling—there have been acknowledgments, and apologies,
and even some reparations—but they are incomplete, and long overdue. We find
it hard as a society, as a country, to swallow our pride and admit our
mistakes, and then to learn from them, and to avoid repeating them. This
teaches us that reconciliation is hard work-our own experience makes that very
clear. But reconciliation can only come about from an acknowledgement of the
reality of what took place, and of our part in it.
We have models. Canada has worked to reconcile our
internment of Japanese Canadians during this same period. Apologies were
spoken, reparations made. Redress happened. But, there is still other work to
be done on our own record—with regard to the Chinese head tax, the Komagata
Maru, Ukrainian Canadians and others.
South Africa provides another model. Its Truth and
Reconciliation Commission showed us was hard work and painful work this
process can be. And that model too was imperfect, but it remains an important
model and example. As Nelson Mandela said: “We need to reconcile our
differences through reason, debate and compromise”.
And we know that as this past week we have observed the
60th anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki,
that many people in Japan continue to be strong, clear voices for peace and in
opposition to war.
I stand here today as an elected representative of a
country that has work to do, not being smug or holier than thou. I remember
our record even as I call on the government of Japan and our Japanese brothers
and sisters to acknowledge this part of their history.
We encourage Japan to acknowledge its history-a history,
which like ours, cannot be rewritten. We encourage Japan to acknowledge the
horrors committed in the past. We urge our Japanese brothers and sisters to
seek respectful reconciliation and a just settlement with the women known as
comfort women. Don’t lose this important opportunity. The time for justice is
now.
******
Speech by
Cindy Patten, teacher of Nanaimo,
B.C. who met a former Korean "comfort woman" in
China
on
July 13, 2005
Good afternoon. My name is
Cindy Patten and I am a teacher for
School District
68. Today is an important day for those of us gathered at
Japanese Consulates throughout the world. Our goal is to
support redress for comfort women, the hundreds
of thousands of girls in
Asia,
including an estimated 200,000 Koreans and another 200,000 Chinese who were
forced into military sexual slavery by the Japanese military during the Second
World War.
Why is this issue of redress
still important after 60 years? Why does it stand out from
other atrocities suffered in more recent history? There
are so many answers to these questions. Many of us here
today have some inkling as to the answers because we have borne the
responsibility of becoming informed. Some of us here today
have experienced with ringing clarity the dark legacy of being a “comfort
woman”.
As one of 30 Canadian teachers
visiting
China
this past July to learn more about this chapter of history in Canada ALPHA’s
Peace and Reconciliation Study Tour, I had the extraordinary privilege of
meeting one of these women. She was a victim; today she is
a survivor and easily, a warrior in her own right. After
hearing her story, the answers to the questions of why redress?
Why now? Are evident.
When she walked into the
crowded room, aided by her daughter, I didn’t see her at first.
She is impossibly tiny; when she sits in the leather armchair her head
doesn’t reach the top of its back and her feet don’t touch the ground.
For several minutes she sat with her hands still, eyes on her lap,
while her daughter rubbed her arm and back to soothe her, to try to make her
more comfortable as she readied herself to share her story with a group of
foreign strangers.
She thinks she is about 88
years old now, but she’s not sure. Time and a life of pain
have not been kind to her. Raised in shocking poverty, she
became a pawn in the Japanese military sexual slavery system before turning
“sweet 16”. She does remember escaping a marriage as a
child bride at the age of 15. When she returned to her
family they could not support her. Her fate in
China
was sealed when the Japanese military paid for her brother to get married, and
she was sent to a “dining hall” to earn money to support herself.
She was told she could make a fortune.
This was the start of years of
hellish existence for her. The “dining hall” was no
restaurant or cafeteria service. It was a comfort station,
housing dozens of young, unmarried girls who were forced to service up to 29
men daily.
She fought back against the
sexual and physical assault. “I was young and tough at the
time,” she said with pride. As she told us how she fought
back every day, her voice suddenly became strong, young, forged of steel.
Her body, however, is not. She still bears the
evidence of the atrocities: she lives with many cracked
vertebrae and scars from knife wounds and gun butt beatings.
Although she spoke through two
translators to communicate with us, the still-raw emotion in her words painted
an unmistakable portrait of her shattered life. Her voice
cracked as she said, “if the Japanese military hadn’t cheated us I wouldn’t
have come to
China.
I miss my hometown. I miss my family.”
In the 60 years since the end of the war, she has not been back to her
home town, her home country, even once.
As is her will to survive, her
capacity ongoing strength is phenomenal, almost super-human.
She married a Chinese veteran and raised a family in
China.
Her husband treated her well until he died in the 1990’s.
Now her daughter takes care of her.
Abruptly, she ended the
interview by saying “we had a tough life at that time.” Her
final words to us were that she and many other comfort women don’t want to be
paid off to go away quietly. They want the compensation
comes with apology.
While she has gone on to lead a
long life that includes a family of her own, she will not – cannot - forget.
She still has nightmares and her physical wounds hurt every moment as
her mind and body continue to give silent testimony to her life as a “comfort
woman”.
Acknowledgement for wartime
atrocities has not been given by
Japan
in appropriate spirit to these women. Neither has redress
in any form, financial or humanitarian. Acknowledgement
and apology are 60 years overdue.
As a teacher I encourage my
students to be the best people that they can be to themselves and to others.
In the long run, my wish is to give them the information, skills, and
attitudes necessary to identify and combat such atrocities from occurring in
the future, as we all know that they will. My hope for my
students is that they can actively contribute to making the world a better
place and to lead by example.
This is why we are all here
today: to lead by example, to voice the need for honorable
redress for these victims of atrocities and survivors of war, loudly and with
passion and outrage!
We cannot have a world that
neglects the cries of its people.
Peace and reconciliation are
long overdue for these victims and survivors.
Thank you.
Cindy Patten
Nanaimo,
B.C.
******
Message from Councillor
Ellen Woodsworth representing
Vancouver
City
to attend A-Bomb Commemorations in
Japan
Dear Sisters and Brothers,
On the anniversary of the end of World War Two in
Asia
we must all speak out to oppose war.
I
call on all governments to acknowledge their violence towards women as part of
their war actions. The governments must apologize to the women and other
civilians and provide redress for their terrible suffering.
Today I call on the Japanese government to formally acknowledge their role in
destroying the lives of comfort women. I call on the Japanese government to
provide these women with redress. I also call on the Japanese government to
include this part of the war in all their history text books. I also call on
the Japanese government to protect Article 9 of the Japanese constitution
which states that it is "aspiring sincerely to an international peace based on
justice and order, the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign
right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling
international disputes. In order to accomplish the aim of the preceding
paragraph, land, sea and air forces as well as other war potential will never
be maintained. The right of belligerency of the state will not be recognized."
The 60th International Conference Against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs and all
its 8000 delegates strongly affirmed their commitment to peace at the plenary
session on August 8 in
Nagasaki.
The presence of a majority of women delegates ensured that the importance of
women in the leadership of the movement to end war and demand redress is
crucial.
In Sisterhood
Councillor Ellen Woodsworth
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