With several countries adoptingresolutions urging the Japanese government to apologize to comfort women — those who were forced to provide sexual services for Japanese soldiers during World War II — a Taiwanese women’s rights group yesterday urged legislators to pass a similar resolution. The subject is expected to be discussed next week.
The resolution aims to demand that the Japanese government “formally recognize, apologize for and accept the historical responsibility for its army’s sex-slave system during World War II with a clear attitude. [It should] apologize to and indemnify the survivors to restore the victims’ reputation and dignity,” the Taipei Women’s Rescue Foundation said.
The resolution, proposed by four legislators from both the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Democratic Progressive Party with the support of another 23 legislators, also demands the Japanese government change its education system to present information about its wartime practice.
“So many years have passed. Taiwan, as a victim, needs to adopt the resolution [to speak up for the survivors’ human rights],” said Graceia Lai (賴采兒), the foundation’s international affairs department director.
She said that South Korea’s National Assembly adopted a resolution late last month urging Japan to apologize.
Taiwan’s resolution is expected to be approved on Tuesday in the Legislative Yuan.
In Taiwan, the estimated number of victims varies from 1,200 to 2,000, but only 58 have been confirmed by the foundation, with only 20 of those still alive, Lai said.
Nine of the comfort women in Taiwan filed a lawsuit against the Japanese government in 1999, but the lawsuit was dismissed by the Japanese Supreme Court in 2005.
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) was questioned by prosecutors for allegedly orchestrating an attack on a taxi driver after he was allegedly driven on a longer than necessary route in a car he disliked. The questioning at the New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office was ongoing as of press time last night. Police have recommended charges of attempted murder. The legally embattled actor — known for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代) — is under a separate investigation for allegedly using fake medical documents to evade mandatory military service. According to local media reports, police said Wang earlier last year ordered a
A man in Tainan has been cleared on charges of public insult after giving the middle finger during a road rage incident, as judges deemed the gesture was made “briefly to express negative feelings.” In last week’s ruling at the High Court’s Tainan branch, judges acquitted a driver, surnamed Cheng (程), for an incident along Tainan’s Nanmen Road in September 2023, when Cheng had spotted a place to park his car in an adjacent lane. Cheng slowed down his vehicle to go into reverse, to back into the parking spot, but the car behind followed too closely, as its driver thought Cheng
CAUTION: Based on intelligence from the nation’s security agencies, MOFA has cautioned Taiwanese travelers about heightened safety risks in China-friendly countries The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday urged Taiwanese to be aware of their safety when traveling abroad, especially in countries that are friendly to China. China in June last year issued 22 guidelines that allow its courts to try in absentia and sentence to death so-called “diehard” Taiwanese independence activists, even though Chinese courts have no jurisdiction in Taiwan. Late last month, a senior Chinese official gave closed-door instructions to state security units to implement the guidelines in countries friendly to China, a government memo and a senior Taiwan security official said, based on information gathered by Taiwan’s intelligence agency. The
President William Lai (賴清德) should protect Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), and stop supporting domestic strife and discord, former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) wrote on Facebook yesterday. US President Donald Trump and TSMC on Monday jointly announced that the company would invest an additional US$100 billion over the next few years to expand its semiconductor manufacturing operations in the US. The TSMC plans have promoted concern in Taiwan that it would effectively lead to the chipmaking giant becoming Americanized. The Lai administration lacks tangible policies to address concerns that Taiwan might follow in Ukraine’s footsteps, Ma wrote. Instead, it seems to think it could
RSS