Chen Lien-hua (陳蓮花), one of three known surviving former “comfort women” in Taiwan, died of intestinal infection on Thursday at the age of 93, said the Taipei Women’s Rescue Foundation, a group that advocates for the rights of former Word War II comfort women.
Chen was taken to hospital last month when she complained of stomach pain. Doctors said her intestines had torn.
After surgery, Chen became very weak. She died with her family at her side, doctors said.
Photo provided by Taipei Women’s Rescue Foundation
Born in Taiwan in 1924, Chen was given up for adoption and from a young age worked at a factory. When she was 19, a Japanese person came to the factory under the guise of recruiting “caregivers” and took more than 20 women, including Chen, by boat to the Philippines.
After arriving in the Philippines she and the other women were forced into “sexual slavery” for Japanese soldiers.
After nearly two years in the Philippines, she was one of only two of the more than 20 Taiwanese women taken as comfort women who returned to Taiwan alive, the foundation said.
Chen married a Taiwanese man she met in the Philippines, who was a Japanese Imperial Army soldier.
Chen was initially reluctant to tell people her story for fear of being shamed, but later she agreed to help the foundation and others raise awareness about this often overlooked period in history.
She said she was touched by the care and support shown to her by social workers and others working for redress and fighting for justice for the women.
Chen often attended public activities to tell her story and criticize the then-Japanese military’s inhumane treatment and urge the Japanese government to apologize.
In December last year she attended the opening ceremony of the Ama Museum.
“Seeing all of you with so much love in your heart, taking care of Amas; I am really grateful,” she said at the ceremony.
Ama means “grandma” or “elderly woman” in Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese).
However, as she predicted, Chen did not receive an apology from the Japanese government for her sexual slavery, the foundation said on Friday.
She told international media with tears in her eyes: “We are very old. We may be long gone when Japan is happy enough to make compensation.”
The last two known Taiwanese surviving former comfort women are Aborigines who live in Hualien County, the foundation said.
DEFENSE: The National Security Bureau promised to expand communication and intelligence cooperation with global partners and enhance its strategic analytical skills China has not only increased military exercises and “gray zone” tactics against Taiwan this year, but also continues to recruit military personnel for espionage, the National Security Bureau (NSB) said yesterday in a report to the Legislative Yuan. The bureau submitted the report ahead of NSB Director-General Tsai Ming-yen’s (蔡明彥) appearance before the Foreign and National Defense Committee today. Last year, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) conducted “Joint Sword-2024A and B” military exercises targeting Taiwan and carried out 40 combat readiness patrols, the bureau said. In addition, Chinese military aircraft entered Taiwan’s airspace 3,070 times last year, up about
Taiwan is stepping up plans to create self-sufficient supply chains for combat drones and increase foreign orders from the US to counter China’s numerical superiority, a defense official said on Saturday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, the official said the nation’s armed forces are in agreement with US Admiral Samuel Paparo’s assessment that Taiwan’s military must be prepared to turn the nation’s waters into a “hellscape” for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Paparo, the commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, reiterated the concept during a Congressional hearing in Washington on Wednesday. He first coined the term in a security conference last
A magnitude 4.3 earthquake struck eastern Taiwan's Hualien County at 8:31am today, according to the Central Weather Administration (CWA). The epicenter of the temblor was located in Hualien County, about 70.3 kilometers south southwest of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 23.2km, according to the administration. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake's intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County, where it measured 3 on Taiwan's 7-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 2 in Hualien and Nantou counties, the CWA said.
The Overseas Community Affairs Council (OCAC) yesterday announced a fundraising campaign to support survivors of the magnitude 7.7 earthquake that struck Myanmar on March 28, with two prayer events scheduled in Taipei and Taichung later this week. “While initial rescue operations have concluded [in Myanmar], many survivors are now facing increasingly difficult living conditions,” OCAC Minister Hsu Chia-ching (徐佳青) told a news conference in Taipei. The fundraising campaign, which runs through May 31, is focused on supporting the reconstruction of damaged overseas compatriot schools, assisting students from Myanmar in Taiwan, and providing essential items, such as drinking water, food and medical supplies,
RSS