This article is part of a Women and leadership especially a report Highlighting women who draw new paths and fight for opportunities for women and others.
When Gil won, the Korean woman, Died recently At the age of 96, the international community lost an open warrior in an effort to make Japan responsible for his practice of sexual slavery during the early 20th century.
Mrs. Gil was one of about 240 so-called comfortable women from South Korea who spoke publicly about their abuse in the hands of the Japanese army from 1930s to World War II, and her death left only a few survivors to continue with it.
But Mina Watanabe, a Japanese who was born years after the end of the war and who had no direct relationship with practice or his victims, continued to press for Fullr’s recognition and compensation from Japan. As a director Women’s Active Museum of War and Peace (Wam) in TokyoShe and the museum focus on sexual violence against women in war and conflicting situations – with additional care focused on the history of her homeland.
Mrs. Watanabe said she was interested in women’s rights from school days in Tokyo. When some of the survivors of the Japanese military system finally signed up in the 1990s, her encounters with them “they changed my life,” she said in an interview in Tokyo.
The museum faced in 2005 with donations from people in Japan and abroad, and has since been at an international level of survivor rights campaigns.
Women’s comfort activists are often undergoing criticism or remained isolated by their fellow Japanese. The interview is decorated and condensed.
Who are women who are called “comfort of a woman”?
This applies to the victims put in a system of sex slavery for Japanese troops from 1930s to 1945 in the Asian-Pacific region. Although “sexual slaves” are a more accurate expression for the expression of the essential nature of many different forms of sexual exploitation, we retain the term “comfort of women” because it has historical significance, because it is a euphemism that the Japanese army used at the time.
The Japanese government admits that the girls and women have suffered, but denies evidence that they have been taken against their will during the war. They said that with an agreement was reached at Meeting of Foreign Foreign Affairs Japan-Koko In December 2015, the question was “finally and irreversibly resolved”. What are you still looking for?
The question is not how they took them, but kept against their will and raped themselves for months or years under military control. Without a clear explanation, the government still denies that it was sexual slavery. What the survivors wanted was for the Japanese government to fully admit what had happened to them and to convey their stories to the next generation to prevent repetition. It’s not just a bilateral agreement with South Korea. Although many survivors passed away, we continue to work to admit the Government to the crimes committed by their own military forces. I feel that this is my responsibility as a woman in Japan.
Has any progress have been made?
As for the reparation, nothing has progressed. The government claims she apologized, but what a damage she apologized for was never clear. Our regret and shame is that the Japanese government does not accept the testimonies of survivors as evidence even now.
However, the general perception of “comfort of women” has changed dramatically in the world community. International law now explicitly recognizes war rape and sexual slavery as crimes against humanity. People listened to the stories of survivors with compassion and respect them as human rights defenders.
You said that the legacy of Japanese treatment with comfortable women influences the treatment of women in today’s society in Japan. Can you give us some examples?
It is still common for victims to face difficulties in bringing the perpetrators of sexual crimes anywhere in the world. However, in Japan, I think there is a kind of “tolerance” for sexual violence committed by military forces. There were many rapes of American troops in Okinawa, where American base in Japan is concentrated but often do not deal with unemployed. One famous Japanese politician even suggested that US military officers use the sexual industry. The idea that sexual violence by the soldiers must inevitably be deeply embedded in Japan.
(Asked to answer, Pentagon said in a statement: the standard of behavior for US forces Japan is an unwavering professionalism and zero tolerance to criminal behavior. The US staff committing criminal offenses is considered responsible under Japanese and US law, according to the status of the Force Agreement. Acting sexual assaults under the influence of giving and dignia.
How did you get involved in the Women’s Active Museum of War and Peace (WAM)?
I got involved in the women’s movement in the mid-1990s and met late Yayori Matsui, A prominent journalist and leading activist in Japan. He proposed the Women’s International Court for War Crimes on Japanese military sexual slavery held in 2000 in Tokyo, the National Court to bring them responsible for justice on the basis of evidence and law. I was included from the preparation period. After the verdict was reached in 2001, Yayori passed away in 2002. Her last will was to establish a museum in Japan to refer to testimonies and documents accumulated for the female court. In order to show the complete picture of the “comfortable women” system in our limited exhibition space, we held a dozen special exhibitions in those 20 years focused on different countries and areas of the Asian-Pacific Ocean.
What job did you do to improve the treatment of women in Japanese society?
As one of our aligned efforts, WAM, together with activists and scientists from eight other countries, filed an application that refers to “comfortable women” at the UNESCO memories of the World Register as a unique and rare documentary heritage that will be preserved. The Japanese government has tried to prevent it and retained his contribution UNESCO once, but the waiting process is to start again this year.
There are also people in Japan who support our efforts to respond to the invitation of these brave survivors for justice and unnecessary. It gives me hope.
