August 15, 2024

On August 14, International Memorial Day for Japanese Military “Comfort Women”, a rally took place in Tokyo calling for working in solidarity with people of the world to hold Japan responsible for the “comfort women” issue and to realize a society without sexual violence.

The rally was organized by a civil group called, “Japan Nationwide Action for the Resolution of Japanese Ministry ‘Comfort Women’ Issue”. The Japanese Communist Party, the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, the “Reiwa Shinsengumi” party, and the parliamentary group “Okinawa Whirlwind” sent messages in solidarity.

The group’s co-head Yang Ching-ja noted that the Japanese government is behaving as if the “comfort women” issue never existed. As examples, she cited the government move to remove a girl statue dedicated to “comfort women” victims that had been erected in Berlin and the Education Ministry’s approval of a history textbook denying the Japanese military’s sexual slavery (aka “comfort women”) system during the war. Yang appealed for the need to resist these moves with the power of a grassroots movement.

Young activists, who have studied about the “comfort women” issue and seek to promote joint efforts with people around the globe to realize a society without wartime sexual violence, read out “comfort women” victims’ testimonies.

International Memorial Day for Japanese Military “Comfort Women” was designated in 2012 at the 11th Asian Solidarity Conference for the Issue of Military Sexual Slavery by Japan to commemorate the late Kim Hak-soon who gave the first public testimony on August 14, 1991, as a survivor of the wartime Japanese military’s sexual slavery system.