A Chinese former "comfort woman" flew to Canada yesterday to
place pressure on the Canadian parliament to pass a bill urging
Japan to formally apologize to women forced into sexual slavery
during World War II. The Dutch parliament endorsed a similar
resolution this week.
Liu Mianhuan, 80, from Shanxi Province, was joined by three other
comfort women from South Korea, the Netherlands and the
Philippines, and is scheduled to take part in a series of events in
Toronto and Ottawa during the next few days to raise public
awareness among Canadians.
The events have been organized by the Global Alliance for
Preserving the History of World War II in Asia, a non-profit
organization.
The four women are expected to appear before the Canadian
parliament on Tuesday, Kang Jian, a Chinese lawyer who is
representing Liu, said.
Liu has been to Japan four times since 1995 but has so far been
unable to extract a formal apology or reparations from the Japanese
government.
"I will fight for justice as long as I am still breathing", Liu,
a mother of five said yesterday, before boarding the flight.
"The fight will never stop until justice is served.
"My sons and daughters will take up my cause if I cannot wait
for justice to be delivered in my life."
Liu is believed to be one of a dwindling number of comfort women
still alive in China.
Su Zhiliang, the president of the China Research Center on
Chinese Comfort Women, said there are only 46 comfort women still
alive in China after one died earlier this year.
A Chinese belief that exposing one's misfortunes would bring
shame on a person and their families made Liu, who at 15 was
abducted by Japanese troops and became a forced sex slave,
reluctant to publicly reveal her past until 1994.
Researchers and historians estimate that as many as 400,000
women and girls in Asia - half of whom are Chinese - were forced to
become sex slaves in between 1937 and 1945.
Japan has long shied away from making a formal apology and
paying financial compensation, insisting that all government-level
compensation had been settled by post-war peace treaties.
The case, however, has been winning international support.
The lower house of the Dutch parliament passed a motion on
Tuesday urging Japan to apologize and compensate those comfort
women.
The US House of Representatives approved a similar resolution in
July.
(China Daily November 23, 2007)
