The Georgetown student group Take Back the Night, which seeks to fight gender violence in all forms, is currently circulating a petition requesting an official apology from Japanese government for its use of “comfort women” during World War II.
According to the U.N. Commission on Human Rights, “comfort women” were young females of various ethnic backgrounds who were forced to offer sexual services to Japanese troops during the war. Some of these women were coerced by middlemen, some were sold into brothels and still others were forcibly abducted.
“The Japanese government has recognized that there was systematic prostitution at military bases, that women were exploited for such purposes, and it has accepted moral responsibility,” Professor Kevin Doak of the East Asian Languages and Cultures Department explained. “It cannot accept legal responsibility because of the laws governing these issues, [such as] treaties it has signed with South Korea.”
According to Amnesty International, however, the Japanese government has not formally or officially apologized for comfort women. In the early 1990s, Korean survivors broke their silence and came forward to condemn the government. Since then, survivors from China, North Korea, the Philippines, Malaysia, the Netherlands and East Timor have also spoken out.
With this in mind, Take Back the Night decided to direct their efforts toward comfort women for this year’s V-Day campaign. The campaign features global efforts to promote awareness of women’s issues each year.
“We thought this was important because there are not many survivors left in affected places such as Korea and China,” Hania Luna (COL ‘06) of Take Back the Night said. “These women are 80 and 90 years old, waiting for apology, [as a] sort of dying wish.”
The effort at Georgetown is part of the global V-Day campaign, which seeks to stop violence against women and girls. Take Back the Night has also coordinated its efforts with the Korean Student Alliance and GU Men Advocating Relationship Responsibility (GUMARR). Campus leaders of the effort hope to combine their signatures with those of other V-Day groups nationwide in order to bring the most attention to the issues.
In 1995, the Japanese government set up the Asian Women’s Fund to dispense compensation collected from private donors to these women.
“Nevertheless, some women have refused to take compensation from the AWF, because it doesn’t imply condemnation of the Japanese government,” Doak said. “Moreover, some of these women have also excoriated those women who have chosen to accept this compensation from the Asian Women’s Fund.”
The petition will be at the Vagina Monologues table this week in Red Square.
