Announcement of Taipei Women’s Rescue Foundations on February 25, 2005,
This is to express our determination to support the continuing fight
for justice and dignity of Amas (Grandmas in local Chinese language) victimized
by the Japanese military sexual slavery.
We are to start a new struggle to win
apology and compensation from the Japanese Government.
On February 25, 2005, the news from Japan has brought bitter anger
and sadness to the aging Amas in Taiwan because the Supreme Court of Japan ruled that the case of the Taiwanese
former “comfort women” is not worth review by the Court. By this decision, the
denial of victims’ demand for official apology and state compensation is made
final after five-year-litigation.
It is a cruel and impersonal decision to refuse apology and
compensation. Painful and grueling efforts of more than five years have yielded
nothing but denial of the only way available to the Amas to win the dignity and
justice.
The 83-year-old Ama, Xiao-Tao, is one of the appellants. She is
still active selling coconuts at the Ping-dong market. When her neighbors told the news, she looked cool and collected.
≪ My neighbor told me that the newspaper
says that we lost the case because we came out too late by 20 years." But, when the staff of the Women’s Rescue
Foundation confirmed that the news was true, she broke in tears, and said, “I did not want to go to the Island. I was deceived and taken there as a child to be
humiliated." And she murmured
helplessly. "What can I do after
this?"
Ama stopped crying and vented her anger.
“It is really unfair to treat our case like this. If I had known the statute of limitations, I would
have jumped out much earlier and fought against them ". She had been
abducted on her way to the school and sent to the Andaman Islands where she was
brutally violated over 60 years ago. She endured the ordeal only because she
wanted to see her grandmother again in her home town. She believes that she is
alive today partly because she is strong and healthy, because she simply can
not die without doing anything to bring remedy to her damaged life and because
she had such strong anger against the Japanese Government. She vows that she
will take her life on the fight against the Japanese government. “ We must
not fight separately. If we are united as one, we can be very powerful. “
Mr. Zhuang Guo-ming, a lawyer as well as the legal council to the
Foundation, also criticized the decision bitterly. "This is ultra conservative decision to be laughed at by the
world. I always respect that Japanese judges have
deep respect for international development, but I am completely disillusioned
in this case." According to Mr. Zhuang, who used to serve as a judge in the
Taiwanese courts, this is a historical case which judges must be lucky enough
to come across once in a lifetime, and the Supreme Court of Japan was in a position
to show the highest standard of the legal minds in Japan. Therefore, judges
must work long hours to draft a historical decision, trying to accomplish
honorable task, which would be remembered as the forerunner of the time in the
history of legal decisions."
Furthermore, Mr. Zhuang pointed out, “Japanese Court denied our
demands by the principles of the "state irresponsibility",
"statute of limitations", "an individual’s inability to file a
claim against the state.”
However, what the Japanese government did during the war was in fact the
violation of human rights and unlawful. Under international law, it is the matter of the war responsibility
for violation of human rights, and there is no statute of limitation for this
kind of crime. And an
individual victim, especially a war victim has right to demand compensation
from the Sate.
Mr. Zhuang also pointed out, “What is even more worrisome is the
"delay in legislation". The
state has obligation to pay compensation. Under separation of the three powers
of administration, legislation and judicature, naturally, the division of
legislation has responsibility to make a law and the administration to execute
the law. But presently, legislation is too lazy to make a law and that is why
the problem remains unsolved yet".
Liao
Ying-zhi, director general of the Foundation as well as a lawyer said,
"This is the 60th anniversary of the end of the Second World War. Despite
the fact that all the members of the international community recognize the heinous
crimes committed by the Japanese government during the war, the Japanese
government has refused to apologize or make compensation. Japan ignored the recommendations issued by the reputable
international organizations repeatedly, and it kept avoiding to take the legal
liability. We
support the Amas who are determined to recover the dignity of women as well as
to see justice done to perpetrators. We will never give up the claim for compensation from Japan. "
He further said, "When the suit was first filed in Tokyo
District Court in October, 1999, there were nine Amas as plaintiffs who
appeared in the court, but by the time judgment was passed, two of the
plaintiffs passed away. 66 Amas
came out in the beginning and now only 30 Amas are still alive. Yet, we will
definitely cross the sea to file the "second" redress suit.
Mr.Liao said,
"The Parliament of Taiwan supported the legal action for "comfort
women already in October, 1999. It considers the issue as serious violation of
human rights. We
should go out to streets, calling for the support of <one million world
signature campaign>, collect at least 10,000 signatures in Taiwan, and
submit them at the UN Commission on Human Rights in April together with the
signatures collected in South Korea, Indonesia, the Philippines, East Timor,
and the Netherlands. Furthermore, we join in hands with other
victimized countries and take the issue to the International Court of Justice
in The Hague, the Netherlands. We hope
that through the accumulation of our efforts, the Japanese Government will
finally commit to the settlement of the war-reparations which have been
unsolved more than half a century."