www.newsandletters.org
|
|
NEWS & LETTERS, September-October 2005'Comfort women's' demandsSan Francisco--On Aug. 11 demonstrations around the world showed solidarity with Korean women who, for 669 consecutive Wednesdays, protested in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul seeking justice for the "comfort women." In San Francisco about 100, mostly young, Asian women, came in support. Since Kim Hak Soon told her story in 1991, the support movement has been growing. During WWII, 200,000 women were kidnapped from Korea and forced into prostitution for the occupying Japanese army. Japan refuses to mention this in their history texts, claiming that they were "willing prostitutes." The average comfort woman was raped by as many as 30 military officers a day, many were beaten and mutilated and still suffer from sexually transmitted diseases, psychological trauma and societal discrimination. Yuri Kochiyama, who spent WWII in a U.S. internment camp and is famous for her participation in the U.S. Civil Rights Movement, called on the Japanese government to acknowledge the atrocities, apologize, pay reparations, and change the history books. --March participant |
|
Home l News & Letters Newspaper l Back issues l News and Letters Committees l Dialogues l Raya Dunayevskaya l Contact us l Search Published by News and Letters Committees |
