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Former 'jugun ianfu' to testify in Japan
A former Indonesian military sex slave during the Japanese occupation will testify before a regional conference on the issue of âcomfort womenâ, known as âjugun ianfuâ, in Japan
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A
former Indonesian military sex slave during the Japanese occupation will testify before a regional conference on the issue of 'comfort women', known as 'jugun ianfu', in Japan.
The Asian Solidarity Conference for survivors of the Japanese military sexual slavery will be held in three cities ' Tokyo, Osaka and Fukuoka ' from May 30 to June 4.
Surviving victim Sri Soekanti said she was taken at nine years of age from her home in Salatiga, Central Java. The 81-years-old woman said Japanese soldiers threatened to kill her parents if they did not let her go.
'I was treated like a horse. My genitals were bleeding severely. At that time, I just wanted to die,' said Soekanti in a documentary video on sex slaves screened on Wednesday.
She attended the film screening but was unable to comments on the documentary as she was unwell. The unfinished film, as yet untitled, will be screened at the Japanese conference.
Soekanti said activists from the Solidarity Network for Indonesian Ianfu would accompany her at the conference, which she said was the 12th organized since 1991.
'We want to push the Japanese government to accept its political responsibility for the so-called ianfu,' network coordinator Eka Hindra said.
She said many Japanese did not consider the sex slavery was an important issue.
The activist said the Japanese military had recruited about 19,000 women from various countries during the Japanese occupation of 1942-1945.
The conference's organizers said other delegates to attend the meeting included survivors from China, North and South Korea and the Philippines.
Japan has so far never acknowledged that the forced sexual slavery was officially organized under the consent of its leaders during the leadership of then Emperor Hirohito.
Japan has repeatedly angered its neighbors as its leaders have refused to apologize for the atrocities during its occupation era. Prolonged debates on the issue have resulted in the issuance of a bill that will acknowledge the existence of sexual slavery under the Japanese military in World War II, while many Japanese have claimed that the women were professional prostitutes.
In the case of Indonesia, Japan has officially compensated several survivors through the provision of funds worth 380 million yen (Rp 9 billion or US$772,000) channeled to the Indonesian government in the 1990s from the Asian Women's Fund, an NGO under the auspices of the Japanese government, although it does not acknowledge either its responsibility for or the existence of the sex slavery. (put/ebf)
