On May 10, 2023, the last Taiwanese woman to participate in Japan’s World War II comfort women system passed away surrounded by her family. At the request of her family, her death was not announced until after the memorial service on May 23, 2023. The reason for the delay is said to be the deceased’s refusal to be called “Taiwan’s last surviving comfort woman” – her life was much more than that. She came forward in 1992 and, along with 57 others, were considered real victims of the Japanese Imperial Army’s World War II comfort women system. In February 1992, Japanese MP Eiko Ito issued three cables confirming that the existence of this situation had been made public in Taiwan. The cables confirmed that on March 12, 1942, the Imperial Army Command in Tokyo received 50 Taiwanese Aboriginal transportation permit applications.
After former South Korean comfort woman Kim Hak-soon shared her horrifying experience of sexual slavery on August 14, 1991, Seoul and Beijing considered the Japanese military’s roundup of Korean and Chinese women and girls for sexual slavery during World War II as It was a “sensational event”. Taiwan, for its part, has chosen to handle its grievances with Japan in a more subtle way than its neighbors. Kinmen Island is only 10.2 kilometers away from the coast of mainland China, and the people of Taiwan live under the threat of mainland China seizing all or part of their territory at any time. In recent years, Taiwan has received help from Japan, which has become increasingly public as the guarantor and protector of Taiwan’s future.
Taiwan’s efforts to bring justice to victims of the comfort women system and their families have also been hampered by post-World War II divisions within Taiwan’s Han population (98% of Taiwanese citizens are Han). Han Chinese who arrived after World War II are still viewed with reasonable suspicion by the descendants of earlier Han immigrants, dating back to 1662, when Ming loyalist Zheng Chenggong (1624-1662) defeated Dutch forces occupying Taiwan. The name is “Guoxingjia”. In 1644, the Zheng family strongly opposed the Qing Dynasty’s takeover of the mainland, and together with their son Zheng Jing established Taiwan as an outpost to resist Manchu rule. During the 230 years that the Qing Dynasty claimed sovereignty over Taiwan, the Manchu leadership was never able to fully establish its dominance. Even Mao Zedong advocated Taiwan’s independence from 1928 to 1943.
After World War II, China’s interest turned to annexing Taiwan. On February 28, 1947, soldiers under the command of Kuomintang Chairman Chiang Kai-shek and Governor-General Chen Yi opened fire on a group of Taiwanese protesters, killing one person, injuring many others, and alienating those who witnessed this unreasonable act. Over the next few months, approximately 18,000 to 28,000 Taiwanese anti-Chiang activists died at the hands of Chiang Kai-shek’s troops. This did not stop when Chiang Kai-shek took over power in Taiwan after his defeat on the mainland.
Chiang Kai-shek took charge of Taiwan and declared martial law, triggering what Taiwanese call the “white terror.” Chiang Kai-shek arrested, imprisoned, tortured, and even executed thousands of opponents of his dictatorship. The two repressions of the Kuomintang, the “228 Incident” and the forty years of “white terror”, have become the battle cry of the Democratic People’s Party, now led by President Lai Qingde. For many Taiwanese, four decades of brutal repression by Chiang Kai-shek are a preview of what Taiwan’s young democracy will face if a new generation of mainlanders, led by Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party, take charge of their homeland.
In Cihu Park in northern Taiwan, villages and communities across the island have relocated 150 of the more than 1,000 statues commemorating Chiang Kai-shek’s rule. Efforts are being stepped up to eventually remove all Chiang Kai-shek statues, including the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei and its 6.3-meter-tall Chiang Kai-shek statue. The statue of Chiang Kai-shek rivals the 2,000 statues of Mao Zedong who continue to provide political decoration to mainland China.
Taiwan’s Democratic Progressive Party has chosen to downplay and largely ignore the comfort women issue, viewing it as an obstacle to maintaining a vital alliance with Japan. On the other hand, the Chinese Nationalist Party, beginning with President Ma Ying-jeou, expressed remorse for Chiang’s repressive rule but in some ways still found justification for this chapter of Taiwan’s history. They herald the end of Japan’s occupation of Taiwan from 1895 to 1945, reminding compatriots that Japan forced Taiwanese men to enlist in the army and established and implemented the comfort women system, imprisoning 2,000 Taiwanese Han and Aboriginal women. The painful rituals of sexual abuse and rape upended the victims’ marriages, families, and prospects for normal life in post-Japanese surrender Taiwanese society.
Still, calls for justice for the system’s Taiwanese victims have never gained as much traction as they have in South Korea and China. While state-sponsored museums and historical monuments commemorate the atrocities committed during Chiang Kai-shek’s rule, the comfort women issue has had far less impact on Taiwanese people. The only statue of comfort women in Taiwan was not government-funded but erected by Taiwanese civil groups. The Taipei-based Ama Museum was originally intended to pay tribute to Taiwan’s comfort women, but it only lasted from December 2016 to November 2020 before being forced to close due to the COVID-19 pandemic and lack of funds; however, it did open in November 2021 Reopening on month.
Comfort women supporters would do well to seek ways to integrate this tragic chapter of history and the testimonies of its victims into the broader human rights narrative in Taiwan. In 2008 and 2017, Lai Ching-te, the newly elected chairman of Taiwan’s Democratic Progressive Party, publicly expressed his support for seeking justice for Taiwan’s comfort women. Now, as head of state, he has the opportunity to fulfill this commitment, reconcile the different human rights focuses of the DPP and KMT, and establish a mature, mutually respectful and more candid dialogue with Japan on this issue.
*This article is based on Dr. Ward’s recent February 2024 presentation at the Columbia Law School forum “The Legacy of World War II Comfort Women in Asia and the Pacific,” where he served as a subject matter expert on the political divide in the 2024 discussion of the comfort women issue. .
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