August 14 marks the International Memorial Day for Comfort Women, a day devoted to remembering the victims of the Japanese army’s wartime sexual slavery system and calling for peace and justice. The date was designated as a day of remembrance on the eleventh Asian Solidarity Conference in 2012, a world gathering centered on addressing the “comfort women” situation.
Nearly a century has handed because the first girls had been pressured into sexual slavery by Imperial Japan throughout World War II, but the recollections of their struggling stay deeply painful in the present day.
Chinese “comfort women” liberated by Chinese troops from the Japanese military. /VCG
From 1931 to 1945, an estimated 400,000 girls from about 11 Asian international locations and areas had been coerced into serving as “comfort women” for the Japanese army. Most victims got here from China, the Korean Peninsula and the Philippines, with others from Myanmar, East Timor, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, and a number of other further areas.
China was probably the most closely affected. Chinese students estimated that greater than 200,000 Chinese girls had been victimized underneath this technique.
Nowadays, there are solely six registered survivors of the “comfort women” system on the Chinese mainland.Â
The pregnant lady within the photograph is Pak Yong-sim, a Korean lady who was deceived into changing into a “comfort woman” and misplaced her fetus through the warfare. She later grew to become infertile after present process a hysterectomy. The photograph was taken in September 1944. /VCG
These girls and ladies had been taken or deceived into military-run brothels, the place they had been pressured into sexual servitude and denied fundamental human rights. Survivors’ testimonies describe extreme mistreatment, bodily and emotional trauma, and long-lasting hurt to their well being and dignity.
Yet many years after the tip of the warfare, many survivors and their households proceed to hunt fact, justice and reparations.
In March, UN consultants expressed grave concern on the continued lack of justice for survivors of the “comfort women” system.
Korean “comfort women” liberated by Chinese troops from the Japanese military, September 1944. /VCG
“Nearly 80 years on, victims and their families continue to face the denial of their right to truth, justice, reparation and memorialization,” the consultants mentioned.
The consultants known as on Japan to acknowledge and fulfill survivors’ rights to justice, reparations and full and efficient treatment, together with by official apologies, satisfactory compensation and ensures of non-repetition. They burdened the significance of preserving historic reminiscence by academic supplies, memorials and commemoration.
Noting the victims and survivors have waited many years for recognition, apologies and treatment, the consultants urged all related international locations to behave with out additional delay.
Korean “comfort women” liberated by Chinese troops from the Japanese military, September 1944. /VCG
Calls for Japan to totally acknowledge its wartime tasks proceed in international locations together with South Korea and the Philippines, the place civil society teams and survivors’ advocates recurrently maintain commemorative occasions and public demonstrations.
In South Korea, the Korean Council for Justice and Remembrance for the Issues of Military Sexual Slavery by Japan held its 1,765th Wednesday Demonstration for resolving the consolation girls situation forward of the 14th International Memorial Day for Comfort Women in coordination with 222 different teams in 10 international locations all over the world.
Demonstrators requires a decision to the “comfort women” situation in Seoul, South Korea, August 12, 2026. /VCG
Several posters had been displayed in entrance of a statue of a younger lady in Seoul’s Jongno District. The statue of the younger lady, one among a collection put in in South Korea and elsewhere, symbolizes the “comfort women.”
The posters learn: “We will pray for a world in which women are no longer victimized,” “The issue of sexual slavery for the Japanese army isn’t a matter of the past, but the present!” “Peace in this land, and honor and human rights for the former comfort women!”
Read extra: Last Daughters: CGTN tracks voices of Chinese and Filipina WWII intercourse slaves
Source: CGTN