No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
The Comfort Women Controversy - Lessons from Taiwan
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 March 2025
Abstract
Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.
Taiwan was surrendered to Imperial Japan by China's Qing dynasty in 1895, fifteen years prior to Japan's annexation of Korea. Like Korea, Taiwan's women and girls were subsequently conscripted into Japan's military “comfort women” (ianfu) system. The author notes significant differences between the treatment of the women in the two colonies and in the remembrance of the comfort woman systems. In Korea, dozens of comfort women statues and memorials commemorate the system's victims while not one such statue exists in Taiwan. In December 2016, eighteen years after Korea opened its first of two comfort women museums, the Ama (Grandmother) Museum was opened in Taipei. While the museum in Taipei chronicles the Taiwanese comfort women's plight, its message represents more than an indictment of Japan or a pursuit of redress for the system's victims. The museum and its sponsors find ways to apply the lessons of this tragedy to the ongoing challenges of human trafficking and domestic violence.
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © The Authors 2018
References
Notes
1 Choe Sang-hun, “‘Comfort Woman’ Statue reinstated near Japan Consulate in South Korea,” New York Times, December 30, 2016, accessed December 30, 2016.
2 Graceia Lai, Hui-lng Wu, Ju-fen Yu, Trans. Shing-mei Ma, Silent Scars: History of Sexual Slavery by the Japanese Military—A Pictorial Book, (Taipei: Taipei Women's Rescue Foundation, 2005), 74.
3 Ibid., 73-74.
4 Chu Te-lan 朱徳蘭, “Taiwan (Ianfu) Mondai” 台湾「慰安婦」問題 [The Question of “Comfort Women” in Taiwan], Rekishigaku Kenkyu 歴史学研究 No. 849 (2009,: 20-31.
5 Interview with Dr. Chu Te-lan on October 18, 2016.
6 In the October 24 interview that Dr. Shiu Wen-tang and I conducted with Ms. Kang, she advanced the number 2,000.
7 Ibid., 73-74.
8 Ibid., 78.
9 Graceia Lai, 66.
10 “Women made to become Comfort Women—Taiwan,” Digital Museum—The Comfort Women Issue and the Asian Women's Fund, accessed August 10, 2017.
11 Yuki Tanaka, Japan's Comfort Women: Sexual Slavery and Prostitution during World War II and the US Occupation, (New York; Routledge, 2010), 44.
12 Maria Rosa Henson, Comfort Woman—A Filipina's Story of Prostitution and Slavery under the Japanese Military, (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 1999), 35-36.
13 Peipei Qiu, Chinese Comfort Women, (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013), xiii.
14 Statement of Jan Ruff O'herne, US House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia, the Pacific, and the Global Environment Hearing on Protecting the Human Rights of “Comfort Women,” February 15, 2007, accessed June 4, 2016. See here.
15 Graceia Lai, 76.
16 Ralph Jennings, “Taiwan's complex relationship with Japan affects recognition of 'comfort women,” Los Angeles Times, March 30, 2016, accessed March 31, 2016.
17 Graceia Lai, 76.
18 Ibid., 74.
19 Chu Te-lan, 朱徳蘭, “Taiwan (Ianfu) Mondai” 台湾「慰安婦」問題 [The Question of “Comfort Women” in Taiwan], Rekishigaku Kenkyu歴史学研究No.849 (2009): 20-31
20 Yoshimi Yoshiaki, Comfort Women—Sexual Slavery in the Japanese Military during World War II, (New York: Columbia University Press, 1995, 65.
21 Ibid.
22 Ed. Keith Howard, True Stories of the Korean Comfort Women, (London: Cassell, 1995), 32-192.
23 Chu Te-lan, #x6731;徳蘭, “Taiwan (Ianfu) Mondai” 台湾「慰安婦」問題 [The Question of “Comfort Women” in Taiwan], Rekishigaku Kenkyu歴史学研究No.849 (2009): 20-31
24 Ibid.
25 Ibid.
26 Graceia Lai, 87,
27 Ibid.
28 Chu Te-lan 朱徳蘭, “Taiwan (Ianfu) Mondai” 台湾「慰安婦」問題 [The Question of “Comfort Women” in Taiwan], Rekishigaku Kenkyu歴史学研究No.849 (2009): 20-31
29 Graceia Lai, 87, 169.
30 “Women made to become Comfort Women—Taiwan,” Digital Museum—The Comfort Women Issue and the Asian Women's Fund, accessed August 10, 2017.
31 Yoshimi Yoshiaki, Comfort Women—Sexual Slavery in the Japanese Military during World War II, 117.
32 Graceia Lai, 169.
33 Yuki Tanaka, 31.
34 Ibid., 51.
35 Ed. Keith Howard, True Stories of the Korean Comfort Women, (London: Cassell, 1995), 17.
36 Graceia Lai, 87.
37 Ralph Jennings, “Taiwan's complex relationship with Japan affects recognition of 'comfort women,” Los Angeles Times, March 30, 2016, accessed March 31, 2016.
38 See, for example, Radhika Sanghani, “The horrific story of Korea's ‘comfort women’ - forced to be sex slaves during World War Two,” Daily Telegraph, December 29, 2015, accessed January 22, 2017.
39 Morita Seiya trans. Caroline Norma, “Overcoming Double Erasure: Japanese Comfort Women, Nationalism and Human Trafficking”, Asia Pacific Journal: Japan Focus, Vol. 15, Issue 21, No. 3, accessed November 25, 2017.
40 Chu Te-lan interview of October 18, 2016.
41 Ibid., 169.
42 Graceia Lai, 87.
43 Ibid., 89.
44 Ibid., 169.
45 朱德蘭 (2005). “太平洋戰爭與臺灣原住民“慰安婦” (1941–1945). 。近代中國，(volume 163)，53-70, accessed November 1, 2016.
46 Military Sexual Slavery During World War II: The “Comfort Women,” Columbia Law School, Center for Korean Legal Studies, accessed January 21, 2018.
47 “Projects by Country or Region-Taiwan,” Digital Museum—The Comfort Women Issue and the Asian Women's Fund, accessed August 10, 2017.
48 “About TWRF,” Taipei Women's Rescue Foundation, accessed June 17, 2017.
49 Ibid.
50 Graceia Lai, 193.
51 Ibid., 29.
52 “Closing of the Asian Women's Fund,” Digital Museum—The Comfort Women Issue and the Asian Women's Fund, accessed August 10, 2017.
53 Wada Haruki translated and introduced by Gavan McCormack, “The Comfort Women, the Asian Women's Fund and the Digital Museum,” Asia Pacific Journal, Volume 6, Issue 2, February 1, 2008.
54 “Projects by Country or Region-Taiwan,” Digital Museum—The Comfort Women Issue and the Asian Women's Fund, accessed August 10, 2017.
55 “Projects by Country or Region-Korea,” Digital Museum—The Comfort Women Issue and the Asian Women's Fund, accessed August 10, 2017.
56 Graceia Lai, 102.
57 Ibid., 102.
58 “Comfort Women tell Japan to extend Compensation,” BBC News, December 29, 2015, accessed August 1, 2016.
59 Graceia Lai, 102.
60 Mark Rivett Carnac, “Taiwan urges Japan to apologize for ‘Comfort Women‘” after South Korean Deal, Time, December 29, 2015, accessed July 30, 2016.
61 October 24 meeting with Ms. Shu-hua Kang in the TWRF offices.
62 Ibid.
63 “Taiwan President says should remember good things Japan did,” Reuters, October 25, 2017, accessed April 15, 2017.
64 [Press Release] “Opening Ceremony—Royal Family Peace and Women's Human Rights Museum,” Taipei Women's Rescue Foundation, December 12, 2016, accessed on August 14, 2017.
65 Keith Menconi, “Lives of Resilience: Re-Imagining Taiwan's Comfort Women,” The News Lens, April 21, 2017, accessed July 30, 2017.
66 Ibid.
67 Ibid.
68 Hung, Su-chen, Liuh, Shiu-ya, Huang, Tsung Chain, “Exploring Emotional Trauma Recovery Process of the Former Taiwanese Comfort Women in a Drama Therapy Group,” (Taiwan, unpublished, 2009).
69 Taipei Women's Rescue Foundation, see here and here. Accessed August 14, 2017.
70 Keith Menconi, see here.
71 Ibid.
72 Jen-Yu Peng, “Private Trauma in Public – Using Testimony Narrative of Taiwanese ‘Comfort Woman’ to be a Scene of Healing,” Cultural Studies Journal, no.14 (2012).
73 Ibid.
74 Ibid.
75 Interview with Kang Shu-hua, October 24, 2016.
76 Ibid.
77 Ralph Jennings, “Taiwan's complex relationship with Japan affects recognition of 'comfort women,” Los Angeles Times, March 30, 2016, accessed March 31, 2016.
78 “Nation's ‘Comfort Women’ Museum in Need of Funds,” Taipei Times, October 21, 2016, accessed October 22, 2016.
79 Ibid.
80 Ralph Jennings, “Taiwan's complex relationship with Japan affects recognition of 'comfort women.” Los Angeles Times, March 30, 2016.
81 Ibid.
82 Anonymous, Interview of October 18, 2018.
83 Ralph Jennings, “Taiwan's complex relationship with Japan affects recognition of ‘comfort women,‘” Los Angeles Times, March 30, 2016, accessed March 31, 2016.
84 Yabuki Susumu and Mark Selden, “The Origins of the Senkaku/Diaoyu Dispute between China, Taiwan and Japan,” The Asia-Pacific Journal, Vol. 12, Issue 2, No. 3, January 13, 2014.
85 Shinzo Abe, “‘Towards an Alliance of Hope‘—Address to a Joint Meeting of the U.S. Congress,” April 29, 2015, accessed November 10, 2016.
86 Michal Thim and Misato Masuoka, “The Odd Couple: Japan & Taiwan's Unlikely Friendship.”
You have
Access