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投稿者： kodokunokaori 投稿日時： 2007/02/23 21:20 投稿番号： [13152 / 73791]
At U.S. hearing, WW2 sex slaves spurn Japan apologies
By Paul Eckert, Asia Correspondent
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Three women who were forced into sexual servitude by Japan in World War Two on Thursday told the U.S. Congress harrowing tales of abuse and said they rejected Japanese official apologies as an insult.
The now elderly "comfort women" -- a Japanese euphemism for the estimated 200,000 mostly Asian women forced to provide sex for Japan's soldiers -- testified in a debate on a House of Representatives resolution calling on Japan to apologize for that practice.
The women, two South Koreans and a Dutch-born Australian, said Tokyo's efforts to atone for their ordeal were insufficient because official apologies were not accompanied by offers of government compensation.
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"A real apology to me is one that is followed by action," Jan Ruff O'Herne, 84, who was snatched by Japanese officers from a sugar plantation in 1942 in Indonesia, then a Dutch colony where here family had lived for three generations.
She told the Asia-Pacific subcommittee of the HouseCommittee on Foreign Affairs that she lost her virginity to a sword-wielding Japanese officer, the first rape in a three-year nightmare that led to miscarriages later in life.
"Even the Japanese doctor raped me each time he examined me for venereal disease," O'Herne said.
The devout Catholic woman said she had forgiven the Japanese but rejected a payment from Tokyo's Asian Women's Fund in 1995 as "an insult to comfort women" because the money was from private donations -- a formula that she felt skirted Japanese state responsibility.
By Paul Eckert, Asia Correspondent
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Three women who were forced into sexual servitude by Japan in World War Two on Thursday told the U.S. Congress harrowing tales of abuse and said they rejected Japanese official apologies as an insult.
The now elderly "comfort women" -- a Japanese euphemism for the estimated 200,000 mostly Asian women forced to provide sex for Japan's soldiers -- testified in a debate on a House of Representatives resolution calling on Japan to apologize for that practice.
The women, two South Koreans and a Dutch-born Australian, said Tokyo's efforts to atone for their ordeal were insufficient because official apologies were not accompanied by offers of government compensation.
Reuters Pictures
Editors Choice: Best pictures
from the last 24 hours.
View Slideshow
"A real apology to me is one that is followed by action," Jan Ruff O'Herne, 84, who was snatched by Japanese officers from a sugar plantation in 1942 in Indonesia, then a Dutch colony where here family had lived for three generations.
She told the Asia-Pacific subcommittee of the HouseCommittee on Foreign Affairs that she lost her virginity to a sword-wielding Japanese officer, the first rape in a three-year nightmare that led to miscarriages later in life.
"Even the Japanese doctor raped me each time he examined me for venereal disease," O'Herne said.
The devout Catholic woman said she had forgiven the Japanese but rejected a payment from Tokyo's Asian Women's Fund in 1995 as "an insult to comfort women" because the money was from private donations -- a formula that she felt skirted Japanese state responsibility.