President Ma Ying-jeou visited Taiwan's New Cultural Movement Memorial Hall on the morning of December 26 to attend a reception marking the opening of an exhibit detailing the history of litigation by former Taiwanese comfort women against Japan. The exhibit is being sponsored by the Taipei City Department of Cultural Affairs and has been planned by the Taipei Women's Rescue Foundation (TWRF). The president expressed his admiration of the former comfort women for their bravery and iron will. He also, on behalf of the government and people, expressed appreciation to the TWRF for their longstanding work in seeking redress for the now elderly women, as well as friends from Japan who have expressed their concern about the plight of the former comfort women here.
President Ma remarked that he has long been involved in women's rescue work and closely followed the issue of redress for the former comfort women. He said he has been deeply pained to see many pass away over the past decade and more, and the attitude of the Japanese government and courts toward their plight has been quite disappointing. The TWRF began in 1992 to seek compensation from Japan on behalf of the former comfort women. At the time, Japan proposed that each of the former comfort women be paid reparations of 2 million yen via the Asian Women's Fund. In order to defend the dignity and good names of these women, the TWRF initiated fund raising activities and led the women in rejecting the Japanese proposal to have compensation paid through the private foundation. This, the president explained, showed the character of both the women and of the Taiwanese people. Regrettably, the group lost their court case in Tokyo in 2000.
President Ma pointed out that the issue of comfort women here has sparked widespread indignation. The former chairwoman of the TWRF, Wang Ching-feng, produced a film calling on the public to show concern for the tragic sufferings of these women, noting that women from Korea, mainland China, the Philippines, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands also faced the same treatment, for which reason this issue has received quite a bit of attention in the international community. The president remarked that in 1995 the United Nations Commission on Human Rights sent representatives to these nations to study the issue. The final report formally designated these comfort women as "military sex slaves," and recognized their abuse as a violation of human rights. President Ma remarked that Japan's courts regrettably to this day have been unable to squarely face that period of history.
The president stated that Germany faced up to its history in the process of "denazification" and admitted its wrongs. Former German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer was the first to begin instituting the process of denazification, with a comprehensive examination of the crime of the holocaust against the Jews. A word in German was even coined to describe the process, "Vergangenheitsbewältigung," the meaning of which is to face the past, admit wrongs, engage in reflection, and bring the historical incident to a close." The measures adopted by Germany, he said, included detailing the concentration camps erected in Poland and other places in the textbooks used in schools, while also taking students on field trips to visit various historical sites. Meanwhile, the former Gestapo's headquarters in Berlin was turned into a museum to exhibit the history of the Nazis. The entire process took several decades and enabled the Germans to gradually overcome the wounds of history, he said.
President Ma commented that the government here must similarly be willing to face the 228 Incident of 1949 and the White Terror period. It bears an absolute obligation to admit its transgressions, he said, since only by facing history through looking at things factually and empathizing with the plight of the victims’ families can we prevent history from repeating itself. The president noted that this year marks the 65th anniversary of Taiwan's recovery from Japan following victory in the War of Resistance Against Japan (1937-1945). He said that we must learn from the lessons of history, and while we can forgive the mistakes committed in the past, we absolutely cannot forget the facts of history. It is in this spirit that the president, during his tenure as mayor of Taipei City, helped the central government establish a monument to the White Terror period. He stated that since taking office as president, he has presided over a ceremony each year on July 15, the day commemorating the end of martial law, to remember the political victims of the White Terror. President Ma explained that the objective in doing so is to face history, admit wrongs, and engage in a critical examination of the past, so as to heal the wounds. Nations capable of doing this, he said, will win respect.
After concluding his remarks the president was escorted by Taipei Deputy Mayor Allen Wen-Hsiang Chiu, Taipei Department of Cultural Affairs Commissioner Hsiao-yun Hsieh, TWRF Chairman Kevin Liao, and Deputy Secretary-General to the President Liu Bao-guey in a ribbon cutting ceremony that opened the exhibit. In place of a regular ribbon, a film strip was used in order to symbolize a severing of the pain of history and welcoming of the future.