TOKYO: A tearful Philippine woman recounted on Sunday how she was kidnapped by Japanese soldiers during the Second World War and coerced into slavery, as she and her supporters gathered to demand Japan do more to bring justice to former “comfort women.”
Estelita Dy, 83, and her supporters met in Tokyo as part of events by the group to commemorate the day the first victim of Japanese slavery came forward on August 14, 1991, and helped lay the groundwork for other victims, including Dy, to come out.
Dy’s supporters and rights groups are trying to gain international support to have August 14 become a United Nations-recognised memorial day, as a way to pressure Japan to do more to take responsibility for wartime sex slavery. The day falls just one day before Japan’s August 15 end-of-war anniversary.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has backpedalled from Tokyo’s past apologies, saying there’s no proof Japan’s wartime government coerced women into prostitution for the Japanese Imperial Army.
At Sunday’s meeting, Dy’s supporters, including rights activists, criticized Abe’s government for its rejection of a UN human rights panel’s recommendations earlier this year urging Japan to more seriously take responsibility for sex slavery, better educate the public and take steps to bring justice for the victims. Rechilda Extremadura, a Philippine member of Dy’s support group, said Dy and others are the “living witnesses” of sex slavery.
Historians say there were as many as 200,000 sex slaves from across Asia, most of them Koreans.
The Philippine Star
