Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/08/14
By: Wu Hsin-yun, Chang Jung-hsiang and S.C. Chang 

Taipei, Aug. 14 (CNA) A women’s rights group invited 59 members of the public, representing the number of Taiwanese comfort women who publicly identified themselves over the years, to stage a silent protest in front of Japan’s representative office in Taipei on Tuesday, International Comfort Women Day.

Also on Tuesday, the first monument commemorating comfort women in Taiwan was unveiled at a ceremony in Tainan City, attended by former President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), an event that drew Japanese media attention, according to the United Evening News.

Taipei Women’s Rescue Foundation holds activities on Aug. 14 each year to remind the public that the issue of comfort women has yet to be resolved and demand that Japan apologize for its World War II atrocities, including the forced recruitment of Taiwanese girls and women into military brothels.

This year, the foundation’s memorial event took the form of 59 people wearing black clothes and white masks staging a 8-minute-14-second silent protest in front of the Japan-Taiwan Exchange Association, which represents Japanese interests in the absence of official diplomatic ties.
[FULL  STORY]