[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 156 (Monday, November 8, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2307]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       JAPANESE ``COMFORT WOMEN''

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. LANE EVANS

                              of illinois

                    in the house of representatives

                        Monday, November 8, 1999

  Mr. EVANS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak about one of the great 
injustices, one of the most flagrant violations of human rights.
  During World War Two, the Japanese military forced hundreds of 
thousands of women to serve as sexual slaves. Euphemistically known as 
``comfort women'', they were predominantly Korean women and girls 
abducted from their homes and forced to serve Japanese soldiers. This 
government-sanctioned program created untold numbers of comfort 
stations or military brothels throughout Japanese-occupied territories 
in the Pacific Rim.
  For decades after the war, the Japanese government denied the 
existence of ``comfort women'' and the comfort stations, but in 1994, 
their position changed. The Japanese government admitted that ``the 
then Japanese military was directly or indirectly involved in the 
establishment and management of comfort stations and the transfer of 
``comfort women [and] that this was an act that severely injured the 
honour and dignity of many women''.
  In 1993, international jurists in Geneva, Switzerland ruled that 
women who were forced to be sexual slaves of the Japanese military 
deserve at least $40,000 each from the state treasury as compensation 
for their extreme pain and suffering.
  Mr. Speaker, the Japanese government has a legal as well as moral 
responsibility to face its history. To continue to indignantly brush 
away these women's claims adds insult to injury.
  Stripped of their dignity, robbed of their honor, most of them were 
forced to live their lives carrying those horrific experiences with 
them covered under a veil of shame. I don't think they should do so any 
longer.
  I believe the Japanese government must do whatever can be done to 
restore some dignity for these women.
  The German government has formally apologized to the victims of the 
Holocaust as well as other war crimes victims and has gone to great 
lengths to provide for their needs and recovery, but the Japanese 
government has yet to do so.
  That is why, in the strongest possible terms, I call upon Japan to 
formally issue a clear and unambiguous apology for the atrocious war 
crimes committed by the Japanese military during World War II and offer 
reparations no less than $40,000 for each of the ``comfort women''. The 
surviving women are advanced in age, and time is of the essence. They 
have waited so long. They should wait no longer.
  Critics may ask why we should even dredge up something that happened 
so long ago and halfway across the world?
  Let me turn the critics' attention to the U.S. Constitution. It 
reads: ``We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are 
created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain 
unalienable rights . . .''
  Mr. Speaker, this nation was an experiment. An experiment to form a 
new system of government. A government based on the then-radical 
concept that we all have certain God-given rights that should not be 
violated--each and every one of us in this world. It matters not that 
injustices were committed against women and girls in East Asia over 
fifty years ago or fifty minutes ago. There is no statute of limitation 
on crimes against humanity. When human rights are violated, the 
international community must act because we have a moral responsibility 
to do so.
  Even today, we sometimes turn a blind eye to human rights. We 
sometimes take them for granted. We sometimes stay silent. But we 
shouldn't.
  Two hundred years ago, Thomas Jefferson wrote: ``the laws of humanity 
make it a duty for nations, as well as individuals, to help those whom 
accident and distress have thrown upon them.''
  Mr. Speaker, I strongly believe we have a duty. We have a duty to 
help those who need our help. We have a duty to stand up for those who 
cannot stand up on their own. We have a duty to speak up for those who 
have no voices and to do what is just and what is right.
  So, let us do what is just and what is right for the ``comfort 
women'' and other victims. Let us speak out for them. Let us stand up 
for them. Let us lend them our strength.
  We must act and we must speak out, because in the end, people will 
remember not the words of their enemies, but the silence of their 
friends.
  We must not remain silent.

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