[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 144 (Monday, December 1, 2014)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1672]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              THE SORROW AND THE HOPE OF ``COMFORT WOMEN''

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. ENI F.H. FALEOMAVAEGA

                           of american samoa

                    in the house of representatives

                        Monday, December 1, 2014

  Mr. FALEOMAVAEGA. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to address an issue which 
has been close to my heart during my years of service as Chairman and 
Ranking Member of the House Foreign Affairs' Subcommittee on Asia and 
Pacific. This is the issue of the ``Comfort Women'' or, as former 
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton more accurately termed these 
victims of Imperial Japan's military during the Second World War, 
``enforced sex slaves.''
  Of all the actions in my almost twenty-six years of service in the 
U.S. House of Representatives, one that affected me most was the 
convening of my first hearing on February 17, 2007 as the new Chairman 
of the then Subcommittee on Asia, the Pacific and the Global 
Environment. The fact that the issue of the `Comfort Women' was the 
topic of my very first hearing signified how deeply important this 
issue was and is to me.
  The hearing represented the first official testimony given to a U.S. 
government entity regarding one of the most egregious war crimes 
carried out in the Pacific Theater during the Second World War. The 
compelling and courageous testimony of the three victim witnesses, Ms. 
Yong Soo Lee and Ms. Koon Ja Kim from the Republic of Korea, and Ms. 
Jan Ruff O'Herne from Australia, brought tears to the eyes of many in 
the hearing room and left no doubt as to the culpability of Imperial 
Japan's military in the organization and management of comfort 
stations.
  It was a special privilege that then South Korean National Assembly 
member and now President of the Republic of Korea, Her Excellency Park 
Geun-hye, was present as a special guest of the Subcommittee at the 
hearing. The hearing provided an impetus for the unanimous adoption by 
the U.S. House of Representatives later in 2007, during the 110th 
Congress, of House Resolution 121. Introduced by my good friend, 
Congressman Mike Honda, H. Res. 121 ``expresses the sense of the House 
of Representatives that the Government of Japan should formally 
acknowledge, apologize, and accept historical responsibility in a clear 
and unequivocal manner for its Imperial Armed Forces' coercion of young 
women into sexual slavery, known to the world as `comfort women', 
during its colonial and wartime occupation of Asia and the Pacific 
Islands from the 1930s through the duration of World War II.''
  In this regard, I wish to draw to the attention of my fellow 
colleagues the opening of a special art exhibition titled ``The Sorrow 
and the Hope of `Comfort Women' '' to be held in the May Gallery of 
Mullen Library at Catholic University in Washington, DC. As you may be 
aware, Mr. Speaker, Pope Francis met with ``Comfort Women'' survivors 
during his recent visit to South Korea. The special exhibition, which 
will be held from November 25, 2014 to January 12, 2015, is being 
hosted by the National Catholic School of Social Service's Center for 
International Social Development (CISD) and co-organized by the 
Washington Coalition for Comfort Women Issues, Inc. (WCCW), whose 
President is Ms. Christine Choi and Vice President is Dr. Julie Jung-
Sil Lee. There will be a seminar held in connection with the art 
exhibition at Catholic University on November 25, 2014.
  I would like to take special note of the fact that one of the artists 
whose work will be displayed at this exhibition is Eileen Marie Halpin, 
the daughter of my former staff member Dennis P. Halpin. Eileen 
graduated summa cum laude in kinetic imaging from Virginia Commonwealth 
University in Richmond in May 2013. She also attended the Gobelins 
School of the Image in Paris, France in the summer of 2013. She is 
currently working as a freelance artist. Eileen sent her artwork last 
year to ``Comfort Women'' survivors residing in the House of Sharing in 
Gwangju, Korea. This is a facility which I have visited on repeated 
occasions during my official visits to South Korea as a Member of the 
U.S. House of Representatives. I have spent many hours with my grandmas 
at the House of Sharing, who are examples to me of courage, strength, 
and the resilience of the human spirit. These women are my heroes, and 
I count them among my greatest friends in this life.
  Mr. Speaker, although I will soon depart from this esteemed body, I 
will continue to be a strong advocate for closure for the victims of 
the greatest crime of organized, coercive sexual trafficking in the 
twentieth century. The overwhelming majority of these victims came from 
the Asia-Pacific region, a region which I have proudly represented and 
continue to call home. The current revisionism involving denier history 
which has emerged in certain influential quarters in Japan regarding 
the ``Comfort Women'' and other war crimes related to the Second World 
War would never be tolerated with regard to the crimes committed in the 
European Theater during that war. As philosopher George Santayana 
famously observed, ``those who cannot remember the past are condemned 
to repeat it.''
  Mr. Speaker, we owe it to the Nigerian school girls kidnapped by Boko 
Haram and the Yazidi women and girls enslaved by ISIL not to forget the 
tragic historic warning offered by the experiences of the ``Comfort 
Women''. It is my sincere hope that this esteemed body will do all it 
can to ensure justice for women and young girls everywhere. This is my 
hope forevermore.

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