[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 4]
[House]
[Pages 5289-5291]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 6, 2015, the gentleman from California (Mr. Honda) is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.


                             General Leave

  Mr. HONDA. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 
5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include 
extraneous material on the subject of my Special Order.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from California?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. HONDA. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to address the ongoing horror 
and nightmare that is violence against women. Whether in times of 
conflict or disaster, too often we see the worst battles fought on 
women and girls' bodies.
  Tonight, Mr. Speaker, I am honored to recognize one woman who has 
survived unspeakable violence. She is a survivor. At 87 years old, she 
traveled all the way from South Korea. Her name is Lee Yong-Soo, known 
to everyone as Grandmother Lee. She has become the voice of justice, 
peace, and reconciliation.
  In 1944, 16-year-old Yong-Soo Lee of Tasegu, Korea, was lured by a 
friend of hers to meet with an older Japanese man. The man took the two 
of them and three other teenaged girls by train, then ship to Taiwan. 
There, the girls were forced into sexual slavery, serving four to five 
Japanese soldiers every day for a year.
  Ms. Lee suffered beatings and torture, was infected with venereal 
disease, was fed paltry amounts, faced temperatures so cold that ice 
formed on her body, and was never allowed outside. Only the end of 
World War II brought her relief.
  Ms. Lee is just one example of the over 200,000 women from Korea, 
China, the Philippines, Burma, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan, 
Indonesia, and East Timor who were kidnapped and sexually enslaved by 
the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II.
  These so-called comfort women suffered serious physical, emotional, 
and psychological damages as a result of their ordeal. Of her 200,000 
sisters, Grandmother Lee is but one out of a handful of survivors 
across Asia Pacific still alive. Former Secretary of State Hillary 
Clinton was right when she reportedly called these victims, rather than 
``comfort women,'' ``sex slaves.''
  When Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe addresses a joint meeting of 
Congress next week on April 29, he has the opportunity to do right by 
these women. He can make a full, unequivocal, and formal apology on 
behalf of the Japanese Government.
  The Prime Minister's visit is indeed a historic one. He will be the 
first Japanese Prime Minister to address a joint meeting of Congress. 
He will address this institution on the occasion of the 70th 
anniversary of the end of World War II and the 50th anniversary of the 
normalization between Korea and Japan.
  Prime Minister Abe will address this hallowed Chamber, where 
President Roosevelt delivered an address to our body as America entered 
war. There is much to be expected and anticipated in next week's 
address.
  According to yesterday's editorial by The New York Times, the success 
of Prime Minister Abe's visit ``depends on whether and how honestly Mr. 
Abe confronts Japan's wartime history, including its decision to wage 
war, its brutal occupation of China and Korea, its atrocities and its 
enslavement of thousands of women forced to work as sex slaves or 
`comfort women' in wartime brothels.''
  Mr. Speaker, in 2007, the House of Representatives sent a profound 
message to the Government of Japan by passing H. Res. 121, which I 
authored. The resolution stated:
  ``That it is the sense of the House of Representatives that the 
Government of Japan:
  ``(1) 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;
  ``( 2) would help to resolve recurring questions about the sincerity 
and status of prior statements if the Prime Minister of Japan were to 
make such an apology as a public statement in his official capacity;
  ``(3) should clearly and publicly refute any claims that the sexual 
enslavement and trafficking of the comfort women for the Japanese 
Imperial Armed Forces never occurred; and
  ``(4) should educate current and future generations about this 
horrible crime while following the recommendations of the international 
community with respect to the comfort women.''
  And yet the Japanese Government has continued to fail to address this 
resolution.
  To be fair, the Government of Japan has made important and 
appreciated efforts to face its history. In 1993, Chief Cabinet 
Secretary Yohei Kono issued a statement saying the Japanese military 
was involved in establishing the comfort stations. He said the women-
girls, really from Korea and elsewhere, had been recruited against 
their own will. This was based upon many documents.
  In 1995, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the end of World 
War II, then Prime Minister Tomiichi

[[Page 5290]]

Murayama admitted Japan's ``colonial rule and aggression caused 
tremendous damage and suffering to the people of many countries, 
particularly to those of Asian nations.
  ``In the hope that no such mistake be made in the future, I regard, 
in a spirit of humility, these irrefutable facts of history, and 
express here once again my feelings of deep remorse and state my 
heartfelt apology.''
  Yet in 2006, during Abe's first term as Prime Minister, he unleashed 
an international firestorm of criticism when he undermined the 1993 
Kono Statement, incorrectly alleging that no documentary evidence 
existed of Japan's complicity in setting up and running the comfort 
women stations.
  There was, in fact, plenty of evidence, including the extensive 
personal testimonies of the survivors, who spoke of being raped 10, 20, 
up to 50 times per day. In addition, many international bodies have 
issued recommendations and conclusions on Japan's history and actions.
  In 2003, the U.N. committee that evaluates Japan's compliance with 
the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel Inhuman or Degrading 
Treatment or Punishment expressed concern regarding inadequate remedies 
for the victims of sexual slavery and violence, particularly survivors 
of Japan's military sexual slavery practice during World War II.
  This committee also recommended that Japan ``provide education to 
address the discriminatory roots of sexual and gender-based violence 
violations, and provide rehabilitation measures to the victims.''
  In 2008, the committee that accesses Japan's implementation of the 
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights concluded that 
Japan should ``accept legal responsibility and apologize unreservedly 
for the `comfort women' system . . . and take immediate and effective 
legislative and administrative measures to adequately compensate all 
survivors . . . educate students and the general public about the 
issue, and to refute and sanction any attempts to defame the victims or 
deny the events.''
  Talking about educating students, the books, the textbooks in Japan, 
still do not address the history of the military action in Asia during 
World War II.
  Following the passage of H. Res. 121, many countries followed suit 
and passed their own resolutions: Taiwan, Canada, Netherlands, the 
European Union, and South Korea.
  Mr. Speaker, there is nothing more important right now than for a 
democratic country like Japan to apologize for its past mistakes. A 
government is a living, breathing organism that is responsible for its 
past, present, and its future. Yet, as The New York Times editorial 
said, ``history should have been settled. That it is not settled is 
largely the fault of Mr. Abe and his right-wing political allies who 
keep questioning history and even trying to rewrite it.''
  Last year, I, along with 17 of my House colleagues, wrote to the 
Ambassador of Japan to the U.S., calling the timing and context of the 
Japanese Government report on the Kono Statement regrettable, 
unfortunate, unacceptable, and destabilizing.
  Also, last year, the Abe administration tried and then failed to get 
the United Nations to partially retract the authoritative 1996 report, 
which called on Japan to apologize to the victims and pay reparations 
to the survivors who had been forced into sex slavery during the war.
  Most notably, this year, the Japanese Government tried unsuccessfully 
to change passages in a history textbook about the comfort women during 
World War II. I believe the budget of Japan Prime Minister Abe was able 
to secure almost half a billion dollars to effect that kind of change 
wherever they deemed necessary.
  Now, some say that Japan has apologized enough and it is time to move 
on. To those people I would say, given these continued revisionist 
attempts, for every step forward toward peace and reconciliation, the 
Government of Japan takes two steps backwards. Enough is enough. 
Seventy years later, it is time for Prime Minister Abe to be clear and 
unequivocal and issue an irrefutable apology, something that carries 
the weight of his government.
  The German Chancellor Angela Merkel has urged Prime Minister Abe to 
face Japan's history. Germany knows something about this. After World 
War II, it engaged in a painful national coming to terms with the past 
that ripped open old wounds so that they could properly heal.
  In 1970, on a cold and wet day in Warsaw, then-German Chancellor 
Willy Brandt laid down a wreath at the memorial of the Jewish ghetto. 
Then he fell to his knees in front of the memorial. As a reporter who 
witnessed this event wrote later:
  ``If this man, who wasn't responsible for the crime, who wasn't there 
in those years, now decides to walk through the former Warsaw ghetto 
and to kneel down--then it's clear he doesn't kneel there for his own 
sake . . . he confesses a guilt that he doesn't have to carry, and he 
asks for a forgiveness that he himself doesn't need. Then he kneels 
there for Germany.''

                              {time}  1930

  And so 70 years later, Grandmother Lee and the hundreds of thousands 
of souls of the departed continue to wait for their justice and peace.
  As someone who was put into an internment camp as an infant, I know 
firsthand that governments must not be ignorant of their pasts.
  In 1942, during World War II, my country, my government, put aside 
the constitutional rights of Japanese Americans and systematically 
incarcerated thousands of us--120,000. We were U.S. citizens, but we 
also looked like the enemy.
  Decades later, we, the Japanese American community, fought for an 
apology from our own government. In 1988, Congress passed and President 
Ronald Reagan signed into law H.R. 442, the Civil Liberties Act of 
1988. This was a formal apology to United States citizens of Japanese 
ancestry who were unjustly put into internment camps during World War 
II. Our government made a mistake, but they apologized for it and 
healed many wounds as a result.
  Even though 40 years have passed, it still warmed my heart to hear my 
government say, ``We're sorry.'' Japan must now do the same. They must 
show the maturity of a democratic country, apologize for their mistake, 
and thereby gain the trust of their sister Asian nations.
  Violence against women continues today. According to the World Health 
Organization, women aged 15 to 44 are more at risk from rape and 
domestic violence than cancer, car accidents, war, and malaria.
  By 1993, the Zenica Centre for the Registration of War and Genocide 
Crime in Bosnia-Herzegovina had documented 40,000 cases of war-related 
rape. Of a sample of Rwandan women surveyed in 1999, 39 percent 
reported being raped during the 1994 genocide, and 72 percent said they 
knew someone who had been raped.
  An estimated 23,000, to 46,000 Kosovar Albanian women are believed to 
have been raped between August 1998 and August 1999, the height of the 
conflict with Serbia.
  In 2003, 74 percent of a random sample of 399 Liberian refugee women 
living in camps in Sierra Leone reported being sexually abused prior to 
being displaced from their homes in Liberia. Fifty-five percent of them 
experienced sexual violence during displacement.
  Even today, the U.N. labeled the Democratic Republic of Congo as the 
``rape capital of the world.'' There are rape camps that are destroying 
the lives of babies, young people--boys and girls--and women and men. 
In the DRC, 48 women are raped every hour.
  In addition, according to a recent Human Rights Watch report, the 
extremist group ISIL has carried out systematic rape and other sexual 
violence against Yazidi women and girls in northern Iraq.
  ISIS forces took several thousand Yazidi civilians into custody in 
northern Iraq's province in August 2014, according to Kurdistan 
officials and community leaders. Witnesses said that fighters 
systematically separated young women and girls from their families and 
other captives and moved

[[Page 5291]]

them from one location to another inside Iraq and Syria.
  The 11 women and 9 girls Human Rights Watch interviewed had escaped 
between September 2014 and January 2015. Half, including two 12-year-
old girls, said they had been raped--some multiple times and by several 
ISIS fighters. Nearly all of them said they had been forced into 
marriage; sold--in some cases, a number of times; or given as 
``gifts.'' The women and girls also witnessed other captives being 
abused. Violence against women must stop.
  Today, there are fewer than 100 surviving Comfort Women women across 
the Asia Pacific. Each year, this number declines. The survivors are 
dying by the day. They deserve the justice that has been due to them 
for the past 70 years. They deserve the justice that has been denied 
them. These women want and deserve an official apology.
  In 1991, with the swift courage of Kim Hak-sun, she brought to light 
her story of being a sex slave to the Japanese Imperial Army. Her story 
was the spark that ignited the flames of justice.
  Since then, we have the courageous survivors, such as Grandmother 
Lee, who continues to be a voice for the voiceless. We also have the 
courage of Ms. Jan Ruff O'Herne, who now resides in Australia.
  Ms. O'Herne was born in Java in the former Dutch East Indies, known 
today as Indonesia. When she was 19 years old, Japanese troops invaded 
Java. They were interned in Japanese prison camps.
  Two years later, she was selected, along with several other girls, 
and was told by the Japanese military that they were there for the 
sexual pleasure of the Japanese military.
  As Ms. O'Herne relayed during the 2007 House Foreign Affairs hearing 
on Protecting the Human Rights of Comfort Women, a Japanese officer ran 
his sword all over her body and forced himself on her.
  The trauma these women--these girls--endured is unimaginable. That is 
why my patience for securing justice for the dignity of these victims 
is running out.
  The opportunity to speak to a joint session of Congress is an honor 
that is reserved for the heads of state of our closest allies. It is my 
sincere hope that, for Ms. O'Herne's sake, for Kim Hak-sun's sake, for 
Grandmother Lee's sake, Prime Minister Abe will take the privilege to 
address the joint meeting of Congress and finally and firmly apologize 
and commit to educating the future generations honestly and humbly. The 
spirit of these women--these girls--deserves no less.
  In closing, I am going to quote Grandmother Lee's comments when she 
testified before our subcommittee in 2007. She said:

       If you cannot apologize to me, give me back my youth.

  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  Ms. MENG. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to express my deep concern for 
women around the world who are targeted victims of violence. It is 
estimated that 1 out of every 3 women around the world will be beaten, 
coerced into sex, or otherwise abused in her lifetime. Women in areas 
of conflict are in even more danger. We know that rape and sexual 
assault are tools of war used around the world to terrorize entire 
communities. Displaced, refugee and stateless women are at an increased 
risk of violence, and they are often forced to exchange sex for food 
and humanitarian supplies. These tactics are not new, they have been 
used as tools of war throughout the centuries and these despicable 
practices have been ignored for far too long.
  Today, sitting in the House Gallery, is Grandmother Yong Soo Lee, a 
courageous survivor of war. In the 1930s and 1940s, women and girls 
were forced to provide sexual services for Japanese soldiers. These 
women are known as comfort women, and Grandmother Lee is one of the few 
remaining survivors still alive.
  Every country, including our own, has made mistakes in the past. At 
one time or another, each country has had to apologize for actions 
unbefitting its values and principles.
  Since the end of World War II, Japan has been one of the United 
States' most important allies and we have enjoyed a successful 
partnership based on respect and cooperation. However, the historical 
record on comfort women must be universally accepted, without wavering 
on the horrific details.
  In 1993, the Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono apologized to the 
victims and admitted responsibility by the Japanese military. Despite 
this apology, in the past twelve years, government officials have made 
statements that seem to call the Kono Statement into question. These 
discrepancies are an impediment to a successful tri-lateral 
relationship between the United States, Japan, and the Republic of 
Korea. Prime Minster Shinzo Abe's scheduled address to a joint meeting 
of Congress next week is a landmark moment for U.S.-Japan relations. I 
look forward to hearing Prime Minister Abe speak and it is my hope he 
uses this opportunity to clarify any remarks that have been interpreted 
as a revocation of the Kono Statement.
  Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, I thank Congressman Honda for hosting 
this very important Special Order this evening.
  Domestic violence is the leading cause of injury for women in 
America.
  More often than not, cases of violence against women go unreported.
  Over 80% of women who were victimized experienced significant short-
term and long-term impacts related to the violence and were more likely 
to experience Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and long-term chronic 
diseases such as asthma and diabetes.
  Every year in the United States, 1,000 to 1,600 women die at the 
hands of their male partners, often after a long, escalating pattern of 
battering.
  In 2009, 111 women were killed by their former or current husband, 
intimate partner or boyfriend in the State of Texas.
  Domestic violence is the leading cause of injury for women in 
America.
  Every nine seconds a woman in the United States is assaulted or 
beaten by stalkers or her partner.
  Another form of violence against women is sex trafficking.
  Trafficking ensnares millions of women and girls in modern-day 
slavery.
  According to the FBI, sex trafficking is the fastest-growing business 
of organized crime and the third-largest criminal enterprise in the 
world.
  More than 300,000 American children are at risk of becoming victims 
of sex trafficking annually in what is estimated to be a $9.8 billion 
industry.
  Women and girls represent 55 per cent of the estimated 20.9 million 
victims of forced labor worldwide and 98 per cent of the estimated 4.5 
million forced into sexual exploitation.
  Similar to current sex trafficking crimes is the past atrocity of the 
crimes that were committed towards the Korean women.
  The ``comfort women'' system of forced military prostitution by the 
Government of Japan, considered unprecedented in its cruelty and 
magnitude, included gang rape, forced abortions, humiliation, and 
sexual violence resulting in mutilation, death, or eventual suicide in 
one of the largest cases of human trafficking in the 20th century.
  Today, there are now only just 59 known survivors that were comfort 
Korean victims.
  There are about 200,000 women are estimated to have worked as comfort 
women in Japan's military brothels.
  Today, the comfort women issue remains taboo and controversial topic, 
just like other violent crimes committed to women.
  These women are not victims but also survivors, survivors from a 
brutal crime.
  The comfort women issue is not just about the past, but it is very 
relevant today.
  The world's strength to oppose killing today is made greater by 
accountability, for actions present, but also past.
  It's weakened by denial of accountability and obfuscation of past 
acts.
  History is a continuum that affects today and tomorrow.
  Women everywhere should not be victims of such an atrocity.
  It's much harder to get tomorrow right if we get yesterday wrong.
  Today, we call on to the Japanese government to apologize to the few 
women who continue to live with the shame of the crimes committed 
against them.

                          ____________________