【By Joseph Yeh】
Taiwan and Japan were unable to reach a consensus after recent dialogue over compensation for Taiwanese "comfort women," the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said on Tuesday.
Tsai Ming-yaw, head of the Association of East Asian Relations (AEAR) in charge of Japanese affairs, said Taipei had reiterated its four demands over the "comfort women" issue to Tokyo on Aug. 25.
MOFA had raised the issue following the Japanese Cabinet's approval of a 1-billion-yen fund last Wednesday to assist Koreans forced to work in wartime brothels.
Tsai said demands for "a formal apology, securing compensation, returning to the victims long-overdue justice and dignity and taking better care of them" had again been put to Tokyo following the Cabinet decision.
Tsai met with officials at AEAR's Japanese counterpart, Japan's Interchange Association in Taipei on Aug. 25. Government officials in Japan also met with their counterparts in Tokyo the same day to reiterate the four demands.
In response, Japan insisted that the "comfort women" issue has been "faced squarely" by Japan's government in 1994 with the founding of the private Asian Women's Fund. The fund was set up in an attempt to distribute compensation to "comfort women" in Asia via a private organization.
However, the R.O.C. does not consider compensation distributed by a private fund as issued by Japan's government, MOFA said.
Despite repeated requests from Taiwan's government, Tokyo has not provided an answer to the four demands, Tsai added.
As an alternative to having victims receive compensation via the private fund, the R.O.C. government established its own ad hoc committee in 1997 to compensate surviving Taiwanese "comfort women" with a total of NT$21 million.
According to MOFA, the Japanese Cabinet's latest move was done in accordance with an agreement Japan reached with South Korea last December.
As part of the deal, Japan's government promised to transfer money to a foundation set up by the Korean government for Korean "comfort women."
No Response Since December
Taipei already raised its demands last December, during the tenure of the former KMT government.
Then Foreign Minister David Lin at the time expressed hopes that an official dialogue would take place this January. However, thus far no major progress towards achieving the four demands has been made.
According to the Taipei Women's Rescue Foundation, more than 2,000 Taiwanese women were forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese Imperial Army. Only three of those who suffered at the hands of Japanese forces are still alive today.
[The China Post, 2016-08-31]
