‘This systematic atrocity of horrific dimensions had already been adjudicated by the Women’s International War Crimes Tribunal of 04 December 2001 at the Hague in the Netherlands featuring, among others, the indictment of the Philippines that charged Hirohito, Terauchi Hisaichi, Yamashita Tomoyuki, Kuroda Shigenori, Honma Masaharu, and Yoshiharu Iwanaka with crimes against humanity…’
ONIBABA, is that you?
“Japan practically controls the passenger shipping of the Pacific Ocean and certainly she controls the Asian Pacific Coast line from Vladivostock to Manila. In the 50 years she has been in contact with the Western world she has planted her vast, government-taxed, government-upheld yoshiwaras in every city in every country she has been allowed to enter. Her young women, leased or sold by the seke system, are to be found in great hordes in every Oriental city. She rules the commercialized prostitution of the Western oceans. Even in Honolulu and Manila; under the very shadow of the Stars and Stripes, she has established great districts and filled them with not only her own women, but with the women of all the world. Coastline Siberia is overwhelmed with her geisha, her harlots.
Every Japanese passenger ship leaving our American coast is supplied with her publicity propaganda, her advertisements of this great ‘house’ and that great yoshiwara.”
“She is known in the Western world over as ‘The Island of Girls’ for she everywhere from the ‘Picture Bride’ of California, west to ‘Nectarine No. 9’ in Yokohama, from North Siberia south to 55 Gardenia Street, Manila, legalizes and deifies the prostitution of her own and other women. She is the social menace of the Orient, the world, and for the benefit of those who shall read this, the writer, after numerous journeys through Siberian waters, through Japan, China, the Philippines, Australia, and the South Seas, gives out the following information, gathered through six years of patient investigation as a warning of existing conditions in the countries that wash their faces in the lap of the Pacific Ocean America’s slowly but surely back door.” [Jean Turner Zimmermann, MD. The Social Menace of the Orient: White Or Yellow. Volume II. 1921]
We recall this 100-year-old tract by a lady physician for the benefit of the 2nd International Forum on “Sexual Violence and Women’s Human Rights” sponsored by Sungho Kang and the federation of Korean NGOs passionate about Dokdo and other issues of history and peace in East Asia. One panelist, as expected, raises the undying tragic issue of justice for the comfort women (victims of the Nipponese wartime military sexual slavery system).
This systematic atrocity of horrific dimensions had already been adjudicated by the Women’s International War Crimes Tribunal of 04 December 2001 at the Hague in the Netherlands featuring, among others, the indictment of the Philippines that charged Hirohito, Terauchi Hisaichi, Yamashita Tomoyuki, Kuroda Shigenori, Honma Masaharu, and Yoshiharu Iwanaka with crimes against humanity and put on the witness stand Tomasa Salinog, Maxima Regala de la Cruz, Fermina Bulaon de la Pena, Leonor Hernandez Sumawang, Teodora Marin Hernandez, Florencia Macapagal de la Pena, Belen Alonzo Sagum, Caridad Lansangan Turla, Januaria Galang Garcia and Virginia Manalastas Bangit.
The Hague Final Judgment concluded with Item 1094: “This Tribunal intends to honor all the women victimized by Japan’s military sexual slavery system. The Judges recognize the great fortitude and dignity of the survivors who have toiled to survive and reconstruct their shattered lives and who have faced down fear and shame to tell their stories to the world and testify before us. Many of the women who have come forward to fight for justice have died unsung heroes.”
A conclusion of two decades standing. For good measure in the second COVID-19 19 pandemic year, the resolution of the case of the comfort women must now amalgamate with the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action: “The human rights of women and of the girl-child are an inalienable, integral and indivisible part of universal human rights.” [https://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/vienna.aspx]
(1) Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, Adopted and opened for signature, ratification and accession by General Assembly resolution 55/25 of 15 November 2000: “Each State Party shall endeavour to provide for the physical safety of victims of trafficking in persons while they are within its territory.” [https://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/protocoltraffickinginpersons.aspx]
(2) ASEAN Declaration Against Trafficking in Persons Particularly Women and Children: “distinguish victims of trafficking in persons from the perpetrators, and identify the countries of origin and nationalities of such victims and thereafter ensure that such victims are treated humanely”
(3) International Labor Organization on human trafficking: “Women and girls are disproportionately affected by forced labour, accounting for 99% of victims in the commercial sex industry, and 58% in other sectors.” [Global Estimates of Modern Slavery: Forced Labour and Forced Marriage, Geneva, September 2017] [https://www.ilo.org/global/topics/forced-labour/lang–en/index.htm]
(4) Apostolic Letter Mulieris Dignitatem Of The Supreme Pontiff John Paul II On The Dignity And Vocation Of Women On The Occasion Of The Marian Year: “The Church gives thanks for all the manifestations of the feminine ‘genius’ which have appeared in the course of history, in the midst of all peoples and nations; she gives thanks for all the charisms which the Holy Spirit distributes to women in the history of the People of God, for all the victories which she owes to their faith, hope and charity: she gives thanks for all the fruits of feminine holiness.” [https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/apost_letters/1988/documents/hf_jp-ii_apl_19880815_mulieris-dignitatem.html]
All in addition to the 1921 International Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Women and Children. These treaties, however, are dead letters if the victims of Showa Tenno’s wartime military sexual slavery system are denied aid and comfort. Thus, it is good to remind the 2nd International Forum on “Sexual Violence and Women’s Human Rights” (webcast from Seoul) of Pope Francis’ action immediately before his final Mass at the Cathedral of Myeong-dong: the Bishop of Rome prayed with a small number of “comfort women.” [https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-pope-southkorea-idAFKBN0GI05Q20140818]
The Pontiff later expounded: “These women were used, they were enslaved, and these are acts of cruelty…I thought of all this: the dignity which they possess and all that they have suffered. And suffering is a legacy. We say, the early Fathers of the Church said, that the blood of martyrs is the seed of Christians. You Koreans have sowed much, so very much.
Out of fidelity. And now we are seeing the fruit of what the martyrs sowed.” [In-Flight Press Conference Of His Holiness From Korea To Rome, 18 August 2014; https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/speeches/2014/august/documents/papa-francesco_20140818_corea-conferenza-stampa.html]
Sancte Michael Archangele, defende nos in proelio; contra nequitiam et insidias diaboli esto praesidium.
