Chinese "comfort woman" to testify at Japanese court
( 2001-07-09 13:55 ) (8 )

Guo Xicui, a 74-year-old woman who was forced to be a sex slave for Japanese soldiers during World War II, was scheduled to leave for Japan Monday to serve as a court witness.

It will be the 18th session held in a Japanese court since Guo and several other former war victims lodged an appeal in 1995.

Guo, a native of Gaozhuang Village in Yuxian County in north China's Shanxi Province, was captured by Japanese invaders in 1943 and became a so-called comfort woman at the age of 16. The nightmare lasted for almost one year before she finally fled into the mountains and lived in seclusion for years.

The victims asked Japan, the defendant, to make an apology and compensate each of them with 20 million Japanese yen. With the help of Chinese lawyers, the Japanese lawyers who were entrusted to conduct the proceeding have submitted to the court a great deal of evidence to prove the crimes the Japanese military committed during World War II in China.

However, the local court in Tokyo dismissed the suit on May 30, 2001, saying that an individual has no right to sue a country for compensation.

The All-China Lawyers' Association, All-China Women's Federation, and China Foundation for Human Rights Development then voiced their strong support for the Chinese war victims and promised to help safeguard their legal rights and interests.

Tears can never rinse off the long period of torture that Guo suffered. She will be a representative witness in the court.

"I must be there for justice," said a tearful Guo when looking at her eldest daughter who is in a late stage of cancer.

According to historians, hundreds of thousands of women were forced to be comfort women" in the 1930s and 1940s when Japan launched wars of aggression against other Asian countries.

In April, 2001, the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology approved eight new middle school history textbooks which glossed over or beautified atrocities committed by the Japanese troops.

Some Japanese publishing companies began selling the distorted-history textbooks early last month.

The history textbook issue has evoked strong indignation and reactions from the international community, especially from former war victim countries, such as China, the Republic of Korea, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, and the Philippines.