Home // March 5th-9th 2007 > Japanese denial unbelievable, "comfort woman" says

Make Text Larger Make Text Smaller Email this Article to a Friend Print this Article

Japanese denial unbelievable, "comfort woman" says

Adelaide Catholic grandmother, Jan Ruff-O'Herne, who was raped "day and night" by Japanese soldiers during World War II, has described a statement by the Japanese Prime Minister denying the existence of wartime sex slavery as "unbelievable" and an attempt to avoid paying compensation.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told his country's parliament in Tokyo that there was no evidence the military coerced women in the strict sense - such as kidnapping - into serving in the brothels, the Australian reports.

But Ms Ruff O'Herne, 84, who told her story this month in Adelaide's Southern Cross Catholic paper, says that she was one of the thousands of women interned in brothels as prostitutes, known as "comfort women", for Japanese soldiers during the war.


She testified last month at a US House of Representatives hearing in Washington that she had been raped "day and night" for three months by soldiers when she was just 19.

However, according to Mr Abe, none of the testimony in hearings last month by the US House of Representatives offered any solid proof of abuse and the Government would not apologise even if the US demanded it do so.

Ms O'Herne, who received the Dame Commander of the Order of St Sylvester in 2002 from the Pope for her Christian virtue and faith, said the Japanese did not want to pay compensation to victims and wanted to rewrite history.

"I am terribly disappointed that they are trying to deny it all - it is unbelievable," she said.

"I always had hope and trust in the honour of the Japanese Government to own up to what they did and teach the next generation.

"Everyone knows that it happened - but they are denying it," Ms O'Herne says.

Ms O'Herne said she had forgiven but would never forget the atrocities committed against her.


SOURCE
Japanese denial upsets 'comfort woman' (The Australian, 6/3/07)

LINKS (not necessarily endorsed by Church Resources)
The Forgotten Ones (Australian Story, ABC)
Archdiocese of Adelaide
Comfort women (Wikipedia)
50 Years of Silence (Documentary by Ned Lander)
50 Years of Silence by Jan Ruff O'Herne (Amazon.com)

ARCHIVE
Adelaide "comfort woman" seeks Japan apology (CathNews, 1/3/07)
Long road to justice for Japan's WWII "comfort women" (CathNews, 14/2/07)
Papal honour for war rape heroine (CathNews, 9/12/02)
Papal honour for Adelaide human rights advocate (CathNews, 23/7/02)


6 Mar 2007

 

Response to articles is welcome. Simply follow the prompts to post your comment. No posting of more than 250 words will be published. While critical comment on stories and issues is welcomed, postings that descend to personal attacks on or impugn the integrity of other commentators will be blocked. Please use your own name, or initials, eg John Brown, or JB, or JAB, or Johnny. You are also required to add your location to the end of your email - as in, Sunshine, Victoria. Please provide your email address in the line supplied, followed by your contact phone number. These are requested for identification purposes only and will not be published. If you have any problems, please email news@cathnews.com

^ Page Top

Bookmark and Share

More from this section

  1. Former Jesuit worker among Indonesia crash victims

    Former Jesuit Refugee Service worker and King Cross, Sydney's parishioner, Liz O'Neill, is believed to have died in Wednesday's plane crash at Indonesia's Yogyakarta airport, rescuers say.

  2. Women bear brunt of exploitation: Vatican

    The Holy See's permanent observer, Archbishop Celestino Migliore, told the United Nations last week that women "bear the brunt of the world's child prostitution, sexual exploitation, abuse, domestic violence, child labour and human trafficking".

  3. Women chip at Vatican glass ceiling

    Although there are still few women working at the highest levels of the Holy See hierarchy, the percentage of women working in Vatican offices has nearly doubled from 11 to 21 per cent since the beginning of John Paul II's pontificate.

  4. Christians lack imagination, Vatican media archbishop says

    Christians have often "lacked the imagination" to use the media well in making known the good news of Jesus Christ, according to the President of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, Archbishop John P Foley.

  5. Pope finds his Nycz

    Acting quickly in the wake of the resignation before his installation of Warsaw archbishop Stanislaw Wielgus, Pope Benedict has named Bishop Kazimierz Nycz as his replacement.

Church Resources provides a range of services for the Church and not-for-profit sector, including aggregating buying power for a wide range of products and services used by health, welfare, aged care, education and parish organisations. More »
Subscribe

Receive CathNews headlines in your inbox daily.

News Feed

Subscribe to the CathNews RSS feed to get the daily edition automatically delivered to you.

Daily Prayer

Gospel Verse for 27 October 2010
"...some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last." [Luke 13:30]

View Podcast