Rallying for ‘comfort women’

torstar news service

Cardinal Ambrozic Catholic Secondary School students, from left, Simona Addario, 15, Nana Barimayena, 16, and Falan Bennett, 16, are pictured with history teacher Charles Leskun. They are part of a group going to rally outside the Japanese embassy in Ottawa to push the Japanese government to apologize for using 200,000 women as sexual slaves for soldiers during the Second World War.

Published: December 13, 2011 5:45 a.m.

Last modified: December 13, 2011 7:53 a.m.

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Two weeks ago, Grade 11 student Falan Bennett had never heard of “comfort women,” the cruel label Japanese soldiers used for the 200,000 young Asian girls they turned into sex slaves during the Second World War.

But a gritty history lesson last week at her Brampton high school has sparked an outrage the 16-year-old will take to Ottawa tomorrow on an unusual school trip to witness the largest peace-time protest ever held outside the Japanese embassy; a bid to pressure the Japanese government to apologize for its crimes against these women.

“They were kidnapped right off the street and raped up to 30 times a day and in most cases it ruined their lives,” said Bennett.

Bennett is one of 130 students from Cardinal Ambrozic Catholic Secondary School who will join nearly 200 Toronto teachers, school trustees and social justice advocates — plus 100 more from Ottawa — to present a written request to the embassy. On the same day, some of the frail, remaining “comfort women” will make their 1,000th consecutive weekly appearance since 1992 outside the Japanese embassy in Seoul, South Korea, to demand the same apology from the Japanese government.

“I would like to see them get an apology; it would at least comfort their soul,” said Bennett’s classmate Nana Barimayena, 16, a Grade 11 student who also will go to Ottawa.

The Canadian government urged Japan in 2007 to apologize for the practice. Numerous countries have also made the same request, but to date the Japanese government has not admitted to having ever set up the grisly “comfort station” shacks for Japanese soldiers to use near the front lines.

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