Petition # 312: Stop denying the Japanese “Comfort Woman” system.

Petition # 312: Stop denying the Japanese “Comfort Woman” system.

Petition # 312: Stop denying the Japanese “Comfort Woman” system.

His Excellency Yoshihide Suga, 
Prime Minister of Japan                                                                                                 

The Hague, 10 November 2020 
Petition: 312
Subject: Stop denying the Japanese “Comfort Women” system.

Excellency, 
In these difficult Corona times, it is hard to consider the war history of Japan. Nevertheless the Corona situation, the government of Japan must stop its policy denying the truth about the Comfort Women system. Despite the Japanese denials, the testimony of the survivors must be honored globally to avoid recurrence. Statues of Comfort Women remind the world of the truth of these Japanese war crimes.  It is an outrage that representatives of the Japanese government ordered the removal of the Comfort Women Memorial in Berlin, Germany. The Japanese government must stop these actions immediately. We are pleased that the German government rejected the request to remove the statue. The Japanese government, and in particular you, are familiar with the facts that during World War Two Dutch women and girls were abducted from the concentration camps and sexually enslaved as Comfort Women by the Japanese military during their occupation of Dutch East Indies! 

Prime Minister,
The Foundation of Japanese Honorary Debts supports actively the joint nomination of the original testimony documents by Dutch Comfort Women held by the Foundation on the International Memory of the World Register of the UNESCO. The government of Japan objects to this registration denying the Comfort Women system during World War Two applied by the Japanse military in Dutch East Indies. The historic memory of Comfort Women matters. We strongly urge you and your government to stop disrupting the proposal of the Committee for Joint Nomination of the documents on the Japanese Military “Comfort Women” to the UNESCO International Memory of the World Register. Thus, saving the memory of the Comfort Women.

Prime Minister,
I will be sending a copy of this petition to the Chair of the Second Chamber of the Dutch Parliament.

On behalf of the Foundation of Japanese Honorary Debts.

J.F. van Wagtendonk
President.

Cc Mevrouw K. Arib, voorzitter Tweede Kamer der Staten-Generaal.