Excellency,
Self reflection and compassion are the main elements in coping with the past and looking forward to the future. The role of politicians as elected representatives in this process is essential. The Dutch victims of the brutal and cruel occupation of Dutch East Indies expect that Japan accept the moral obligations stemming from the Japanese Military misconduct. We are amazed that present Japanese politicians do not understand that they have this obligation and allow Japanese diplomatic officials to tell other diplomats in Geneva “to shut up”. Other officials are allowed to make outrageous statements about the necessity of Comfort Women for the Japanese soldiers without strong condemnation by you. And then the latest scandal of funds set aside to help earthquake, tsunami and nuclear victims, to which Dutch nationals contributed substantially. Some of these contributions appear to be allocated to Japanese power companies. Your order to re-examine the spending of the disaster budget demonstrate that you take self reflection and compassion seriously. (meer…)
De conferentie waar ongeveer 85 mensen uit 9 landen aanwezig waren begon op zaterdagavond 8 december met een welkomstdiner met zang en dans van de organisatie en de gasten.
Als eregasten waren die avond 5 comfort women of troostmeisjes aanwezig, 3 uit Taiwan, 1 uit de Filipijnen en 1 uit Zuid Korea plus 2 dochters van comfort women, 1 uit China en 1 uit Taiwan. (meer…)