07/03/11 03:09:32 oVDX1yCv
EDITORIAL / Asian Woman's Fund based on distortions
2005.02.06 THE DAILY YOMIURI/February 06, 2005, Sunday/No. 4
What was the purpose of establishing the Asian Women's Fund?
The government-authorized corporation has been in operation for about 10 years, mainly with
the aim of providing allowances for purported former comfort women in other Asian countries.
The corporation, which has nearly completed its mission, will be disbanded in two years.
The corporation was established in 1995. It has since collected about 600 million yen in
donations from Japanese, and has given 285 purported former comfort women in South Korea,
Taiwan and the Philippines 2 million yen each.
It should be noted, however, that a major driving force behind the establishment of the fund
was an attempt by some quarters of society to misrepresent historical facts on the purported
former comfort women.
For example, some newspapers campaigned to convince the public that the system created to form
corps of women volunteers eager to contribute to the war effort during World War II was an
attempt by the Imperial Japanese Army to forcibly recruit women as comfort women. This did
much to ensure the mistaken perception both at home and abroad that the women who worked at
brothels had been forced to do so by the Imperial Army after being forcibly transported to
such facilities for sexual servitude. The campaign aroused a sensational reaction, especially
among South Koreans.