justice matters

Rita has been working on a campaign to urge the Japanese government to apologize to the Korean, Chinese, Filipina, Burmese, Indonesian and Dutch women and children who were forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese Army during WWII. Women and children as young as twelve were held at "comfort stations," raped and tortured and forced to have sex with up to 40 Japanese soldiers a day. The Japanese government does not acknowledge or take responsibility for these horrors. Canada and the US, along with 46 allied countries signed a peace agreement in 1951 absolving Japan of having to pay reparations for the war. This agreement is used now as a way for the Japanese government and courts to avoid responsibility for the abuse of the "comfort women." China and Korea were not signatories of that treaty. ie. Our silence is a kind of complicity.

Olivia Chow has recently tabled a motion for the Canadian government to urge the Japanese government to apologize to the survivors. You can do something by encouraging your MP to vote for Motion 291.

The motion itself and more details here:
http://www.alpha-canada.org/