美소녀상 앞 中‧대만할머니 추모제

중국과 대만의 일본군위안부 피해자 할머니들 추모제(追慕祭)가 캘리포니아 글렌데일 평화의 소녀상 앞에서 열렸다.

가주한미포럼이 20일 평화의 소녀상 앞에서 중국의 첸야벤(陈亚扁) 할머니와 천롄화(陳蓮花) 할머니 추모제를 거행했다. 이날 추모제엔 한국과 중국계 커뮤니티 인사들이 참석한 가운데 불교와 기독교식 추모의식이 차례로 진행됐다.

가주한미포럼의 김현정 사무국장은 “두분 할머니는 각기 대만과 중국에서 일본의 야만적인 범죄를 증언하고 이들의 죄악을 폭로하는 활동을 하신 분들”이라며 “지난해 이용수 할머니와 함께 중국과 대만에서 열린 행사에 참석했을 때 직접 뵙고 손 잡아드렸던 할머님들이셨기에 더욱 가슴이 아프다”고 말했다.

김현정 사무국장은 “우리 할머니들 뿐 아니라 중국 할머니, 대만 할머니, 필리핀 할머니, 인도네시아 할머니들이 겪으셨던 끔찍한 일을 기억하고 방지하는 것이 바로 우리 딸들과 손녀들을 위한 일”이라고 지적했다.

김현정 국장은 “문재인 대통령이 일본의 아베총리와의 통화에서 2015년 말 밀실협상을 통해 이루어졌던 한일 합의 파기 내지는 재협상을 시사했다”면서 “이번에는 절대 한일간 양자협상으로 끝내서는 안된다. 위안부 문제는 10여개국 수십만명의 여성들이 피해를 당한 반인륜 전쟁범죄이며 세계여성인권문제인만큼 모든 피해국 피해자들이 해결과정에 포함되어야 한다”고 강조했다.

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Grandma Chen Yabien from China(left) and Grandma Chen Lienhua from Taiwan (right)

Chen Yabien 陈亚扁

1927 – 2017 (May 11, 2017)

Grandma Chen was one of the original litigants against Japan in the lawsuit for justice for the CW. After her death there is only one Chinese CW survivor litigant left. The total number of known CW survivors in china is now less than 20.

Professor Su Zhiliang who researched the Chinese CW issue and founded the CW Museum in Nanjing and Shanghai helped coordinate her funeral according to her minority tradition.

Chen Lien-hua 陳蓮花

1924 - 2017 (April 20, 2017)

Chen Lien-hua (陳蓮花), one of three known surviving former “comfort women” in Taiwan, died of intestinal infection on Thursday (Apr 20, 2017) at the age of 93, said the Taipei Women’s Rescue Foundation, a group that advocates for the rights of former World War II comfort women.

Born in Taiwan in 1924, Chen was given up for adoption and from a young age worked at a factory. When she was 19, a Japanese person came to the factory under the guise of recruiting “caregivers” and took more than 20 women, including Chen, by boat to the Philippines.

After arriving in the Philippines she and the other women were forced into “sexual slavery” for Japanese soldiers. After nearly two years in the Philippines, she was one of only two of the more than 20 Taiwanese women taken as comfort women who returned to Taiwan alive, the foundation said.

Chen married a Taiwanese man she met in the Philippines, who was a Japanese Imperial Army soldier.

Chen was initially reluctant to tell people her story for fear of being shamed, but later she agreed to help the foundation and others raise awareness about this often overlooked period in history.

She said she was touched by the care and support shown to her by social workers and others working for redress and fighting for justice for the women.

Chen often attended public activities to tell her story and criticize the then-Japanese military’s inhumane treatment and urge the Japanese government to apologize.

In December last year she attended the opening ceremony of the Ama Museum.

“Seeing all of you with so much love in your heart, taking care of Amas; I am really grateful,” she said at the ceremony.

Ama means “grandma” or “elderly woman” in Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese).

However, as she predicted, Chen did not receive an apology from the Japanese government for her sexual slavery, the foundation said on Friday.

She told international media with tears in her eyes: “We are very old. We may be long gone when Japan is happy enough to make compensation.”

The last two known Taiwanese surviving former comfort women are Aborigines who live in Hualien County, the foundation said.