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A war crime is a violation of the laws of war that gives rise to individual criminal responsibility for actions by the combatants, such as intentionally killing civilians or intentionally killing prisoners of war; torture; taking hostages; unnecessarily destroying civilian property; deception by perfidy; rape; pillaging; the conscription of child soldiers; the granting of no quarter, despite surrender; and flouting the legal distinctions of proportionality and military necessity.
Crimes against humanity are certain acts that are purposefully committed as part of a widespread or systematic policy, directed against civilians, in times of war or peace. They differ from war crimes because they are not isolated acts committed by individual soldiers but are acts committed in furtherance of a state or organizational policy. The first prosecution for crimes against humanity took place at the Nuremberg trials. Initially being considered for legal use, widely in International Law, following the Holocaust a global standard of human rights was articulated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948). Political groups or states that violate or incite violation of human rights norms, as found in the Declaration, are an expression of the political pathologies associated with crimes against humanity.
Sexual slavery and sexual exploitation is attaching the right of ownership over one or more people with the intent of coercing or otherwise forcing them to engage in sexual activities. This includes forced labor, reducing a person to a servile status and sex trafficking persons, such as the sexual trafficking of children.
Comfort women or comfort girls were women and girls forced into sexual slavery by the Imperial Japanese Army in occupied countries and territories before and during World War II. The name "comfort women" is a translation of the Japanese ianfu (慰安婦), a euphemism for "prostitutes".
War crimes were committed by the Empire of Japan in many Asian-Pacific countries during the period of Japanese imperialism, primarily during the Second Sino-Japanese and Pacific Wars. These incidents have been described as an "Asian Holocaust", but this characterization of Japanese war crimes has been challenged by scholars on the basis of the unique features of the Holocaust. Some war crimes were committed by Japanese military personnel during the late 19th century, but most of them were committed during the first part of the Shōwa era, the name which was given to the reign of Emperor Hirohito.
Forced prostitution, also known as involuntary prostitution or compulsory prostitution, is prostitution or sexual slavery that takes place as a result of coercion by a third party. The terms "forced prostitution" or "enforced prostitution" appear in international and humanitarian conventions such as the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court but have been insufficiently understood and inconsistently applied. "Forced prostitution" refers to conditions of control over a person who is coerced by another to engage in sexual activity.
Global Alliance For Preserving the History of WWII in Asia is a non-profit, non-partisan federation of over 40 grassroots organizations dedicated to the remembrance, redress and reconciliation concerning World War II in Asia, also known as the Pacific War. It is concerned about crimes committed by the Imperial Japanese Army and issues related to them such as the Nanjing Massacre, Unit 731, Comfort women, Prisoners of War and Forced Labor. It aims to bring together such groups electronically, organizationally, and personally. This federation has become increasingly recognized as the leading organization safeguarding humanity and international justice with relation to World War II in Asia and the Pacific and its aftermath. It is also the first organization of its kind since previous similar groups were only focused on one or some aspects of the war.
Wartime sexual violence is rape or other forms of sexual violence committed by combatants during armed conflict, war, or military occupation often as spoils of war; but sometimes, particularly in ethnic conflict, the phenomenon has broader sociological motives. Wartime sexual violence may also include gang rape and rape with objects. It is distinguished from sexual harassment, sexual assaults, and rape committed amongst troops in military service.
Within Every Woman is a documentary film by Tiffany Hsiung, depicting war crimes committed by the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II in Asia. It documents the systematic rape of over 200,000 young girls between the ages of nine and twenty-years-old during World War II in Asia. These atrocities and war crimes occurred between 1931 and 1945; however, to this day, the Japanese government has not offered an official apology and many survivors still hide their shame.
Kim Hak-sun (1924–1997) was a Korean human rights activist who campaigned against sex slavery and wartime sexual violence. Ms. Kim was one of the victims who had been forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese Imperial Army between the early 1930s up until the end of the Pacific War. She is the first woman in Korea to come forward publicly and testify her experience as a Japanese military's comfort woman. Her testimony was made on 14 August 1991. In December 1991, she filed a class-action lawsuit against the Japanese government for the damages inflicted during the war. She was the first of what would become hundreds of women from Korea, China, Taiwan, the Philippines, Indonesia, and the Netherlands who came forward to tell their stories of their enslavement to the Imperial Japanese military. She was inspired to finally take her story public after 40 years of silence by the growth of the women's rights movement in South Korea. Kim passed away in 1997 and her court case was still ongoing.
Wednesday demonstration, officially named Wednesday Demonstration demanding Japan to redress the Comfort Women problems, is a weekly protest in Korea which aims at obtaining justice from the Japanese government regarding the large scale sexual slavery system established under Imperial Japan rule during World War II. The weekly protest is held in the presence of surviving comfort women on every Wednesday at noon in front of the Embassy of Japan in Seoul.
Yayori Matsui was a Japanese journalist and women's rights activist noted for her work to raise awareness of sex slaves and sex tourism in post-war Asia. In 1961 she began work as a journalist for the newspaper Asahi Shimbun, retiring in 1994 to work as a full-time social activist, founding numerous women's organizations and writing on gender inequality in Japan and on sex crimes committed by the Japanese Imperial Army, namely against the comfort women of the Second World War. Her work culminated in the 2000 Tokyo Women's War Crimes Tribunal, a tribunal held to gain some form of justice for the victims of Japanese military sexual slavery.
The World Courts of Women are public hearings that give a forum to those who are traditionally excluded from formal political and legal proceedings. Organized around particular topics relevant to the hosting country, these unofficial public enquiries highlight the injustices that women face. They include testimonies of personal experience, analyses by scholars and activists, and skill-sharing and strategizing. Through these, the World Courts aim to educate and raise awareness, record injustice and human rights violations, give voice to marginalized women, and develop alternative visions and strategies for the future.
Genocidal rape is the action of a group which has carried out acts of mass rape and gang rapes, against its enemy during wartime as part of a genocidal campaign. During the second Sino-Japanese war, The Holocaust, Bangladesh Liberation War, the Yugoslav Wars, the Rwandan genocide, the Congolese conflicts, the Iraqi Civil War, South Sudanese Civil War, the Rohingya genocide, and the Uyghur genocide, the mass rapes that had been an integral part of those conflicts brought the concept of genocidal rape to international prominence. Although war rape has been a recurrent feature in conflicts throughout human history, it has usually been looked upon as a by-product of conflict, and not an integral part of military policy.
Chunghee Sarah Soh or Sarah Soh is a Korean-American professor of Anthropology at San Francisco State University. She is a sociocultural anthropologist who specializes in issues of women, gender, sexuality.
The Bahay na Pula is a former hacienda in San Ildefonso, Bulacan in the Philippines. The site is remembered for the mass rapes and murders committed by the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II. The Japanese military murdered all of the men and boys in Mapaniqui, Pampanga, and forced over 100 women and girls into sexual slavery, confining and raping them in the Red House.
The Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan is a Korean non-governmental organization advocating the rights of the surviving comfort women and lobbying the Japanese government to take actions of a full apology and compensation.
Kim Soon-duk (1921–2004), also known as Kim Tŏk-chin, was a Korean comfort woman who became one of the best-known survivors due to her vivid paintings that depicted life as 'comfort women.' She participated in movements against sex slavery including the Wednesday Demonstration. She also travelled abroad to attend exhibits that displayed her paintings, participated in international speaking tours, and testified about her experiences.
The People's Tribunal on War Crimes by South Korean Troops during the Vietnam War was a citizen's tribunal organised by South Korean social organizations including Minbyun, Korea-Vietnam Peace Foundation, The Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan during 21–22 April 2018.
Gil Won-ok, also known as Grandma Gil, is an activist and former Korean comfort woman who has dedicated her life to demanding redress and an official apology from Japan for the military sexual violence that affected over 200,000 women during World War II.
References
- 1 2 Nakamura, Akemi (2008-06-13). "NHK censorship ruling reversed". The Japan Times .
- ↑ Philip Brasor (2001-12-04). "Did NHK balk at covering war tribunal?". The Japan Times Online. Retrieved 2008-03-22.
- ↑ International Organizing Committee for the Women's International War Crimes Tribunal (2001-12-04). "The Hague Final Judgment" (PDF). Violence Against Women in War-Network Japan. pp. 280 of 312. Retrieved 2008-03-22.