On March 7, 60 people joined with three "comfort women" survivors — Jan Ruff O'Herne AO, Hsie Mei Wu and Gil Won Ok, from Australia, Taiwan and Korea — outside the Japanese Consulate in Martin Place.
The rally was part of the Justice for Comfort Women global protest to demand justice for the remaining survivors of an estimated 200,000 women who were forced into sexual slavery during World War II. The women were continually raped, beaten and tortured by the Japanese military.
A letter and petition was presented to a representative of the Japanese consulate. Speakers including the Friends of "Comfort Women" in Australia (FCWA) and Greens Senator Kerry Nettle addressed the protest and union, community and church groups were present.
For the past 16 years, the surviving women and supporters have protested every Wednesday outside the Japanese embassy in Seoul demanding an official apology from the Japanese government, the payment of reparations, a commitment not to ever sexually enslave women during a war, and an honest approach to educating students at school about "comfort women".
Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe continues to deny Japanese government involvement in the military brothels and has said his country will refuse to apologise, even if a resolution currently before the US Congress calling for an apology is passed.
While Abe has recommitted Japan to a 1993 statement that accepted the Japanese military had played a part in the setting up and management of wartime brothels, he was recently quoted as saying there was no evidence to back claims of coercion of comfort women despite overwhelming evidence.
"I'll forgive, but I cannot forget", Australian survivor Ruff O'Herne told the protest. "This is about the wrongs of the past and not about Japan."
[FCWA, which formed in August 2006, is calling for protest messages to be sent to the Japanese government, with copies sent to <fcw@australia@hotmail.com> or PO Box 54, Strathfield NSW 2135.]