(30 May 1997) English/Nat
Former World War Two Filipino sex slaves picketed the Japanese Embassy in Manila on Thursday.
They were protesting at recent calls in Japan to delete accounts of wartime atrocities from school textbooks.
The women, who were forced into sexual slavery, say this is another example of Japan's refusal to face its legal and moral responsibility.
These former "comfort women" re-enacted their suffering by Japanese soldiers during a play staged outside the Japanese Embassy in Manila.
About 30 of the former Filipino sex slaves gathered to protest against calls in Japan to delete textbook accounts of the wartime atrocities by the Japanese Imperial army.
Several groups in Japan have called for the removal of references to sexual slavery that were introduced to textbooks last year.
They claim there is no evidence the women were taken by force.
Japan's Ministry of Education so far has ruled out any such changes to the textbooks.
But the group said the efforts to delete the references are another example of Japan's refusal to face its legal and moral responsibility to the victims.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"To insist, to insist that the comfort women do not exist, to deny their existence and pain and suffering...insisting that the comfort women should not be included in the telling of Japan's history is a great injury to the dignity and violation to the women's human rights. Deleting the initial descriptions of comfort women in textbooks taught to junior high school Japanese students means keeping younger generations of Japanese in ignorance of their country's true history and perpetuating the glorification of Japan's wartime aggression and racial discrimination against the women and peoples of Asia."
SUPER CAPTION: Nelia Sancho, Co-ordinator Lila Pilipina (Comfort Women's pressure group)
Historians say about 200-thousand Asian women were forced to work in military-run brothels for Japanese troops during the war.
Until several years ago, the Japanese government denied being involved with the brothels.
Of 169 Filipino sex slaves documented by Lila Pilipina, more than half were under 20 years old when taken by Japanese troops.
At least eight have accepted compensation payments of 18-thousand-600 dollars (d) from a private Japanese fund, and three more have applied to accept the money.
But the group says the amount cannot substitute for state compensation.
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