Permanent exhibition

Area A "Meet the Young Grandmas"

After getting to know the grandmothers, I hope everyone can understand that what happened to an ordinary young woman back then was a major event that changed her life. The main way to recruit "comfort women" in Taiwan is through brokers and labor camps (district offices). In the name of recruiting caregivers, canteen workers, etc., economically disadvantaged women are recruited to go to third places such as Southeast Asia and China; while most of the indigenous women Being asked by the police to go to caves or camps where the army is stationed, as a sexual outlet.

("Comfort women" recruitment advertisement, published by a "comfort station" operator in the "Main Shinbo", the official newspaper of the North Korean Governor-General's Office, on October 27, 1944.)

◎Deception into employment

Many women are deceived by sending advertisements or brokers to restaurants, teahouses, hotels, canteens, hospitals, youth service groups and other places to lure and defraud them with words about job types and content that are inconsistent with the facts, and high wages for overseas employment.

◎Forced collection

Taiwan's military department uses military camps to recruit people in various jurisdictions, from people's homes, or to recruit young Taiwanese women in the name of "serving the public," and use them as waiters serving food in canteens opened by the military department, and as performers who do not sell themselves. Or in the name of nurses, they are deceitfully encouraged to work overseas. Once they arrived at their destination, they discovered that the job content was different from what they had been told. They could only be forced to work as "comfort women" and wait for the boss of the "comfort station" to agree to release them before they could leave.

◎Coercion

During the Japanese colonial period, the police managed the indigenous tribes. The police first required women to go to the army to do laundry, cooking, cleaning, etc., and then asked the women to go elsewhere in the evening or at night to be raped by the Japanese army. Some Hokkien and Hakka grandmothers were sold by their adoptive parents, relatives, and shopkeepers, and were forced to be sent to "comfort stations."

◎Official irrefutable evidence

During the Second World War, in order to "win" the jihad and dominate East Asia, the Japanese government combined officials, military, military, police, industry, etc. to use state machinery in a planned and organized manner to recruit Japanese, Korean, and Taiwanese soldiers through deception, abduction, or coercion. Young women with disadvantaged social and economic status in China, Southeast Asia and other places were sent to work in third places and became sexual slaves of the Japanese army.

In February 1992, Ms. Hideko Ito, a former member of the Japanese House of Representatives, discovered three telegrams from the library of the Japan Defense Agency Research Institute, confirming that Taiwanese women had been sent to the frontline troops as "comfort women" during World War II. ”.

(On March 12, Showa 17 (1942 AD), the Japanese commander of the Taiwan Army dispatched 50 additional "comfort" natives to Sarawak of Borneo at the request of the Southern General Army, and requested Japan The War Department issued the ferry certificate, which was approved four days later.)

Area C "We are them"

They are survivors of sexual violence and our “grandmas.”

When the Pacific War broke out in 1941, the Japanese colony of Taiwan was involved in the war. A group of young women were recruited and taken to the battlefield as "comfort women." It is estimated that at least 2,000 people were victims.

The Women's Aid Society calls the "comfort women" survivors we serve with "grandma" because, on the one hand, when the historical facts of "comfort women" were exposed in the 1990s, most of these survivors were already in their 60s and 70s; On the other hand, in addition to being victims of sexual violence during World War II, they are actually ordinary Taiwanese grandmothers who have many joys, sorrows, and joys in life, and possess the gentle and strong characteristics of early Taiwanese women.

◎Body scars

During wartime sexual slavery, the grandmothers experienced being raped, injured with knives or guns, threatened, intimidated, locked up, having their private parts washed with disinfectant, aborted, self-harmed, and living as slaves in a foreign land. The physical and mental stress, coupled with the various dangers faced by the grandmothers on their way back to Taiwan after the war, resulted in physical injuries and permanent consequences for the grandmothers.

(This is the abdominal scar left by Grandma Da Tao after a bomb attack in Indonesia. As the first Taiwanese comfort woman to publicly accuse the Japanese military of atrocities, Grandma Da Tao bravely let the world see the scars on her heart.)

◎Psychological scars

During the period of sexual slavery, the shock of being deceived, the fear of sexual violence, the threat of violence and life, excessive sexual exploitation, etc. caused learned helplessness and physical and mental trauma. Many grandmas’ beautiful memories and futures were changed from the moment of rape. Stop as soon as you start.

◎Listen to grandma

Grandma’s stories allow us to better understand the life course of “comfort women” survivors. Each grandma has a unique life story. Through their stories, we can understand their resilience and strength in facing this stage in their lives.

Area D "Resilience in the face of discrimination"

(Dream Fulfillment Plan – Flight Attendant: “I hope I can have the opportunity to be a flight attendant in my next life!” – Grandma Xiumei

"Flight attendant" represents the symbol of "education, ability, and freedom" to Xiumei's grandma. With the assistance of China Airlines, employees from the Women's Aid Association served as passengers, allowing the 93-year-old grandma Xiumei to experience being a flight attendant for a day, and successfully realized her dream. )