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AMA Museum: Taiwan’s first base of human rights for comfort women

Taiwan’s “House of Grandmothers – Museum of Peace and Women’s Human Rights (AMA Museum),” which opened in December 2016, displays photos and videos containing the lives of 59 Taiwanese victims of Japanese military’s sexual slavery. Founded as Taiwan’s first base of human rights for comfort women, the museum is also in charge of diverse social education programs, including education on women’s human rights.

The construction of the museum was led by the Taipei Women’s Rescue Foundation, a civilian organization in Taiwan. What prompted the foundation’s interest in Japanese military comfort women was the testimony given by Mrs. Kim Hak-sun. After Kim’s testimony in 1991 revealed the existence of Japanese military comfort women, the foundation began to investigate to see if there were women who suffered similarly in Taiwan, which was also a colony of Japan. In 1992, the foundation discovered documents showing Taiwanese women’s roles as comfort women in brothels and immediately formed a “Comfort Women Team” to carry out investigations on comfort women in Taiwan and to demand compensation from Japan. So far, the foundation has collected 5,042 pieces of historical data, videos, and books and 730 articles related to comfort women while helping to take care of surviving comfort women. The AMA Museum both stores and displays these records. Located on Dihua Street, a street in Taiwan famous for its traditional markets, the museum is easily accessible. There is a lovely coffee shop on the ground floor at the entrance of the museum where visitors can drink tea and buy souvenirs.

“The Song of the Reed,” Strong Vitality and a Story of Life Telling of Love and Courage

Taiwan’s victims of wartime sexual slavery are estimated to be about 2,000. Out of these 2,000 victims, 59 are registered as “comfort women” and only two women over the age of 90 are still alive. The museum was established to play a role in social education, awakening post-war women and reminding them to remember these cruelties at a time in which witnesses who can ask the Japanese government to be responsible are quickly disappearing. The establishment of the museum began with fund-raising in the private sector and eventually materialized after descendants of comfort women took part in the project and directly provided personal support. The screening of the film, “The Song of the Reed,” a movie about comfort women is what powered the fund-raising campaign. In Taiwan, the reed symbolizes comfort women, as a reed is feeble but has strong vitality.

However, the Taiwanese people had different views about Japan despite the fact that they were under Japan’s colonial rule for 50 years after the First Sino-Japanese War. Quite a number of politicians and ordinary people opposed establishing the AMA Museum because the public did not have negative feelings towards Japan. Thus, the foundation faced several road blocks all the way up until the AMA Museum opened. However, the foundation did not give up and tried to publicize stories about these women with a multi-disciplinary approach. The meaning of the term, “Comfort women,” was reestablished through exhibitions, book publications, street demonstrations, seminars, education on campuses, exchanges with international organizations of comfort women, and movies such as “Grandma’s Secret” and “The Song of the Reed.” As a result, “comfort women” not only became a historical noun, but it also resonated across Taiwan as the story of life telling of love and courage.

These Taiwanese comfort women are also pioneers in the women’s rights movement in Taiwan. They supported the movement for themselves and other victims by forgiving themselves under the name of life and love, although they were withering away with the passing of time, stepping forward bravely with hopes and dreams. When the foundation faced difficulties surrounding the selection of the museum’s establishment site, then President Ma Ying-jeou extended a helping hand. During a ceremony in 2015 to celebrate the 70th anniversary of Taiwan’s defeat of Japan, Ma said the museum was not intended “to boast about our triumph over Japan or to point fingers, but rather to meditate on the pain of war and remember how precious peace is.”

AMA Museum Symbolizing International Solidarity

As the AMA Museum is situated in a tourist location, it is frequented by travelers from many European countries, as well as from Korea, China, Japan, and the U.S. While walking through the museum, foreign travelers are often surprised to learn the truth about Japanese military comfort women, as it was not a subject that was taught in their history classes. This demonstrates the AMA Museum’s outstanding efforts to display connections with foreign countries and international solidarity activities when designing the exhibition hall for comfort women. Among the relics on display at the museum are craftworks and donated articles the deceased Taiwanese comfort women made during their lifetimes and data accumulated through exchanges with Korean organizations. The clothes on which, “Recognition of brutalities done to comfort women,” is written are the clothes that were worn by Taiwanese comfort women during protest rallies against the Japanese government when they visited Korea and demonstrate Taiwan’s international solidarity activities with Korea. Since 1992, the Taipei Women’s Rescue Foundation has been demanding for an apology and compensation from the Japanese government, in alliance with support groups in Korea and the Philippines. In 1999, the foundation visited Japan with nine comfort women and sued the Japanese government, but lost the lawsuit in 2005. However, the foundation pushed on undaunted by the Japanese government and applied for a listing of records called, “The Voices of Comfort Women,” with UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register on May 31, 2016 in cooperation with 14 organizations from eight countries, including Korea and China. Out of the 2,744 articles, 271 belong to Taiwan. Taiwan’s data and records include 1) data and fund-raising related to the construction of brothels in Japan’s Hainan Island, 2) stories about comfort stations broadcasted on “Taiwan Daily,” 3) official documents including the voyage permits of comfort women, 4) testimonies and artwork of comfort women, and 5) literature and data related to the human rights processes, lawsuits, and street demonstrations after 1992. UNESCO recognized the importance of this data but is delaying its decision to register the data while recommending dialogue with Japan.

The heads of the AMA Museum, Pan Ching, and the museum’s team leader of exhibition education, Zeng Jingjin, said that art performances are important in the museum’s social education activities and expressed their desire to perform social education activities related to comfort women together with the Northeast Asian History Foundation.