woensdag 8 mei 2013

UN report on Contemporary Forms of Slavery

Contemporary Forms Of Slavery, Systematic rape, sexual slavery and slavery-like practices
during armed conflict. Final report submitted by Ms. Gay J. McDougall, Special Rapporteur, UN Economic and Social Council, E/CN.4/Sub.2/1998/13, 22 June 1998, available here.

maandag 6 mei 2013

Tokyo Tribunal 2000

After the Second World War, sexual violence committed by the Japanese Imperial Army was hardly prosecuted by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East (The Far East Tribunal) as set-up by the Allied Forces. An exception was the Batavia (Indonesia) Trial where the case of 35 Dutch women who had been victimized in Indonesia, brought their case against 12 Japanese Army officers at the Batavia court. Charges were made on the grounds of having committed war crimes and in defiance of the laws and customs of war, in the Dutch East Indies in 1944. One of the accused was condemned to death and others were sentenced to imprisonment ranging from two to 15 years. That was the only trial in history that gave justice to the comfort women. Today most of the comfort women are still denied of such justice.

"Toward the Tokyo Tribunal 2000 & Public Hearing on Crimes Against Women", A Primer On The Women's International War Crimes Tribunal and Public Hearing On Crimes Against  Women In Recent Wars And Conflicts, Japan December 8-12, 2000, Tokyo, Japan, available here.

Sarah Soh on Batavia trial

"Nonetheless, among the approximately fifty military tribunals convened at various Asian locales between 1945 and 1951, only one tribunal, conducted by the Dutch in Batavia (today's Jakarta), meted out stern punishments (including one execution) to Japanese officers who forced Dutch women into sexual servitude. The Batavia trial thus recognized the "forced prostitution" (to use the Dutch government's terminology) of thirty-five Dutch women as a war crime. However, it ignored similar suffering by a much greater number of native women in Indonesia, not to mention female victims in other Asian countries. What, then, is the meaning of the Batavia trial for the comfort women issue? Obviously, it was the action of a victorious nation-state protecting the human rights and personal security of its nationals in a colonial setting as a matter of national interest. It underscores the common deprivation of human rights of people under colonial rule."

C. Sarah Soh, Japan's Responsibility Toward Comfort Women Survivors, JPRI Working Paper No. 77, May 2001, available here.

woensdag 1 mei 2013

Japan's Comfort Women, Sexual slavery during World War II and the US occupation

Yuki Tanaka, Japan's Comfort Women, Sexual slavery during World War II and the US occupation, Routledge, 2002, availabe here.

Includes:
Comfort women in the Dutch East Indies (p 61)
Japan’s invasion of the Dutch East Indies and military violence against women (p 61)
Exploitation of existing prostitutes by the Japanese troops (p 64)
Procurement of Dutch women (p 67)
Enforced prostitution at comfort stations in Semarang (p 72) 
The Dutch military authorities' indifference towards Indonesian comfort women (p 77)

Trial of Washio Awochi

Case No. 76, Trial of Washio Awochi, Netherlands Temporary Court-Martial at Batavia (Judgement delivered on 25th October, 1946) in Law Reports of Trials of War Criminals, United Nations War Crimes Commission, Wm. S. Hein Publishing, 1 Nov, 1997, p 122-125, available here.

This book article includes:
A. Outline of the procedeedings
1. The charge
2. The evidence
3. The defence of the accused
4. The judgment
B. Notes on the case
1. The court
2. Nature of the offence
3. Personal guilt of the accused

Also relevant is
Bert Immerzeel, De 'service girls' van de Sakuraclub, Java Post, available here.