ACR159

Sponsored by:

Assemblyman GORDON M. JOHNSON

District 37 (Bergen)

Assemblywoman CONNIE WAGNER

District 38 (Bergen and Passaic)

SYNOPSIS

Commemorates suffering endured by comfort women during forced internment in Japanese military camps.

CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT

As introduced.

A Concurrent Resolution commemorating the suffering endured by comfort women during their forced internment in Japanese military camps.

Whereas, The term "comfort women" is a euphemism used by the Japanese government to describe women forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese army between 1932 and 1945; and

Whereas, The majority of "comfort women" were of Korean or Chinese descent but women from Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Australia, and the Netherlands were also interned in military comfort stations run directly by the Japanese army or by private agents working for the army; and

Whereas, Some of the women were sold to the comfort stations as minors, others were deceptively recruited by middlemen with the promise of employment and financial security, and still others were forcibly kidnapped and sent to "work" for soldiers stationed throughout the Japanese occupied territories; and

Whereas, Lack of official documentation, most destroyed on the orders of the Japanese government after World War II, has made it difficult to estimate the total number of comfort women; most historians and media sources approximate that about 200,000 young women were recruited or kidnapped by soldiers to serve in Japanese military brothels; and

Whereas, Approximately three-quarters of the comfort women have died as a direct result of the brutality inflicted on them during their internment. Those who survived were left infertile due to sexual violence or sexually transmitted diseases and many are now dying without proper acknowledgment by the Japanese government of the suffering they endured during their forced internment in military comfort stations; and

Whereas, It is fitting for this House to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the passage by the United States House of Representatives of H.R.121 that called upon the Japanese government to accept historical responsibility for the sexual enslavement of comfort women by the Japanese army and educate future generations about these crimes; now, therefore,

Be It Resolved by the General Assembly of the State of New Jersey (the Senate concurring):

1. The General Assembly commemorates and supports comfort women in their fight for proper acknowledgement by the Japanese government of the suffering they endured during their forced internment in military comfort stations and calls upon the Japanese government to accept historical responsibility for the sexual enslavement of comfort women by the Japanese army and educate future generations about these crimes.

2. Duly authenticated copies of this resolution, signed by the Speaker of the General Assembly and attested by the Clerk of the General Assembly and signed by the President of the Senate and attested by the Secretary of the Senate, shall be transmitted to the Embassy of the Republic of Korea in the United States, the Mayor and Council President of Palisades Park, New Jersey, and the Korean American Voters' Council.

STATEMENT

This concurrent resolution commemorates and supports comfort women in their fight for proper acknowledgement by the Japanese government of the suffering they endured during their forced internment in military comfort stations and calls upon the Japanese government to accept historical responsibility for the sexual enslavement of comfort women by the Japanese army and educate future generations about these crimes.

The term "comfort women" is a euphemism used by the Japanese government to describe women forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese army between 1932 and 1945.