MCA: Japan must say sorry

KUALA LUMPUR: MCA will fight to get the Japanese government to acknowledge that there were Malaysian “comfort women” during its occupation of the country during World War II, says the party’s Public Service and Complaints Department head Datuk Seri Michael Chong.

He said four Malaysian women had contacted him personally claiming that they had been sex slaves, .

“One is from Sepang while the other three are from Sabah – Sandakan and Kota Kinabalu.

“It’s not about the money. It’s about acknowledging that Malay­sian women were sexually enslaved during the World War II by Japanese soldiers,” he said at Wisma MCA yesterday.

Chong said there was nothing the victims wanted more than to receive an official apology from Japan.

“One of them, identified as Madam Lim, said she didn’t want any compensation for herself. She only wanted the Japanese govern­ment to admit that comfort women did exist in Malaya during WWII. If they wanted to compensate, she wanted all the money to be channelled to charity.

“This is about correcting what’s right to those you’ve wronged. In this context, these women deserve an apology. We are still waiting for the Japanese government to award these victims what they deserve,” he added.

Chong said Malaysia would face a hurdle if it wanted to seek compensation as the victims did not want to come forward publicly.

“They don’t want their children to know, they’re embarrassed. It’s understandable, but it makes it a little difficult to fight for what they deserve,” he added.

It was reported on Tuesday that South Korea and Japan had reached a landmark agreement on the thorny issue of wartime sex slaves that has long soured relations, with Tokyo offering survivors a one billion yen (RM35.7mil) payment.

Chong said he would take up the matter of the comfort women in Malaysia with Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Anifah Aman.

“I hope the minister will pursue this on our behalf. We have been fighting for this for over 20 years, and it is a long time.

“We hope justice will be served soon,” he said.