We are now facing the last stage of the 20th Century. This century has been tainted by many tragic wars both large and small, to the point that only 25 years after the First World War, we had the Second World War. Even after the Second World War, we had many regional conflicts in Korea, Vietman, Afghanistan, Bosnia, Rwanda, East Timor, and so on. In fact, the human history, not just the 20th century, can be interpreted as the history of wars.
     A war is, I think, a product of domineering men's desires to be big and strong. A war is, I think, an expression of the men's desires for self actualization. The more "I" destroys others, the more has "I" become perceived as big and strong.
     To this day, the only legitimate member in a patriarchal society has been a man. In the 19th century's England, a woman's brain was thought to have been only 2/3 the weight of a man's. In Asia, too, women have not received the equal privileges that have been taken for granted for men. And whenever there was a war, there has unmistakenably been sexual violence against women.
     In each war, where destructive acts are regarded as heroic, the rape of women which is undeniably an expression of the worst relation between human beings has been evident. The best example of this is the Japanese army's use of women as sexual slavery, which is known as the "comfort women." In and around Japanese army camps, mostly teenaged women had been drafted and forced into "comfort stations," where rape has been formally institutionalized. In many cases they were even as young as 14 years old, imprisoned in a tiny shack, deprived of basic human rights.
     These young girls were raped by soldiers who stood in line and came in one after another. When they were caught escaping, in many cases they were shot to death after being tortured. Today in North Korea there lives a woman who was tattooed all over on her chest and stomach after being caught when trying to escape. When the soldiers were displeased by them they could have abused them as they wished. In some cases the soldiers would give them morphine shots against their will. These girls were not treated as human beings, but as animals with sexual organs. The Japanese army would leave them behind in many places when they lost the war. Otherwise they were killed or some of them were forced to commit suicide with the Japanese army.
     After committing all these crimes more than 50 years ago, Japan has yet refused to make a formal apology or make any reparations. Instead they started to distribute "charity" money through an organization supported by the Japanese government, the , which adds further insult to the victims. The reports of Professor Teo Van Boven of the Netherlands, the International Commission of Jurists, the U.N. Fourth World Conference on Women and Special Rappoteur Coomaraswamy recommended Japan to make a formal apology and individual reparations to restore victim's honor and dignity. However, Japan has never even considered such recommendations. They instead established the Asian Women's Fund, and started to distribute the charity money, which the victims consider insulting. So the Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan and the Korean Government distributed a lump sum in order for the victims to keep their dignity by not accepting the Asian Women's Fund's charity money. Accepting that money without a formal apology would allow Japan to avoid admitting any atrocity. On the other hand the Asian Women's Fund continually attempts to persuade the survivors into accepting the money and by spreading false rumors in an attempt to divide the victims, the Korean Council, Korean society, etc.
     Last April during the Asian Solidarity Symposium on Japanese Sexual Slavery, we resolved to open the women's International War Crimes Tribunal in December of the year 2000. Even today whenever there are small regional conflicts there are unmistakably still sexual violence against women. Last spring during the overthrowing of the Suharto government, there were the evidences of Indonesian men raping and violating massive number of Chinese-Indonesian women. I believe we cannot allow this sort of atrocities to continue in the 21st century. Let us do our best finally to end the shameful past of the 20th century and open a new era, the 21st century. Humans must make peace with their fellow beings, especially the small and the weak.

     In conclusion, we should actually be grateful that we have been excluded in the patriarchial society because we have not been polluted by their ideas?. On the other hand we have learned to see ourselves inferior and have been educated to unconciously accept a position of slave in a male dominant society. So we must face these facts and try to overcome them. Only by doing this we will be born again as decent human being and break out from the inferior role of a woman. In other words we are humans in the first place, before we are women. Through this, we must realize our goal of living in a new peaceful era, and we will become a legitimate member of a society. At the same time we should be sensitive to the needs of all different groups of people that require our attention.