San Francisco Fight Human Trafficking: Human Trafficking Film Screening & Dialogue

Surviving Chongshindae Urge Canadian MPs to Support Motion 291

The history of the Chongshindae continues to be a struggle. I recently received this through a friend who has asked everyone to support the Sharing House initiative. The Sharing House is a historic site as well a place that houses survivors of Japanese militarized prostitution of approximately 200,000 women in which it's estimated that 80% were Korean. Japan's continued denial of these atrocities are furthered in which women/children that were trafficked into the Japanese military camps were labeled as "military supplies" an attempt to invisibilize this history.

Below is the petition and two articles.

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Please help urge your friends to sign the petition to tell the Canadian MPs to support Motion 291 which reads:"That, in the opinion of the House, the government should urge the Prime Minister and the Parliament of Japan to: (a) pass a resolution in the Dietto formally apologize to the women who were coerced into military sexualslavery during the Second World War and were euphemized as "comfort women"by the Japanese Imperial Army; and (b) to provide just and honorable compensation to these victims."We need to gather 50,000 signatures to be presented to the Canadian MPs for their action.

< http://www.alpha-toronto.org/petition>Click here to tell Your MPs to vote YES to "Comfort Women" Motion 291Please help forward this email to 20 friends and encourage them to sign thepetition ASAP. Thank you.Thekla LitPresident of B.C. ALPHA Co-chair of Canada ALPHA(Association for Learning & Preserving the History of WWII in Asia)http://www.alpha-canada.org/

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U.S. Unhappy with Japanese Comfort Women Ad

A source in Washington said on Saturday that the White House and U.S.Congress are displeased by a newspaper ad from 63 Japanese lawmakers that denied the Japanese government and military had a hand in conscripting women from Asian countries as sex slaves for the Imperial Army during World WarII. The source said the Bush administration and Congress are likely to address the full-page ad, which appeared in the Washington Post on Thursday. The White House is expected to express its opposition to the ad's claims that several countries set up brothels during the war to prevent soldiers from raping civilians and that the U.S. requested "comfort stations" from the Japanese government after it occupied Japan in 1945. According to the source, Vice President Dick Cheney, who said on a visit to Japan earlier this year that the historical issue cannot be allowed to disrupt the stability of Northeast Asia, expressed his displeasure with the ad and ordered an investigation into how it was made. The ad is expected to boost the chances that the House will adopt aresolution calling on Japan to apologize to the former sex slaves. Some congressmen are said to be unhappy with the attempt by the Japanese lawmakers to distort historical facts. Rep. Tom Lantos, chairman of the House International Relations Committee, said on Saturday at a fundraising event in Los Angeles that the resolutionwill be brought up at a regular session of the committee next Tuesday. Lantos said he expected the resolution to pass by a majority.

( englishnews@chosun.com )Copyright (c) 2000 <http://www.chosun.com/homepage/html/index_e.html > The Chosun Ilbo & Digital Chosun Ilbo All rights reserved.

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Japanese denial angers 'comfort woman'
June 15, 2007 - 7:44PM

An Australian woman forced into sex slavery in World War II says she's trembling with anger at a Japanese government advertisement denying the war-time atrocities. Adelaide resident Jan Ruff-O'Herne says she has lost all respect for the Japanese government after the advertisement appeared in the Washington Post newspaper. The ad, signed by 44 members of Japan's parliament, seeks to share "the truth with the American people" about the 200,000 "comfort women" who were driven into brothels during WWII. "No historical document has ever been found by historians or research organisations that positively demonstrates that women were forced against their will into prostitution by the Japanese army," the ad said under the title, in bold letters, "THE FACTS". Ms Ruff-O'Herne said she was appalled by the advertisement."My esteem for the Japanese government has completely gone down the drain," she said. "It's absolutely appalling, I'm trembling with anger. I just can't believe it, I am so angry that after all these years and so much proof they could do that."

The 84-year-old Adelaide woman travelled to Washington DC in February tospeak before a US House of Representatives hearing on Protecting the HumanRights of "comfort women".
"I myself went to Washington, would I do that at my age if it wasn't true -it is true, we were forced," she said.

"What evidence can they produce that we have not been forced? They haven't got any evidence because we were forced. They must be absolutely crazy, Japan is not owning up to their historicalresponsibilities.Comfort women are never going to give up, we want Japan to apologise and acknowledge the war crimes they committed. I have forgiven them for what they did to me, but I can never forget. I was put on a truck and driven away, torn away from my family and put in abrothel to be raped day and night."

A lobby group, Friends of Comfort Women in Australia, was also angered by the advertisement. "Numerous testimonies by survivors clearly identify the "comfort women"system as that of military sexual slavery from which they never sought nor awarded any payment," the group said in a statement to AAP. The ad was signed by professors, journalists, political commentators and 29 members of the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan, 13 from the Democratic Party of Japan and two independents.

"The ianfu (comfort women) who were embedded with the Japanese army were not, as is commonly reported, 'sex slaves'," the ad said. "They were working under a system of licensed prostitution that was commonplace around the world at the time," it said, adding many of the womenmade more money than field officers "and even generals". Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe sparked controversy in March by saying there was no evidence the imperial army directly coerced thousands of"comfort women" into brothels across Asia during WWII. Abe has since stressed he stands by Japan's landmark 1993 apology to thewomen, and expressed his deep sympathy for the women during a US visit inlate April.

Fairfax Digital Copyright 2007 The Age Company Ltd <http://www.theage.com.au/> .--Sharing House VolunteersContacts:Jyoung-Ah Kim 016-9444-5683Heather Evans 010-9928-8850comfortwomen.wordpress.com

Volunteering for SAFEHS

If you are interested in volunteering with SAFEHS please contact: Annie Fukushima at annie@safehs.com

We look forward to having you a part of the team.

For More information about SAFEHS visit our website

HUMAN TRAFFICKING & U.S. YOUTH

To return to SAFEHS website

While slavery dates back to the founding of the U.S. and was abolished in 1865 with the passage of the 13th amendment, modern day slavery preservers globally as well as in the U.S.

To combat modern day slavery, the U.S. passed the 1999 Trafficking Victims Protection Act that was reauthorized in 2006 as the TVPRA.

1) Sex trafficking in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or
coercion or in which the person induced to perform such an act is under 18,
or
2) The recruitment, harboring,
transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for labor or services,
through the use of force, fraud, or coercion, for the purpose of subjecting that
person to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery.

Prostitution and human trafficking are interlinked systems of oppression of sexism, racism, classism, heterosexism at its extreme. Most vulnerable to human trafficking and prostitution are those most vulnerable in the U.S.: women of color, queers of color, and youth. However, this is not to perpetuate stereotypes about prostitution/human trafficking, but rather, to point to trends.

Youth: ECPAT USA (End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes)', an Anti-Trafficking agency, states that the average age of entry into street prostitution is between 12 and 14 years old, though there have been cases of girls as young as 9 years old. The U.N. defines a child as anyone under the age of 18 years-old, and therefore, I use it interchangeably with youth.

Global Trends: ECPAT also estimates that over one million children are trafficked across the globe every year for sexual purposes. It is estimated that 10 million children around the world are subject to sexual exploitation. ECPAT use the term commercial sexual exploitation of children (or CSEC) to describe the various activities that exploit children for their commercial value including child sex tourism, child prostitution, child pornography and the trafficking of children for sexual purposes.

The U.S.: The CIA estimates 50,000 women and children are transported each year throughout the United States by being conned and forced into a life of sexual exploitation. The FBI estimates that the average age of a prostitute in the United States is 13. Various studies say 300,000-800,000 youths are at risk of sexual exploitation[1].

In San Francisco, studies have illustrated that 68% of prostitutes enter before age of 16, and this number increases to 78% for those before the age of 18 years.[2]

Internet Violence: Donna M. Hughes work on internet and pornography conveys that the global revolution of communications, access to information and media has also been utilized to facilitate sexually exploit women and girls locally, nationally, and transnationally.

In 2005, the CyberTipline received notice of a grand total of 70,737 incidents. The bulk came from 64,221 incidents of child pornography, including possession, manufacture and distribution. In 2000, 77 percent of the child pornography cases were internet related.[3]

Based on these incidents, also noted were 2,669 reported incidents of online enticement of children for sexual acts, 611 for unsolicited obscene material sent to a child, 841 misleading domain names, 1,640 reports of child sexual molestation by other than family members, 553 of child prostitution and 202 for child sex tourism. This practice involves adults traveling to foreign countries to engage in sexual activity with children. It is estimated to draw more than one million children into the sex trade each year from countries that have been historically constructed as "Third World".[4] In order to understand sex tourism in general, a suggested read is Cynthia Enloe's Bananas, Beaches, and Bases.

In April 2003, a significant milestone was reached when Congress passed the Protect Act (Prosecutorial Remedies and Other Tools to End the Exploitation of Children Today Act of 2003), which was subsequently signed into law.

To learn about new local bay area initiatives please visit: www.safehs.com

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More questions contact Annie Fukushima at annie@safehs.com

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[1] Judy Keen, USA Today. “Child-prostitution cases reveal cruel underworld.” July 26, 2006. http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-07-26-prostitution-crackdown_x.htm
[2] Silbert, MH and Pines, AM. “Entrance into prostitution,” Youth and Society 13 (4): 471-500, 1982.
[3] Interview with Raymond Smith, Fraud, Child Exploitation and Asset Forfeiture
Group, Office of Criminal Investigations, U.S. Postal Inspection Service (May 7, 2001).

[4] Alexandra DeFelice. “The Growing Cancer of Child Sexual Exploitation on the Web.” MacNewsWorld. April 25, 2006. http://www.macnewsworld.com/story/must-read/50135.html

Ella Baker Center Iniative: Know your Rights Youth Conference

Bay Area PoliceWatch is holding its 2nd annual Know Your Rights Youth Conference on July 14th, from 12-4pm here at the Ella Baker Center office. The goals of the conference are to:

• Supply young people with the knowledge of their rights when interacting with the police and other law enforcement officials;
• Provide young people with knowledge of the juvenile justice system and how it operates;
• Arm young people with the tools needed to develop strong, self-sufficient communities where egregious crimes will not be allowed to thrive.

[Click here to register]

There will be two main topics covered in 2 workshops:

Know your rights when interacting with the police

Know your rights in regards to the juvenile justice system

Join us for an afternoon of knowledge, enlightenment, inspiration and entertainment. The deadline is July 1st and space is limited, so register early.

[Click here to register]

Guest Lecturer Positions for SAFEHS

SAFEHS is currently looking for graduate art students or individuals who have an MFA to guest lecture. If you are interested and would like to be emailed the job description, email: annie@safehs.com

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Students & Artists Fighting To End Human Slavery

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