Militant groups demanded the Japanese government to acknowledge and apologize to dying Filipino comfort women during a protest held in front of the United Nations in New York City.

Members of the Filipinas for Rights and Empowerment (FiRE-NYC), Anakbayan NJ/NY, and Philippine Forum held a silent protest at Dag Hammerskold Plaza in front of the United Nations to represent the hundreds of surviving Filipina comfort women of World War II.

“It’s important for these grandmothers to know that their cause is important to Filipino-Americans in the US. The trauma of rape and sexual exploitation is something from which our community cannot heal until the Japanese government stops calling these women liars by denying comfort women existed sixty years ago,” said Krystle Cheirs, Secretary General of FiRE.

The protest was held while the 44th Session of the Committee for the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) convened.

The groups said the protest was aimed to demand Japan to “finally acknowledge the systematic rape of the wartime comfort women enslaved by the Japanese Imperial Army, and meet the needs of the remaining victims, who are now well into their 70s and older”.

“To say that this is a non-issue because these rapes by the Japanese Imperial Army happened to women so long ago, makes it seem as if modern day comfort women no longer exist, when they do,” said FiRE Chair Valerie Francisco.

The group added that about 100,000 to 250,000 young girls and women were abducted and repeatedly raped by Japanese Imperial Army in occupied territories which included China, Korea, Taiwan, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines during World War II.

Irma Bajar, Secretary General of FiRE said, “It’s awful to know that these women, who are as old as my grandmother, are still being overlooked when all they want is to live their last days in peace.  If Japan has turned its back on these survivors, and the Philippines supports this treatment with silence, how can I ignore the risk of creating another generation of comfort women in the Philippines or anywhere else in the world?”