Japanese spent decade campaigning for Chinese ‘comfort women’

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Mai Yoneda, A 33-year-old Japanese, has been spearheading efforts since 2008 to get the Japanese government to apologize to China's former “comfort women.”

She spent more than three years with the survived "comfort women" recording their conditions in Hainan, south China. Every winter and summer, she goes back to Hainan to visit the aged “comfort women”.

Mai working on her iPad. //Beijing News Photo

Mai Yoneda was born in a normal family in 1984. Her mother was a feminist. When Mai was 4 years old her mother took her to a march through the streets of Tokyo. After majoring in International Relations in university Mai felt people around her were ignorant about Japan’s war crimes during the WWII

In 2008, A friend invited Mai to attend a trial about Chinese “comfort women” asking the Japanese government to apologize. Eight survived Chinese “comfort women” from Hainan were testified in the trial giving horrifying recounts of how they were wronged and victimized. "It was too hard because their unfortunate experience was so cruel," Mai said.

She joined a team of lawyers as a volunteer helping those "comfort women" file a suit against the Japanese government.

In 2011, Mia graduated from university, her classmates chose either to continue their studies or go to work, while she kept thinking about how to do more for the former "comfort women". Finally she chose to study Chinese in Hainan Normal University and to spend more time with these “comfort women”.

Mai says goodbye to a former "comfort woman." /Beijing News Photo

During her three years in Hainan, Mai visited many survived "comfort women" during her holidays, Even though her Chinese is not good and some "comfort women" can’t speak many words, she was still willing to communicate with them. Mai used her digital video camera to record some"comfort women's” daily life and ended up making a documentary named "the four seasons of grammar".

In recent years, Mai’s documentary garnered favorable reviews in film exhibitions and she also was invited to speak about “comfort women” issue at universities in Chinese island region of Taiwan, and in Japan and South Korea.

When she was in Tokyo, someone asked her "If the Japanese government still refused to apologize to these “comfort women”, what would she do?"

"Then I will go on to Hainan and give them more love. At least tell them we won't forget their existence." Mai said

2287km