Four survivors of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki by US warplanes during WWII revealed their incurable physical and psychological burns to Egyptians gathering at Cairo University on Friday. Known as Hibakusha, the survivors are globally lauded as shining examples of turning their personal tragedy into a struggle to promote peace and ‘to create a world free of nuclear weapons'. One could argue that the organisers of this great event made an unfortunate mistake, similar to reciting the penal code to the survivors of an assassination attempt, while the assassin is free to plan more crimes. And what about inviting South Africa's historical icon Nelson Mandela to visit India (the biggest and most vibrant democracy in the world) to lecture Indians on the blessings of democracy? The Hibakusha should promote international peace in Tel Aviv or Tehran. Israel is the only country in the Middle East that possesses nuclear weapons. Worried about Israel's ability to run amok alone in the region, Iran is trying impatiently to join the nuclear race. For several decades Cairo has been championing an international and regional initiative for a nuclear-free Middle East. I wonder whether reviving the nuclear horrors inflicted on Japan in an event at Cairo University is somewhat connected to Egypt constructing two nuclear power plants in el-Dabaa to narrow the widening gap between domestic power production and consumption. The Hibakusha represent an important part of the legacy of the Second World War's crimes against humanity. Although they survived the immediate effects of the nuclear attacks, they have been suffering from irreversible radiation damage, loss of family and friends – and discrimination. Their pains are unbearable and the world's sympathy will not reintegrate them into society, nor can the international community's guilt help them overcome their loneliness and isolation. There are other victims of the Second World War, who have been equally suffering from unspeakable pains, namely those women in Southeast Asia, who were forced into prostitution by the Japanese military stationed in 22 nations. The cabinet's chief secretary Yohei Kono paid homage to those tortured souls in a statement on August 4, 1993. Kono admitted the responsibility of Japan's armed forces. They established so-called comfort stations with the enforced enlistment, management and transfer of sex slaves. Kono expressed the Japanese government's regrets based on the findings of a 20-month investigation. It showed that women from countries Japan occupied, such as Korea, China, Taiwan, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia, were forced into sex slavery. Dutch women living in Indonesia supposedly met the same fate. Tens of thousands of girls were taken away from their families and sent to comfort camps. Sixty of these women are still alive in Seoul. Successive Japanese governments repeatedly denied the shocking allegations, which were, nonetheless, substantiated by the US House of Representatives on July 30, 2007. The House passed a formal resolution that called on the Japanese government to apologise for the abduction and serial rape of tens of thousands of girls and young women across Asia and the Pacific. The resolution described the comfort stations (which served Japanese soldiers from 1932 to 1945) as one of the most horrendous crimes against humanity. Condemning its cruelty and extent, the resolution also identified the military comfort system of enforced prostitution as one of the biggest cases of human trafficking in the 20th century. Deep sympathy with the survivors led to the creation of a Comfort Women Monument in New Jersey in October 2010. Like the Hibakusha, the 60 women, who survived their nightmarish plight, have been demonstrating every Wednesday in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul, demanding justice and reparation so they could come to terms with their deep scars. It is said that they have held more than 1, 000 demonstrations so far without the faintest response from the Japanese government. Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, who was elected in 2011, told the Japanese Upper House of Parliament that there were no documents substantiating the allegations about the Japanese military systematically forcing Korean women into prostitution. More salt was rubbed into these women's wounds when Shintaro Ishihara, the ex-governor of Tokyo, stated that “prostitution was a very good way to make a living in those times" . The psychological sufferings of a sex slave are beyond description. They are the kinds of wounds time will not heal. The memories of being constantly raped over many years are irrevocably burned into the victims' minds. Peace across the world will only prevail when surviving victims of crimes against humanity are given justice; and occupation of foreign lands in the Middle East and elsewhere ends.
