This month, the Ama (grandma) Museum will open in Taipei. It will be a venue dedicated to Taiwan's wartime "comfort women" who provided sexual services under duress at Japanese military brothels.
The opening of such a museum is surprising because Taiwanese tend to have a more favorable view of their experience under Japanese colonial rule than South Koreans, and a recent poll conducted by Japan's Interchange Association in Taipei — the de facto Japanese Embassy — found that Japan is Taiwan's favorite country. These positive perceptions will probably persist regardless of the Ama Museum, a teaching and reconciliation center, but it is another sign that Japan's history of sexual slavery can not be erased.
Why now? The museum's opening comes on the heels of the December 2015 deal between Tokyo and Seoul, which requires Japan to provide ¥1 billion to assist Korea's few remaining victims.
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