A charity founded by the author of The Vagina Monologues launches a campaign today to seek an official apology and compensation for women forced into brothels run by the Japanese army before and during World War II.

Historians estimate 200,000 women, mostly from Korea and the Philippines but also from China, Indonesia and the Netherlands, were pressed into wartime prostitution for millions of Japanese soldiers stationed throughout Asia. Some were forced to sleep with up to 50 men a day.

The Japanese Government has refused to provide official compensation, claiming treaties dealt with the issue.

Eve Ensler, whose charity V-Day has led several campaigns to end violence against women, said an apology by the Japanese Government "would be a huge statement for the world."

The women "have such dignity and wisdom and their lives have been hell. They have not had justice," she said.

V-Day began in 1998 on Valentine's Day as a benefit performance of Ensler's play, The Vagina Monologues, which is based on interviews with more than 200 women about their memories and experiences of sexuality.

By last year, V-Day had grown to 2,300 benefit shows in 76 countries in Europe, Asia, Africa, the Caribbean and all of North America. It has raised more than US$26 million for shelters for battered women, rape hot lines, safe houses in Africa to protect women from genital mutilation and other causes.

The launch of V-Day's Spotlight Campaign on the "comfort women" at the UN Plaza Hotel is timed to coincide with a session today of the UN Commission on the Status of Women.

The global campaign includes a petition seeking 1 million signatures to be presented to the United Nations, the construction of museums, demonstrations in the Netherlands, photo exhibits and testimonial books.

Benefit performances of The Vagina Monologues in July in Seoul, ROK and Japan will feature the stories of the "comfort women" with a monologue written by Ensler.

The campaign will culminate with a day of demonstrations outside Japanese embassies around the world on August 10.

The "comfort women," many of whom are elderly, were not expected to attend today's event in New York but Ensler is hoping to bring them to Washington later this year.

"We are celebrating the fierce spirit and resistance of these women," Ensler said. "The comfort women are now speaking out. It is a celebration of them."

She described a meeting with some of the women. "I asked if any of them had had an orgasm and none of them had, but they said the greatest orgasm is knowing that Japanese are not lying on top of you."

Ensler waives royalty fees for benefit shows of The Vagina Monologues as long as proceeds are donated to stopping violence against women and girls. Organizers of benefits in 2006 will be asked to donate up to 10 percent of their proceeds to the campaign for the "comfort women."

The Vagina Monologues has been translated into 35 languages and performed by stars including Jane Fonda, Winona Ryder, Kylie Minogue, Susan Sarandon, Salma Hayek and Whoopi Goldberg.

The V in V-Day stands for Victory over Violence, Valentine and Vagina, Ensler said.

(China Daily February 28, 2005)