RESOLUTION
WHEREAS, During the Japanese colonial and wartime expansion of Asia and the Pacific Islands from 1932 through the duration of World War II, approximately 200,000 women and girls were coerced into a system of forced military prostitution; and
WHEREAS, The term "comfort women" was a euphemism used by the Japanese government to describe women and girls forced into sexual slavery by the Imperial Japanese military at camps, known as "comfort stations"; and
WHEREAS, The majority of "comfort women" were of Korean or Chinese descent, but women from Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Australia, and the Netherlands were also interned in military camps run directly by the Imperial Japanese military or private agents working for the military; and
WHEREAS, Some of the women were sold to these military camps as minors, others were deceptively recruited by middlemen with the promise of employment and financial security, and still others were forcibly kidnapped and forced to become "sexual slaves" for soldiers stationed throughout the Japanese occupied territories; and
WHEREAS, Approximately three-quarters of the "comfort women" have died as a direct result of the brutality inflicted upon them during their internment; some of those who survived were left infertile due to sexual violence or sexually transmitted disease; and many are now dying without an official acknowledgement or apology by the Japanese government of the suffering they endured during their forced internment in these military "comfort stations"; and
WHEREAS, The stories of the "comfort women" are a critical part of the history of human trafficking; and
WHEREAS, The United Nations reports that 2.4 million people across the globe are victims of human trafficking at any one time, and 80 percent of them are being exploited as sexual slaves; and
WHEREAS, At least 16,000 women and girls are involved in the sex trade every year in Chicago, many of whom are victims of human trafficki...
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