[Diplomatic News] U.S. Lawmaker Fights for Amerasians, Comfort Women

Rep. Lane Evans (D-Ill.) presented a bill to Congress in February 2005 calling for half-Asian, half-Americans with a parent from one of Korea, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia or Thailand and legally residing in the U.S. to be automatically granted American citizenship.

He submitted the same bill to Congress in April 2004, but it failed to pass.

Asked why he presented the same bill twice, he explained, “The United States is responsible for helping them. Anyone who has an American parent naturally has the right to live as an American citizen, and the United States has the responsibility to accept and protect them as American citizens.”

Evans, who worked as a human rights lawyer after graduating from Georgetown University, said he felt the “responsibility of the United States” when a Korean lawyer, Cheon, told him stories of half-Asian, half-Americans in 1998.

“I presented a bill that, in compliance with the Amerasian Immigration Act of 1982, called for granting American citizenship to half-Asian, half-Americans who were born between December 31, 1950 and October 22, 1982 and who were already legal U.S. residents. I will continue to make efforts so that all the half Asian, half-Americans get American citizenship,” Evans said.

Evans has also brought congressional attention to the issue of Korean comfort women used by the Japanese army.

Every year since 2000, he has submitted a resolution to Congress calling for an apology and compensation to comfort women from the Japanese government. On January 25, he visited the “House of Sharing” in Gwangju, Gyeonggi Province, a place for victims who were forced to serve as comfort women for the Japanese army.

On this issue, he also emphasizes the importance of countries living up to their responsibilities.

“If the Japanese government exploited Korean women as sex slaves and trampled on their bodies and human rights in the past, it should apologize to them and compensate them. I am interested in the issue of comfort women not only as a U.S. congressman but as a world citizen with sound common sense.”

On January 26, Evans was given an honorary doctorate in pedagogy by Gosin University for his efforts to improve the human rights of Koreans.

wing@donga.com