It is painful to witness the many political leaders being locked up behind bars. Learning more about them could perhaps help with healing. This applies to those on either side of the wall.

On May 17, 2021, former Chairman of the Democratic Party, Albert Ho Chun-yan, was waiting for his hearing in a restaurant on the ground floor of the court. During breakfast with the brothers and sisters of the party, he spared ten minutes to share a story with the reporter. It was in 1998, when he assisted the first Chinese comfort woman victim to testify in Hong Kong and abroad; later, prior to Chinese then-leader Jiang Zemin’s first visit as the head of state to Japan, Jiang’s team specifically sent someone to Hong Kong to get Albert Ho’s opinion on his opinions on Japan’s responsibility on war crimes committed during the aggression against China.

Pouring his heart out in ten full minutes, Albert Ho told the story of his path, journey, and history. That was a time when there was freedom of speech, when life was about humanity and justice. His pursuit of human rights and democracy was rooted in compassion. Before his imprisonment, the short speech he wrote for the reporters was perhaps a corner of the window to his heart: “In short, from life to history, many encounters are unpredictable. Only by holding onto ideals, carrying hope, I can keep fighting!” Believe it, he does live in hope.

In his autobiography “My Humble Struggle”, Albert Ho talks about his struggle, but not his humbleness. He studied history in his younger days and learned to care about China. He is from the generation that got sucked into the larger national interest. Yet as a lawyer who is well-versed in the law, he views state affairs through the perspective of humanitarianism rather than the narrow lens of nationalism.

The reason for him to travel down memory lane before his detention came from the reporter’s message to him which mentioned a photo of him and late renowned female author Iris Shun-Ru Chang, and the Chinese comfort women of World War II (WWII), triggering fragmented responses from him. Before the trial of the Oct 1 case the following day, he bumped into the reporter during breakfast with his party members. Despite the limited time, he took the initiative to sit across from the reporter and mindfully spoke about his encounters with the weak and powerless, and his experience of admonishing state authority.

It was back in November 1998 when then Chinese President Jiang Zemin visited Japan for the first official visit by a Chinese state leader since the War. It was to demand Japan to stop evading the issue and take responsibility for the war crimes committed during its invasion of China in WWII. Jiang’s office specifically sent personnel to Hong Kong to speak with Albert Ho. His understanding was that perhaps he had been leading and participating in campaigns to defend the Diaoyu Islands (Baodiao movement) and to demand compensation from Japan; moreover, he was the person who made it possible for the first Chinese comfort woman victim to testify publicly in Hong Kong and abroad to the media. He was also supportive of taking the issue of victim compensation from Japan to the congresses of the United States and Canada.

“In 1998, Jiang Zemin was about to visit Japan. I was nervous. We had made it (claims against Japan’s responsibility for war crimes against China) huge. They (official meetings and public opinion urging Japan to take responsibility for war crimes) were all over the U.S. Jiang’s team sent someone to Hong Kong to seek my opinion. I said, he (Jiang) is the first head of state to go to Japan (for an official visit). The national position must be clear, because this is about justice.”

Albert Ho recalled that two mainlanders called in the morning for an urgent meeting, and he immediately set off to the Legislative Council for a meeting. The two said that they were sent by “Jiang’s team”, but there was no way to prove it at the time. “Later they showed me relevant photos, and yes, it was really Jiang Zemin.”

The meeting was at Chinachem, he remembered, “met me in a huge room, and said that they had to fly back to Beijing immediately after the meeting, so rushed.” At the time, Albert Ho was involved in meetings around the world regarding the issues of responsibility for war crimes against China and the Baodiao movement. To the two visitors, he solemnly stated, “I said, you must stick to your position. Get an apology and compensation.”

China’s national situation, Sino-Japan relations, and how to handle the issue of compensations and apologies for war victims are often infiltrated with the contradictions between interests and justice when it comes to international relations and humanitarian issues. In his book, he wrote about then Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan’s visit to Japan later, during which he said “the people have no right to claim compensation”, to which Albert Ho protested. He still remembered every detail, “I asked Japanese lawyers, who told me that the Foreign Minister had mistaken. The Sino-Japanese Treaty of Peace and Friendship only resolved the issue of state compensation. The victims of humanitarian war crimes should be an issue of international humanitarian law, not something that a country can give up. Then we went to protest, and later, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs actually sent someone out to take the letter.”

Albert Ho is the chairman of the Hong Kong Alliance for Preserving the History of WWII in Asia. Thekla Lit, who affectionately calls Albert Ho “Tall Man Yan”, is the chairperson for Canada’s ALPHA (Association for Learning & Preserving the History of WWII in Asia. The two have been friends for several decades since they met over shared concerns about the victims of WWII, issues of human rights justice and compensation.

Thekla Lit said that she met Albert Ho through the Hong Kong Federation of Catholic Students, in which Albert Ho was a part of the college students association of Hong Kong. In college, he was passionate about history and philosophy, and participated in the Baodiao movement. In 1994, the Global Alliance for Preserving the History of WWII in Asia (GA) was founded in the U.S. Former Legislative Councillor Elsie Tu’s husband, Andrew Tu, was GA’s first chairman.

In 1996, David Chan Yuk-cheung passed away in an accident during the third Baodiao movement. In December that year, GA held a general meeting in San Francisco, and it was Thekla Lit’s first time participating. It was not until 1998, when the GA held the third biennial meeting in Canada, when Thekla Lit invited Albert Ho, who attended with granny Yuan Zhulin, whose accusations of crime towards the Japanese army caused a local uproar.

Thekla Lit explained, “The issue of comfort women has always been a taboo in Chinese society. Very few victims are willing to publicly share their experiences, yet Albert Ho, with his sincerity and persistence, convinced Yuan Zhulin to be the first Chinese comfort woman to testify in Hong Kong and abroad.”

The first comfort woman victim to testify in mainland China was granny Wan Aihua. According to Thekla Lit, Wan Aihua testified in the mainland in 1996 and 1997, and eventually filed her case in Tokyo court in 1998 as a victim to claim compensation from the Japanese government for war crimes.

As for the cooperation with Takako Doi, a female politician from the Social Democratic Party, mentioned by Albert Ho, Thekla Lit said that Takako Doi agreed that Japan should apologize and compensate for war crimes, and believed that this is the only way for other countries to truly trust Japan. Albert Ho also genuinely believed that if international justice was not manifested, there would never be real world peace. Apologies can only happen after a bill is passed to offer an apology in the Japanese Congress to make it an official, genuine apology. However, that has never been successful under the opposition of Japan’s long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party.

For Albert Ho, the Chinese identity has always been about “nation” in his heart. He never gets excited in meetings with powerful leaders, whether they are from China or Taiwan. In “My Humble Struggle”, he spoke of the visit to Taiwan at the end of 1998. Led by Martin Lee, him, Yeung Sum, and Cheung Man-kwong brought up the issue of comfort women and defending the Diaoyu Islands with then-President Lee Teng-hui. With no filter, he said bluntly, “…yet your (Lee Teng-hui’s) speech in your interview with magazine Bungeishunju made the Chinese compatriots angry and ashamed, and your supporters sad. Your stance has trampled on the rights and dignity of your compatriots. …Today, the victims who are still alive include 50-odd comfort women victims in Taiwan, as well as the survivors of the Nanjing Massacre and the Manshu Detachment 731 who are suing Japan in Tokyo, for the sole purpose of seeing a little justice. (pg. 209, 210)”

In the interview with Bungeishunju, Lee Teng-hui stated that China’s claim for compensation from Japan for war crimes was all about money. Responding to Albert Ho, he said, “The War finished 50 years ago, why can’t we move on instead of entangling in history?” At the time, both sides put their views on the table, and the conversation got a little heated.

Cheung Man-kwong and Yeung Sum, who were by Albert Ho’s side, also argued their points. The three brothers who came all the way from the Red Hot Years (editor’s note: the period of China-oriented nationalism in Hong Kong), now with two behind bars, and Cheung Man-kwong is also involved in a case. The reporter texted Albert Ho once to ask, “Does Cheung Man-kwong’s role in the last two years still align with the two of you?” He responded, “No comment.”

In the current situation, speaking carefully is not much easier than not speaking. Only a full picture can make it fair for everyone. Being involved in politics, aside from analyzing and commenting, Albert Ho would travel all the way from the loftiest politics deep into humanity and walk the walk of righteousness himself. This could perhaps explain why to this day he still cannot forget the story of Yuan Zhulin. He told the reporter that he (in early 1998) asked Tong Zeng to arrange for comfort woman victim Yuan Zhulin, who was residing in Wuhan, to pay a visit to Hong Kong. He picked her up from the airport. “I was pretty brave. I knew she would be under strict surveillance. I met with her after she had arrived in Hong Kong, so that she could tell her story spontaneously. Since she spoke Wuhanese which was not familiar to me, I only got the gist, but it was really touching.”

He briefly retold the story. WWII happened soon after Granny Yuan got married in Wuhan and had a child. Her husband was worried about being drafted for war and ran away, so she was left behind to take care of an aunt and a daughter. “At that time, someone suggested for her to go wash clothes for people in Echeng. Echeng is in Hubei, and was a military port at the time. When she got there, she was captured as a comfort woman for a few months. When she returned home, she found that her aunt and daughter had both starved to death.”

Albert Ho’s heart is with the weak and powerless. Retelling Granny Yuan’s experience, he said “terrible” several times. On the other hand, as a lawyer, he also worried about the accuracy of Granny Yuan’s memory. “She said, no, I definitely remember very clearly.” At that time, every Chinese girl who was forced to be comfort women had a Japanese name. “She had a Japanese too. She remembered every person’s Japanese name.” Therefore, he boldly asked Yuan Zhulin to publicly tell her story of being forced to be a comfort woman by the Japanese army in Hong Kong to the media. “At that time, in front of a dozen reporters, it was her first time telling her experience publicly. She said that she had never told that story in decades.”

After Yuan Zhulin testified, it just happened that Albert Ho had to attend a meeting in Toronto to take the issue of Chinese comfort women’s claims to the international stage. “At first I was to say goodbye to her and send her back to the mainland. Yet Toronto insisted that I brought her along, because there were two comfort women from the Philippines and South Korea. I said, how is she going to go without a passport? At that time, Raymond Chan was Canada’s Secretary of State for the Asia-Pacific Region for the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade and I knew him. He said, ‘I trust you. I (will ask to) get you a minister pass, but there was a caveat, Councilor Ho, you must accompany her the whole time and bring her back (to Hong Kong and China.’” As such, the Canadian Government issued a rare minister pass to Yuan Zhulin for her entry to Canada.

This was how Yuan Zhulin went with Albert Ho to testify publicly in Canada. The Rape of Nanking, published in 1997, made it very difficult for Japan to continue to deny the historical facts of the massacre and evade responsibility. The young author of this book, Iris Chang, was at the meeting and very touched by Yuan Zhulin’s testimony. “As she (Yuan Zhulin) talked, all those people were crying. Many people were crying.”

Afterward, some people took Granny Yuan to see Niagara Falls and other attractions, and others gave her some money. In the past, whether it was the time of war or peace, she was never treated justly. In her short three-day visit, Granny Yuan felt kindness. “She told me that she had never been treated that well in her entire life.” Today, in the restaurant on the ground floor of the court, Albert Ho is still thinking of an old lady. At that time, the Canadians had good intentions and invited Granny Yuan to stay and be a peace ambassador. “She was so great. She said, because Councilor Ho brought me here as my guarantor, I can’t stay. I can’t do this to him by staying. And then she came back to Hong Kong with me.”

It was not the end of the story. Albert Ho, like a child, simply would not return to his seat to finish that slice of buttered bread and continued talking. He said, after returning to Wuhan, Yuan Zhulin was mocked and insulted by the locals for being a comfort woman. Prolific Hong Kong novelist Lilian Lee wrote a letter to the Wuhan leadership to complain. Under the urging of the authorities, those who had insulted Granny Yuan not only apologized but “washed her clothes” as a gesture of sincerity. “Later, Lilian Lee also located her husband for her because Yuan Zhulin was always insulted by people. This is the good thing about the CCP. Lilian Lee’s “The Red String” was pretty well-written.” With that, he was relieved, and finally returned to his seat to finish breakfast.

“The Red String” was a story based on Yuan Zhulin after Lilian Lee interviewed her. People like Iris Chang, who was concerned with humanitarian crimes of war, and Yuan Zhulin, a weak and powerless person, should be the characters who touched Albert Ho deeply. Thekla Lit explained, “The issue of comfort women has always been a taboo in Chinese society. Very few victims are willing to publicly share their experiences, yet Albert Ho, with his sincerity and persistence, convinced Yuan Zhulin to be the first Chinese comfort woman to testify in Hong Kong and abroad.”

A friend of several decades, Thekla Lit knows very well that “Tall Man Yan” views the position of Councilor very lightly. However, there are three things that he cares deeply about: the pursuit of democracy, the issue of compensation for victims of the Japanese invasion of China, and the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China.

Before his imprisonment, the very few words carried deep emotions. Iris Chang, who was superb in searching evidence, sense of justice, and writing ability, lived a short life. In his message to the reporter, Albert Ho was sad. From meeting Yuan Zhulin to witnessing the last moments of her life, he felt that it was extraordinary.

In his autobiography, the essay “Mourning Yuan Zhulin” described how when Granny Yuan passed away in 2006, Albert Ho was denied entry when he hoped to go to the mainland to say goodbye, and could only write his grief. Not being able to fulfill the promise of bringing Yuan Zhulin to Taiwan was one thing that was engraved in his sensitive heart. He wrote to the reporter, “Re-reading it now, I think of how the Koreans are still fighting for historical justice, yet my country, under the rule of the Chinese Communist Party, is only deleting and changing the history created by itself. I feel such sorrow! In short, from life to history, many encounters are unpredictable. Only by holding onto ideals, carrying hope, I can keep fighting!”

To him, democracy and human rights are the frameworks for the pursuit of the ideals and meanings of life, and at the core is compassion. Look at his plump lips, just like Tathagata. In his book he wrote, “perhaps not many people could understand the entirety of me.” In the ten minutes of unfinished conversation, he repeated more than once, “I’ll give you the relevant books in the future.”

In the future, there is hope.

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