Comfort women issue

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's controversial remarks in March regarding the sexual slavery of foreign women before and during World War II provoked many politicians, government officials, media and opinion leaders around the world to denounce Japan's attitude.
Abe, who depends on conservatives for political support, caused an outrage when he said in early March that there was no evidence the victims had been coerced. He later apologised as prime minister to the comfort women, but still maintained there was no coercion. Many of the women have publicly testified that they were kidnapped or lured into the brothels against their will.
In addition to escalating criticism made public world-wide, legislators in several countries have taken action to demand Japan accept more responsibility for its past atrocities.
US, CANADIAN LAWMAKERS TAKE ACTION:
As the bipartisan US legislation pressing Japan to acknowledge its responsibility for the suffering of the so-called "comfort women" and to unequivocally apologise moves toward a vote for, Canadian lawmakers took a similar action. A Canadian parliamentary subcommittee submitted a motion demanding not only a formal apology by the Japanese Diet but also compensation for the victims.
Euphemistically referred to as comfort women, historians estimate as many as 200,000 young women were put in front-line brothels to provide sex to Japanese soldiers during their invasion of Asia in the last century. The majority of the victims were Koreans, whose country was colonised by Japan from 1910 to 1945.
Representative Michael Honda, a US congressman of Japanese descent, submitted a resolution to the US House on January 31, calling on Japan to apologise unambiguously and acknowledge the tragedy that the comfort women experienced under the Imperial Japanese Army.
Canada's motion is the first to demand compensation by Tokyo. Canadian Foreign Minister Peter MacKay on March 20 had called the abuse of the comfort women "a deplorable story" and said the wrongs committed "should not be forgotten but should be addressed in a compassionate and progressive way."
The US State Department also urged Tokyo in late March to take responsibility for its role in the wartime sexual enslavement: "We appreciate that the apology was made. It is a step forward," said Tom Casey, deputy State Department spokesman.
Australia's Prime Minister John Howard also urged Abe to take action over the issue of comfort women during his March trip to Japan. Howard declared there should be no "quibbling" over the degree of coercion used to force thousands of women to sexual slavery for the Japanese military.
FOREIGN MEDIA REPORTS:
Major foreign newspapers have lambasted Japan's attitude. The level of criticism from the dailies also rose as Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has said he will order a reinvestigation into the wartime sex slaves, a move that could lead to a revision of Tokyo's 1993 statement admitting the military's involvement in running the frontline brothels across Asia during the 1930s and 1940s.
The New York Times published an editorial titled "No Comfort" in direct response to Abe's comment in early March. "What part of 'Japanese Army sex slaves' does Japan's prime minister, Shinzo Abe, have so much trouble understanding and apologising for?" the newspaper said.
"It is time for Japan's politicians - starting with its Prime Minister Shinzo Abe - to recognise that the first step towards overcoming a shameful past is edging it." The New York Times wet suggest that the prime minister is concerned more with satisfying right wingers within his Liberal Democratic Party than with repairing the nation's international reputation. It added that an apology and official compensation should be issued to appease the victims and atone for Japan's past wrongdoings.
The Los Angeles Times published a March 7 editorial reproaching Abe's attitude. The article began by saying that the comment made by Abe is not only unfortunate but also counterproductive for the country's efforts to mend international relations and added that the best person to repair the damage was the Japanese emperor Akihito.
The Christian Science Monitor on April 2 ran a contribution by a Stanford University professor titled "Beyond apology, moral clarity," pressing Japan to take the pain of victims seriously and indicating the historical responsibility of the United States as well.
"The direct involvement of the Japanese authorities, including the military, in the forcible recruitment of comfort women has been well documented, including by Japanese scholars," wrote Shin Gi-wook, director of Stanford University's Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center and professor of sociology.
Abe's drawing of distinctions about the degree of coercion used to bring Korean, Chinese, and even Japanese women to the brothels is an unfortunate response to the proposed resolution considered by the US House of Representatives, Shin said. Shin pointed out that the Unites States, too, bears responsibility for the failure to fully account for and confront Japanese war crimes.
"The United States is not an outsider to the problems of history arising out of the wars in Asia, and America must confront its role in mishandling Japanese war-crime issues after 1945."
Shin added that the United States sought to quickly put issues of its historical responsibility aside as Japan's importance as a bulwark against communism in the region increased. China and Korea were not signatories to the San Francisco treaty of 1951 which formally ended the war and settled Japan's obligations to pay reparations for its wartime acts.
A major German newspaper, Suddeutsche Zeitung, also blasted Abe's attitude, saying that he is an incapable Prime Minister and it took only half a year to realise that.
VOICES FROM WITHIN JAPAN:
Asahi Shimbun reported in the April 15 issue proof of Japanese military's coercion has been found. Hirofumi Hayashi, a political science professor at Kanto Gakuin University, uncovered documents presented at the Tokyo war-crimes trial, including testimony collected by groups of prosecutors from the Netherlands, France and China, the newspaper said. The testimony was part of a huge volume of evidence submitted to prove the Japanese imperial military committed atrocities against civilians and prisoners of war across Asia.
-Courtesy Korea Policy Review