JAPAN will not apologise again for forcing women to act as sex slaves for Japanese soldiers in World War II, even if the US Congress passes a resolution demanding it, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said yesterday.
Mr Abe, elaborating on his denial last week that women were forced to serve as front-line prostitutes, said none of the testimony in hearings held last month before the US House of Representatives offered any solid proof of abuse.
But Mr Abe said he stood by a 1993 Japanese government apology that acknowledged the military played a role in setting up and managing wartime brothels and that coercion was used. This has disappointed many of his conservative supporters who shared his past criticism of the initial apology statement.
"I have to say that even if the resolution passes, that doesn't mean we will apologise," Mr Abe told a parliamentary panel, reiterating the government stance that the US resolution contains factual errors.
Historians say that up to 200,000 women, mostly from Korea and China, served as "comfort women" in Japanese military brothels throughout Asia in the 1930s and 1940s.
Accounts of abuse by the military — including the kidnapping of women and girls for use in the brothels — have been backed up by witnesses and victims, as well as by former Japanese soldiers.
But prominent Japanese scholars and politicians deny direct military involvement, or the use of force in obtaining women, blaming private contractors for any abuses.
Last week, Mr Abeinfuriated South Korea when he questioned the extent of physical coercion used in recruiting the women.
"There is no evidence to back up that there was coercion as defined initially," he told reporters on Thursday, apparently referring to claims that the Imperial Army had kidnapped women for the brothels.
Yesterday, he said there seemed to have been some cases of coercion, by middlemen, but added: "It was not as though military police broke into people's homes and took them away like kidnappers."
The issue still threatens to sour US-Japan ties ahead of Mr Abe's expected visit to Washington in the northern spring.
In coming weeks Congress is due to vote on a non-binding motion introduced by California Democrat Michael Honda, calling on the Japanese Government to "formally and unambiguously apologise for and acknowledge the tragedy that comfort women endured at the hands of its Imperial Army during World War II".
Mr Honda, who is of Japanese descent, has voiced his alarm at efforts by some conservatives in Japan to withdraw or revise the Government's earlier admission of a state role in the brothel system.
Japan has refused to compensate former comfort women, insisting that all payout claims were settled in postwar treaties with its former enemies.
A fund launched by the Japanese Government in 1995 has been denounced by most of the victims as an empty gesture because it is dependent on private donations.
_________________ Oh, the flowers of indulgence and the weeds of yesteryear, Like criminals, they have choked the breath of conscience and good cheer. The sun beat down upon the steps of time to light the way To ease the pain of idleness and the memory of decay.
Joined: Sat Oct 16, 2004 10:53 pm Posts: 20537 Location: The City Of Trees
Ever since I studied the issue of Reconciliation in Australia a while back, I've always been fascinated in the politics surrounded by a mere gov't apology. Interesting read, Laura.
Joined: Sat Oct 16, 2004 11:15 pm Posts: 25452 Location: Under my wing like Sanford & Son Gender: Male
Japan doesn't have a very good record with recognizing their war crimes. Germans get buckets of guilt poured upon them still, and how many people know about Nan King?
_________________ Now that god no longer exists, the desire for another world still remains.
Joined: Thu Dec 16, 2004 1:54 am Posts: 7189 Location: CA
Orpheus wrote:
Japan doesn't have a very good record with recognizing their war crimes. Germans get buckets of guilt poured upon them still, and how many people know about Nan King?
Unless I am mistaken, I happened upon some YouTube videos that denied the accuracy of Nan King accounts. Perhaps it was only some of the responses that denied it, but it was titled "What Really happened at Nan King?", suggesting a controversy. Isn't this established historical fact. Hell, the Germans don't even deny the holocaust, how on earth can some segment of Japan get away with it? Certainly its more politicized, but it doesn't change the fact that Japan brutalized Asia on the scale of or even more than Western colonialists did.
Joined: Sat Oct 16, 2004 11:30 pm Posts: 7110 Location: the Zoo.
Soma and I have a similar system for the urban warriors in our underground network, although we have yet to reach the sheer quantity of Asian tricks that the Japanese had. We hope to rival their accomplishments by mid-2009.
Soma and I have a similar system for the urban warriors in our underground network, although we have yet to reach the sheer quantity of Asian tricks that the Japanese had. We hope to rival their accomplishments by mid-2009.
Men Behind the Sun = unauthorized biography of i_i
Joined: Tue Mar 07, 2006 8:14 pm Posts: 15317 Location: Concord, NC Gender: Male
it's funny, because if the US congress passes a resolution demanding anything of another country...i wouldn't think they would have any real reason to even care. i mean yeah, we demanded some shit from the middle east and now we're in iraq, but i don't think we'll be heading over to japan to defend a group of women.
what exactly does a government apology do anyway? it's not like the same ruler is in power anyway
Joined: Mon Oct 18, 2004 1:03 am Posts: 24177 Location: Australia
PeopleMyAge wrote:
what exactly does a government apology do anyway? it's not like the same ruler is in power anyway
it means a lot to these women. the government did this awful, abominable thing to them, and are now denying it ever happened.
_________________ Oh, the flowers of indulgence and the weeds of yesteryear, Like criminals, they have choked the breath of conscience and good cheer. The sun beat down upon the steps of time to light the way To ease the pain of idleness and the memory of decay.
When I was teaching English in Japan, we had this hardline nationalist student (I taught Adults, not Children) that had brilliant English skills, and he'd always turn classes to what he wanted to talk about - which was both interesting and incredibly frustrating. One day he starts slamming his fists on the desk yelling at me "Those women were not raped, they offered their services to the Japanese".
I can't remember what I was trying to talk about - but it definantly wasn't that...
Joined: Sat Oct 16, 2004 11:54 pm Posts: 12287 Location: Manguetown Gender: Male
I mean...japaneses, its not like the chinese girls felt anything big
_________________ There's just no mercy in your eyes There ain't no time to set things right And I'm afraid I've lost the fight I'm just a painful reminder Another day you leave behind
Joined: Mon Oct 18, 2004 1:03 am Posts: 24177 Location: Australia
Japan Court Rules Against Sex Slaves and Laborers
TOKYO, April 27 — In two landmark rulings, Japan’s highest court on Friday rejected compensation claims filed by former wartime sex slaves and forced laborers from China but acknowledged that they had been coerced by the Japanese military or industry.
_________________ Oh, the flowers of indulgence and the weeds of yesteryear, Like criminals, they have choked the breath of conscience and good cheer. The sun beat down upon the steps of time to light the way To ease the pain of idleness and the memory of decay.
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