Japan PM Denies WWII Sex Slavery

A long over-due & somewhat grudging apology after the application of considerable pressure.:


Last Update: Monday, March 26, 2007. 11:27pm (AEST)

Japanese PM renews 'comfort women' apology

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who is seeking to end an uproar over his remarks on World War II sex slaves, has apologised again to the so-called "comfort women".

Mr Abe has repeatedly said he stands by Japan's landmark 1993 apology to the thousands of former sex slaves, while saying he felt no need to make a fresh statement.

But questioned in Parliament by a leftist lawmaker on whether he was apologising himself, Mr Abe said he was.

"I am apologising now as the Prime Minister," he said, according to his spokesman Hiroshi Suzuki.

"This has been stated in the Kono statement."

In 1993, a statement by then-chief government spokesman Yohei Kono apologised to former comfort women and acknowledged that Japan was involved directly or indirectly in causing their suffering.

Historians say up to 200,000 young women, mostly from Korea but also from China, Indonesia, the Philippines and Taiwan, were forced to serve as sex slaves in Japanese army brothels.


Uproar over comments

Mr Abe triggered an uproar earlier this month when he said there was no evidence Japan directly coerced comfort women.

He later elaborated by saying he was talking of coercion in the "strict" sense, such as kidnapping women.

In his remarks today, Mr Abe repeated that the military was involved in coercion in the broad sense, but said he was not casting blame on all troops.

"There was a case in which the military shut down a comfort station after learning about its existence," he was quoted by Jiji Press as saying.

Mr Abe, whose grandfather was a cabinet minister during World War II, is known for his conservative views on history.

He was a founding member of a group of lawmakers who called for Japan to water down the 1993 statement.

But since taking office, he has repeatedly said he will abide by the Kono apology.

Despite Mr Abe's latest remarks, one of his aides repeated conservative views on the issue.

"I understand myself that there was no direct involvement of the military" in the recruitment of comfort women, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Hakubun Shimomura told reporters.

Conservatives have argued that the military did not participate directly in the recruitment of comfort women, saying it was the work of pimps or other middlemen.


Move by US Congress

The row over comfort women comes amid a push in the US Congress to pass a resolution that would demand Japan make an unambiguous apology to former sex slaves and offer direct compensation.

Japan has lobbied aggressively against the Bill, which is seen as more likely to pass since the Democrats took power from President George W Bush's Republicans in January.

Mr Abe's Government has been stung by harsh criticism in the US media on comfort women.

Most recently, The Washington Post said in an editorial on Saturday that Mr Abe's remarks had weakened his moral authority in pressing North Korea over its past abductions of Japanese nationals.

But Mr Abe, who has built his career on the abduction row, rejected any link between that matter and the comfort women remarks.

"They are totally separate issues," he told reporters.

"The abduction issue concerns the ongoing infringement on human rights. The comfort women issue is not a matter which is continuing."

Mr Abe has refused to fund a breakthrough deal on freezing North Korea's nuclear program due to the abductions dispute.

North Korea has returned five Japanese civilians kidnapped in the 1970s and 1980s, but Japan says more are alive and kept under wraps.

- AFP

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200703/s1882113.htm