[ETAN-key] U.S. House wants Japan apology on "comfort women"

[ETAN]

Also Japan expresses regret over U.S. call for apology in WWII sex slavery

House wants Japan apology




'Comfort women' resolution urges government to say it's sorry

<mailto:eepstein at sfchronicle.com>Edward Epstein, Chronicle Washington Bureau

Tuesday, July 31, 2007

(07-31) 04:00 PDT Washington -- The House passed a resolution Monday 
calling on Japan to finally formally apologize to tens of thousands 
of "comfort women" forced into World War II sex slavery, despite 
vigorous lobbying by the Japanese government.

The measure sponsored by Rep. Mike Honda, D-San Jose, which 
culminated years of lobbying by the surviving women from several 
Asian and European countries and their supporters, passed by voice 
vote after about a half hour of debate in which no one spoke in opposition.

To people in the United States, the issue is just one of many obscure 
foreign matters on which Congress weighs in with nonbinding resolutions.

But in Japan, Honda's demand for an apology 62 years after Japan's 
surrender has been headline news for months. It has become one of 
many troubles dogging Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, whose ruling Liberal 
Democratic Party was routed Sunday in elections for parliament's upper house.

Nationalist forces in Japan object to a formal apology, and to what 
they see as U.S. meddling in the affairs of Japan, one of 
Washington's closest and most powerful allies.

The issue of the comfort women, who were forced into prostitution by 
Japan's army, has also prompted ongoing anger at Japan in such 
countries as China, South Korea and the Philippines, home to many of 
the women.

"Today the House will make history," Honda said on the House floor. 
"We must teach future generations that we cannot allow this to 
continue to happen.

"I have always believed that reconciliation is the first step in the 
healing process."

Honda spent his early childhood with his parents in an internment 
camp in Colorado after President Franklin Roosevelt ordered all 
Japanese Americans rounded up after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Honda 
pointed to the decision by Congress and President Ronald Reagan to 
apologize to the World War II internees as an example Japan should emulate.

But the Japanese government, which hired lobbying firms to oppose the 
measure, hardly seems in a conciliatory mood.

Two weeks ago, the Washington Post reported that Japanese Ambassador 
Ryozo Kato had sent a strongly worded private letter to House 
leaders, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco, warning 
that the resolution could have a sharply negative effect on 
U.S.-Japan relations.

Kato warned that passage "will almost certainly have lasting and 
harmful effects on the deep friendship, close trust and wide-ranging 
cooperation our two nations now enjoy."

Early this year, Abe seemed to back away from earlier words of 
apology from ministers in previous Japanese Cabinets, fueling demands 
for a formal apology to the some 200,000 women who were involved.

When Abe visited Washington in April, he was asked about the issue 
and said, "As a person and prime minister, I have heartfelt 
sympathies with the difficulty, bitterness and suffering incurred by 
comfort women and feel sorry for such situations."

Bush said he accepted Abe's words, offered as an individual but not 
on behalf of Japan's government, as an apology.

While Honda scored a victory with his latest resolution, his earlier 
effort to allow U.S. servicemen who were forced into slave labor in 
Japan during the war to sue for damages hasn't gotten anywhere in 
Congress. The measure, co-sponsored by Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, 
R-Huntington Beach (Orange County) is vigorously opposed by the Bush 
administration, which said it would violate the 1951 peace treaty 
with Japan that bars such lawsuits.

Honda said he doesn't think his resolution will harm U.S.-Japan 
relations. "Our friendship would be stronger, our admiration for the 
Japanese government would be stronger if they saw fit to come 
forward" and formally apologize, he said.

He also said he would like to see Japanese school textbooks revised 
to deal frankly with the comfort women and other World War II issues.

This article appeared on page A - 3 of the San Francisco Chronicle




--

Japan expresses regret over U.S. call for apology in WWII sex slavery

By Norimitsu Onishi The Associated Press

Published: July 31, 2007

TOKYO: Prime Minister Shinzo Abe described as "regrettable" on 
Tuesday the approval of a resolution by the U.S. House of 
Representatives calling on Japan to acknowledge its wartime sex 
slavery, indicating strongly that the Japanese government would not 
offer surviving victims an official apology.

"The resolution's approval was regrettable," said Abe, who provoked 
anger in Asia and the United States in March by denying that the 
Japanese military had directly coerced women into sex slavery during 
World War II.

News of the resolution's approval, which had been expected, came as 
Abe faced more calls to resign after his governing Liberal Democratic 
Party's crushing defeat in the election on Sunday for the upper house 
of Parliament.

Asked whether he would comply with the resolution's call for an 
official apology, Abe said: "The 20th century was an era in which 
human rights were violated. I would like to make the 21st century 
into an era with no human rights violations."

On Monday, the House unanimously passed a nonbinding resolution 
demanding that the Japanese government "formally acknowledge" and 
"apologize" for its military's "coercion of women into sexual slavery."


The Japanese government had lobbied hard against the resolution in 
Washington, warning that it could harm relations between the two countries.

Abe has expressed sympathy for the former sex slaves. But he has 
consistently refused to acknowledge the military's role in directly 
forcing women into sex slavery despite historical evidence and the 
testimony of many of the women.

Some of the aging former sex slaves, known euphemistically as 
"comfort women" in Japan, and their advocates welcomed the 
resolution. But they reacted angrily to Abe's response.

"Abe denies that they were the ones who violated the women," said Jan 
Ruff O'Herne, 84, a Dutch woman who was forced into sex slavery in 
Indonesia. "I didn't expect anything better from him than that."

"But this resolution puts enormous pressure on the Japanese 
government," Ruff added, speaking by phone from her home in Adelaide, 
Australia. "I'm still hoping that something will happen, because the 
women are getting old, and we deserve a proper apology."

Gil Won Ok, 78, a South Korean woman who was forced into sex slavery 
in northeastern China, said that "truth survives and lies never win."

"I think that's why America passed this resolution," said Gil, 
speaking from Seoul. "I was worried that Japan's active lobbying 
would not make this happen."

The Japanese Parliament has never endorsed an official apology or 
acknowledgement of past sex slavery, the central demand in the House 
resolution, though previous prime ministers have issued letters of 
apology to some of the former sex slaves.

Last spring, Abe bluntly rejected any demand for an apology. But 
since then he has avoided talking in detail about the issue. He has 
repeated instead that many human rights violations occurred last 
century, angering former sex slaves and their supporters who say his 
comments were meant to play down Japan's crimes.

"Abe really does not know his history," said Nelia Sancho, leader of 
Lolas Kampanyera, a group supporting former sex slaves in Manila. "In 
order to create a world without human rights violations, each state 
has to learn from its past mistakes and, most importantly, it has to 
redress its past violations. Until that is done, the 21st century 
will not become an era with no human rights violations."



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