Japan’s PM denies ‘comfort women’ coerced

updated 3:05 p.m. ET March 1, 2007

TOKYO - Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Thursday there was no evidence Japan coerced Asian women into working as sex slaves during World War II, backtracking from a landmark 1993 statement in which the government acknowledged that it set up and ran brothels for its troops.

Abe’s comments to reporters came as a group of ruling party lawmakers urged the government to revise the so-called Kono Statement, which states that Japan’s wartime military sometimes recruited women to work in the brothels with coercion.

“The fact is, there is no evidence to prove there was coercion,” Abe said. “We have to take it from there.”

Historians say that up to 200,000 women, mainly from Korea and China, were forced to have sex with Japanese soldiers in brothels run by the military government as so-called “comfort women” during the war.

Japanese leaders have repeatedly apologized, including former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, who said in 2001 that he felt sincere remorse over the comfort women’s “immeasurable and painful experiences.”

Abe’s comments were likely to provoke a strong reaction from South Korea and China.

‘Respecting the historical truth’
Earlier Thursday in Seoul, South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun urged Japan to be more sincere in addressing its colonial past as dozens of people rallied outside the Japanese Embassy, lining up dead dogs’ heads on the ground. The demonstration marked the anniversary of a March 1, 1919, uprising against Japanese colonial rule, which still stirs up deep-rooted bitterness among Koreans.

Each of the dogs had a knife placed in its mouth on pieces of paper with the names of Koreans who allegedly collaborated with Japan during its 1910-45 colonial rule. Protest organizers said the animals had been slaughtered at a restaurant, as dogs are regularly consumed as food in Korea.

In a nationally televised address, Roh said Japan “needs to, above all, show an attitude of respecting the historical truth and acts that support this.”

“Instead of trying to beautify or justify its past wrongdoing, (Japan) should show sincerity that is in line with its conscience,” he said.

Roh also referred to recent hearings with sex slave victims in the U.S. Congress.

“The testimony reiterated a message that no matter how hard the Japanese try to cover the whole sky with their hand, there is no way that the international community would condone the atrocities committed during Japanese colonial rule,” he said.

Roh’s office said late Thursday that it did not immediately have a direct response to the Japanese leader’s remarks. In Beijing, calls to the Chinese Foreign Ministry seeking comment on the remarks were not immediately returned.

MORE FROM ASIA-PACIFIC

Asia-Pacific Section Front

Crash hurts Unification Church’s Moon Pope to youth: Spurn 'spiritual desert' 'Megafish' explorers seek giant stingrays Tropical storm floods southern Taiwan Dog saves woman attacked by kangaroo Guiding China's quake rebuilding Pope 'deeply sorry' for clergy abuse China jittery over terror threat ahead of Games Hong Kong bans Tibetan flags at Olympic event Beijing steps up battle against smog Asia-Pacific Section Front   Add Asia-Pacific headlines to your news reader: