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Japan PM: No more WWII brothel apologies
TOKYO (AP) Japan will not apologize again for its World War II military brothels, even if the U.S. Congress passes a resolution demanding it, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told parliament Monday. Abe, elaborating on his denial last week that women from across Asia were forced into sexual slavery in the 1930s and 1940s, said none of the testimony in hearings last month by the U.S. House of Representatives offered any solid proof of abuse. "I must say we will not apologize even if there's a resolution," Abe told lawmakers in a lengthy debate, during which he also said he stood by Japan's landmark 1993 apology on the brothels. "The fact is, there is no evidence to prove there was coercion," Abe said. "There was no testimony based that had any proof," he told lawmakers Monday.Beyond the pale Historians say that up to 200,000 women mostly from Korea and China served in Japanese military brothels throughout Asia during the war and in the years leading up to it. Accounts of abuse by the military including kidnapping of women and girls for use in the brothels have been backed up by witnesses, victims and even former Japanese soldiers. Victims and their supporters have pushed unsuccessfully for official government compensation. Japan set up a private fund for compensation in 1995, but has refused to provide government money. The fund will be dissolved at the end of March. The prime minister, who is slumping in the polls since his election in September, was accused by the opposition of endangering Japan's international standing as a nation supporting human rights. "Unless Japan offers an apology ... I am afraid the international community will think Japan has not learned the lesson on human rights or from the war, which Japan started," Democratic Party lawmaker Toshio Ogawa said. comfort-women.org Posted by: Icerigger 2007-03-05 |
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