US House sheds light on Japan’s ‘comfort women’ past
Tokyo (AsiaNews) – US-Japanese relations are in danger of being overshadowed by a decision of the House Foreign Affairs Committee to vote on June 26 a resolution calling on Japan to formally acknowledge and accept responsibility for sexually abusing “comfort women” during World War II.
The expression ‘comfort women’ is a euphemism for the tens of thousands of mostly Asian women (in particular from Korea) who were forced into Japanese Imperial army's brothels during World War II. Historians and researchers into the subject have stated that the majority were from Korea, China and other occupied territories and were recruited by force or deception to serve as "sex slaves.”
The resolution was sponsored in January by Rep Mike Honda (D-Calif.), a Japanese-American, but the debate was delayed till now because of Japanese Prime Minster Shinzo Abe’s visit to Washington in April.
The issue was publicised by a Korean-American grassroots lobbying campaign who took out a full-page advertisement in The Washington Post that said: “Japan has never taken full responsibility for this crime, and it has never made a clear apology.”
The Korean-American campaign led a group of Japanese politicians and academics last Friday to also take out a full-age page advert under the title "THE FACTS, again in The Washington Post, that said that ‘comfort women’ were not sexual slaves but women “working under a system of licensed prostitution that was commonplace around the world at the time.”
The advert acknowledged that there were cases of "breakdowns in discipline” and that “criticism for events that actually occurred must be humbly embraced.” However, it insisted that “apologies over unfounded slander and defamation will not only give the public an erroneous impression of historical reality but could negatively affect the friendship between the United States and Japan," it said.
The advert was signed by professors, journalists, political commentators and 42 lawmakers from government and opposition parties.
Understandably media reacted bitterly in South Korea, but in China the incident did not cause any waves, probably for reasons relating to the two countries’ close economic ties but also to their decision to set up a joint historical commission to handle similar issues.
Significantly, the Japanese attempt to downplay the issue has backfired, some commentators noted. Several congressional sources said in fact that members who were ambivalent about the resolution now support it.
Since the resolution is before the US Congress, the Japanese government could not but react. Yasuhisa Shiozaki, chief cabinet secretary and the government’s top spokesman, asked for “understanding” concerning the Japanese government's stance on the issue, saying that PM “Abe expressed the government's views to President Bush and legislators with his own words during his visit to the United States in April.”
Mr Shiozaki refused to go any further, noting that he could not comment on the resolution because it was a matter taken up in another country's parliament.
Given the circumstances however the moralistic zeal that has swept Washington seems out of place. As much as justice and truth are needed, the relations between Japan, China and South Korea are the most important issue in East Asia’s current geopolitical situation.
What is more, the historical record shows the United States is not without a blemish. Declassified documents indicate that in 1945 US occupation forces pressured the Japanese government to put its military brothels at the disposal of US troops.
The system was abolished six months later on the direct order of US General Douglas Macarthur.
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