House panel calls for Japan sex slave apology

Tue Jun 26, 2007 4:30PM EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A resolution calling on Japan to officially apologize for pressing thousands of women into sexual servitude in World War Two won strong approval on Tuesday from a U.S. congressional committee.

The resolution introduced by Japanese-American lawmaker Mike Honda was approved 39 to 2 by the U.S. House of Representatives International Relations Committee in a step that allows the nonbinding measure to move to the full house.

The symbolic statement of U.S. Congressional sentiment on the issue, which has caused political controversy in Japan, will have no bearing on U.S. policy toward its most important Asian ally.

Rep. Tom Lantos, the committee chairman, launched debate on the resolution with a statement calling Japan "our greatest friend in Asia and one of our closest partners in the world."

"Yet, Japan's refusal to make an official government apology to the women who suffered as so-called 'comfort women' is disturbing to all who value this relationship," said Lantos, a California Democrat.

"Comfort women" is a Japanese euphemism for the estimated 200,000 mostly Asian women historians say were forced or tricked into providing sex for Japan's soldiers in frontline brothels across the Pacific theater of World War Two.

Japan in 1993 acknowledged a state role in the wartime brothel program and later set up the Asian Women's Fund that gathered private donations and offered payments of about $20,000 to 285 women.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe sparked a furor in March when he denied that there was evidence the government or military were directly involved in procuring the women.

He later apologized for their suffering and repeated that he stood by the 1993 statement acknowledging official involvement in setting up and running the military brothels.

Abe restated that stance in an April summit outside Washington with U.S. President George W. Bush, who called Abe's words on the women "very straightforward and from his heart."

Asked by reporters in Tokyo on Tuesday about the expected committee vote, Abe said: "I explained my thinking when I visited the United States. I have nothing to add."

"The relationship between Japan and the United States is indispensable, and I believe the relationship is firm," he said when asked what impact the resolution might have on ties with Washington.

Lantos, who co-sponsored the resolution by California Democratic Rep. Honda, said "we do not want our good friend and ally Japan to believe we regard them in perpetual punishment for their refusal to acknowledge the comfort women episode."

"We want a full reckoning of history to help everyone heal, and then move on," he added.

(Additional reporting by Chisa Fujioka in Tokyo)




Asked for apology, Japan plays for time in sex slavery standoff

By Norimitsu Onishi

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

TOKYO: Even before a United States Congressional panel overwhelmingly passed a resolution on Tuesday urging Japan to apologize for its wartime sex slavery, the Japanese government said it would have no comment.

But the vote of 39 to 2 by the House Committee on Foreign Affairs has set the stage for an adoption by the full House of Representatives next month, at which point Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will face pressure to respond in some way or another.

Already Abe, who initially said Japan would not apologize even if the resolution passed, has quieted his defiance in a bid to minimize its impact. In a news conference before the vote, Abe said he had no comment on the resolution, saying only that ties between Japan and the United States were "unshakable."

The nonbinding resolution, which was spearheaded by Michael M. Honda, Democrat of California, calls on Japan to take responsibility in "a clear and unequivocal manner for its Imperial Armed Forces' coercion of young women into sexual slavery."

Tom Lantos, a California Democrat who heads the committee, said that Japan's refusal to apologize formally was "disturbing to all who value" relations between the United States and Japan.

"Post-war Germany made the right choice," Lantos said. "Japan, on the other hand, has actively promoted historical amnesia. The facts are plain: there can be no denying that the Japanese Imperial military coerced thousands upon thousands of women, primarily Chinese and Koreans, into sexual slavery during the war."

In a statement, Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she looked forward to passing the resolution in the House and "sending a strong message that we will not forget the horrors endured by the comfort women," the euphemism used in Japan for the sex slaves.

The resolution began gathering support in early March after Abe, who had led a movement to revise Japan's wartime history through his political career, denied the military's direct role in coercing women into sex slavery and said he would not apologize even if the resolution were passed.

After his remarks caused a furor in Asia and the United States, Abe softened his remarks, trying to placate foreign critics and his right-wing base at home.

In his first visit to Washington as prime minister in April, Abe vaguely expressed sympathy for the former sex slaves while carefully avoiding taking any historical responsibility. President George W. Bush, in an attempt to help Abe overcome this issue, said he accepted his apology.