House seeks Japan's apology on "comfort women"

Mon Jul 30, 2007 11:37PM EDT
By Richard Cowan

WASHINGTON/TOKYO (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives on Monday called on Japan to apologize for forcing thousands of women into sexual servitude to its soldiers during and before World War II.

On a voice vote, the House approved a nonbinding resolution intended as a symbolic statement on the Japanese government's role in forcing up to 200,000 "comfort women" into a wartime brothel program starting in the 1930s.

The vote marked a rare rebuke by Washington politicians of Washington's closest ally in Asia, but drew only a muted response from Tokyo.

"Today, the House will send a message to the government of Japan that it should deliver an official, unequivocal, unambiguous apology for the indignity the comfort women suffered," said Rep. Mike Honda, the California Democrat who pushed the legislation through the House.

One of those women, Yong Soo Lee, a Korean, was inside the House chamber watching the debate and vote.

Honda, 66, is a Japanese-American who spent his early childhood in a World War II internment camp in Colorado.

The Japanese government offered a low-key response on Tuesday.

"The Prime Minister went to America in April and explained his thinking on this problem again," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki told reporters. "It is unfortunate that the U.S. House of Representatives nonetheless passed this resolution. Our government has dealt sincerely with the problem of the comfort women."

In 1993, Japan acknowledged a state role in the wartime program, which mostly victimized Chinese and Korean women. Japan's government later established a fund, which collected private donations and offered payments of about $20,000 to 285 women.

But more recently, Japanese officials including Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, have denied there was evidence the government or military were directly involved in procuring the women. He later apologized for the women's suffering and said he stood by the 1993 statement.

"There can be no denying the Japanese Imperial military coerced thousands upon thousands of Asian women," House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Tom Lantos of California said.

"Those who posit that all of the 'comfort women' were happily complicit and acting of their own accord simply do not understand the meaning of the word rape," added Lantos, a Holocaust survivor.

Abe's ruling Liberal Democratic Party was dealt a crushing defeat in an upper house election on Sunday amid a string of government scandals, gaffes by ministers and a row over mismanaged pensions. But Abe vowed to stay in his post.

In June, Japanese Ambassador Ryozo Kato wrote a letter to U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California saying Honda's resolution "will almost certainly have lasting and harmful effects on the deep friendship, close trust and wide-ranging cooperation our two nations now enjoy."

There was no immediate comment from the conservative Japanese lawmakers who placed an advertisement in the Washington Post last month stating that the women had worked as licensed prostitutes, sparking harsh criticism from U.S. lawmakers.

(Additional reporting by Isabel Reynolds in Tokyo)




U.S. House urges Japan to apologize for WWII sex abuses

The Associated Press
Monday, July 30, 2007

WASHINGTON: The House of Representatives approved a resolution Monday urging Japan to formally apologize for forcing thousands of women to work as sex slaves for its military during World War II.

The nonbinding resolution is symbolic, but it has caused unease in Japan and added tension to a strong alliance. Officials in Tokyo say their country's leaders, including Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, have apologized repeatedly for the Imperial Japanese Army's coercion of women into military brothels in the 1930s and 1940s.

The resolution's supporters, however, say Japan has never assumed full responsibility for the treatment of the women.

Representative Tom Lantos, Democrat of California, called "nauseating" what he said were efforts by some in Japan "to distort and deny history and play a game of blame the victim."

"Inhumane deeds should be fully acknowledged," said Lantos, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. "The world awaits a full reckoning of history from the Japanese government."

The House resolution, which has no companion in the Senate, urges Japan to "formally acknowledge, apologize and accept historical responsibility in a clear and unequivocal manner" for the suffering of "comfort women."

Lawmakers want an apology similar to the one the U.S. government gave to Japanese-Americans forced into internment camps during World War II. That apology was approved by Congress and signed into law by President Ronald Reagan in 1988.

The resolution adds to recent woes for Abe, whose party suffered a humiliating defeat in elections over the weekend. Abe caused anger throughout Asia, and among even supporters in Washington, in March when he said there was no evidence that the women had been forced to work as prostitutes.

Historians say hundreds of thousands of women, mainly from Korea, China and the Philippines, were sent to wartime Japanese military brothels.

Representative Mike Honda, Democrat of California and the resolution's chief sponsor, said Lee Yong Soo, a surviving comfort woman who testified before Congress in February of her rape and torture at the hands of Japanese soldiers, watched the proceedings Monday. "All she could do was weep and say thank you," Honda said. "It vindicated her past."

Many rightist Japanese politicians, however, claim that the issue has been exaggerated; they say the term "sex slaves" should not be used to describe the women because they were generally paid.

After decades of denial, the Japanese government acknowledged its role in wartime prostitution after a historian discovered documents showing government involvement. In 1993, the government issued a carefully worded official apology, but it was never approved by Parliament. Japan has rejected most compensation claims, saying they were settled by postwar treaties.




米下院が「慰安婦」決議　日本政府に謝罪要求　本会議初採択 「歴史の責任認めよ」

　【ワシントン＝鎌塚由美】米議会下院本会議は三十日、アジア太平洋戦争中に日本軍によって性奴隷にされた元「慰安婦」たちに対し日本政府が公式な謝罪を行うよう求める決議を採択しました。「慰安婦」問題での米下院本会議決議は初めてです。

　本会議で三十分にわたる討論の後、声や拍手で賛意を示す発声投票にかけられ、反対なしで可決されました。傍聴席では、二月の公聴会で証言した元「慰安婦」の李容洙さんらが静かに見守りました。

　決議には、民主、共和両党の百六十七人の議員が共同提案者として名を連ねました。

　決議は、日本軍が女性たちを「慰安婦」という性奴隷にしたことを「（日本政府が）十分に認め、謝罪し、明確であいまいでないやり方で歴史の責任を受け入れよ」と迫り、首相が公式に謝罪をするなら、「これまでの諸声明の誠実さとその地位をめぐり繰り返されてきた問題を解くことに貢献する」と述べています。

　本会議の討論で、ラントス外交委員長は「非人道的な振る舞いについて全面的に認め、真実のすべてに光が当てられなければならない。このことは国家間の和解に不可欠だ」と語りました。さらに、「靖国」派国会議員による「慰安婦」強制を否定したワシントン・ポスト紙への全面広告に改めて言及し、「すべての『慰安婦』は喜んで強制され合意の上だったと断じる者は、『レイプ』という言葉の意味を理解していないだけだ」と厳しく非難しました。

　ペロシ下院議長は採択後に声明を発表し、「決議は、『慰安婦』たちの真実と認知を求めるたたかいを米議会が支持するという強いシグナル」だと指摘し、日本政府の行動を促しました。

　傍聴のために訪米した元「慰安婦」の李容洙さんは、「採決は、米市民社会と世界の良識の勝利だ」と喜び、「今こそ日本政府は、国際社会の呼びかけにこたえ公式な謝罪と法的な補償を行うときだ」と訴えました。（2007年8月1日(水)「しんぶん赤旗」）




米下院が従軍慰安婦決議を採択
2007年07月31日09時11分

　米下院は30日の本会議で、従軍慰安婦問題について日本政府が歴史的責任を認め、公式に謝罪するよう求める決議を採択した。同様の決議案は01年から４回提出され、いずれも廃案になっていたが、民主党主導の議会で安倍首相の発言に対する反発が広がり、初めて本会議で採択された。法的拘束力はないものの、採択の回避に向け、訪米の際に米議会幹部に直接説明し、「理解していただいた」とする首相にとって更なる痛手になりそうだ。

　下院外交委員会は６月26日に39対２の大差で決議案を可決。本会議でも３分の２以上の賛成が見込まれたことから、今回の採決は発声投票で行われた。出席議員から異議は出なかった。

　決議は、「旧日本軍が若い女性に性的な奴隷状態を強制した歴史的な責任」を日本政府が「明確な形で公式に」認め、日本の首相が謝罪声明を出すよう求める内容。１月末に日系のマイク・ホンダ議員（民主）が提出した。

　日本政府は「これまで謝罪しており、決議案は不必要で、事実と異なる」と訴えた。だが、安倍首相は３月１日、軍当局の関与と「強制性」を認めた93年の「河野官房長官談話」に関連して「強制性を裏付ける証拠がなかったのは事実ではないか。定義が変わったことを前提に考えなければならない」と発言。自民党内に河野談話を見直す動きもあり、従来の日本政府の謝罪に留保をつけ、修正しようとする発言と受け取られた。

　決議案の共同提案者は下院（定数435）のうち民主、共和両党の167人に達した。そのうち142人は安倍首相の３月１日の発言後に共同提案者となっている。安倍首相は４月下旬の訪米時にペロシ下院議長（民主）やブッシュ大統領らを前に謝罪を表明。一時は沈静化したが、日本の国会議員らが６月14日付の米紙ワシントン・ポストに、決議案は「現実の意図的な歪曲（わいきょく）だ」とする意見広告を出し、議会内の反発が再燃した。

　ホンダ議員は30日、決議の採択後に議会内で会見し、「この決議は日本の人々を責めているのではない。日本政府の過去に対する姿勢の問題だ。安倍首相が私たちの言葉に耳を傾けることを期待している」と語った。

　下院指導部は参院選への影響を避けるため、本会議採決を選挙後に先送りし、日程の公表も投開票後にするなど配慮を見せていた。日米関係への悪影響を懸念する声もあり、31日の下院外交委員会では日米同盟の重要性を評価する決議案も採決される予定だ。