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Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe seems to have ended his honeymoon with the international community when he reiterated on Thursday that there was no proof the Japanese military forced the so-called comfort women to become sex slaves during World War II. Asked about his position on a 1993 official statement acknowledging the Imperial Army's responsibility, Abe said there was ¡°no evidence of coercion¡± by the army in conscripting comfort women. He did not say whether he wants to revise the 1993 statement, where then-Cabinet secretary Yohei Kono acknowledged the involvement of military authorities in setting up brothels.
The right-wing Sankei Shimbun interpreted Abe¡¯s remarks as a hint that he wants to revise the Kono statement, with which he is known to disagree. Immediately after he took office in October last year, Abe cast doubt on the Kono statement before the Diet, saying there were ¡°questions¡± about the claim that the military forced women from several Asian countries into sex slavery. But he added the Japanese government in principle defers to the Kono statement, apparently out of concern for Japan¡¯s brittle ties with Asian neighbors like Korea and China.
The Office of the Prime Minister said Abe¡¯s recent remarks were not hugely different from the views expressed in October. But the reaction from Japan¡¯s neighbors has been angry, not least because the remarks come at a time when Tokyo wants to block a resolution on the matter in the U.S. Congress. Submitted by seven lawmakers led by Japanese-American Congressman Michael Honda (D, California) in January, the resolution calls on Japan to ¡°formally acknowledge, apologize, and accept historical responsibility in a clear and unequivocal manner for its Imperial Armed Force¡¯s coercion of young women into sexual slavery during its colonial and wartime occupation of Asia and the Pacific Islands from the 1930s through the duration of World War II.¡± Some lawmakers in Japan¡¯s ruling Liberal Democratic Party demand a retraction of the Kono statement.
A Japanese government official admitted Abe¡¯s remarks last week ¡°poured oil on the fire,¡± and a Japanese diplomat said any comment on the issue could sour Tokyo¡¯s relations with Asia and the U.S. He said it would have been wiser to avoid outspoken comment and instead attempt to handle the matter diplomatically.
Critics say Japan¡¯s attempt to cover up the practice despite a number of extant documents proving the army¡¯s forceful sexual enslavement of women has made the situation worse. Japanese history textbooks skirt around the issue amid a growing trend among academics there to deny the practice. Nobuo Ishihara, who was Kono¡¯s deputy at the time of the statement, recently climbed down, saying the statement was not an admission that the Japanese government forced the women into sexual slavery.
Some observers believe Abe has a mind to retract the Kono statement to boost his plunging approval ratings and bring conservative forces together ahead of an election for the House of Councilors in July. But most say Abe would avoid such a controversial diplomatic move given that he is scheduled to visit the U.S. late next month. Even Japanese officials who are in Washington lobbying against passage of the comfort women resolution stress that Abe respects the Kono statement.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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