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Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe apologized for Japan's sexual enslavement of women during World War Two in remarks to a parliamentary committee on Monday. Abe's denials earlier this month that the Japanese government and military had forced women from neighboring Asian countries into sex slavery provoked sharp criticism at home and abroad.
Prompted by Communist parliamentarian Haruko Yoshikawa, Abe told a parliamentary budget appropriation committee that he would adhere to a 1993 statement of apology to sex slavery victims issued by then chief cabinet secretary Yohei Kono.
Abe said, ¡°I express my sympathy for the hardships they suffered and offer my apology for the situation they found themselves in.¡±
Asked if the apology meant that he was willing to retract his denial of the Japanese military¡¯s forceful recruitment of sex slaves or "comfort women," Abe repeated that he would adhere to the Kono statement.
When Social Democratic Party leader Mizuho Fukushima questioned what he would do if other Cabinet members made remarks contrary to the Kono statement, Abe promised that there would be no such incidents as the Cabinet as a whole stands by the statement.
Abe's attitude on Monday was more placatory than it was during an interview with Japanese broadcaster NHK on March 12. In the interview, Abe said that former prime ministers Junichiro Koizumi and Ryutaro Hashimoto had sent apologies to former comfort women and that he felt the same way.
However, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Hakubun Shimomura, one of Abe¡¯s close aides, told reporters Monday, ¡°There were military nurses and embedded journalists but no ¡®embedded¡¯ comfort women. It is true that there were comfort women. I believe some parents may have sold their daughters. But it does not mean the Japanese Army was involved.¡±
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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